art and about

"Produced by the City of Sydney, Art & About is already Sydney's biggest public art festival," said Lord Mayor Clover Moore MP.


Ok.. so warning!warning! this is a massive post!!!! I thought maybe I should break it up.. but nah! It's all lovely images so if you haven't got more than 30 seconds come back and view this later with a lovely cup of tea.

Now, every year the City of Sydney puts on and event called Art and About. This has bascially become the largest public art festival in Sydney and is always full of a mixture of innovation, creativity, traditional art as well as the avante-guard and performance.

Some quotes which I have found from Art and About artists are as follows:

What is the Role of public art festivals?
"They create a sense of community, and allow people to be involved in the creativity of the community they live in. They connect art and society, and people have so much to gain from being exposed to new ideas and art."
-Petrina Hicks won Sydney Life in 2004, and has since gone on to exhibit in Australia and overseas.
Right on sister! (editors note)

What does a festival like Art & About mean to you?
"The festival benefits the city and community greatly. It makes Sydney feel alive and in my experience it forces people to look up from their everyday life and see six hot pink dinosaurs roaming around the inner city. Now, that is surely a good thing."
- Jasper Knight’s hot pink dinosaurs resided in the Customs House Forecourt during Art & About 2006.

So basically what we are looking at here are many many interpretations of impermanent public art in Sydney.. in fact a veritable feast! Art and About really tries very hard to engage both traditional and non-traditional art audiences, which is the absolute point of public art anywhere. So, enjoy these snippets of Art and About from the past few years! xxx

Live Lanes, By George! is now in its 4th year running, kicking off in 2007 and growing steadily every year. The aim is to enliven Sydney's laneways that run off or near George St by means of re-invention. The callout for artists is spread far and wide and so far there have been SO many different approaches and methods. These are pics of some of my faves... bear in mind I am completely biased!!!!! (above is Urban Barcode, by Maix Mayer, Hanah Tribe + Damian Hadley, 2008, in Abercrombie Lane)

The Sky is Falling!
Reef Knot, 2008
Angel Place

One More Go, One more Go
Gaffa, 2008
Abercrombie Lane

Tank
Adam Norton for Peloton, 2008
roving installation.

Windows to Imaginary Places
curated by Reef Knot, 2007
Albion Place Window Boxes

Infinity Forest
Matthew Chan, Isabelle Cordeiro + Katie Hepworth, 2009
Hosking + Penfold Place

7m Bar
artist Richard Goodwin, landscape architect Adrian McGregor and programmer Russell Lowe, 2009
Underwood St

The Stables
Community Project + installation

The Stables was a lovely lovely project.!! The brainchild of Annie Kennedy and commissioned by the City of Sydney council to be part of Art and About 2008. The role of horses and stables in Erskinville's history and community life were heavily referenced and interpreted by all walks of life, including children, at workshops. The results were displayed in shopfronts and as projections.

I Heart Kings Cross, 2009
Community Project + installation

I Heart Kings Cross was a community based project commissioned by the Council and orchestrated by Reef Knot (which is half me and half Alasdair Nicol... no invested interests here!!!!!) All these amazing pictures were taken by my friend Matthew Venables.
I hope more projects like this happen as part of Art and About... their ability to invoke 'pride of place' is quite amazing. Something we wanted to do was transform the 'everyday' into something magical and precious as well as make real the idea of the 'social fabric' of a place. We invited everyone to come and knit with us... which they did. We had over 200 knitters!!!! For more on this go to http://iheartkx.wordpress.com

Unravel by Louisa Dawson 2009
An associated installation at Taylor Square

Live Green House, 2009

The Live Green House was included in last years Art and About at Taylor Square... it basically displayed as a walk-through sculpture-model of a sustainable house, with wonderful practical ideas for inner-city dwellers. A much needed source of information and very cleverly communicated.

The annual Sydney Life exhibition

A Sydney Life entry by Jasmine Poole
Roslyn Sharp's entry from last year,Theresa outside her Darlinghurst home, ... the subject of her work (Theresa) was at the opening dancing in front of the image dressed in a pink satin bo-peep dress with a pink parasol. lovely!!
Sydney Life: An exhibition of photographs that use 'Sydney Life' as their stimulas. The images, enlarged to something like 2m x 3m, are displayed along the footpath in Hyde Park. Above is last years winner, Tamara Dean, while below is an image by George Voulgaropoulos. Again... bringing art to a pededstrian environment.

The Open Air Gallery

The Open Air Gallery is one of my favorite parts of Art and About. It is such a brilliant and simple idea: allowing artists who work in 2D mediums such as painting or drawing, usually relegated to display in private galleries / indoor spaces, to have their work line the streets of sydney on flagpoles. Brilliant! The image above is one of my all-time favourites and is by Louise Hearman , part of Art and About 2007.

Love TV: part of Art and About 2008.

Love TV: people watching as the lovely lady Aprhrodite is televised interviewing all-sorts (including the Lord Mayor) from Oxford St about Love.

public art: Impermanent #1... sculpture by the seas

have not posted in sooooo longsies!!!!
anyway, so, public art. There is a lot of ground to cover, I have found, so I am breaking it all up into pieces. I thought a good thing to include is impermanent public art-focused events tha happen in Sydney such as Sculpture by the Sea (here and with an emphasis on 'sculpture') and Art and About (next week with a focus on art as well as community).

These events provide a great catalyst for public relationships with artworks and also allow artists a little more freedom as they do not need to consider the long-term necessities required by permanent works. They are a good testing ground to see what people respond to and also, in a sense, 'educate' people in relating to and interacting with public art. I have a theory that the more art you put out there the less likely it is that things will get damaged as people get used to having it around.

And hey! keep those favourites rolling in!! You can post a comment or email me michelle@byreefknot.net. Wootang. xxx