Garth Jankovic with Annandale Christian College & William Ross State High school – School Project
Strand Ephemera held from Friday 28th July until Sunday 6th August 2017
The opening for the Strand Ephemera, the North’s Sculpture Festival in tropical Townsville took place on Friday night 28th July, with a special area designated for VIP’s on the Strand headland near the Rock Pool. Entries came from all over Australia as well as local and international artists.
Lantis – Robert Crispe
The Exhibits started at the top of the Strand at the area known as the Rock Pool, a large lagoon filled by the sea. Regional schools took part in the art exhibition and some entries were themed on environmental issues relating to plastic waste in the ocean. The first entry by one of the local schools is the large colorful sign on the restaurant at the Rock Pool on the Strand.
The Crab – Joy Heylen – loved this crab!
A tropical Saturday dawned sunny and warm, the ocean an amazing blue, smooth and silky like the surface of a mill pond. I had my grand-daughter staying for the weekend so this was a good day to walk on the Strand and look at all the entries displayed along the 2.2km length of the promenade. Ocean views gave a perfect foil for the artworks.
Urban Blooms – India Collins
People, families with children, dogs on leashes, kids on skate boards, a constant stream of people all day long enjoying the tropical weather, the exhibits, and the beauty of the ocean foreshore on the Strand. Below, these are not sculptures but a free exercise hub getting a good workout by passerby’s.
Exercise Hub gets a workout on the Strand
Some 32 pieces of public art were on display for a ten day period with events, workshops,performances and guided tours. A free map available at sites along the Strand made for a delightful treasure hunt on the beach and headlands, and ensured one found all the exhibition pieces. Musicians played at afternoon performances at the amphitheater on the Strand during the Strand Ephemera.
Giant-Pacific-Octopus—Cameron Rushton
On the Strand each evening at dusk Dance North with the Urab Dancers from Poruma Island provided a breathtaking site-specific performance of dance and movement, unlike anything I have experienced before. The performance featured 180 fit balls buried in the sand giving a micro-trampoline effect as the dancers bounced, soared and ricochet across the stage in a brilliant display of dance and energy. The fit balls remained on site for the duration of the festival with dance performances each evening, and also provided a large-scale interactive installation for the public.
This edition of CLOUD was commissioned by Garage Museum of Contemporary Art for Art Experiment 2013 (Moscow)
The exhibits could all be viewed at night. The sculpture above called “Cloud” is an interactive sculpture created from 6,000 incandescent light bulbs, and proved very popular with the public both day and night.The work by Canadian artists Caitlind r.c. Brown & Wayne Garrett, are international artists working with artificial light, experimental spaces, and architectural debris.
Legacy of Lanterns – Pimlico State High School
Pimlico State High School made this colorful sculpture of an over-sized soldier crab from discarded plastics and beach findings. The ceramic spheres represent the sand spheres left by burrowing soldier crabs.The spheres carved and pierced to emit light as a series of beach lanterns.
Billy-Carts-Cruzin-The-Strand – Lance Seadon
The Strand Ephemera is a biennial event so if you’re reading this now you have missed out until 2019. Don’t miss out on our balmy tropical winter weather and the many other wonderful attractions Townsville has to offer.
Story Chairs…Story Chairs..What do you hear?- Fiona Quin
Look Again – John Nesirky
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