bi la ter al p e te r sha m LUCAS IHLEIN APRIL 4 – MAY 31 2006 just $5.00 ($4.00 for locals) the ’sham FAQs What is Bilateral Petersham? It’s an art project. For two months (April/May 2006) I will be undertaking an artist- in-residence in Petersham, a suburb of Sydney, Australia. Don’t you already live in Petersham? You mean you’re doing an artist-in-residence in your own suburb? Yep. I’ve lived here for nearly two years. I wanted to be artist-in-residence in my own place, rather than going away somewhere exotic. Is it true you won’t leave Petersham for the whole two months? Yeah that’s right. I am restricting myself to stay within the suburb boundaries (as drawn up by Marrickville Council). Hey Lucas, I’m having a party/screening/exhibition/wedding…but it’s in Surry Hills/Newtown/Vaucluse/Stanmore. Can’t you make an exception just this once? Nope. Sorry.* Can I come and visit you? Sure thing! Where exactly are the borders of Petersham? Good question. See the map on the back page... O—K. Umm, so tell me again…WHY are you doing this? Read “beginning bilateral petersham” - it might shed some light... Hey, I know something/someone amazing about/in Petersham. How can I let you know about it? I would LOVE to hear from you. Email me on [email protected] or leave a comment in the blog. Better still, get in touch and we’ll meet up and talk about it / visit it / eat it. Is someone funding you to stay at home for two months? How can I get in on that?? Yep, Marrickville Council is funding it with their artist grants. Cool eh? Contact the council for more info. (see http://www.marrickville.nsw.gov.au ) *(Ahem. In hindsight, this was a little hasty. A few border transgressions did take place during the project. Read about them inside...) w ww. t h e s h a m . i n f o 1 bi la ter al p e te r sha m Acknowledgement of Country: Petersham is situated within the traditional lands of the Cadigal Wangal people. All boundaries and borders discussed in this blog are the recent fabrications of the European invaders of this country. For more info see the Cadigal Wangal website: http://www.cadigalwangal.com.au/ The PETERSHAM banner used on the front of this document is appropriated from a 1902 poster for the sale of land on the Blair Athol Estate (roughly the current location of the bowling club. Thanks to Chrys in the archives, where the poster is housed). Big big thanks to Bec the flatmate, Luciana from next door, Rachelle and Wolfie, Anna BB from the council, Vanessa, Lisa del Nord, Daniel B, Vince, Chrys, Lester, Fiona, Jasmin, Ruben, Drazic, Anthony from the bottlo, Sam the Mayor himself, Mum, Dad, and the dozens of locals and ring-ins who feature in these pages, not to mention all you loyal commenters and blog lurkers, and those of you I'm still yet to meet. May we all rendezvous in the not-too-distant future for rollerskating at the Majestic. Technical note: these pages are a printed out version of a blog. A blog is a “web-log” ie an internet diary. Peppered throughout the text are underlined words which might not mean much to you – they are “hyperlinks” - and if you were online, you'd be able to click 'em to go to another web page. They make your reading experience that much richer. You may wish to look up the blog www.thesham.info from time to time to chase up these links. There's a bundle of photos online linked to the blog too. And if you're online, you can leave comments relating to any of the entries you're reading. This hard-copy version of the blog is printed for your convenience. Your eyes will go square if you try and read the whole thing on the screen. However, undoubtedly more content will be generated after you receive your printout. Feel free to print out pages from your own computer and add them to your ever- growing 'sham folder. To print, choose a particular post, then click “file”- “print” (you may need to switch off background colours). Sort of a disclaimer: this document is undoubtedly riddled with errors. The experiences recorded herein are the product of the fallible mind of Lucas Ihlein, and often do not reflect objective reality. Apologies to those who feel they've been inaccurately represented. Please get in touch, [email protected], and we'll try and sort it out eh. Alternatively, leave a comment on the blog. Final note: although this project is “officially” finished at the end of May 2006, I am continuing to live in Petersham. Please get in