Strange Festival Installation

Last June I took part in The Strange festival in Perth city. I heard about it from a cool photographer I know, Carly Williams, aka The Beautiful Strange. She knew I was always keen to take in an art challenge and loved a bit of weirdness too. So I put in a concept and was accepted to install with pretty much full creative freedom . My idea involved a grave yard garden scene with real but dead animals living their best immortal life amongst real but dead flowers.

Straight on to it I purchased a bargain taxidermy rabbit on marketplace for $30 , complete with a cigarette in his mouth. I named him Peter Jackson. On to the difficulties of this install! Firstly off to the taxidermist where I used all my budget to hire a majestic Swan , a Major Mitchell bird and a perfectly preserved Parrot. These creatures also came with a hefty deposit on them so I was very anxious the whole time about damaging them or that they might get stolen during the public exhibition! I was strictly prohibited from touching them and they had to stay in glass display boxes which took the whole ‘ roaming around the garden freely ‘ vibe away and created glass glare in photos. Nevertheless I carefully transported them to the exhibit site , now on to that new nightmare…

My designated spot was bang in the center of Perth CBD, no street parking for at least 500 m and the only possible loading area down a lane as wide as my car. To get into this lane I had to almost knock down 10 pedestrians a time then turning was a 34 point maneuver. Needless to say I dented my car on the first day to add to my paranoia on the second unloading day and subsequent pack up trips .

After walking the vast amount of boxes of flowers and dead animals in to the empty shop unit used for the exhibition I had to then lock up and go park in one of those horrible city car parks with no spaces left at 10 am - I’d get a real tight one if I was lucky and pay $45 for the honor. Back to the site and the fun part could now commence, well until 2 pm when I had to rush off for school pick up. My friend and fellow floral fluffer kindly offered to help on the first day of set up - a gif send really.

So with under 4 hours to create we organized the botanicals, fiddled , had lots of undesirables gawp in through the big windows, had to pee in the yucciest Macdonald franchise and then took some pics. Next day same as above except I came in and rearranged everything I’d done the day before. The other artists exhibiting at the site casually came in , set up with ease and left in under an hour. There was an opening evening drinks event and I much as I’d have like to go or even went to see the other exhibits at the various sites around the city I was too traumatized with the set up to attend.

Anyway the event was a success, they had way more four traffic through than anticipated so organizers were happy and being the ever optimist here was my pearls of wisdom taken from the experience; I learned that less is definitely more and I could have made a better display from far fewer ingredients. The opportunity to have a go aspect can far out-way the enjoyment factor and that’s perfectly ok as it’s a learning process. Always think about background and lighting ( natural and night ) before choosing your exhibit angle. City jobs are great exposure but come with access and logistical headaches, think wisely before taking on.

Art is subjective - Finn