This is real, it is not an art installation, although I wish it were. I had a fantasy once, a long time ago when I had my very own Hills Hoist in the back yard, of creating a maze by pegging long plastic sheets to the clothes line. I wanted to enter in to a sculpture prize - no idea which one, which ever one would accept me no doubt. I had another art fantasy of covering an entire room in bubble wrap, a sort of interactive art work if you like where the audience were encouraged to pop all the bubbles. Extra point for the ones on the ceiling - some analytical thinking required there.
But the above image is real. It is in fact our back neighbours yard (and flowering clothes line). I'm sure she would be quite horrified if she knew I had taken photos of her clothes line and posted them on the internet. There is a man coming to slash and burn and sculpt the terrain in to something that looks less like an art installation and more like a suburban desert garden. (I hope you all noted the lush green and lively looking vegetation that dominates this suburban desert garden. Not all red dust.)
The reason I have access to my neighbours clothes line is because our back fence partially blew down during our first introduction to a bit of wind in the Pilbara. cyclone Heidi. The reason the fence remains an invisible barrier is due to the quote to repair it. At $17 000 (no that is not a typo) neither side of the fence are particularly thrilled to spending that much money on a fence, and considering neither party live in their Pilbara mansions, neither party are concerned about fence that they won't have the pleasure of enjoying. Meanwhile, we have made friends with our neighbour, whom we otherwise would not really know.
Now to the art. There has been a bit going on since my last post. I have been in contact with the Courthouse Gallery regarding the completed 'Pretty Pool Creek'. Excitingly they are going to hang the paintings for their next exhibition opening in late June. I have also started a painting for the Hedland Art Awards, which I have titled 'Gradient Wind Analysis, Heidi'. It's a weather map of the wind the day after cyclone Heidi. I wasn't clever enough to think about printing out weather maps of cyclone Heidi the day of the cyclone, although I did regular print outs of the forecast tracking maps of the cyclone as it approached the coast. However, there was something about the wind gradient map that I found more engaging than all of the tracking maps. I will post a work in progress in my next post. In the mean time, enjoy the blooming clothes line.
I just remembered another fabulous work of clothes line art. I'm not sure if I can copy the image without permission, so I will include the link. Please enjoy.
http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/work/395.1993.a-c/
