Underland - local character cars

Car with a hand made antenna map

Colourful character

The cars in the surrounding area reveal aspects of their owners personality providing another way to 'map' the Collingwood Housing Estate and its surrounding environment. The car above was painted during the Melbourne Stencil Festival.

Underland - mapping continued

Tiger and cat surveying the view from the tower

From the singular window to multiple patterns of homes

After spending some time on the Estate, you begin to notice a community of pets, cats and dogs, looking out of windows and being taken for walks. Another interesting aspect to living in the community is that residents tell of how higher up in the towers, they can be felt to move in strong winds, a common feature of the design of taller buildings everywhere. This has given rise to considering how the labyrinth under construction can potentially move in response to the movement of people through Underland.

Underland - mapping the towers and surrounding environment

During the progress of Underland Laine Hogarty and Michal Teague have been documenting the visible and invisible elements of the Collingwood High Rise estate community. Traces and items left by people.

Underland - the beginning

The site prior to construction

Artist Michal Teague, sweeping, sweeping, sweeping...

The scale of the Collingwood Underground Car Park provides a unique opportunity to create a site specific public artwork with the Collingwood Housing Estate community. The site is filled with multiple layers of imagery on the floor, walls and ceiling of previous artists interacting in the space, the graffiti in view in these images are from the Melbourne Stencil Festival.

Underland - Root made during early community pop up studios

Root made by community participant in the Collingwood Underground Car Park

In the development phase of what was to become the AURA Project, a series of artist pop up studios was funded by Yarra City Council. The pop ups assisted in devising what kind of projects might work with the Collingwood Housing Estate community. An initial interest in suspending artwork from the ceiling to emphasise the experience of being underground, developed into creating a community root system which could be walked through like a labyrinth.

roarawar feartata: The Tower Anagogues

performed on thursday June 2nd by roarawar feartata (craig peade & benjamin cittadini)

sound by Nick Beer

photo's by Nick Stephenson & Brigid Jackson

roarwar feartata: 24hr Tower People

1:55pm

clouds are now and this

is the bottomless sleep,

time taken

is time best given away

2:38pm

child's eyes cling

whilst parents

drag their eyes away

4:00pm

small doors close

dreams open automatically

4:50pm

old men with late autumn eyes

grow invisible

when standing in their pyjamas

5:08pm

the man behind the hand

reaches out

and touches no-one

5:15pm

night gardeners

set their watches aglow,

worn hands harvest

the slow moon

6:24

your face may be familiar

but you intentions are undeclared -

swipe your card, sign in,

I forget you

8:00pm

Wasted my time

made me laugh

8:33pm

I'm the pizza man

please

let me out

8:48

workers of the night

and the early morning

stare straight ahead

and dream

9:59pm

every second builds

a balloon

10:08pm

slide open

slide in

slide up

slide down slide down . . .

10:13pm

too many children

are without balloons tonight

10:44pm

Mohammed

longs

for bed

11:00pm

surprise...

I forgot my teeth

11:04pm

it's out time together-

between this door and that

between the post boxes and the elevator

between "what are you doing" and "I'm not sure"

between a midnight cigarette and breakfast at noon

-it's our time together

11:29pm

sally is a dog

of few words,

unlike

her master

11:42pm

my body is a victim

of my lack of foresight

1:00am

space grows darker

the longer I stare at it

1:30am

with a renewed sense of loss

I reach in to the hole that defines me

1:35am

it's very

very hard

to get australian residency

these days

2:25am

even at the darkest hour

stray cats are snoring

3:10am

my touchscreen is beautiful

but my wife cannot get a visa

3:48am

when I think of you

I fall

into the arms

of the rising sun

4:00am

the Tower is short on sleepwalkers:

elevators stand idle, waiting to come down.

4:29am

mist spills off the roof

and settles quietly

on the streets below

5:05am

birthday cards are blank

the blankets are unfurling,

dirty white delivery vans stall

and the smallest birds are hungry

5:55am

fresh scented necks

stretch out into the frigid air

6:15am

sleeps long arms

hang heavily by my side

6:55am

I am not dying

today

7:00am

it's no secret

the cleaners

keep the peace

7:25am

security guards can really sing

when their shift is nearly over