fisherman halt aquatic show !
FISHERMAN HALT AQUATIC SHOW !
An underwater exhibition of paintings is never an easy thing to organise: all the normal problems are present but likely to be compounded by the liquid location.
Anyone who lives in the south of France is familiar with the first problem of putting up an exhibition which is finding a place to exhibit, there being virtually no galleries in this part of the world (understandable since the French like to talk about art but not to look at it) and the lists are long of artists waiting to exhibit in hair-dressing salons, garages, pharmacies and other popular cultural centres. Finding an underwater site is virtually impossible.
So you can imagine my excitement when an old pirate acquaintance told me about a wreck lying in shallow water off the tiny island of Mendanau in the Kelasa Straits and which was being temporarily used for the stockage of chemical waste till its owner (a Malaysian car trader and part-time opera singer) decided what to do with it. Now the Kelasa Strait lies between the islands of Bangka and Belitung at the north end of the Java Sea, between Borneo and Sumatra, and almost equidistant from Djakarta and Singapore (but not quite). This is a part of the world which is waiting impatiently to get into the big league of Art Shows (the 'Biennale-Beanfeast' as it's known in the trade) and I reckoned (correctly) that politicians and businessmen in the region would be willing to put up a good chunk of money to draw attention to the regions art-marketing possibilities. The hulks owner was ready to float off the toxic waste for a month of two in return for a cash payment 'to be negotiated' once investment was assured. Initial contacts with local representatives were productive and the ball began to roll!
I left the political and financial negotiations in the capable hands of a fourteen year old prostitute from Djakarta known locally as 'Sea-Petal' and moved on to the crucial problem of how I was going to make the show technically possible. My pirate acquaintance had put me in touch with one of the racketeers dealing round the fish market at Pangkalpinang on Bangka island and I soon had access to a fast boat, diving equipment, tidal advisors, underwater frame-makers and serious drugs (of course!).
Apart from the choice of works, how they will be hung and in what order, the big problem with all art shows is lighting. Here I was in luck. The sunken ship was a container vessel roughly a hundred and ten meters long, twenty meters broad and with deck to keel height of about twenty three feet seven and a half inches, lying in fifty feet of crystal clear water! All I had to do was remove (or have removed!) what was left of the decking and for day-time viewing, normal sunlight would be acceptable. For the private viewing and for evening visitors underwater spots clamped onto the deck openings could be easily positioned and current supplied from a generator on a boat at the surface. I had already chosen the works I wanted to show (an astute choice of large acrylics on sheet steal, based on sketches I did three years ago in the toilets of a Swedish egg-packaging company) and these could be thematically divided up between the various container departments. The really sticky problem was that the boat was lying on its side! However, my rackateer pal reckoned he could blackmail a local ferry boat owner ( who had a deal with a salvage company following some curious accidents) into sorting out that problem...
All in all things were going to plan and taking the normal path for an art exhibition!
The last element on my list was publicity and a decent guest list for the opening. Here I was pleasantly surprised to find that Sea-Petal had been using some initiative (and some influential contacts!) to rustle up not only a star-studded international guest list, but hotels and entertainment (!) whilst the guests were onshore, and a floating hotel to be moored alongside the wreck for forty-eight hours during the opening bash! Since the owner of this floating palace was going to be making a good screw and getting a packet of free publicity, he had taken it upon himself to supply underwater wine-glasses with caps and straws, special diving masks with facilities for eating and radio sets for underwater conversation, and had located a Hawaiian producer who would arrange for sea-flowers and sea-toilets to be installed, a Hawaiian underwater band, call-girls and call-boys and even a magnetic dance floor supplied with magnetic shoes to permit the opening night to finish with a knees-up!!
I was begining to get my head round what to do about posters, catalogues, radio and T.V. coverage, all the gritty aspects of marketing and publicity when out of the blue I get a call from a 'friend' who sits in one of the European committees dealing with agriculture and fishing (a very well paid representant for the 'Europium' consortium) suggesting we have an immediate meeting.
When I flew in from Singapore there were already a few demonstrators with placards saying things like 'fish before frames' and 'fishermen's families not wanker's galleries', but I was hung-over after the flight and didn't recognise that the signs were pertinent to my arrival. However everything fell into place when my 'friend' explained that fishermen from the Kalimata Strait had been caught shrimping in several European estuaries, contrary to the 2002 fishing treaty between Europe and the South Asian fishing community. In retaliation to being fined and having their boats impounded, the Asian fishermen had whipped up strong feelings in the region against European art, and were threatening to make things pretty ugly if my show went ahead! In view of the importance of trade between the Europe and South Asia, I was told to get my "bloody show back in friendly water", otherwise I was going to be left "high and dry!"
