Activate 2750

2009-04-30T18:40:00.000-07:00

All photography by Alex Kershaw. © the artist Ash Keating.

ACTIVATE 2750 - explanation of the project by artist Ash Keating

2009-04-30T18:37:00.001-07:00

In October 2008 I was contacted by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney to construct an application for a C3West contemporary art project, in partnership with SITA – Environmental Solutions.

The city of Penrith has a postcode of 2750 and is situated fifty kilometres west of Sydney in NSW. In November 2008 I visited this area on several occasions to visually map the area and gain an understanding of who and what 2750 represents.

Not dissimilar to many large Australian suburban cities, Penrith is a consumption Mecca swamped by superstore complexes and an enormous shopping plaza. The centre of the city is marked by the Penrith City council, the Joan Sutherland Performing Arts centre and Westfield shopping centre.

I visualised and proposed a project, that would activate a number of key public spaces and areas of consumption within Penrith city. It would involve me physically intercepting and manipulating material waste destined for burial at the SITA landfill in Kemps Creek.

Activate 2750 would be the culmination of a series of waste interventions I had actioned over the course of a year starting with 2020? in May 08 (http://2020question.blogspot.com), followed by Label Land of August 08 (http://label-land.blogspot.com)

2020?, involved working within a waste transfer station to temporarily intercept commercial and industrial waste from being compacted into landfill. The waste was collected and transported to the project site at the Meat Market in North Melbourne. The waste material was then condensed into a mass installation, with theatrical lighting and an emanating sound scape.

Label Land was a project undertaken whilst on a 3 month Asialink residency in Seoul, Korea. I worked with ten first year art students intercepting fabric label waste and manipulating it into costumes which we later paraded around Seoul in a series of public actions.

My proposal was accepted in December 08, and a return visit to Sydney was arranged for the first week of 2009 to start planning the various components of 2750. With preparations in place to begin on February 8th, my loving mother, friend and mentor, Pam Keating, tragically died in a car accident on January 26th.

Still in complete shock, I made arrangements to go through with the project that in essence I had worked towards collaboratively with her since 2004. We had talked together about how this was my most ambitious project to date and how it could possibly be my final project that would focus on issues of waste and consumption. It was important to both of us.

Since 2002, I worked for my mothers waste audit and Consultancy Company. Annually, I worked Australia wide, as a visual auditor assessing the amount of commercial and industrial waste sent to landfill. This experience opened my eyes to the disregard that industry in general have for sustainability, leading me to develop the 2020? project.

Following the completion of 2020? I undertook what would be my final audits for the company at various landfills and transfer stations in Sydney’s west. One particular transfer station run by SITA in Wetherill Park began daily operations at 4am. This hour of the morning saw numerous piles of dumped waste accumulated during the graveyard shift, of potential reusable and recyclable resources – daily. It was apparent that this was a perfect time and place to intercept materials.

Starting on February 10th 2009, my project assistant Rus Kitchin and I would wake at 3am daily for 2 weeks, and commute from St Mary’s to Wetherill Park to see what waste lay waiting for our interception. We salvaged 52 square metres of waste material and tightly packed it into 3 bulk bins for a 3am delivery to the 2750 project site on Thursday 26th of February.

Dumping a pile of waste in a city centre sounds straightforward, however various members of council, people in business, local artists and students along with safety requirements had to be addressed. Every day after returning from salvaging waste we would work through the day co-ordinating these various and ever-changing components.

Part way through the project we were made aware the pile would require containment by a fence for safety reasons. We decided to work with it by placing a second fence within it creating a rat run. This idea helped in creating an apocalyptic zoological habitat.

Shopping trolleys were manipulated into excentric movable waste machines by the local artists and art students who were all encouraged to be involved with pushing them, in a series of performative processions.

Over the course of four days the fabric cloaked artists and their overflowing trolleys began a journey to the waste installation, starting at the local superstore centres and proceeding down the city’s main highway. They moved in unison up along the main shopping strip then entered and traversed through the Westfield plaza. The procession then approached the spot-lite installation, where the colourful figures moved around and finally came to rest within their waste habitat.

Throughout this climactic performance an intense audio sound scape was projected by Vincent O’Connor, who had manipulated recorded sounds from the Wetherill Park transfer station.

A separate component of the Activate 2750 project was two live dance performances, involving Darrio Phillips and 3 of his students of ‘Krump’. They shook and flung their bodies and fabric waste costumes around and brought a key dynamic shift to the overall work.

Removing the waste installation took place in the early hours of the morning after the final performance. Three 30 metre bulk bins were placed down next to the pile and filled up in around 4 hours. The waste was delivered back to its original point of interception, at the Wetherill Park transfer station. The process of the movement of the waste material was documented right through to its compaction for the final journey to landfill.

Activate 2750 was always intended as glitches in existing systems of production and consumption. The installation highlighted the disposal of commercial and industrial waste, by redirecting it into the public realm. Through the procession performances, Activate 2750 presented an obscure reflection on the way in which we humans live our lives consuming.

