OUR DAY OUT city limits
Spike Island, Bristol, UK
www.spikeisland.org.uk
June 2005
OUR DAY OUT city limits was the culmination of a three month collaborative residency at Spike Island, Bristol, UK, which formed part of an Australia Council Arts and Craft Strategy supported project for new work.
A 1960's family tent forms the body of the installation. Balanced on top of this shaky iconic structure is a city built from cardboard, fur fabric and vinyl. Some of these buildings are home-built models collected on daytrips to tourist sights; others are modernist tower blocks made from the discarded packaging of our city's waste.
In a desperate effort to maintain the stability of this sprouting city positioned atop it's precarious structure, it has been propped up and underpinned by a mass of Acro Props and timber batons.
Building upon inappropriate foundations is an act of futility, a desperate attempt to claim the monumentality of the city whilst retaining the temporality of the tent.
A flock of birds has settled on the towers and rooftops, their featherweight forms further threatening to rock the stability of the city.
Publication
A 16 page Australia Council assisted publication, with essays by Clare Lewis, Curatorial Assistant at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, and Lucy Byatt, Director of Spike Island, Bristol, accompanies this project. A memento of a great day out.