Illuminating exhibition brings art to city streets
February 6, 2003
Citylights uses the medium of light boxes to capture public interest.
Photographer Andrew Macdonald (aka Andrew Mac) has always been drawn to the light. He has designed CD covers, photographic lampshades and et lighting and interiors for Route 66 and Misty Bar. His latest experiment with the medium is the permanent exhibition Citylights.
The series of light boxes, in Centre Place and Hosier Lane in the city, has been part of Melbourne's cityscape since 1995.
"People go past in a tram or a car really quick, they understand advertising so they pick it up straight away," Mac explains.
"That's how people live now, they only look at things really quickly. And illuminated light boxes are great ‑ the images look so juicy".
Citylights was set up in public to appeal to the wide audience.
"We'd all had experiences in artist‑run spaces, where not many people come to see (the works), Mac says "Not many people out of the art scene anyway."
The light box medium also means that Citylights is competing more with bus stop advertising than other public art, Mac says.
"Some (public art's) a bit patronizing; some of it's not sophisticated enough ... There's a fine line between being subtle and being totally indistinct from the landscape. I hope Citylights treads that line."
As the key. organiser for Citylights Mac's job involves going through thousands of exhibition proposals maintaining a web site, organising mixed media parties to launch Citylights events, and sneaking into the city at six in the morning on a scissor lift to change the light box images.
He is, he says, "flat chat" but Mac shows no signs of burning out. He's currently planning on agitating for artist's rights, to get a cap on leases in the heart of the city's art community.
"When we moved in here, it was half empty, dilapidated," he says of the Centre Place site, now chock‑full of slick cafes and fashion boutiques.
Many of the businesses moved in because of the energy the artists generated. Now the artists have become an endangered species, as rents rise too high for a creative life to sustain.
"Rock and roll doesn't really pay ‑ and there's not much pay in this either. Also, there's not enough money in it (City of Melbourne laneways grants) to encourage people to do really ambitious work, develop ideas and get paid, or to attract a higher calibre of artist," Mac says.
"Melbourne's being advertised as a city for the arts. We've got Federation Square, so that's a big commitment but, at the lower end of the scale, at the production end, there needs to be support, too."
Irresistibly drawn to the light, the Centre Place Citylights site has attracted layers of art, posters, graffiti. mosaic and stencils, all sitting pretty behind the bins anti the pigeons. The space is an example of the collaborative energy that created Citylights, and that gives Mac his kicks.
"You get to work with lots of really cool people, and you're constantly involved in their ideas. It's exciting seeing works come together, seeing artists develop. It expands my horizons every time I do it.'*
Citylights' next gig is on February 12, featuring international artists, Invader and Toast Girl on both sites.
Writer: Ili Bone