Sunday, September 26, 1993

PROP II - An ARTHOTLINE Project, under the North Western Freeway, Sydney - 3-5pm Sunday 26th Sept 1993

Props II was my second ARTHOTLINE project.  There was a section of concrete freeway supports under the North Western Freeway that I would drive past on my way home from work.  It was divided into a number of concrete squares that were just crying out to have some art stuck on them.  I created a number of gouache on paper works, each work a variation  and re-arrangement of the same stencils - one for each of the concrete squares. I blu-tacked them in place for the 2 hours on a Sunday afternoon.  

Below are a couple of installation shots of the work and photos of separate works

The section of wall disappeared when the Cross City Tunnel was built.















Tuesday, June 1, 1993

SIGNALS, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney - 1992

'Signals' was curated by Janet Shanks and was exhibited on the lawn outside the MCA. The work consisted of 'flags' that were exhibited on flagpoles.  I remember that we were supposed to submit a design that would then be made up by a flagmaker, but that I wanted to make mine myself - sorry Janet! - I realise now that it would have been very annoying!  

Anyway, mine was layered acrylic paint on a sort of  'shower curtain' fabric, so that it was slightly translucent - the imagery was layered patterning.  I think all the works may have gone into the MCA collection.



Friday, April 9, 1993

VIA CRUCIS AUSTRALIS:14 STATIONS OF THE CROSS - Sydney Metropolitan Opera and Art HotLine Project, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Good Friday April 9, 1993

The Stations of the Cross event involved 14 Composers, 6 singers, 5 musicians and 19 artists - Mark Titmarsh, Neil Wing, Russell Way, Jonathon Nicholls, Geoffrey Boccalatte, Adrienne Doig, Steven Miller, Lee Patterson, Angharad Wynne-Jones, Andrea Aloise, Lucy Bleach, Katia Molino, Rebecca Cummins, Paula Binnie, Sherryl Ryan, Peter Woodford-Smith, Michael Hutak, Helga Groves and myself.

The event took place in the Foundation Hall and Foyer of the MCA.  Artists created an installation relating to each of the stations - the audience walked around the venue as each musical composition was played.  Myself and Helga  collaborated on the 14th Station - 'Jesus is Laid in the Sepulchre'.  We created a sort of funeral bier from metal around which we arranged various lighting...it was quite atmospheric...

The catalogue was an A1 poster listing the artists details on one side, and the musicians on the other - it also resulted in the most creative spelling of my surname so far - McKai.

I have one black & white photo of the work.


Saturday, April 3, 1993

PROPS - an ARTHOTLINE Project, Dawes Point Park, Sydney - 3-5pm Saturday 3rd April 1993

This was my first solo ARTHOTLINE Project.  I painted 2 found wooden brackets - they were carved decorative brackets that had fallen off a (near) derelict mansion in Annandale. I painted them in an array of decorative motifs.  I then placed them on a sort of shelf on one of the pylons of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.  It was fun to sit and watch people wander by and notice them - they were out of reach (I think I had to stand on a milk crate to place them there) and people would do a double-take, probably wondering what they were doing there.  They were completely dwarfed by the bridge and obviously completely out of context.

I have found a hand-drawn card that I must have photocopied to give to people as an invite, and I have a few photos of the installation.