The time has finally come where I can share some more about this large project that I've been working on for almost a year. It's still a little early, but there are a few things happening this week that require the cat to be let out of the bag. While I intend to provide a bunch of details about the project, this is also going to be a bit more candid than most of the public facing details will be. It's a blog after all isn't it?
So the short and skinny of it is that I'm going to be putting on an exhibition during the month of August as part of the SALA 2019 festival. SALA stands for South Australian Living Arts, and is an art festival that's been going on for a long time. I've done a solo exhibition as part of the festival before, along with some pieces in a few group exhibitions. However this is going to be the biggest one I've ever done, for a number of reasons.
Ultimately, the exhibit will feature 64 canvas paintings of colourful faces, done in a kind of pop-art style. If you've read previous Sunday posts on the blog, then you've already seen some of the faces and what kind of aesthetic they follow. The important part though, is the quantity of paintings, instead of what each individual one represents.
This is because the 64 paintings represent the 52 women and 12 men who are lose their lives each year as a result of domestic violence in Australia. Having 64 diverse and multi-coloured portraits on a huge wall, will hopefully convey just how severe and overwhelming this statistic actually is. Thus, my intention with the exhibit is to contribute to raising awareness of shocking domestic violence statistics, as well as hopefully get the audience talking about domestic violence and how it touches their own lives as well.
There are other statistics that will presented along with the exhibit, some of which are even more shocking. Such as the nearly 4,000 individuals who are hospitalised every year thanks to domestic violence (that's about 10 every day). It's also estimated that domestic violence costs the Australian economy about $20 billion each year. Of course there are more stats to get stuck into, but those are the big ones that really make me stop and take notice.
Which is kind of why this whole exhibition got started in the first place, as I found myself wondering what I could do to help this appalling situation. Like many other people in society, I know I'm not a perpetrator, and I enthusiastically discourage this kind of behaviour in my daily life, but it doesn't seem like enough. That's when I realised that the best way for me to contribute to the discourse in my community was to tackle it with art. After all, it's the way that feels most natural for me to communicate, so I feel that it's the best way for me to do what I can to help.
However, while all of that sounds like a grand idea, it didn't seem to be enough. After all I'm not really a big name in the art world, so there aren't a lot of important people paying attention to what I do. I was already toying with the idea of raising money for charity through the exhibit, so I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone.
Fast forward to a meeting I had earlier this year with Catherine House, who are a crisis shelter for women experiencing homelessness in Adelaide. This is an organisation that serves women and children who are at the pointy end of domestic violence and have found themselves with nowhere else to go. Catherine House provides shelter and support for 52 women in Adelaide, every night of the year.
I went into that meeting with the hope that Catherine House would approve of my exhibition idea and accept what I was able to fundraise for them, but I ended up with so much more. Not only were they super enthusiastic about the project, but we have since had a few brain storming sessions around how we can reach a wider audience and get more eyes on the project (and ultimately: the issue).
So now with a well-recognised organisation on board, I have the pleasure of leaning on their reputation of get the word out more than I could on my own. It's much more compelling to say that I'm supporting Catherine House, than to say that I'm some random guy with some paintings. At this moment in time I've already reached about 100 times more people than I otherwise would be able to, and at the end of the day it's all about getting as many people talking as I can.
Of course, the exhibit will be for sale and there will be other items like an exhibition poster and some greeting cards for sale as well. All the proceeds from the exhibition or anything else selling will go straight to Catherine House, so I won't be making any money of the project either.
This is a calculated move, as I don't want to muck up the message by turning it into a profitable enterprise. That just seems a bit unsavoury to me, so I'd rather keep it simple. This project has always been a passion project of mine, so making money has never really entered into it. When it's all over, I'd like to be able to say that I managed to raise X amount of money for Catherine House, rather than see a big sum in my bank account.
Finally, even though the exhibition isn't going to open until August, it needed to be soft-launched last week. Mostly because in the coming weeks there will be an article about the exhibition in at least one publication, so there needed to be a public face for people to look at.
With that in mind - please go ahead and follow the exhibition on Facebook or Instagram via the links here:
http://www.facebook.com/64exhibition/
http://www.instagram.com/64exhibition/
There's also a donation page that goes directly to Catherine House and makes everything tax-deductible if that floats your boat:
https://challengeforchangech.everydayhero.com/au/64-exhibition
Honestly, I'm just putting those links there because my exhibition coordinator would have my neck if I didn't do something to actually promote it. Yes I have someone else doing all the logistical stuff for the exhibition, because if I didn't then I would probably never do any of it. I'd much rather stay focused on the concept and painting the pretty pictures, than having to worry about things like where all the hooks are coming from to hang the damn thing.
With that in mind, I think it's a good lesson to learn for everyone at some point in their life. That is, the ability to recognise not only our strengths, but our weaknesses. I'm well aware that none of this would have actually happened if I had to do everything myself. Even now, making flyers and promotional material is a real slog because I can't think of anything more boring to do. At least I don't have to go and talk to many people though - that's the joy of having someone else to do it for you.
I suppose that's about it for now. Hopefully that sheds some light on why this has been such a massive project to get going. All up I'm painting about 18 square meters of canvas, and using many… many litres of paint in the process. I still have a few more to finish off before the big day, but everything is on track for this to be a good event overall.
Right now there isn't a lot to do and I don't expect much to happen, but as we get closer to August I hope to see some more things happening. I know I said it earlier, but when it's all over I'd love to have a big old donation for Catherine House, and have had a bunch of conversations about the issue with a lot of different people.
Now I just need to focus on finishing off the final paintings and ensuring that everything is ready to rock and roll. With that in mind, this is probably going to be one of final art posts on the blog, as I mentioned last week. I'll probably do a final one next week, or the week after, but then it will be one hundred percent gaming focus.
Not only will this alleviate the need to make weekly posts, but it will help me write more about games and you'll end up seeing more gaming posts before too long. Eventually I'll rebrand everything and rename it all, but for now that's pretty much what you can expect.
Please check out the links above and have a look at the exhibition pages, I'd love to have as many people along for the ride as possible!