Joy, the World’s First Statue of a Sex Worker, Returns to Darlinghurst

Over the weekend, Joy came back to Stanley Street.

Artist Loui Fraser (now known as Loui May) made a sculpture that was erected at the intersection of Yurong and Stanley streets in 1995. Made of a strikingly white mix of cement and marble dust, the woman – named Joy – was a tribute to sex workers in the area. She leant against a red metal “doorway”, nonchalantly smoking a cigarette.

May made the piece to recognise NSW’s role in the decriminalisation of certain forms of sex work; and it was widely considered to be the first statue in the world to immortalise a sex worker.

Joy stood proudly in her Darlinghurst spot for 18 months – drumming up a lot of controversy. The artist told the ABC that the piece was bashed with a pipe and that a mother – who thought the woman in the work looked like her daughter – took to it with a hammer.

In 1997, it was moved to the permanent collection at Macquarie University.

Nearly three decades later, following a public petition, the City of Sydney council resolved to either bring the sculpture or a replica back to that corner. But, Macquarie University was unwilling to part with the original. Casting technician Matthew Crawford was commissioned to make a replica.

The new Joy, unveiled on Saturday November 8, has a few key differences: it’s now cast in bronze and Joy has lost her cigarette.

“Darlinghurst was a very different place in the ’90s when sex and drugs and associated crime were rife on these streets,” Lord Mayor of Sydney Clover Moore said in a statement.

“[The original] was created as a tribute to women and to the history of East Sydney as a place known for sex workers. It’s been 30 years since Joy graced this corner and 30 years since NSW became one of the first jurisdictions in the world to decriminalise many forms of sex work, sealing our place as a global leader in sex worker rights.”

May left school at 15 to attend the National Art School in Darlinghurst. In those formative years, she remembers seeing sex workers leaning against doorways as she walked to and from school. The artist told the ABC that the name Joy referenced both the women’s joyful demeanour and the joy their services could bring, with that very joyousness and the women’s quiet strength forming her inspiration.

“While my hands may have created this sculpture, it is the women who have lived and worked in this area through history that Joy represents,” said May. “On their behalf, I give thanks to the hundreds of supporters who believed this sculpture was important.”