VERGE FESTIVAL 2011 - DEFECTIVE COLLECTIVE'S 99 STRINGS

Yakult For The City

Yakult for the City was a project combining grass roots activism with architectural intervention in Sydney, executed by myself (Jason Dibbs) and Harry Catterns during an intensive program of Unsolicited Architecture facilitated by Amsterdam-based architect and academic Rory Hyde at the University of Sydney.

The Life You Can Save

http://www.thelifeyoucansave.com/home

URBAN INTERVENTIONS - FEAR CONTROLLER

Whilst photographing sculptural interventions littered along Liverpool Street in the Spanish Quarter I found another interested individual doing the same. I told him of my project, of the varied interventions I'd located across Sydney, and their locations. He revealed he was a business analyst and that his interest in these subversive sculptural objects stemmed from an analogy he'd drawn between them and the business reporting and auditing systems he specialised in at work. He saw them both as operating in the background, discreetly providing feedback under the noses of the unsuspecting.

The 'Fear Controller' covered in street grime and tomato ketchup, signals sub-cultural discontent with consumer trends, technological obsession, and monopolistic media practices. An example of the latent becoming manifest.

 

URBAN INTERVENTIONS - STREET GALLERY

The Spanish Quarter in Sydney has been transformed into an open-air, public gallery space. The works on display are subtle and subversive, mounted on plinths formed by columns supporting the monorail track on Liverpool Street, often overlooked or ignored by passer's by. Finely detailed castings of remote controls, mobile phones and soft drink cans bearing messages overtly critical of a media and consumer based society. Is this the break down of communication? Is technology in a state of malfunction? Do these works mark the glitches in the system? Are they the imperfect 'seconds' cast from the production line?  As with most urban interventions the artists remain anonymous...

                                                  Liverpool Street Sydney

                                                                                                                                       

URBAN INTERVENTIONS - THE WOOLLAHRA MADONNA

This stencil on Queen Street is invested with the hopes of local residents for the salvation of a nearby post office. Stencil's are often political, seeking to critique the powers that be through the appropriation of familiar tropes and imagery.

The closure of local post offices is a present threat in many villages and suburbs across Sydney and is evidence of the now steady decline of the high street in favour of homogenised shopping centers and plazas, a trend that tragically misappropriates resources resulting in increased negative environmental impact, the centralisation of wealth, and the decay of the individual character and rich tapestry of urban and suburban streetscapes.

                                                             The Woollahra Madonna

Woollahra Village - Save the Post Office

Residents Rally Over Post Office Closures - Sydney Morning Herald

URBAN INTERVENTIONS - CONSPICUOUS CONCEALMENT PART 2

An elaborately knitted installation on Darling Street, Balmain. Does anyone know of any more of these works in Sydney?