WASTE TRANSFER STATION - 4-7am Wednesday 18th February

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TRANSFORMERS INTERCEPTING WASTE MATERIAL - 4-7am Friday 20th February

2009-04-30T17:22:00.000-07:00

FIRST BULK BIN DELIVERY - 3-5am Thursday 26th February

2009-04-30T17:20:00.000-07:00

SECOND AND THIRD BULK BIN DELIVERIES - 6-9am Thursday 26th February

2009-04-30T17:17:00.000-07:00

VIEWPOINTS OF FINAL INSTALLATION - Tuesday 3rd March

2009-04-30T17:15:00.000-07:00

MULGOA ROAD PROCESSION - 4-6pm Tuesday 3rd March

2009-04-30T17:02:00.000-07:00

HIGH STREET PROCESSION - 4-5pm Wednesday 4th March

2009-04-30T16:58:00.000-07:00

WESTFIELD PLAZA PROCESSION - 4-6pm Thursday 5th March

2009-04-30T16:54:00.000-07:00

FINAL PROCESSION TO THE INSTALLATION - 7:15-7:40PM Friday 6th March

2009-04-30T16:50:00.000-07:00

DISASSEMBLING THE INSTALLATION INTO BULK BINS FOR REMOVAL - 1-4am Saturday 7th March

2009-04-30T16:32:00.000-07:00

RETURNING THE PROJECT WASTE TO THE TRANSFER STATION - 1-6am Saturday 7th March

2009-04-30T16:26:00.000-07:00

PROJECT CREDITS

2009-02-26T19:29:00.000-08:00

Activate 2750
A C3West project by Ash Keating

On site at Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre, Penrith
26 February - 6 March, 2009

MCA, C3West Project Coordinator-
Abigail Moncrieff

Activate 2750 Project Assistant-
Rus Kitchin

Photography and Video -
Alex Kershaw, assisted by Lydia

Sound artist, live and recorded sound –
Vincent O’Connor

Video Editor and sound post production –
Brie Trenerry

PROCESSION PERFORMERS –
Ash Keating
Rus Kitchin
Liam Benson
Naomi Oliver
Ryan Hickey
Byron MacKenzie
Nathan Marsh
Claire Lang
James Dalton
Vienna Parreno
Carl Miranda
Tom Groves
Gabrielle Bates
Lucy Wang
Gianni Wise
Manize Abedin

KRUMP DANCERS -
Darrio aka Manifest
Kon aka J.Manifest
Yasim aka J.Krucial
Omar aka Scrappy

TRANSFORMERS -
Ash Keating
Rus Kitchin

COSTUME MAKERS AND SHOPPING TROLLEY CONSTRUCTION -
Ash Keating
Rus Kitchin
Emily Nolan
Liam Benson
Naomi Oliver
Carl Miranda
Ana Carter
Ryan Hickey
Byron MacKenzie
Nathan Marsh
Lucy Wang
Bethany Cannon
Carl Miranda
Claire Lang

WASTE DELIVERY AND ASSEMBLAGE -
Ash Keating
Rus Kitchin
David Keating
Keith Fryer
Site Group

WASTE DISMANTLE AND PICK UP -
Ash Keating
Rus Kitchin
David Keating
Emily Nolan
Lisa Shadforth
Keith Fryer
Site Group
John Warren

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -
All at Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre, including John Kirkman, Shand Smith and Tina Madjic.
Karen Harris, Erich Weller and Keith Fryer at Penrith City Council.
Judith Blackall, Megan Robson and Elizabeth Ann McGregor at the MCA.
Mike Ritchie, Jo Wall, Bertrand Lepicier and Emmanuel Vivant at SITA Environmental Solutions and all who have facilitated the work.

Activate 2750 is supported by SITA Environmental Solutions and has been organised as part of the C3West cultural partnership, between the Museum of Contemporary Art, Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest, Casula Powerhouse, Campbelltown Arts Centre and the University of Western Sydney, which brings together community, culture and commerce to create art projects in Western Sydney.
C3West is supported by the NSW Government through ARTS NSW and by the Australia Council, the Australian Government’s arts funding and advisory body, through its Community Partnership Section.

About the MCA:
The Museum of Contemporary Art is Australia’s only museum dedicated to collecting and exhibiting the work of contemporary artists. Located on Sydney’s iconic Circular Quay in a striking architectural building, the MCA presents a dynamic program of exhibitions and events that explores the latest international and Australian contemporary art. Visitors can engage with artists and their ideas through a diverse range of events, including artist talks, live performances, lectures, workshops and youth programs. The internationally respected and locally loved institution is an intrinsic part of Australia’s cultural fabric and in 2007 and 2008 was voted Sydney’s favourite museum or gallery by local residents. www.mca.com.au

About Ash Keating:
Ash Keating (b. 1980) is a Melbourne based visual artist who predominantly integrates ecological issues into a hybrid art practice. Keating is a recipient of a 2008 Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces Studio Residency and a 2008 Asialink Visual Arts Residency. Past projects include: Label Land, Seoul, Korea (2008), 2020?, Next Wave, Melbourne (2008); Publicity, Artspace, Sydney and; and CASCA, Adelaide (2007) Parched, Melbourne (2007); Pascua Lama, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Santiago, Chile (2006).

About SITA Environmental Solutions:
SITA Environmental Solutions (SITA) is one of Australia's leading recycling and waste management companies. Operating in all mainland States and the ACT its integrated ‘cradle to grave’ solutions are cost effective, improve recycling and guarantee excellent service. SITA’s established services include commercial and industrial collection; resource recovery; municipal waste collection and recycling; organic waste composting; waste assessments; autoclaving; product destruction; engineered landfill operations and transfer facilities. Through the provision of Alternative Waste Treatment technologies SITA can assist councils, and businesses, reduce waste to landfill and create practical solutions for climate change sustainability. www.sita.com.au