Walk in Art show a colourful conversation [1]
Thursday, July 30, 2015 - 10:41. Updated on Thursday, July 30, 2015 - 11:53.
A colourful work of art that was created in a random collaboration with over 200 people from a cross-section of the community will be opened to the public at Art Space, Hala Lavinia, Kolofo’ou on Tuesday, 4 August.
The art-work covers more than 50 square meters surface of three rooms, and includes the walk-ways which connect the two big rooms. There is a tunnel off the walk-way that one has to crawl through in the dark to get to the third room - called The Secret Room.
Art directors, Adam Douglass and Ebonie Fifita called their project a “Walk in art experience” or Vata’ulua in Tongan, - like walking into a cave that is covered with colourful paintings of different kinds of objects.
Adam said the project is his third where he gets hundreds of people to express their feelings by painting whatever comes to their minds.
He said that the process is like a conversation between people “giving people the opportunity to interact.” But like a conversation, it has to be sparked off, and this is done by painting “a couple of silhouettes in black and a number of dominant colours.” The people who join the ‘conversation’ would then paint whatever they want to paint, using colours of their choice.
“We are painting without a predefined outcome. Trying to explore new territory with paint and new form and colour. For me it was interesting to look at culture, this diverse people coming together with different stories/styles of working and this is like we are trying to explore the potential of the unknown and then try to bring something to life,” explained Adam.
The project started on 8 June with a call for an open art project, is not fully completed but it is amazing how the work appears in harmony, painted by over 200 people ranging in age from under one year old to over 80s.
Ebonie said that it is a form of story telling, “telling hundreds of stories.”
Adam, originally from Dunedin, New Zealand, is an art student at the University of Melbourne. His first project was in New Zealand and the second in Australia.
As a build up for the “Walk-in art experience” in April Adam in partnership with On the Spot ran an abstract painting workshop with brush dancing and painting to music.
The Walk-in art Experience is jointly funded by the University of Melbourne, APCO Paint and the Alliance Francaise de Tonga.