2006
Who Needs Artists?, was our contribution to It’s a new day, curated by Sally Breen. Breen articulated the aims and intentions for the project as: ‘seeking out the porosity of what has been ostensibly a closed building – tightly shut to the local community, many artists and audiences,’ and that the exhibition invited artists to ‘engage with the metaphor of community via the conceptual and physical grammar of what it means to work in convergent spaces.’
Who Needs Artists?, literally asked if the services or presence of artists were required, but also playfully eluded to the possibility that the response might be: Artists? Who needs them! 500 flyers were distributed that sought responses to the question: ‘If you had two artists coming into your neighbourhood for six weeks, what would you want them to do?’
For more on outcomes from this project, read Art Conversations – failure to communicate by Josie Cavallaro and Anne Kay
Flicks at the Loo
Initiated by a couple of local residents, Flicks at the Loo was a one-night screening at a public park in Woolloomooloo. The key motivation for this event was the opportunity to screen Kid Stakes, an Australian silent film from 1927 that was partly shot in Woolloomooloo. As a prelude, the music video to Beds are Burning by Midnight Oil was screened. This classic protest rock song (c1987), features images of the band playing in Woolloomooloo.
Cake as Art
Children from the after-school program at the Juanita Nielsen Centre participated in Natalie Woodlock’s Cake as Art workshop at Artspace.
Articles
Writings on It’s a new day
Woolloomooloo and the Expanded Neighbourhood of Process-driven Art Practice by Catorina Moore & Jo Holder, Artspace Projects 2006
Art Conversations – failure to communicate by Josie Cavallaro and Anne Kay, Runway issue 13