
Photo/Place/Method
Venue: Bondi Pavilion Gallery, Sydney
Date: 1980
Two man exhibition with Dave Cubby (photo artist)
Overview
The length of the gallery wall and floor area formed the metaphorical
littoral zone of Bondi Beach. The length of the beach was analysed according
to the social economic and political (gender, gay, hetro etc) groupings
of people. A panoramic indexical photo-map was constructed across the
length of the gallery wall. Various characteristic, bizarre, pathetic,
dramatic, tragic, comic and mundane activities were recorded and then
pinned/pasted along this map where they occurred. Installations, beach
“rituals” and performances were constructed and performed
along the beach as well as in the gallery proper during the span of the
exhibition. Free postcards were given out to all gallery visitors –
“free postcard with every look!”
Aims
To foreground the highly constructed social, political and culture mythologies
at work on the so called democratic free and open Australian beach. The
aim was to show that Australian beaches are divided into separate zones
– some marked out by flags (swimming between the flags which are
life guard patrolled) while others are formed by choice (safety in being
together) or by cultural exclusion.
Objectives
To encourage gallery viewers to question where they fit into this cultural
beach map. Floor installations and wall images & text works are often
comic in intent – playing with cultural habits such as rolling up
and covering one’s possessions with sand.
The length of the Bondi Pavilion gallery wall and floor area formed the
metaphorical littoral zone of Bondi Beach. The length of the beach was
analysed according to the social economic and political (gender, gay,
hetro etc) groupings of people. A panoramic indexical photo-map was constructed
across the length of the gallery wall. Various characteristic, bizarre,
pathetic, dramatic, tragic, comic and mundane activities were recorded
and then pinned/pasted along this map where they occurred. Installations,
beach rituals and performances were constructed and performed along the
beach as well as in the gallery proper during the span of the exhibition.
Free postcards were given out to all gallery visitors - a large banner
hanging off the pavilion advertised a "free postcard with every look!"
A series of graffiti
attacks and beach performance pieces were carried out to link inside of
gallery with beach outside.
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