The view from the gallery door
And in the gallery the soundtracks from the looped videos play on. I have featured The Lunar Machine, Eye Candy, That Grey Place We Go and Sunk. With a total playtime of 15:50 and me sitting in the gallery around 6 hours a day that means I have listened over 100 times in the time the show has been on! And still another 5 days to go...fortunately Erik Satie, emptywhale and w.out are very listenable.
Response has generally been positive. Comments about the show being different from the usual spotted gums and coastal landscapes are frequent, as well as the topical papal succession and the issue of child abuse in the church. Most people laugh or are amused by the erotic/religious juxtapositions. A few walk out fairly quickly. One woman yesterday, without going into details made it known that she had personal experience of abuse in the church. I hope I do not trivialise the issue with my little surrealistic jokes. But the highlight so far has been the enthusiasm of Graham from the fish shop downstairs. Here is a man who has spent his whole life cleaning fish and who has little knowledge of art waxing lyrically that it is the best thing he has ever seen and insisting on bringing the other staff up to see it. Makes it all worthwhile...