Well.. that's a wrap!/December 18, 2018
Update #03: The Grand Section's National Exhibition, 'Girthy; with Slim Edges'
What better way to wrap up the year then to reflect on the home stretch of the Girthy with Slim Edges National Exhibition tour and to look forward to the year that’s to come… with an exciting announcement!
Stop 10: Brisbane
Four Locations (13th - 17th Sep) - QUT, Gardens Point Campus, West End Markets, Northey Street City Farm Markets and Wandering Cooks.
Thanks to Hunter Eccleston (King of the student design committee) we were set up in the quad of QUT for Thursday and Friday, snagging a wide range of students of varying levels of interest. Setting up in a public space like this always allows for excellent interaction with a range of cool cats with broad and unpredictable conversations. The usual market set up followed on Saturday at West End markets. We were in-between the yoga and the food stalls, It was so bohemian! Sandra even flew up from Sydney to come and check out the exhibition. Northey Street Markets on Sunday was an amazing concoction of food, organic goods and locals who do their weekly shop wandering through. And Speaking of wandering….Monday we took over a parking spot at Wandering Cooks, an amazing inner city foody hub where essentially you can rent commercial kitchen space at any time of day/night! That night we took over the place with our good mates ”5 mile radius” (professional architectural scavengers) for a discussion on “How to Design for Australia?”. We had a full crowd with great discussions, along with many people that visited our public exhibitions over the weekend around the city.
LEARNT - 1. Flyers actually work! We handed out some and low and behold people turned up to the talk we organised...USE FLYERS 2. Conversations beyond your own industry are often the very interesting, and always give a broader context to your thinkingStop 11: Singleton
Three Locations (22nd - 25th Sep) - Singleton Square Shopping Centre, Singleton High School and Ourcare Services.
Bobbie’s home town! The land of the brave…and the coal! Kicking off on a sleepy Saturday in the biggest and brightest shopping mall Singleton has to offer, we had visits from some of bobbie’s old friends, army blokes, coal miners and a three week old baby. The biggest surprise of all was Bill! A man who carried our bags 20kms up the road West of Wallace Rockhole, NT in August 2017 came to see that we made it out alive. We never know how these commercial spaces are going to go but we always end up pleasantly surprised by the people who pop up and the incredible depth of conversations that come out of them. Monday we presented to several classes at Singleton High School starting discussions about architecture and Australia, using trivia and prizes to TRY and interest the kids! It was great to have some one on one discussions with students about ecologies and buildings which felt like it didn’t get to happen normally in school. Our final stop in Singleton was at Ourcare, which provides care, activities and socalising for some of our societies older cats. As Bobbie eloquently described how Utzon realised the structure of The Opera House through dissecting an orange, an old gentleman in the back yelled out “must have been a bloody big orange”!
LEARNT - 1. Don't underestimate people because of the place. 2. One on one chats open up whole new conversations 3. If your audience is older they seem less scared to yell out... you've been warned.Stop 11.5: NSW Country Chapter Regional Architecture Conference
One Location (02nd Oct) - Crowne Plaza, Hunter Valley.
We were asked to bring our exhibition to the Regional Architecture Conference in the Hunter Valley... they even had canapes! There were some bloody wild architects there with it having a great feel about it - friendly and relaxed with people happy to chat regardless of who you are (particularly useful for our terrifying mugs). Wagga Wagga based Architect Noel Thomson and Mudgee based Architect Cameron Anderson were the creative directors behind the conference, curating a great line up of regional practitioners and work from around NSW… check out TAKT out and DUNN AND HILLAM if you havn’t before now! A big thanks to The legend that is Kim from Cemintel (a sponsor and supporter of the exhibition tour) for her promotion at the event and her eagerness to get a logo picture.
(Final Stop) Stop 12: Blackheath
One Final Location (6th Oct) - The New Ivanhoe Hotel, Blackheath
Owen’s home town and the final stop for the “Girthy; with Slim Edges” National tour! We initially planned to set up in the beer garden but of course, in Blackheath it was raining! And so instead we set up in a NW facing sun-room alongside the accommodation on the 1st floor, overlooking the street. We had a whole bunch of friends, mentors, teachers, parents, scumbags and the usual Blackheath riff-raff show up through the day and then in the evening to celebrate with a night of TRIVIA! We packed out the Ivanhoe Bistro for obscure trivia, champagne, bad jokes and ambitious participants (especially Ben’s ambition with the champagne at breakfast the next morning)! The team that ended up taking home the winning prize of a melted water bottle masquerading as a trophy had about 273 years combined experience thinking architecture, making buildings and working in the more remote parts of this incredible country. A valiant effort was displayed by all during the night, where we couldn’t have wished for any other way to finish the two year long Grand Section journey. Thank you to all whom came.
LEARNT - 1. Obscure trivia brings people, ideas and good times together2019
After this big TWO year journey, the big question that has been launched at us more than any other…
“What’s next…?”
We would like to answer in two parts;
Nothing! It is ok to not have a next. To say that was that and reflect on the past year. Tim Winton writes about the duality of our “…utilitarian antipodean outlook, married as it is to a strange obsession with productivity…”, maybe we are missing the point of trips like this entirely. It is after all about self discovery, confidence, context and reality: ultimately, agency. Maybe nothing is what is needed somtimes…
Lots! 2019 is shaping up to be a super exciting year with intentionally only a couple of key things lined up for now.
The Book collating The Grand Section journey, our thinking, documentation and findings.
Designing and building a house in the Blue Mountains. We see this as an opportunity to take the lessons and methodology we developed during the 2017 trip and apply them to an actual building. To walk a section 100kms either side of the side (a mini Grand Section) to understand the context of the place and how we can work with the local ecologies. To study and test local examples of good and bad buildings, seeing what works and what doesn’t. Chatting to locals and professionals who know the place. This is the transition from theory to practice with a definite methodology, providing a testing of ideas in the real world… eek!
Now for the exciting announcement…Our exhibition has been accepted into the Cessnock Regional Art Gallery and will be on display July - August 2019. We think this will be a great opportunity to explore new threads of our thinking and trip findings, feeding into the making of the book and practise. We will be collaborating with an excellent mentor, Judy Robinson. Judy has been the driving force behind this and will curate the exhibition as well as a many others next year at the gallery, so get on down!
The winners of the TRIVIA evening. You can tell they are winners by Ruby’s hand gestures bottom right.
Thank you all for your support, encouragement and time, we couldn’t have come this far without you.
Until next time… stay girthy, stay naive, go see some stars and best wishes in slowness! Oh yeah, MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Cheers,
Much Cleaner & Still Thirsty (aliases of Dusty & Thirsty)