Out There - public art billboard in Collingwood
The OUT THERE Billboard Art Program is a Yarra City Council initiative in partnership with 7-Eleven. The program is a public art project delivering contemporary art to the street. Dedicated to displaying public art, this billboard site will be activated by a program of works which aims to engage, surprise and intrigue passers by.
Located on Otter Street Collingwood, at the corner of Smith Street, this high profile billboard site will give the local community and visitors to Yarra a chance to engage in contemporary public art as part of their everyday life.
Artists have the opportunity to display their work to thousands of people every day.
In 2011, Council entered into an agreement with the Centre for Contemporary Photography (CCP) to curate the space for the next year.
CCP, one of Australia’s leading photographic institutions, will work with artists over the next year to produce three billboard installations at the site.
Billboard Installation 3: November – March 2012
Sharon West
Sharon West is a visual artist working across various media including photography, painting, assemblage and digital media.
She has been a teacher within the Indigenous Arts Unit of the School of Art at RMIT University since 1999.
In 2009, she completed her Masters of Art at RMIT, examining the relationship between settler and Indigenous cultures within Australian colonial art history. She has exhibited nationally and internationally and has curated a number of exhibitions.
These works portray mythical indigenous creatures which West imagines inhabiting pre-settlement Melbourne.
She constructs narrative-based scenarios that parody the concept of the museum diorama, in particular, scenes featuring models of indigenous fauna and flora and domestic scenes of Koori people.
In an attempt to recreate a pseudo-historical situation, West translates these scenes using the two-dimensional medium of photography.
Magpieland 2011
Unconfirmed sources suggest that the Collingwood Football Club may have taken inspiration for their magpie mascot from a legendary giant magpie, once thought to inhabit the lands around the Yarra River. In this scene, a sheep farmer is pictured feeding the magpie, while local Kooris look over at one of his sheep in the distance. Traditional Koori hunting game, such as kangaroo and emu, were driven off the land because they could not compete with sheep and cattle for prime grasslands.
John Batman and the Giant Budgie 2011
During his land surveying in Wurundjeri Country, John Batman and a member of his party are obstructed by a large budgie. The pair try to move it on using tree branches but the budgie won’t budge! Nearby, a Koori tribesman watches over in bemusement.
This project acknowledges the Wurundjeri people as the traditional owners of this land. The artist wishes to thank the Wurundjeri Land Council.
Watch this space for further information about the future programming of the site.
Council also wishes to acknowledge 7-Eleven for their generous support of this project.
This project delivered in partnership with:
Further information
Louisa Marks
Arts and Cultural Development Officer
9205 5029
Louisa.Marks@yarracity.vic.gov.au
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