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.

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.

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.

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.

ONE DAY SHOW: ARTHOTLINE Project Launch, The Bond Store, Windmill St Millers Point - Saturday 7th November 1992 1-6pm

ARTHOTLINE was a concept organised by Mark Titmarsh that consisted of a series of one day shows in non-gallery spaces.  What made it unique was that it was advertised via a 0055 phone number.  When it was your turn to exhibit, you rang a number and recorded a message that stated the location and time of the exhibition or performance.  The public then rang the 0055 number to find out where and when to go - the internet and social media STILL didn't exist yet - so this was a pretty neat idea!

The first show was a one day group show at the Bond Stores at the Rocks.  I showed 2 paintings, both called  'Black and White'.  They were each made from the same set of stencils - one was black and white patterning on a white background, the other black and white patterning on a black background.  I have just found a picture of them....

The phone number was advertised via a business card that was distributed as widely as possible

'Black & White', oil on canvas, 35cm x 35cm, 1992

'Black & White', oil on canvas, 35cm x 35cm, 1992

WORK by Hany Armanious, Maria Cruz, Kate Mackay, Bill Seeto - BLACK, 80 Campbell St Surry Hills - June 30 to July 28 1992

BLACK was a gallery space run by Mikala Dwyer  - it was in an architects office in Surry Hills.  It ran for 1 or 2 years (?) and had a number of interesting shows.  

Because it was an architect's space I decided to create works that related to the architecture...  There was a section of wall that jutted out over the stairwell - my 2 paintings were made to fit onto the length of this piece of wall,  they were thin to mirror the stair handrail, and they were positioned so that they sat on top of  the hand rail when viewed from the gallery entrance.  The imagery was 5 strips of patterns that I had used in previous work, but here they were all layered on top of each other in various strengths of gold and silver pigment mixed into clear oil.

silver, oil & pigment on canvas, 11.5cm x 95cm, 1992

gold, oil & pigment on canvas, 11.5cm x 95cm, 1992

I have since found a black & white photo of the works as installed in the gallery...

MEMOS: 6 Writers, 6 Artists - Mori Gallery, 56 Catherine St Leichhardt - Wed 24th June to Sat 18th July 1992

Memos was an exhibition curated by Jo Holder at Mori Gallery that paired 6 writers with 6 artists.

 "The title was suggested by Italo Calvino's Six Memos for the Coming Millenium.  In this, his final novel, Calvino suggests that one may aim to establish a series of values with which to meet so symbolic a date. The selection of artists was guided by Calvino's eclectic and heterogeneous literary values: lightness, precision, visibility, multiplicity and consistency" Jo Holder, Memos catalogue


The main work that I exhibited consisted of 4 large paintings - Detail I-IV, surrounded by 12 small works - Detail 1-12.  The response to my work was written by John Sandow in a piece called Yellow Mood in which he responded to a small yellow painting that was 1 of 3 (the other 2 being Blue and Red, of course...).  As usual, I no longer have these works, and have no photos of them, except for the black and white reproduction in the catalogue - but they were basically the same image of a stylised flower from a piece of wallpaper, rendered in red, blue and yellow.

The Detail work took it's imagery from 4 different German carpets from about the 16th century.  Each of the large works reproduced the patterning from the carpets.  Each of these paintings were underpainted with various colours, which were then overpainted in white, so that most of the colouring disappeared.  The 12 small paintings took further details from the larger paintings, with these paintings being brightly coloured. The 4 large works formed a 2 x 2 grid with the 12 smaller works hung randomly around the central works

'Detail I-IV' oil on canvas, 4 panels, 80cm x 70cm each, 1992

3 pieces from 'Detail 1-12', oil on canvas on board,  20cm x 17.5 cm each, 1992