Back
We Make This City - David Cross, Magnificent Revolution Australia, Lynette Wallworth and Makeshift
Sydney, Australia, 2012

Creative Organisation: National Institute for Experimental Arts

Funders / Commissioners: City Art, City of Sydney.

Location Details: Taylor Square, cnr Oxford and Bourke Streets, Darlinghurst, Sydney, Australia.

Date of Delivery: November 2011 – May 2012.

Medium: Sculpture, Installation, Performance.

Dimensions / Technical Specs: Variable

Project Delivery Team: Margaret Farmer, Lucy Ainsworth, Eva Rodriguez Riestra, Danella Bennett, Lara O’Reilly.

Funding Sources: Local Government

Themes: Renewal & Regeneration, Water

Duration: Temporary/Ephemeral

Author: Lucy Ainsworth

Poetic and pragmatic, We Make This City operates as a form of urban acupuncture, tackling an urgent social question: Why, when so many of us are aware of and concerned about climate change, do we do so little to limit its effects? Psychologists suggest that for many the problem is too great, too hard to truly confront; that others facing the problem experience states akin to grief, or may feel alone and inadequate in their efforts to take positive action; and yet others feel thwarted in their attempts by the apparent unsustainability of the urban environment or others’ lack of action. We Make This City takes these psychological states as cues and counters them, combating fear, risk and inertia with trust, beauty, community and action.

– Margaret Farmer, Curator

We Make This City was a temporary public art project in the inner-city location of Taylor Square, Sydney, which aimed to encourage agency, change behaviour, and galvanise social and political action in response to Climate Change. We Make This City featured four artists—David Cross, Magnificent Revolution Australia, Lynette Wallworth and Makeshift—who over a six-month period each attempted to activate the public space at Taylor Square with work that was environmentally considered.

Drift by David Cross: Passers-by were invited to enter a huge yellow inflated PVC tunnel placed over the existing water feature at Taylor Square, in order to experience the changed and changing environment  inside the sculpture and in Taylor Square. Heavy-duty pipes were connected to the water fountain jets underneath and fed into the tunnel to create a ‘water slide’ effect.  Depending on the fountain’s cycle different amounts of water would flush through the tunnel, varying the experience. By engaging with an unknown and unpredictable changed environment, participants could take stock of their own emotional capacity for facing such change.

ReKindling Venus: In Plain Sight by Lynette Wallworth: Bringing an experience of marine life to urban Taylor Square, Lynette Wallworth’s ReKindling Venus: In Plain Sight invited the public to join a network of people connecting to the plight of coral ecosystems around the world. Wallworth developed an App that you could download onto your smartphone and use to scan images of coral—positioned on the T2 building at Taylor Square—to activate a 3D portal to coral reefs. The App also sent users real-time alerts about coral bleaching worldwide, and linked to a website with more information on warming sea temperatures.

Cycle-In Cinema by Magnificent Revolution: Magnificent Revolution Australia is an education project that delivers pedal-power events, installations and workshops to demonstrate the potential for renewable energy in an experimental and engaging way. Held over three consecutive nights, the Cycle-In Cinema was an outdoor movie theatre where bikes powered the show.  Each night featured a different program of films, including queer films, video art and short films about environmental issues.

A Leaf from the Book of Cities by Makeshift: Part mobile printing press, part think tank, part underground society, A Leaf from the Book of Cities explored the possibilities of a quality-based economy within the context of Taylor Square and the Sydney Sustainable Markets. Temporarily occupying the historic former men’s and women’s conveniences, Makeshift (comprising Tessa Zetttel and Karl Khoe) transformed the underground spaces into a ‘market’ type installation that evolved each week. The stalls represented local groups who operate using quality-based economies. The women’s convenience hosted weekly meetings creating a platform for re-thinking craft politics and futures.

AIMS

Cultural

Aesthetic/Visual: The aim of We Make This City was to create a series of participatory public artworks that changed the urban environment visually and experientially, in order to encourage thinking about the change that could be made pre-emptively, to avoid climate change.

Innovation/Risk (Conceptual and Technical) and Audience Engagement: In a challenging inner-city area, curator Margaret Farmer proposed placement of interactive works with the aim of actively engaging the audience to participate and contribute. By this conceptual innovation/risk, the project sought to engage with the audience’s psychological responses to climate change, with a view to replacing negative emotions, such as, fear, denial, distrust and anger, with positive experiences and emotions. The aim was to build individual and community capacity to respond to climate change. This approach raised technical risks in the form of public health and safety and public liability.

