Even though he is the creator of the alarmingly alien-looking figure in our picture, artist Peter Kongmalavong insists, "We don't know who this person is. But we do know he's come to take over Canberra. To ambush Canberra."
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Back to the silver-costumed invader in a moment but first the news that he (it?), his ensemble and his accoutrements come within the embrace of the four-day Design Canberra festivalFlagging Our Future
You will all remember how the city was flag-festooned in 2013. Now it comes to pass that instead of being wastefully thrown away, some of 2013's flags have been thrown on the mercy of young Canberra artists. The artists belong to the ANU's School of Art Textiles Department, to UC's Faculty of Arts and Design Industrial Design Course and the CIT's Department of Fashion Design.
All of the works have their unorthodoxies but Kongmalavong's Yours, mine series is the most unorthodox of all. Talking to us on Monday he said that he'd noticed that his co-exhibitors have "played it a little safe" and have used the flags to make jewellery and other objects. But he has gone off at quite an artist's tangent.
And so almost the only flag-based item in his Yours, mine creation is the black and tangerine rope made from the ubiquitous black and tangerine 2013 flags.
"I looked Throughout the photographic series, there is a narrative of each [alien-looking] soldier ambushing Canberra with a flag to mark their territory.
Perhaps the idea of flags-into-jewellery is a little more "safe" than what he has done but all of the jewellery in the show is, too, unorthodox and novel.
So for example while some of us (including this columnist) sport on our lapels the sober bling of that 2013 brooch made as a tiny silhouette of the ACT's shape (as seen from outer space – perhaps from the very craft bearing Kongmalavong's invaders) Nadina Geary has crafted Network. Hard to describe, it is a big, complex necklace, the wearer of which will stand out even in, say, the teeming, bling-boasting, socialite-infested foyer of a Canberra theatre on an opening night.
She muses that "My intent was to breathe new life into one of the many flags by metamorphosing it into a one-off item of beauty to be worn with pride by a Canberran. Network is a wearable representation of the Canberra community. Suspended from the neck, the overall shape of the piece forms the ACT outline [like our little brooches, but 100 times bigger]. Placement of beads with blue like stitching within this structure alludes to the [ACT] rivers that feed Lake Burley Griffin. Closer inspection reveals that like the individuals who make up Canberra, each handmade bead is unique. Being cut from one flag and linked by copper wire, the beads form a whole – much like our often maligned city and diverse community."
There is only one, big Network but artists were invited, if the idea grabbed them, to make many smaller items that in some way gave the flags back to the community. And Tundi Rose-Hammond's response has been to make 100 Badges For 100 Years of Canberra. They're a fetching black and yellow (made from flag material) and each is numbered so that in the artist's words "people pick a number and take away their own souvenir piece of the flag, with all its associations and embedded meaning.
"In this way the flags go back to the community."
This brooch and badge-wearing columnist will kill, or at least jostle, to get one of those. And some jostling may be necessary because Flagging Our Future is only on so briefly (opened by the Minister for the Arts this Wednesday, it closes on Sunday afternoon) that, as at church fete book fairs, competition for scarce merchandise may be hatchet-faced and bruising.
Flagging Our Future, a Design Canberra Festival event, is at the former JB Hi-Fi store in Canberra CBD, opposite King O'Malley's Pub. For opening hours go to designcanberrafestival.com.au
And talking of taking over Canberra (as we were in our opening paragraphs), reports continue to come in of Canberrans hearing the far-carrying calls of their local Koels, home from New Guinea now, and taking over.
And now another life-enriching bush sound is being brought to us. A Kambah reader reports, "After reading your articles about people of the ACT reacting to the call of the Koel, they may be interested to hear of the call of our not-so-welcome visitor for the last month, the Peron's Tree Frog, aka the Maniacal Cackle Frog.
"They start their calls at dusk and continue every few minutes throughout the night, not a great deal of fun when they are right outside the bedroom window. We do wonder if other people have the pleasure of visits to their gardens of these vociferous little beasts."
