For the past three weeks I have been in and around Lismore, Northern NSW, as an artist participating in the Splendid Arts Lab. The lab revolved around two aims: one, to explore new modes of cross-disciplinary collaboration; two to develop proposals for art works at the 2010 Splendour in the Grass music festival.
Amongst the participants in the lab were visual artists (physical and media based); performance makers, a craftsperson and an architect. I was proud to be part of the lab and represent, amongst other things, a place where art and community can intersect in valuable ways.
The lab raised some old, ongoing questions from CuriousWorks’ Migrant Project days. What are the common bases from which people from very different disciplines may collaborate?What kind of support structures should be set up for these collaborations to foster truly exciting, fresh work?
Developing ideas for a music festival was also a fascinating experience. How does one develop work for a site when the music obviously takes centre stage? It gives you this amazing opportunity to insidiously creep in a work, to make something that will infiltrate the site and its crowd of 20,000 party-people over the course of a weekend.
I’ve come up with some pretty whacky ideas that still fit within the CuriousWorks mission. Watch this space to find out more!
For now, if you’re intrigued, you should head over to the Splendid website, where the artists, mentors and partners have all been discussing this very issue…
Site Visit before the Festival
I like rainbows