The Week, The Weekend, Closing Debate

We’re busy preparing for tomorrow and Sunday, when most of the other performances will kick off – already today we met Tristan of Back to Hair, which should be great.

On Sunday afternoon, as the festival draws to a close, we’ll be finishing our work. We’ve decided we’d like to hold a public debate about the future of (Sexy New) Erskineville at 4.30pm. So if you’re in the area and interested, we just might approach you to be a guest speaker. It should be a fun way to finish off our Tiny Stadiums residence. The debate will slot somewhere into the style of similar such events that we’ve orchestrated at Applelofts before, such as our G8 summit and Nativity Play. If you’d like to be a speaker, let us know in the comments below, and then be at the Town Hall at 4.30 on Sunday. We’ll be drumming up our big debate over the weekend.

In the meantime, however, here’s some of the suggestions that have been added to Erskineville over the last couple of days

We put in a Karaoke bar and Roller Rink (a pet fantasy of Joe, Mark and I for the whole project);

The area near the train station (and our new sculpture garden) was made into a wetland park, complete with frogs;

The Priscilla Bus was placed outside the Imperial Hotel;

And a Flying Fox was installed between PACT and Sofia cafe.

Are you coming up to see the festival on the weekend? What suggestions do you have for Erskineville?

Tuesday: There and Back Again

Lots happening here in the Town Hall today, we’ve had a lot of suggestions for changes to New Erskineville. Also some of the other Tiny Stadiums pieces are beginning today, if you’re around from now on you might be able to catch Amy Spiers’ Sob Stories, and soon Zoe Meagher’s Photo Op. For more information check out the Quarterbred blog.
In the meantime, here’s what we’ve been up to.

A large mirror ball was suspended above Erkineville Road, to remind people in the Imperial’s absence “how great mirror balls are”.

Someone from Erskineville Hotel came in, put the pub back,

and moved the wetlands to replace the proposed Thomas Dux supermarket.

This supermarket has been rejected as a development on more than one occasion by the residents, which you can read about here.

We’ve also put in an open air Cinema on top of the Rose;

and added a cycle path running along the main road.

If you’re in the area, pop in, see what you think, and make your own suggestion for Erskineville!

Erskineville Aquarium

This is Monday afternoon’s big project. Now Erskineville has its very own Aquarium, located opposite the train station.

If you look very closely, you’ll see that the building itself is in the shape of a fish.

Rainy Morning in New Erskineville

The rain is coming down, but we are warm and dry within our craft room. Here’s some of the things that have been added to Erskineville this morning.

A giant, pink stiletto added to the Imperial Hotel (which is now a building of studio apartments).

Rooftop gardens were placed above the Dry Cleaning and Maggie Thai, for the cultivation of fresh produce.

A meeting place next to the church was installed, inspired by the work of Spanish architect Antoni Guadi (whom you can read about here).

We’re working on a few more things this afternoon, including a giant aquarium to be placed above the train line. What sort of features do you think would make great additions to Erskineville? Let us know in the comments, or drop in to the Town Hall any day this week!

Tiny Stadiums Weekend

Hi everyone,
Sorry for the lack of updates over the last couple of days; the internet has disappeared from our space. But I’m putting stuff up now.
Saturday was the Tiny Stadiums Symposium, on the Future of Art. It was a lovely day, with many great speakers and ultimately delicious scones. Thanks to Mish and the rest of Quarterbred for putting it on, and to everyone who came along and made it such a wonderful afternoon.
Yesterday, however, it was back into the development game. Lots of changes happened, including a few fun ones and one rather bold one I’ll leave till the end.

One little girl asked to put in a bank, so that the people of Erskineville “can save their money”.

And remember our lover’s bridge from Friday? It’s since been turned into the scene for Three Billy Goats Gruff, troll and all.
A lot of research went into this one.

A stage was put in the park for live music.

But the biggest change of all was the redevelopment of land around the Erskineville Hotel (and removal of the Erskineville Hotel) to create the Erskineville Wetlands.

The Erskineville Wetlands is a giant area – an entire ecosystem within the suburb, complete (naturally) with its own wildlife.

Joe and I were very thankful for all the googly eyes we had bought a couple of days ago.

It’s been a great couple of days, and the piece is starting to gain momentum as we move into the last week. On Sunday we’re going to have a big unveiling of Sexy New Erskineville – more details on that soon.
In the meantime, come and visit us in the Erskineville Town Hall, and see what you think!