As regular readers of this blog would know I use art openings not only to keep up-to-date with new creative work, I also like going to art openings to see what people are wearing. Recently I have been noticing the return of the extreme tight jean, well extremely tight jean leg anyway; it seems the crotch may still ride low 90s style if you like them like that. For those of you who may not be aware I am a tragically old man and I must say its nice to see the tight legged jean back in style. Back in the early 80s I became something of a dab hand at tapering the legs of my jeans on my mothers trusty Husqvana sewing machine and, short of actually asking someone I suspect these “New” tapered leg jeans are available off-the-shelf and probably in stretch denim which was yet to be invented back in my day... No doubt stretch denim makes the logistically difficult task of getting the jeans on and off a much more simple affair.
Whilst checking out Marks charming art and art patrons jeans and shoes at China Heights we “discovered” Sneaker Freaker was having a “Cool” new product launch at another favorite gallery of ours, Palmer Projects just a little way down the hill.
Its an interesting proposition launching a product at a hip indi gallery space. Usually the art is real art and the “promotion” is just the beer. Sadly this was not the case down the hill at Palmer Projects although the good people at Becks seem to have provided quite a few cases of beer to help make the night a big success...
On our arrival at the Sneaker Freaker launch we were confronted with just four large “Portraits” of “Cool” people wearing ear-bud headphones & some clear display cases with, yes you guessed it, ear-bud headphones inside.
Now apart from the fact that I am a bit miffed that no-one asked me to shoot the portraits for a very reasonable advertising day rate; there is some pretty serious competition in the people-wearing-ear-bud-headphone world of advertising and photography. Also am not sure that presenting audio equipment “Under Glass” like it was precious artwork or some kind of jewelry is a particularly enlightened idea. Lets face it, even if like me you might just be turning up for a few free drinks and a bit of social intercourse; even the type of "Style Influencer" that this sort of launch is meant to impress is hardly going to be "influenced" by a few pack shots on the wall, no art and no Artist!
So I got to thinking about art and sound & I thought that if I wanted to have a cool launch of some headphones at an art gallery, it just might be a good idea to get some sound artists involved with the project instead of a photographer! Now as cool as sound artist Rik Rue (photographed here at SNO Gallery in Marrickville) certainly is, I suspect he is quite likely outside of Sneaker Freakers target demographic.
Still, there are plenty of sound artists around and a real art collaboration would have brought a level of true credibility to an audio products launch in an art gallery. And if we could have “sampled” the product (not just the Becks) we might have gotten a much better idea of just how “Cool” these new headphone are...
By way of lending a helping hand I decided that I myself would “collaborate” with the Sneaker Freaker installation and “re-curate” one of the jewel cases which I have duly documented here. And funnily enough, people just love collaborating with "art"; within minutes of my “indi-collab” the Ear-Bud-Jewel-Boxes were literally bristling with empty Becks bottles!
www.chinaheights.com
www.palmerprojects.com.au