Social

Social Activation: Farmer wanted the audience to consider their actions towards climate change, and particularly the question, “Why, when so many of us are aware of and concerned about climate change, we do so little to limit its effects?” She also wanted to advocate agency, behavioural change, and social and political action in response to climate change.

Community Development and Social Inclusion: The aim was to temporarily change and activate an inner-city area that is largely used as a thoroughfare, and prone to loiterers, homeless people and anti-social behaviour. The art program further was intended  to connect the local community and commuters with public art, and to engage with and reflect the communities that use Taylor Square, including the GLBT community, the cycling community, the arts and arts education community, local Indigenous communities, residents concerned with neighbourliness and sustainability, the business community and the entertainment community.

 Environmental

Waste Reduction and Management, Energy Efficiency/Generation, Water Quality and Management: The intention was to endeavour to create temporary public artworks that created minimal waste. Specifically, Makeshift wanted to create an installation using recycled materials and Magnificent Revolution Australia aimed to create an off-grid film screening using energy made through pedal-power. While David Cross’s original intention in placing a tunnel over the existing public fountain was to create an experience of a changed environment, issues relating to the quality of the fountain water redirected through the tunnel led to water quality becoming an important aspect of the work.

Climate Change Adaptation: The project presented artworks that addressed climate change-related concerns, e.g., coral bleaching (Lynette Wallworth), energy consumption (Magnificent Revolution Australia), water shortages and water quality (David Cross), and alternate market economies (Makeshift).

OUTCOMES & IMPACTs

Cultural

Audience Engagement: All artworks were well attended and visitors came specifically to see each work. Drift by David Cross created discussion about the appearance of the work and held a strong presence in the space.

Social

Social Activation/Debate: A Leaf from the Book of Cities attracted visitors interested in engaging with the themes of the work. Makeshift facilitated meetings between invited members of the public to discuss relevant topics connected to economies. This work attracted many local residents who came and shared their experiences and stories of Taylor Square and the men’s convenience building.

Community Development and Social Inclusion: All the artworks attracted people to spend time in Taylor Square rather than pass through the space. Community members from all walks of life, and not just people engaged with the arts, participated with each work.

 Environmental

Energy Efficiency/Generation: Magnificent Revolution Australia demonstrated methods of renewable energy and management.

Water Quality and Management: On days that Drift was to be presented, bromine and chlorine levels in the water from the fountain were tested to ensure the water was safe for human contact. These chemicals were used to treat the fountain water and would be diluted after heavy rains, as stormwater ran into the fountain. If the water was found to be unsafe, then Drift was not able to be installed. News of the water quality results and whether the work could proceed on a given day were posted online.

Project delivery

We Make This City was commissioned by the City of Sydney Public Art Panel for the Taylor Square Temporary Public Art project in 2011, after a competitive tender process.

Due to constraints in using public space and compliance regulations, changes were made from the original proposal. These changes were mainly with the works by Lynette Wallworth, Magnificent Revolution Australia and Makeshift. Lynette Wallworth’s initial proposal was to exhibit ReKindling Venus via six banks of seven posters and seven individual light boxes in cafes and bars, on the sides of buildings and in laneways around Taylor Square. This was changed to nine posters, one light box and wallpaper covering the T2 Building.

The Cycle-In Cinema was originally planned for the grassed area on south side of Taylor Square, with the films to be projected onto the T2 Building. Due to the heavy road traffic at this junction there were concerns the projection would be distracting for motorists. The location was changed to the far end of the north side of Taylor Square, out of sight from the roads.

Makeshift originally proposed to create a microbrewery, pop-up mead bar and conversational hub, but this was modified because of the no alcohol restrictions in Taylor Square. In addition serving food in a public place required observance of strict occupational health and safety regulations and supplementary public liability insurance. This work would have engaged directly with the night-life culture of Taylor Square, demonstrating a culture of alcohol production and drinking based on contribution, sociability and exchange rather than on money; however A Leaf from the Book of Cities contributed pertinent discussions about alternative economies that were published in a hand-printed journal.

