Is it a plane? Is it a bird? NO! It's a Melbourne Art Tram!

Very exciting news! I've been announced as having a winning design for one of the new Melbourne Art Trams. It's a program that was run years ago called Transporting Art. There's a great collection of photos of all the original trams here. Well now, Melbourne Festival has partnered with Yarra Trams to bring the program back under the new title of Melbourne Art Trams. To be honest, I didn't think I stood a chance. I thought my design might have been too simple but still, I was excited by it. Here's my mock up.

It is of course, just a representation of what it will look like. My intention is to photograph clouds from the air in as much glorious detail as possible and then create a fantasy cloudscape. Here's the little blurb I submitted with my mock up:

Lakorra is the Wathaurung word for sky. Once upon a time, Melbourne city would have been a flat and open expanse with a generous view of the sky above that would envelop you. You could have felt as if you were a small part of a larger world, a lovely feeling of insignificance and a reminder that it’s not all about self. Many Aboriginal people would have walked that land. From it’s traditional owners, the Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung, to visitors such as my ancestors the Wathaurung. Today, the city is densely populated with skyscrapers and billboards dominating the landscape. As a regular visitor to the city, I see that the sky is often obscured. In place of that, I’m bombarded with advertising and consumerism with a constant focus on the self.

Lakorra brings a bit of that sky and open expanse back into the streetscape. Conveying a sense of openness in a place that is now much more closed in, reminding everyone of a time before the city stood in it’s place and of a people who walked those streets long before they were streets. Lakorra allows you to ponder something deeper, more meaningful and greater than ourselves.

So yay! Really looking forward to seeing it on the tracks. It's head down, bum up, working away for a very swift delivery of the artwork so that they can be transporting passengers and art in October.

Other exciting news is that I have a solo show coming up at my favorite gallery - Nellie Castan Gallery. The show is called 'On The Edge Of The Unknown'. Here's a little sample image.

I will be including recent work from a show at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney called EH5452 as well as a whole bunch of new work.

The show opens towards the end of September and I'll post more details before then.

Also, I should give a quick nod to the exhibition that's on at the moment at Queensland Art Gallery called My Country: I Still Call Australia Home. I've got quite a few pieces in that show from photographs to installation and I believe the show as a whole is getting rave reviews (not that I'm claiming my work is anything to rave about). It's on until 7th October, so if you are up there, do pop in. I will be there on the Thursday, 3rd October for one of their talks. More information here.

That's probably enough to get your head spinning. Feel free to email me, leave a comment, shout at the screen or just walk away. Though if you see me in person, be kind and smile.