Spirits Dancing

Just out of Canberra on the Kings Highway to the coast, especially on the part between Queanbeyan and Bungendore, there are lots of teddies and other soft toys nailed and tied to trees. Often they are quite high up, and some of them have been there for some years. Its easy to drive along and not see most of them, unless you are particularly on the lookout. I’ve heard there are some down near Moruya, too.

It’s curious, and although there a few theories around, no-one really seems to know why they are put there or who puts them there.

I find them interesting and quite thought provoking, and I would like someday to photograph more of them. Overall I find them rather sad and poignant, as teddies should be loved and cuddled, not tortured and abandoned to the elements. Do the nastier teddies on the market deserve this, or should I remember that for the most part kids can imbue even a mere cloth or stone with character and lovableness? Is there a war going on in teddy land? Are these teddies free in spirit even if their bodies are nailed to one place? I also like that it is unexplained, and that the number is growing gradually, an silent unordered social activity. And I am interested in the weathering patterns and process on the teddies, and how it changes their character.

More in my photoset at Flickr. LaRuth also has a couple more.

Tags: bungendore, canberra, nails, roadside, soft toys, teddy bears, tree

Ah, yes! The wonderful irony of Canberra Liberal MLA, Steve Pratt, calling in the media to record him heroically scrubbing off graffiti, only to find that it was a legally commissioned work, and now he will be charged with vandalism of public art. It’s pure gold! I will refer you to Ampersand Duck’s full account, since she does it so well. The artwork was done by byrd, and I was fond of it; it was relatively close to where I live.

The irony is no doubt especially sweet for the Labor Chief Minister, Jon Stanhope, following the brew-ha-ha when he was forced to fire one of his aides for doing some anti-Howard stencil work behind the Ainslie shops a couple of years ago:

Tags: art, byrd, canberra, graffiti, irony, politics, pratt, street art

During all the fuss about the chocolate Jesus in the US over the last week or two I kept thinking: ‘Hang on, that was done here years ago!’. Lo and behold, the Canberra Times eventually dredged up their 1994 article on Trans-substantiation 2, by Richard Manderson. With a story beginning with the sale of 100 raspberry-fondant-filled smaller Jesuses at the Gorman House markets, an Easter-egg-foil loin cloth, chocolate-dipped string for hair, a sound artistic statement, a clever title, and the cultural superiority of leading by 13 years, whats not to like?!

Tags: canberra, chocolate jesus, manderson, sculpture, transubstantiation

We have had some amazing clouds over Canberra recently. These mammatus clouds rolled over our place last Saturday evening at sunset.

Tags: canberra, mammatus clouds

Last Tuesday I went to the David Hicks rally at Parliament House. I don’t much like going to protests, but sometimes you just have to? I wasn’t sure whether to take my vigil puppet, because although I knew he would attract attention, I didn’t want to imply that I thought it was a okay to wish that fate on the prime minister, much as I despise his politics. The point to me is that no-one should be treated in the way that David Hicks has been. I thought about this aspect when putting up the vigil blog, too, but I hope the understanding is that it’s a request to imagine this happening to anyone.

In the end I took the puppet and hooded him, so he was anonymous, and when I saw the cage protest I was glad I had. It made me a bit uncomfortable for just that reason, as did the the various calls to send various ministers to Guantanamo Bay. Having Ned Kelly as the jailer was a strange choice that I didn’t understand. It just seemed bizarre! Ampersand Duck has the best photo of him!

But overall it was a good, if small, rally. Natasha Stott-Despoja gave a fiery speech, and Andrew Bartlett and Kate Lundy were also good. Mamdouh Habib was the most impassioned, with reason. Loadedog, whom I met for the first time there, gives a good rundown on what Habib said, and I agree with him that what Habib says carries weight because he alone has been there and experienced it. The rally organizers messed up by not announcing ahead of time that he would be speaking, and it was amazing to see how all the reporters and photographers who has wandered off came running back to record what he had to say.

I wandered off myself after Habib’s talk. I find my tolerance for the inevitable speakers who want to jump on the bandwagon is close to zero these days.

On the way to the rally I had noticed a cool painted car, and, while I was parking close by, it had dawned on me that it was Ampersand Duck‘s car! I’ve been enjoying her blog for quite a while now. So I scrabbled around to find a scrap of paper and left a scrawled hello under her windscreen wiper. As I was leaving, she was getting into her car, so I jumped out and had the pleasure of meeting her. It seemed to make the whole day a lot more worthwhile!

