8 December 2008

Images of Canberra - The Wattle St installation

| johnboy
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Holden Caulfield has sent in this one of his favourite piece of public art in Canberra.

It can be found just off Wattle St in Ainslie Lyneham.

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Clown Killer1:17 pm 20 Mar 09

That’s funny, I thought it was only the US that didn’t get ironic humour.

Oh but indeed they do. have a look at:

http://www.strayshoppingcart.com/shopping_cart/1_introduction.htm

Forget the interpretations. Just experience it.

simplecon said :

$1,000 down the drain – again! What better title for this stunning installation. And how evocative of Canberra – the cesspit of Australia conjoined with the capitalist collective mentality.

Hello there. You were able to read what this article was about weren’t you?

I am positive it didn’t cost $1,000 for TaMS to retrieve the trolleys.

Still, use it as an excuse to bash the Capital. I expect nothing less from your type (that types tripe).

🙂

$1,000 down the drain – again! What better title for this stunning installation. And how evocative of Canberra – the cesspit of Australia conjoined with the capitalist collective mentality.

Holden Caulfield8:30 am 11 Dec 08

EnglishRaider said :

…this is far from art, if this is art, then I wonder why the British Tax Payers Goverment pay Thousands every year pulling Shopping Trolleys from Streams…

That’s funny, I thought it was only the US that didn’t get ironic humour.

EnglishRaider7:49 am 11 Dec 08

LoL at some of these comments.

But you’re right, this is far from art, if this is art, then I wonder why the British Tax Payers Goverment pay Thousands every year pulling Shopping Trolleys from Streams.

Clear up the mess, Canberra is too beautiful for trash!

poptop said :

Needs more E.L.K.

I agree

Holden Caulfield11:29 am 09 Dec 08

Just as well I took the happy snap to capture it forever.

Pommy bastard10:43 am 09 Dec 08

Word has it that since this art has been highlighted on RiotAct Environment ACT is sending some of its art appreciation rangers to decontextualise it in situ.

There’s a sequel to this installation in a park just off Bonney St in Ainslie.

‘it’s just some paint stuff on a canvas, get over it’ – how is the statement of composition of materials an argument against a piece of art? now, it isn’t in the class of those sheep in civic, or the drums across from wig and pen, but it does evoke a resonance with the readership…

It’s a couple of trolley’s in a drain. Get over it

That’s an explanation, not an excuse.

Of course if you don’t like the installation, there is always Trolley Trackers you can report it too.

http://www.trolleytracker.com.au/ReportaTrolley/tabid/61/Default.aspx

I have. I am hoping to with the monthly prize of $1000.

Please put more reports of either abandoned trolleys or art installations involving trolleys on the Riot Act. I might get a few more goes at the monthly prize this way.

🙂

toriness said :

what’s your excuse? 🙂

We’re men 😉

i love it when men make period jokes, they sound so informed, sophisticated and educated. as least us women have a biological reason for our irrational behaviour – what’s your excuse? 🙂

Who said bogans are restricted to Queanbeyan. Proof they are alive and well in Canberra.

Instant Mash5:58 pm 08 Dec 08

It’s missing an umbrella…

Ahhhhh… menstruation humour. Now this site is starting to get down to my level. Hope there aren’t too many feminists reading this (especially if they’re surfing the crimson tide themselves).

hehehe… EW!

Just a trifle terrifying that so many of our regulars can at a moments notice compose such authentic, effusive artistic commentary, with Pommy Bastard outstripping all contenders for the title of “head wanker”, for actually knowing enough Latin to write something that could in fact BE Latin.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy4:55 pm 08 Dec 08

Ahhhhh… menstruation humour. Now this site is starting to get down to my level. Hope there aren’t too many feminists reading this (especially if they’re surfing the crimson tide themselves).

You all have it wrong. It’s a powerful piece pointing out the tragedy of the commons that is ‘public’ owned land.

…Or astrojax’s menstrual blood interpretation. Either one is good.

wheeled their drunk mates back to O’Connor from Civic, launching the trolley off this bridge

presumably, launching said trolley sans drunken mate – or wait, did they allow for the storm to wash away the bodies? not that’s very menstrual – see my above post!

I have seen the artists at work, having wheeled their drunk mates back to O’Connor from Civic, launching the trolley off this bridge and into our ever-fertile cultural landscape.

i see it as more of a platonic form of existence, referencing the modern western world in its need for processed food through the jauntily placed carts, beneath the lateral vulvic gape the bridge forms with the vessel of fluid excess, symbolising the flushing of a city the way the female menstruates, covering the cart and imbuing it with the wasted, unused bloods of child labour who produce our food. the remnant earth is the planet decaying, leaving a detritus upon which men forage and destroy the planet.

powerful stuff.

Does an artwork such as this have a title?

Its amazing the artistic treasures the government buys for $100k these days.

You know what they say:

“What is one man’s trash is a Chief Minister’s artwork”

If it doesn’t, it should bear a plaque:

“…if one is skeptical of existence, that is in and of itself proof that he does exist.”

Renée Day Cart

i think it is not even real art, who okayed spending public money on this when it is obvious this is not even real art and we need new canturf for our sporting heroes >:/

Pommy bastard12:49 pm 08 Dec 08

While it lacks the innate surrealistic splendor of the Broken Clock on Yarra Glenn, it somehow provokes profoundly our Canberran existential dilemma, does it not?

“If a man exists in Canberra, and no body knows him, does he live?”

As a Canberran, I find the lack of a giant statue of Elkie lamentable.

This sculpture fails to resemble Stanhopes hair. Surely this is a mistake?

Needs more E.L.K.

I think that it clearly demonstrates our current financial crisis ie excessive overspending funded through debt has washed the economy down the drain.

Holden Caulfield12:10 pm 08 Dec 08

That stormwater drain often provides quality entertainment. Sadly, though, it has been quite sometime since a car has attempted to navigate its muddy waters.

I bet Queanbeyan can beat that easily. hmmm. Competition.

It’s actually a strident political statement on the over-arching impost of transport charges on the cost of living. I believe it was commissioned by the TWU.

Masterful use of negative space, an evocative and moving piece indeed.

An evocative exploration of the impact of consumerism on the urban environment.

Needs more spikes though.

Pommy bastard11:59 am 08 Dec 08

I like it. The subtle juxtaposition inter alia of the transient grocery carts, over arched by the alleged permanence of the bridge, with the flow of time represented in essence by the receding flood water, brings to mind an almost Gustave Courbet style attempt to represent reality not only tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis but also a posteriori.

Experto crede

Indeed.

I can’t imagine what came over me.

Wattle St isn’t in Ainslie, it’s along the border of Lyneham and O’Connor.

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