The project was assigned a set budget of AUD80,000. This  was exceeded by AUD16,000 over the course of the project due to changed presentation requirements for Drift and the extensive maintenance of ReKindling Venus caused by unseasonal inclement weather and which exceeded the budgetary provision made for it. Changes to the specifications for Drift in production substantially increased the weight of the work, which required alternative means for storage and transport.  A 2-tonne truck was hired to store and move the work in between presentation times over a five-week period. In addition, for occupational health and safety reasons, generators rather than mains electricity were required to power the air blowers that inflated the work. Both these additional items were costly.

Vandalism impacted on the presentation of ReKindling Venus. One part of this work was a light box placed on the north side of Taylor Square. It had only been installed for a few days when it was graffitied and vandalised. The decision was made to remove the light box to prevent further damage. The vandalism and graffiti were thought to be caused by late night revellers under the influence of alcohol from surrounding bars and clubs or because the light was affecting a group of homeless people who regularly slept near the installation. The light box was relocated and housed inside at Customs House, Circular Quay.

The project overall was heavily affected by a large amount of unseasonable inclement weather, which impacted the delivery of some of the artworks, namely Drift and ReKindling Venus. Due to occupational health and safety regulations, Drift could not operate if there was rain and/or high winds. During the presentation period the artwork was cancelled almost half of the scheduled days. This made it very difficult to build momentum and ongoing interest in the work. Heavy rain also impacted ReKindling Venus by causing the adhesive on the posters to come un-stuck and peel off the building.  The Cycle-In Cinema also had to be relocated to a wet weather venue on the final night.

Due to constraints from using public space and compliance regulations, changes were made from the original proposal. These changes were mainly with the works by Lynette Wallworth, Magnificent Revolution Australia and Makeshift. Lynette Wallworth’s initial proposal was to exhibit six banks of seven posters and seven individual light boxes in cafes and bars, on the sides of buildings and in laneways around Taylor Square. This was changed to nine posters, one light box and wallpaper covering the T2 Building.

The Cycle-In Cinema was originally planned for the grassed area on south side of Taylor Square, with the films to be projected onto the T2 Building. Due to the heavy road traffic at this junction there were concerns the projection would be distracting for motorists. The location was changed to the far end of the north side of Taylor Square, out of sight from the roads.

Makeshift originally proposed to create a microbrewery, pop-up mead bar and conversational hub, but this was modified because of the no alcohol restrictions in Taylor Square. In addition serving food in a public place required observance of strict occupational health and safety regulations and supplementary public liability insurance. This work would have had a much stronger presence in Taylor Square, however A Leaf from the Book of Cities contributed pertinent discussions about alternative economies that were published in a hand-printed journal.

IMPACTS OF ARTWORK PRODUCTION

Breakdown of each artwork in We Make This City:

Drift: This  was a custom fabricated PVC sculpture, manufactured in New Zealand and shipped to Australia. PVC is a toxic material both in manufacture and disposal.  An alternative would have been to use a locally based fabricator and to select a different type of material for construction, however, the NZ-based artist had experience with both the material and the work’s fabricator, and this was viewed as important, given the short timeline and risk of failure in realising the work. The initial plan  was to power these with mains electricity, however for occupational health and safety reasons two petrol generators were used instead. The generators used unleaded petrol but emitted carbon. At the end of the project, the artwork was sold to a children’s charity, for re-use.

ReKindling Venus: All printing and manufacturing of ReKindling Venus was done locally in Sydney, therefore interstate or overseas shipping was not required.  The paper posters could potentially be recycled.

Cycle-In Cinema: Specifically designed generators and battery packs were built to power Magnificent Revolution Australia’s bike-powered cinema. These items were created to be re-used long-term for ongoing Magnificent Revolution Australia projects.

A Leaf from the Book of Cities: Makeshift often use recycled and repurposed materials to create their artworks. A Leaf from the Book of Cities contained re-used furniture, second-hand books, and found objects. The installation used minimal electricity and was based around a series of physical discussions between community members, hence keeping a small environmental footprint.

SOURCES

Farmer, Margaret. “We Make This City.” Exhibition publication. Sydney: City of Sydney, 2012.

This database is developed by the National Institute for Experimental Arts (NIEA) at COFA, UNSW in association with the City of Sydney and Carbon Arts as part of the Australian Research Council ARC linkage project Curating Cities.