Destroying art in the name of… art? That was the theme of tonight’s Creative Sydney “Sydney Session”, featuring the instrumental talents of Cameras and Red Ghost, performers from the Rapid Response project (directed by Laura Scrivano) and artists Beastman, Max Berry, Numskull, Phibs and Roach. A comment on the way Sydney treats its artists, I couldn’t help but feel that praise of the artwork, and then the subsequent destruction of it was pointless. Sure, one could argue that graffiti art is transient and it’s all going to get written over eventually (as recently evidenced in Melbourne), but surely they could have gotten around it some other way.
To accompany my crushed artistic spirit, was a video embracing it – a well produced documentation of the artists putting the impressive work together. Essentially a music video, it showed the expertise of these artists, together creating an impressive one-off ensemble piece. For me, the work was a timeless representation of the works I’ve seen from these very artists in May Lane (St Peters) over the years, and couldn’t help but think “who’s going to get to keep that?” during the whole performance!
But alas, for the sake of “making a point” they had to go and paint over it, leaving “covered by the City of Sydney” graffiti behind. I’m a sad panda! But this was far from the focal point for a music journalist such as myself! The centrepiece of tonight’s entertainment were the fabulous Cameras, making their second appearance for my enjoyment in a week. And tonight they were joined by the one and only Red Ghost.
The basic structure was that the band would play a song or two, and then there would be a performance piece from the Rapid Response project, then another song or two… until eventually they destroyed the work, we watched the video of its birth, and they played the night out. During the performance pieces, the band wouldn’t sit idly, rather providing an ambient soundtrack to whatever scape the performers were creating – usually running along the lines of our connections with one another – both physically and digitally – specifically in the City of Sydney.
These sort of performances are what you’d expect: they can work at times, and be completely ridiculous, pretentious and irritating at others. This definitely tipped the scales at either end throughout the show, prompting some patrons to leave, but I felt it was a fair balance. Still, I couldn’t help but just want to watch the band play. Cameras were truly outstanding – and Red Ghost is a talent I’d only had the pleasure of listening to on Myspace before tonight. She was a fantastic inclusion into the live mix.
Cameras on a whole are just an all around great band – you may remember a while back I interviewed the band [HERE], a trio at that time, but these days they perform as a 4 piece, producing a solid, impressive and matured sound. I doubt they’ve been performing together for that long – but someone unfamiliar with the band would probably think otherwise. They could probably say they’d been doing it for a decade, and people would believe it.
So I guess the moral of the story is this: More Cameras. More Red Ghosts. Less destruction of art works I would very much like to have in my house. But more events LIKE this that do get the public talking. Exploring the underground and causing people such as myself to exclaim “WTF!?”
There’s shit like this going on DAILY in other parts of the world – yet we only embrace it a couple of weeks of the year. Citizens of Sydney remember this – you are a creative city every day of the year, and these sorts of events are happening all the time. There is a underground scene dying to show itself – but as its most well known faces start to drift overseas and out of state, one has to wonder – how much longer is it going to last if people are led to assume it only happens once in a blue moon?
I’d love to see MCA, in particular, get behind local young artists a bit more on a regular basis. Why is during Creative Sydney the only time that these sorts of artists get to be seen in a CONTEMPORARY art building? Why are they ignored and thrown into the small back alley galleries, where everyone enjoys a bit of free booze and occasionally some cheese and crackers? Of course, they need to stay, I love free cheese!, and that’s what being “underground” is all about … but if the MCA can support it this week, then surely they can support it at other times, with similar events of their own.
Who knows how we can make this happen, but perhaps, somewhere within the 2010 Creative Sydney program, a solution will be found – or at least sought after en masse. At least one would hope so. In the meantime, I’ll go on to enjoy what’s left of this exciting week! Parades tonight!
/ rant.
