Seduction, Sustainability and the Vogelkop Bowerbird
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Art & About Sydney 2013 Major Projects Expression of Interest Seduction, Sustainability and the Vogelkop Bowerbird A Vogelkop Bowerbird nest in Papua New Guinea. David Attenborough describes the Vogelkop Bowerbird as the master builder amongst bower birds. Artist / project conceiver: Mathieu Gallois Project Architects: Zana Wright & Langzi Chiu Mentor architect / sustainability Consultant: Caroline Pidcock Social Media and visual communications: David Kaldor TROBEC - CHIU Digital fabricator: Gabriele Ulacco (ARMA) 00 Contents 01 Registration of Interest Form 03 02 Artists impression of proposed installation/project 04 03 Artwork statement 05 04 Project methodology 06 - 07 05 Draft budget for installation execution 08 06 Additional reference information 09 07 Team bio’s & CV’s Mathieu Gallois (Artist) 10 - 11 Caroline Pidcock 12 - 13 Zana Wright 14 - 15 Langzi Chiu 16 - 17 David Kaldor 18 Gabriele Ulacco 19 Art & About 2013 | Page 3 01 Registration of Interest Form PART 1 REGISTRATION OF INTEREST I/We having read, understood and fully informed myself/ourselves of the contents, requirements and obligations of the expression of interest, submit this expression of interest for the performance by myself/ourselves of Seduction, Sustainability and the Vogelkop Bowerbird [insert details of the project] for the Council of the City of Sydney. Name of Respondent: Mathieu Gallois Subsidiary Company (if applicable): Gallois Fine Arts Address of Respondent: Unit 205 / 271 Cleveland Street Redfern, 2016 Postal Address: As above Refer enquiries to: (Full Name) Mathieu Gallois Phone Number: 0415 326 716 Email: [email protected] Legal Entity (if applicable) ABN ACN: 80 739 385 475 Signature and Date Official Position Held: Artist, Director Signature of Witness Address of Witness Art & About 2013 | Page 3 02/03 Artists impression / Artwork Statement Seduction, Sustainability and the Vogelkop Bowerbird Artwork statement: The following You Tube clip is the conceptual premise of our proposal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GPbWJPsBPdA#! (If you have trouble with this link, please Google search: David Attenborough - Animal behavior of the Australian bowerbird - BBC wildlife) We admire and seek to celebrate the brave heart and values of South-East Asia’s Vogelkop Bowerbird who through, integrity, hard work, sound environmental design principles (creative and adaptive reuse of found objects), excellence in design and con- struction, and of course to die for romanticism; creates a space for love to express itself and be found. Based on the example of the Vogelkop Bowerbird, we propose to create a ‘bower’ in Sydney that acts as a symbolic interface for love and sustainability in the city (please note: the bower You Tube clip will accessible through QR code on site and on our web side). Our bower will be created out of 80% recycled materials. We seek to emphasise the imaginative and creative reuse and reinter- pretation of recycled materials in our design. We do not want to create a structure that can easily be categorised as ‘other’, that looks like ‘junk’ or ‘hippy’ architecture. Rather we seek to demonstrate that recycled materials can be used to create beautiful, mainstream, functional and sustainable structures. Our bower will mimic the Vogelkop Bowerbird’s endearing collection and display of materials that seek to impress a mate. Some of the non functional collections we will display include: a) Over 3000 incandescent globes (leading up the launch our group will petition Sydney siders to relinquish their homes remaining incandescent globes). b) Over 5000 disposable plastic water bottles – (leading up to the launch our group will petition large Sydney busi ness to collect disposable plastic water bottles from their offices). Clearly each of these materials seeks to create awareness about unsustainable practices. Many homes in Sydney still have in- candescent globes which are very inefficient. People in Sydney consume huge amounts of bottled water which has a significant environmental footprint (transport and refrigeration); when tap water is freely available and of a very high standard. Our bower will be created from a radically modified shipping container, 250 glass front loading dishwasher ‘bowls’, 3000 dispos- able plastic bottles, and bundles of bush brush branches. To build on the Vogelkop Bowerbird’s example, our bower site will have a small solar panel array (and batteries) and a ‘public’ compost toilet for use by visitors. Our guiding design and construction principles are: 1) Creative reuse and reinterpretation of materials (80% of the materials will be recycled) 2) The Bower will comply with BCA regulations (for example it will be accessible to people with disabilities). 