Art - What is it good for III

BACK TO HAIR TECHNOLOGY

BUNHEADS

Oddly enough, the works that I just couldn't let myself in for were those most resembling real life events. Maybe the combined factors of hair, intimacy and social psychology. BunHeads may have been uncomfortable (physically, judging by the number of bobby-pins) for those on the receiving end of the hairdos, but it was phenomenal to see how much the space outside the new Allan's Cakes began to mirror the space of a hair salon as both days rolled on. People gossiped, chatted, read magazines and stared at those in the hot seat.

Back To Hair Technology presented a different type of discomfort...the chance to discuss your hair loss issues with a 'professional' and pose for a video, wearing a bald-skin cap

The town rooster crows; little chickens tremble, fluid leaking from their beaks.

The aquarium is empty; the sea creatures gather in the streets.

In the pharmacy we cry. Tears Volume IV bound in leather.

Male pregnancy

There is a large silver reflective pyramid at the other end of town. It has a pyramid shaped hole in one side. Out of a hole in the pyramid comes pyramid shaped pieces of watermelon. Is this a masculine take on penis envey? A pyramid that makes miniature pink versions of itself. Is this a male attempt to reproduce?

just let it all out. Its alright its alright its alright. The sweat removes the toxins from my body. The sweat from the heat and the sun. Bring out the people. The toxins from the sun cream spread all over my pores. Preventing the sweat. Better use a hood and a scarf. Make me sweat som more. The toxins and the beeer, sparkling, eyeball suprise. Bring out the monstas. make up clogging. these liquids and exposed peices, theatrical flesh, hunchbacks and vampires, spreading desire through my body. infected with these delicious toxins. dance some more. help yourself. ill help you later. ill give you a private show. back in the lair....

Art - What is it good for II

It provides us with choices.
One of the striking features of Tiny Stadiums is its particular brand of interactivity: I mentioned some early discomfort in the face of live artistic practice, but all of the events happening over the weekend are hallmarked with the most important choice - that of initial participation or non-participation. Discomfort in the face of a strange object or situation can be a good thing, making us re-assess everyday behaviours and their origins. Sometimes this is enough for one day. Sometimes we want more.

Watching a cycle of Tiger Two Times' performance 'Nature League Inner West', the dynamic between performer and spectator undergoes interesting permutations. There is a sizable crowd outside the two 'greenhouses', white wooden structures covered in builders' plastic and linked by a foil duct.Tiger Two Times occupy one greenhouse, the audience for this performance (one adult and two children) enter the other. You choose a numbered box and receive, in return, a shared experience... the strange thing is that the performance is as audible, and actually more visible, to those standing around on the footpath than those on the receiving end in the greenhouse. But it is those on the path outside who shuffle uncomfortably and walk away when the sound ceases, like illicit consumers trying to avoid the busker's hat. The flimsy greenhouse, screened only by the condensation that builds on its interior walls seems to provide both a cover, and an immersive connection to the artwork that casual observation cannot match.

J.M.D.

bunheaded beforeduring and after shots

big fish in tiny stadiums

sometimes we dont need a reason to make 'art'. Sometimes we don't need an ocassion to call it a festival. tiny stadiums is great because it just pops its tiny head up and says 'hello, come and play'

One of these men is a real construction worker

Can you guess which?
J.M.D.

GIANT GUST OF WIND

The wind was SO POWERFUL that a GIANT GUST ripped the eyelets out of Zoe Meagher's Photo-Op backdrop! Fortunately Clytie and I used our commando skills to climb onto the roof of Allens Cakes, haul the backdrop up like sailors on a tall-ship and add a new set of industrial strength eyelets.

Matthew

BUNHEADS

The DJ has been playing for 11 hours.
The new hairdresser is bringing lots of props.
Back to Hair technology is a great alternative to bunheads.

Art is for all ages...

Strolling through the noisy streets I notice an underground entrance. A portal. Everything seems as if it were just prepared for entry, yet no foot steps had marked the stairs down.

Downstairs...I hear music! I hear the distinct voice of Lou Reed crooning, singing softly. There are elevators to every shop and building and comfy couches lining the side of this tunnel. If I were a lazy vampire I'd be in Heaven!

Why hasn't anyone written anything on the butcher's paper, the so-called 'paper blog'?

Art - what is it good for?

Forgive the continuing obsession with the chicken theme, but it seems that on the second day of the Tiny Stadiums Festival, a pecking order has been established. Not amongst the performers themselves, or between the performative and administrative aspects of the festival but the perennial and troubled jockeying for position of human understanding and the meaning of 'Art'. Over the course of the weekend this relationship has ebbed and flowed: yesterday morning the mirrored pyramid in the park was quiet, an alien object. Those of us who approached it did so with caution, but a particular kind of caution.

