A Bloody Ordeal

Could you work with a sibling? Not just in the same work place, but in the same room, on the same project – designing something huge and complex. And make that not just one sibling but two… The Sisters Hayes are a Melbourne-based trio of artists whose shared DNA helps rather than hinders their collaborative work. With backgrounds in animation, production design and painting, their most recent commission has been shaping the costumes and set for the Malthouse's Blood Wedding. Working closely with director Marion Potts and her team, the sisters have given the elemental, passionate tragedy by Federico Garcia Lorca a stunningly contemporary aesthetic.

Perched in their shared studio on the top floor of the Nicholas building, the sisters work in an art-crammed room with a vertiginous view over the city. Three brunettes dressed in vivid colours and vintage prints, Christina (29), Esther (27) and Hannah (23) have the kind of resemblance that comes as much from a lifetime of sharing the same tastes and interests as from their shared genes. The sisters began working together casually when costume designer Esther would rope her sisters in to help her out. It worked with Hannah, but Christina confesses, “I got pulled off the sewing! I wasn't very good.” Instead she turned her painting skills, honed by a Fine Art degree from the VCA, to decorating sets.

The decision to take it to the next level and start working together formally was a natural one, Hannah explains. “We were always seeking each other's opinions, and then we started thinking what it would be like if we started from the beginning on something together. Conceiving an idea, researching it and seeing how it would go.” They've now been a team for three years, working on a range of installations, exhibitions and set designs.

Do they ever argue? They all laugh, and Christina admits, “We do argue a lot, but it's good because we can be really open and frank with each other… Also we've done a lot with other people as well, and, bless 'em, sometimes it's hard when you're working with someone and you have to be a little bit, you know, polite? It can be quite frustrating. Whereas with these guys, I can say 'that is so stupid!'”

It helps that they have quite a unified creative vision, something Esther naturally attributes to their shared upbringing. “We have similar influences, and similar design styles.” Family is also a key theme in their works. These include Big Sky Country, a series of photographs they produced after travelling across the States, retracing the footsteps of their American ancestors, who were homesteaders in Montana. Their colourful family history includes actors, musicians and pioneers, as well as several distinct cultures from their American father and their mother, who hails from the Philippines. 

Christina says that influences from both cultures are present in their work. Their connection to the Philippines is something that they drew on in working on Blood Wedding, in particular. “The first thing [Marion Potts] said is that she didn't want to set it in a specifically Spanish-only place, she wanted it to read more universally.” The finished set design incorporates nods to the Philippines and its colonial Spanish past along with other, more ubiquitous references such as a backdrop of perforated cement blocks, a site familiar everywhere from Europe to Thomastown. There's also a huge expanse of gravel which evokes a bullfighting ring and a bank of tomblike refrigerators packed with ice and water.

With three creatives involved, there are a lot of ideas flying around when they work. Christina explains, “[Sometimes] it's about pulling back, not trying to throw everything on it”. Esther agrees, “We tend to think 'more is more!'. So we had to scale back.” Having three people instead of one doing the job means that in theory each person might have to compromise more, but Christina doesn't see it that way. “I think it's really lucky that we're all in [this] industry because it can be quite competitive... We have a support base for each together.” She catches her sisters' eyes and bursts out laughing, “And someone's always going to pull you back a bit as well, and say honestly: 'That is a stupid idea!'”.

Blood Wedding runs until 19 August, Malthouse Theatre.