touch and we'll keep the whole shebang running (albeit less intensively) indefinitely. The blog will remain online and active. All the best, Lucas Ihlein. This project was generously and somewhat unexpectedly supported by the Marrickville Council Art Grant Scheme. w ww. t h e s h a m . i n f o 2 bi la ter al p e te r sha m beginning bilateral petersham The clock ticked round to midnight and I sat in the kitchen watching it. When all the hands pointed to twelve, I took two photos. Without the flash, the clock looked yellow and blurry. Flash-frozen, on the other hand, it looked like it had been caught in the act. Embarrassed at having been sprung doing something vaguely shameful but essentially harmless. That’s how I brought in the third of April. The beginning of “Bilateral Petersham,” aka “my Petersham project,” aka “The Petersham Lockdown.” There was no tangible difference between one moment, where I was not “on the job,” and the next, when the “project” had officially begun. No fanfare, no ribbon cutting, no glass of champagne. I went to bed and read a bit and then fell asleep. For two months (well, a bit less actually) I will not leave the suburb borders of the mighty Petersham. Petersham is a smallish neighborhood in the “inner-west” of Sydney. It runs between Parramatta Road (at the north end) and Addison Road (at the south end), and is surrounded by such glamorous destinations as Leichhardt (north), Lewisham (west), Marrickville (south), and Stanmore (east). And I will remain entirely within it until the end of May, as (self-appointed) artist-in-residence of Petersham. Why am I doing this? It’s a bit of a long story, but here’s the haiku version. In April-May last year, I was artist-in-residence in Kellerberrin, a tiny town in the West Australian wheatbelt. 1000 residents, wheat and sheep, declining population, etcetera. For the two months I was there, I kept a blog each morning, about who I met, what we talked about - a document of mutual curiosity between a city dweller and his rural hosts. That blog is here: http://www.kellerberrin.com (email me if you’d like a hard copy). My question on returning to Sydney was: “how would this exact same process work in my own neighborhood”? So here I am. The Kellerberrin project came out of my interest in developing a “gardening” approach to making art – how, I wondered, could I do a little bit every day, not too fatiguing, and at the end of a period, the work would be done? No more busting a gut trying to reach a deadline, racing around like a madman to produce an explosive, climactic event, and then mopping up the fallout afterwards. The daily blog writing seemed to do the trick. I was getting towards some sort of integration between art and life, even if I had to disappear to a place three hours drive from Perth to do it. But why should I have to do that? To go somewhere exotic – to BE someone exotic to the locals, in order to achieve this integration? Could this be done at home? Ahem. Perhaps this is a project doomed to failure. A city suburb is not a small country town, where folks stop and chat outside the chemist for twenty minutes before getting on with their day. I’ve been living in Petersham nearly two years now, and I know only a few of my nearest neighbours. I nod and smile at the folks in the deli, but they don’t know that my flatmate and me grew a great crop of tomatoes this year; that I had some art in an exhibition which opened last Saturday; that this last year I’ve been a gibbering emotional mess; that I’m studying for my PhD. They don’t even know that I can’t indulge in the Portuguese charcoal grilled chicken for which our main street is renowned. In the city, we somehow stay strangers for a very long time. Is this an artificial attempt to make friends with my neighbours? Why do I need to use “art” as an excuse to meet people? Am I exploiting my fellow citizens for some sort of pseudo-ethnographic study (which, by the way, will have none of the rigor or tangible research outcomes as that discipline)? Is this just a Big Brother style “reality show” – a document of the process of slowly going nuts through self-deprivation, so you all (dear readers) can get yer voyeuristic kicks? w ww. t h e s h a m . i n f o 3 bi la ter al p e te r sha m I hate to say it, but: “only time will tell.” This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 4th, 2006 at 11:41 am and is filed under 'sham dailies.