smiling

boy i've done a lot of smiling since i 'moved in' to the studio. whenever i got 'top side' i make sure i smile and say hello to as many people as possible. it feels like the most important task i can do in any given moment: smile.


i had a fabulous talk with tony today about the estates and that the flats are full of frightened people. it never really changes, apparently.

tony lives in the flats in richmond. he has been there for 7 years and lived in rooming houses for 7 years before that. in his words, 'i wouldn't recommend it'. tony is also a director and writer for theatre. he's directing a play that is rehearsing in the underground at the moment and will be performed early next month.

i always thought collingwood was the more sinister of all the flats (there seems to be a natural desire to compare them all: richmond, wellington st, collingwood and fitzroy). turns out, i'm so wrong. people get murdered in richmond. three in the time since tony has been there. and the smack is worse there, apparently.  who knew! from tony's perspective, it's more secretive - not so transparent there. which of course leads to a feeling of fear.

sometimes i feel like the fear is tangible in collingwood. like i can touch it.
smiling releases it. and a happy, friendly 'hello!' changes the tune so quickly and so entirely.

collingwood offerings

i've been ill for the past 2 days and only just managed to get to collingwood by lunchtime today. i was feeling a bit sad and sorry for myself until i popped in to see bobbi from The Wellington.

They run a fantastic program there - multi-purpose church and hall like it ain't no thang - she showed me through the place, told me about all the programs they're doing there, introduced me to some regulars and volunteers (including my gal wendy who is going to teach me to play guitar soon).



thankfully i also got to meet alan, who made my day by giving me 5 PC speakers. alan has parkinson's disease, but is still sharp-as. he told me he was taking the speakers to parliament, because god knows they need some there. in return for my taking them, i offered to speak in parliament instead, to which he replied that i couldn't be worse than what they've got now.

best compliment i've had all week!


then, on the way back, i met nahad. nahad is from lebanon and has been here for 4 years. he's quite lonely it seems - he invited me to his place to drink tv, watch dvds, etc. i'm not so sure about the ethics of doing that (or my personal safety), but i did take nahad's phone number. he may be interested in the listening booth i'm hoping to set up in a few weeks' time, for that precise purpose: so that people can come and drink tea, talk to me, maybe practice their english with me and my role is just to listen.





then, just when i thought the gods of collingwood couldn't smile any wider on me, i went to get the studio key from the key box (our system for accessing the underground), someone had left me a step so that i didn't have to reach up quite so high!

i have a sneaky suspicion it's one of the builders who are hovering about, waiting to de-asbestos-ise the place, so to mr anonymous builder person, from one ms short-arse: thank you.


this post is cross-posted at she sees red

kittehs!

Skip Day from sheseesred on Vimeo.

today was the big clean-up in the underground. wow! it was super busy, everyone was hepped up, shifting stuff.

jed from VACRO, bill posters (another artist in the underground space) and john from CNH were all gun-ho, with gloves and vigour and sweaty methods. they did the bulk of the work, shifting years of stuff into 20 cubic metres' of skip.

we contributed a little - we ditched some of the stuff from ben and craig's installation, and turfed some remains from michal and laine's time here - although there's still a big pile of polystyrene that is being recycled on wednesday.

we're almost cleared out of the old space and into the new.





kittehs!

in the process of clearing out, marc from the men's shed stumbled upon a box of kittens! literally.
the stray who hangs out down here had obviously climbed in there to give birth to 5 gorgeous looking things that were never going to survive down here.

i was super sad, but the yarra city council animal person was called and promptly picked them up within the hour. if they couldn't house them, the lost dog's home would take them and if after a week no owners, then probably death.

mamma cat has been hanging around my studio a bit more lately - she marked her territory over my suitcase, which was lovely of her. and then she discovered the open container of milk i had on my desk, which i had put out for her and the kittens. she kindly helped herself all over the application i was preparing.

but thankfully i am a complete sap when it comes to cats.

she may not be able to fill in a feasibility study, but i have a feeling i will be making a small difference to her life as a collingwood cat in the next 3 months.

locality

in this first week of my residency, i've given myself time to set up and acquaint myself with the underground again, with local characters, with the personalities and organisations and with the patch of land i find myself walking across on a daily basis.

 at the moment, all these things are new and fresh and exciting. i spend a lot of time putting them into context, or thinking about them: wondering how they fit in with other ideas, localities, assumptions i have, prior experiences i have, outcomes of the project and my own values, thoughts, and aims for my particular project.

 in a way, it's little wonder that i'm exhausting at the moment: i'm writing a new locality for myself, based on new experiences.

 but at what stage will this become old hat? how long will it take for the walk between The Underground and the $2 shop in smith street to become just a thoroughfare, where i'm no longer noticing things.

and at which point do i then put my headphones on and aestheticise it, or make it meaningful again?

spring residency sprung

yesterday was the first day of the next residency. and i've gone from being a catalyst start-up person to a fully fledged artist-in-resident, 2.5 years after the first conversations with carla about the possibility of having art in the underground. the first couple of days have been quite exhausting - we moved the actual studio space from our original space in The Cage to Phil's old studio, in the main bank of workshop spaces. It feels good and i feel pretty lucky to be the first one in that space. i've given myself this first week as 'orientation week'. i've moved the studio, met with quite a few people, reconnected to the CHEAC peeps, who all know me reasonably well by now and have started to put down ideas. i've had some good conversations with laine, from the winter residency, touching on some of the wider issues of the residency and making work in a community setting, and have planned two important things for next week: afternoon tea with ben and craig, and a skip run. these feel like important ground-laying things and a good preparation for 3 months of hard work. tomorrow (wednesday) i'll be meeting with kieran stewart, an artist and sound/tech guy who is going to hopefully advise me on how to go about my super-ambitious task of turning the underground car park into an instrument and/or amplifier. it's pretty exciting. and the other project i'll be working on is my listening projects, a regular feature of my practice. i'll likely start those next week - after o-week and giving the department of housing some notice. i'm looking forward to having the studio for 3 months and to work solidly on a variety of works about sound in public. i'll also be updating this and she sees red fairly frequently.