Here are my photos from the day at Flickr.

Tags: canberra, david hicks, human rights, puppetry, puppets, rally

Over the last while I have been involved in designing and making the set, costumes and puppets for Canberra Youth Theatre‘s production, The Moth Tree: An Awesome Adventure.

The Moth Tree is a quest story set in a distant place, in a quiet part
of the world, where the ancient and beautiful Algoma City lies. Since
the very beginning of time the city has been protected by moths that
grow on an enchanted tree. Until now the city has been a haven of
harmony and a place of gentle joy. However, a band of villains have
hatched a wicked plot to bring the city to its knees. All that stands
against the coming darkness are a ragged pair of unlikely young
heroes…

The play has been developed in a collaborative process involving the group of 8 to 12 year olds, the director, Tim Hanson, and the writer, Shiereen Magsalin, workshopping and developing characters and plot lines. The intention has been to offer the kids the experience of creating and presenting theatre, with a crew of professionals. We open tomorrow night! If you are in Canberra and have kids, why not take them along to some live theatre?

Tags: canberra youth theatre, illustration, moth tree, portfolio, poster, theatre

The Fool Factory’s Sunflower gives a unusually taciturn glance at the Walk against Warming a couple of weekends ago. I also love this one of the Rat Patrol at Cutflat.

I’m missing blogging! Heaps of things to blog about and no time to do it, is the story. I figure as far as making work goes, I have to make hay while the sun shines. Hoping to get back to it more often in December when the play I am working on has made its run.

Tags: fool factory, rat patrol, sunflower, walk against warming

Over the last few months most of my time has been taken up with a number of projects to do with Floriade, Canberra’s month-long annual spring flower festival, which finished last weekend. My biggest scale project was taking workshops with a group of kids from the Warehouse Circus, collaboratively designing and helping them to make some big puppets for a carnivale puppet parade during Floriade.

Robin Davidson was the artistic director, bringing together the eight characters the kids had proposed (The Dude (from the circus logo), the Evil Gardener, two tulips, The Pie, Mirrorman, Mini Me, and a pirate) into a kazoo band.

We used quite a broad range of building techniques and materials, many of which the kids hadn’t had experience with before. Six of the characters were on stilts, some on extension stilts, and I was really impressed with how well the kids took on the physical and mental challenges of performing the characters, and the level of confidence they developed.

Video clip: Click picture to see the Warehouse Circus Carnivale Puppet Parade.

Tags: canberra, floriade, portfolio, puppetry, puppets, stilt walking, stilts, warehouse circus

It’s the local Australian Science Festival in Canberra, as well as National Science Week. In today’s Canberra Times there’s a picture of a CSIRO Double Helix Science Club educational demonstration in which a presenter is extracting methane from ‘a life-sized flatulent cow called Belching Buttercup’. I recognize the cow as my dear Daisy. Poor Daisy. She has been given makeshift ill-proportioned spotty hindquarters, and Double Helix stickers, and while it’s nice that she isn’t in storage and is kicking up her heels in a new life, I kind of wish she hadn’t become grist for the endless ‘kids will only get into science if they think its gee-whizz fun’ mill, and the tiresome and inaccurate ‘kids are only interested in fart jokes and icky smelly substances’ attitude:

“Belching Buttercup is a new edition (sic) to the show. The whole idea is to show kids climate change and greenhouse science in a fun way that they are going to remember. When you look at it, it may just be one long fart joke, but it is really a profound way for kids to remember about climate change and some of the ways they can solve it, and that is a really important message.”

So they should stop farting? Of course, there is nothing wrong with a good fart joke. But kids are generally wonderfully curious, interested in making sense of the world around them and how it works (maybe more than adults), and they make connections in novel ways because they are new to the world. I think it does them a disservice to expect that they will not be interested in anything unless it’s presented as a fart joke.

Tags: cow, daisy, make, science

Today I am continuing making a costume: decorating a suit so that it suggests a mainframe computer. Don’t ask. I’m using some of the stencils that I made for my computer bug traffic control box painting last year. I eventually found out that the reason the painting had disappeared was because a car crashed into it and totally demolished it! I asked about the remains, but they had already been disposed of. I could paint the box again, but I decided, at least while it’s winter, to meditate on the beauty of process and impermanence in art ;-).

Tags: impermanence, make, traffic control box