Baker’s seminal work is known to all through its endless editions and reproductions and the original can still be seen in the third stall on the left in Sydney’s Centennial Park Toilets (Male). There, carved with only a penknife, are the immortal words “Gaz was ‘ere March 1903.”
Little is known of the life of Gaz and critics have long debated the deep, existential crisis that Gaz may have been going through in this early period of his work to utter this cry of “I am” into the dark, cold night of the universe.
Later work, generally but not universally attributed to Gaz, seems to suggest that he may have found the comfort of a soulmate that so many artists fail to find for their tortured genius. Placed just up and right of his early plea is the simple statement “G.B 4 V.S” surrounded by a heart. Is the placement significant of his progress through the temporal universe and personal maturation? Or is it just that he was sitting up a little straighter that day?
Searches of official records for this part of the world reveal that “V.S” may be “Veronica Smith”, a seamstress who lived three blocks away from Centennial Park with her husband, Theodore, and their five children. Early writers on Gaz suggested that he may have been enjoying an illicit affair with Veronica, thus explaining the lavatorial nature of their declaration of love.
More recent commentators have suggested that Gaz was, in fact, homosexual. At a time when such things were criminal offences, Gaz may have met “V.S” for sexual liaisons in that immortal third stall. “Vincent Stephenson” was, according to parish records, a lifetime bachelor who lived directly opposite Centennial Park and may well have been Gaz’s lover. Stephenson’s relatives, descended from his brother Meecham, vigorously deny the claims and argue that Vincent’s unmarried status was due to him being pug ugly with breath like a grease trap and had nothing to do with any "deviant tendencies". The commentators tut-tut and shake their heads at such a naïve view of the past.
Regardless of the debate, the LGBT community has adopted Gaz as a trail-breaking hero of their movement and “third stall along” or “TSA” has become a rallying cry for LGBT rights.
A lone voice of dissent is that of Professor Geraldine Parkinson, former police officer and professor of Australian history at Macquarie University. Parkinson argues that Gaz was “Just a feral little vandal with a penknife and a bad case of boredom. He needed a swift kick in the seat of the pants.” Parkinson is not surprised, however, that Gaz has been made the poster child of a civil rights movement: “Ned Kelly was a violent criminal who today would be the subject of vocal public insistence that he be locked away for life, but the passage of time has turned him into a folk hero and the Britannia of Australian anti-authoritarian sentiment. Perhaps in twenty years’ time, Chopper Read will have the same fame.”
Australia has been the richer, however, for the kick in the seat of the pants that Gaz didn’t get because his impact on our artistic and cultural life has been universal. Copies of his artworks abound in every public place, the third stall along has been heritage listed and next year’s Sydney Harbour fireworks will feature a 200 metre wide reproduction of his first masterpiece.
It can fairly be said that every vandal in the country, seeking relevance and fame without the need to have artistic ability, originality, respect for other people’s property, the ability to spell or be in any way literate or intelligent are disciples of the Great Gaz, keeping his memory alive for generations to come.
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