It is the disquiet caused not by the object itself, but by the realisation that one doesn't know what to do with it. Confronted by such a situation, I looked for the familiar. A small, also triangular opening near the apex. A door? A window? Things we think of as portals. A way to get somewhere... I mentioned this before, but when I peeked in, a water balloon fell into the shelf at the bottom. So, it was a start. The art was interacting with me, but how was I to interact with it? What was the right thing to do? I threw it at someone. And I noticed the dribble marks of dye down the silver coating of the pyramid's face. Should I have given the pyramid its gift back? Did it know that in the face of social anxiety I would try to make a joke of art, and thus let it make a joke of me?

Cut to late afternoon, and the pyramid is surrounded by people running, thowing coloured dough, their clothes wet and rainbow soaked with dye. Children in swimmers and underwear, encouraged by adults, are trying to assail the pyramid's interior through the single panel which opens in the back. Did we break the art? Did it break us? Or did we just break ourselves while art peered out from its silver fortress?
J.M.D.

It's Alive

Fans of a quiet beer at the Erko, beware. Your favourite roosting spot is now home to a giant chicken. And beer is made from grain, isn't it? His cardboard belly will hold quite the skinful...


J.M.D.

Erskineville redesign unit in action

I'm sitting in Erskineville Town Hall. To my right there's a crack-team of artists and worker bees busily redesigning Erskineville village. The village is growing according to the wishes of general passers-by. The model's looking quite cool. I'm watrching in wonder as aerial walk-ways and a roller-coaster are about to be added.

need for psychological change

the physicality of architectural change can enhance daily life.But other abraisive aspects of human existence are less easy to change.Gossip,bullying andprejudices which are insidious realities of modern life negate creativity and happiness.How can we learn to live and let live Think on.

Steaming hot but this has been like a mirage in the middle of Sydney. A little magical and little like an afternoon in an artistic tropical isle. Good times

it's nice

Why wouldnt you want a rollercoaster in erskinville?

Pyramid In The Park Update

The pyramid is not playing nice anymore. It has stopped giving out cakes and sweeties. It wants to take over Erskineville with Alien Goop, and the Earthlings are under its sway:


J.M.D.

3 women's experience of the dance of death

The dance of death. By Julian, Rodney and Annasleaze.

It was hot. We sweated. We broke social ettiquette. We got lost.
There was skipping and clenched fist dance moves. We effed with the system.
We crossed the road with purpose and let go of our negative life attitudes.

We love Erskineville

Tiny Stadiums Festival has been so much fun! Only in Erskineville! The town we love.

Shan

Applespiel's Tiny Stadiums blog cameo

It is nice and cool in The Willis Room (Sexy New Urban Design HQ, and now home to the Tiny Stadiums blog station, video library and delicious cupcakes).

Canvassing punters this morning, I noticed several exciting works getting up... some artists doing last minute dashes to and from their greenhouses, and some artists coolly switching poses in front of their faux cake shop backdrops... a very exciting Saturday here in Erskineville. For our own part, we got some really interesting responses to our street-based Erskineville survey. People are really eager to share what's clearly been bubbling away for awhile... one memorable gentleman discussed the website he is working on that catalogues old and historic buildings of Sydney and the changes they go through, which will be up in a few months, and we hope he remembers to post it to our blog (applespiel.blogspot.com). At the moment there are heaps of kids in The Willis Room. I wonder if they notice the change made by another person we met on the street this morning- less kids and prams in Erskineville. Why? "It's just not where I'm at at the moment." Damn this is an interesting job.

-Joe

Hermit on the street

I spoke to a delightful woman named Jacqueline.

She suggested that a good stand to have at an interactive festival would be the 'hermit on the street' stand.

A hermit on the street is somebody who doesn't leave the house very often. And when they do would like to be left to do things in their own way at their own pace.

Asked how she was absorbing the festival, she commented that she felt neither more nor less pourus or absorbent today than on any other day, that she was going with the flow.

Stoicism is an undervalued contribution to the arts.

Concerned Resident Has Plan For Real Erskineville

In a startling twist on the 'art imitates life' paradigm, a concerned Erskineville resident demanded placement of an actual lightbulb on a dark and dangerous road crossing in Applespiel's Sexy New Urban Design Team...Erskineville project. Notwithstanding the design team's many combined years of expertise in working with scissors, glue, paddle-pop sticks and cardboard, the resident brought a lightbulb with him which was promptly installed on the refuge island near the corner of Prospect Street and Erskineville Rd, along with eight red and blue Christmas lights to mark the actual crossing.
J.M.D.