3) We will make the ‘build’ adaptable for re use in another context Rationale: How do we bring about the necessary massive behavioral social change for a sustainable future? Bruce Mau, design guru and environmental philosopher, and key note speaker at Sydney’s 2010 Hot House symposium http://hothouselaunch.unsw.edu. au/ (at which team member Mathieu Gallois presented his Reincarnated McMansion project) argued that artists, designers and creative people have to imagine and create highly seductive, beautiful and compelling sustainable alternatives to our current ex- pedient economies. By combining seduction within a compelling sustainable narrative of adaptive reuse, the Vogelkop Bowerbird bower encapsulates Mau’s ideas. In turn, through our own integrity, hard work, sound environmental design principles, excellence in design and construction, and of course to die for romanticism; we seek to reaffirm the shared place of humans within a wider ecology, the lessons we can learn through biomimicry and the role of beauty in the creation of compelling sustainable narratives. Art & About 2013 | Page 5 04 Project Methodologies - Towards Zero Waste Design methodologies of the bower We seek to reuse and repurpose 200 - 300 front loader clothes washing glass bowls into a small functional dwelling for our bowers to inhabit (these bowls are readily available at white good recycling centres in large numbers). This modern looking and high tech ‘nest’ will be shaded and integrated into the landscape by a large sculptural pavilion made from steel and bun- dles of brush wood (available for purchase at most garden nurseries). Digital fabricator and designer Gabriele Ulacco will assist the designing of the bower’s two main parts - the clothes washing bowl dwelling and the pavilion. Gabrille will use powerful computer aided drawing (CAD) programs that can, design, model and engineer complex forms with relative ease. Bundles of brush wood that Front loader clothes wash- A glass hexagon dome Draft sketch of a non sy- will be used to create sculp- ing glass bowls metrical dome (aslo refered tural pavillion that shades the to as a ‘blob’ by architects bower conceived by team memeber Gabriele Ulacco Our design proposal for the bower is focused on a sound methodology that we are confident will determine the most appropriate re-purpurusing of the clothes washing bowls and design of the bower. Building code of Australia regulations will govern our process and engineers will be employed to engineer any structural com- pents of the bower. Our group has extensive building experience and access to major workshops in Sydney (COFA art school and Sydney University architecture Technology workshops). The bower will be built over an eight-week building program at Mathieu Gallois Redfern studios. Biomimicry: Sustainable Innovation Inspired by Nature 1. 4. 2. 3. A shipping container is reduced to a three walled box, a A deck and sculptural pavillion are added to the bower dwelling. The lat- room is created in the space and a non symmetrical dome ter will shaded the bower and intergrates the dwelling into the made from reclaimed steel and front loader glass bowls will garden setting. forms the new bower. The social media interface of the work and selection of 30 bower quests: Social media will play an important role in selecting ‘bowers’. This component of the project will be developed by team member and social media expect David Kaldor. Some initial ideas are for the social media component of the project to be interactive. This could involve the potential ‘bower’ ‘winning’ a night at the bower by expressing their creativity or proving their environmental credentials in a romantic way. The bower as a Private and public work of art: Private: Over the 1-month exhibition period, 30 lucky couples will get to occupy the bower between 6pm and 10 am in its private manifestation. Leading up to the launch of Art and About, couples will be encouraged to visit the project’s web site and submit a 100 word statement that explains why they should be selected to occupy the bower. Our web site will encourage proposals that go beyond youthful lust, to include an envirmnetal agenda and couples that have compelling love stories, or are dealing with life changing circumstances or illnesses (like cancer). Public: As a public work of art, between 10.30am and 5.30pm, the general public will be able to visit the site of the bower (but not enter the bower room). The members of our team will take turns in supervising the work in its public manifestation, we will give a daily talk between 4 – 4.30 explaining the works premises. Precedent artworks that have had overnight quests: Tatzu Nishi’s Liverpool Biennale work Villa Victoria is an excellent precedent for our proposed work. This work consisted of a room built around the statue of Queen Victoria where the art going public could register to spend the night with Queen Victoria (Nishi created a similar work in-front of the AGNSW through John Kaldor Projects in 2009, this incarnation did not include sleep overs). Bennalong point Observatory Hill Base of the south side of Sydney harbour bridge Locations: Our preferred site is at the north end of Bennalong point next to Tarpeian Way between the Opera House and the Government House.