STASH

I found a bag full of one pound notes when the builders replaced an old window in my house in St Kilda. The money must have been there for a long time because Australia converted to decimal currency on 14th February 1966. I can still sing the jingle that was used at the time of the conversion. The change symbolised the move into another era, a shift from the country’s colonial past and from a kid’s point of view, dollars were better because that was like America.

I will assemble 3 works that use fabric from an old mattress and some of notes found in the window cavity. Each work will have a story about a person who slept in these locations and their reason for stashing the money. The stories will be available on my blog: ilovestkilda.com

I have selected three locations for this work:

1. O’Donnell Garden next to Luna Park where members of the Australia’s Indigenous community have slept out.

2. By the beach in …… gardens where people with mental illnesses have slept out.

3. Linden Gallery – an old mansion that became a boarding house for old men until it was converted into an art gallery by the city council in the early 80’s.

Stash is about memory and changes in fortune with multiple narratives that are suggested by the sites, the material, the one pound notes and the value of the art object.
The work reverses the convention that art is exchanged for money. In this case the artist gives away the money that happens to be art.

About the place: St Kilda is a rapidly gentrifying seaside suburb in Melbourne Australia. It has always been a place of extreme wealth and extreme poverty. After the 2nd world war it all changed and St Kilda became the sleaze centre of Melbourne notorious for wild living, junkies and prostitutes. All the rich people moved out and the grand mansions became flats and boarding houses. Now the mansions are becoming apartments, backpacker lodges and art galleries and the ‘maddies', the druggies, the poor people and the artists are being forced out by increasing rents.

I am a visual artist and writer. I work with found objects and found stories.