And that's how things stand right now. A lot of time and good feelings have been wasted (along with a lot of feeling and good times!) but hope is not lost: new plans are under way to move the whole show to a wreck in the Bahamas and Sea-Petal assures me she is still on the bandwagon, as is my Hawaiian producer. In the meantime my sheet metal paintings are back in storage and I've learnt a very important lesson about putting on art exhibitions: always check with the local fishermen before you do ANYTHING!
antnee - Fort Lauderdale- November 30th. 2008
An underwater exhibition of paintings is never an easy thing to organise: all the normal problems are present but likely to be compounded by the liquid location.
Anyone who lives in the south of France is familiar with the first problem of putting up an exhibition which is finding a place to exhibit, there being virtually no galleries in this part of the world (understandable since the French like to talk about art but not to look at it) and the lists are long of artists waiting to exhibit in hair-dressing salons, garages, pharmacies and other popular cultural centres. Finding an underwater site is virtually impossible.
So you can imagine my excitement when an old pirate acquaintance told me about a wreck lying in shallow water off the tiny island of Mendanau in the Kelasa Straits and which was being temporarily used for the stockage of chemical waste till its owner (a Malaysian car trader and part-time opera singer) decided what to do with it. Now the Kelasa Strait lies between the islands of Bangka and Belitung at the north end of the Java Sea, between Borneo and Sumatra, and almost equidistant from Djakarta and Singapore (but not quite). This is a part of the world which is waiting impatiently to get into the big league of Art Shows (the 'Biennale-Beanfeast' as it's known in the trade) and I reckoned (correctly) that politicians and businessmen in the region would be willing to put up a good chunk of money to draw attention to the regions art-marketing possibilities. The hulks owner was ready to float off the toxic waste for a month of two in return for a cash payment 'to be negotiated' once investment was assured. Initial contacts with local representatives were productive and the ball began to roll!
I left the political and financial negotiations in the capable hands of a fourteen year old prostitute from Djakarta known locally as 'Sea-Petal' and moved on to the crucial problem of how I was going to make the show technically possible. My pirate acquaintance had put me in touch with one of the racketeers dealing round the fish market at Pangkalpinang on Bangka island and I soon had access to a fast boat, diving equipment, tidal advisors, underwater frame-makers and serious drugs (of course!).
Apart from the choice of works, how they will be hung and in what order, the big problem with all art shows is lighting. Here I was in luck. The sunken ship was a container vessel roughly a hundred and ten meters long, twenty meters broad and with deck to keel height of about twenty three feet seven and a half inches, lying in fifty feet of crystal clear water! All I had to do was remove (or have removed!) what was left of the decking and for day-time viewing, normal sunlight would be acceptable. For the private viewing and for evening visitors underwater spots clamped onto the deck openings could be easily positioned and current supplied from a generator on a boat at the surface. I had already chosen the works I wanted to show (an astute choice of large acrylics on sheet steal, based on sketches I did three years ago in the toilets of a Swedish egg-packaging company) and these could be thematically divided up between the various container departments. The really sticky problem was that the boat was lying on its side! However, my rackateer pal reckoned he could blackmail a local ferry boat owner ( who had a deal with a salvage company following some curious accidents) into sorting out that problem...
All in all things were going to plan and taking the normal path for an art exhibition!
The last element on my list was publicity and a decent guest list for the opening. Here I was pleasantly surprised to find that Sea-Petal had been using some initiative (and some influential contacts!) to rustle up not only a star-studded international guest list, but hotels and entertainment (!) whilst the guests were onshore, and a floating hotel to be moored alongside the wreck for forty-eight hours during the opening bash! Since the owner of this floating palace was going to be making a good screw and getting a packet of free publicity, he had taken it upon himself to supply underwater wine-glasses with caps and straws, special diving masks with facilities for eating and radio sets for underwater conversation, and had located a Hawaiian producer who would arrange for sea-flowers and sea-toilets to be installed, a Hawaiian underwater band, call-girls and call-boys and even a magnetic dance floor supplied with magnetic shoes to permit the opening night to finish with a knees-up!!
I was begining to get my head round what to do about posters, catalogues, radio and T.V. coverage, all the gritty aspects of marketing and publicity when out of the blue I get a call from a 'friend' who sits in one of the European committees dealing with agriculture and fishing (a very well paid representant for the 'Europium' consortium) suggesting we have an immediate meeting.
When I flew in from Singapore there were already a few demonstrators with placards saying things like 'fish before frames' and 'fishermen's families not wanker's galleries', but I was hung-over after the flight and didn't recognise that the signs were pertinent to my arrival. However everything fell into place when my 'friend' explained that fishermen from the Kalimata Strait had been caught shrimping in several European estuaries, contrary to the 2002 fishing treaty between Europe and the South Asian fishing community. In retaliation to being fined and having their boats impounded, the Asian fishermen had whipped up strong feelings in the region against European art, and were threatening to make things pretty ugly if my show went ahead! In view of the importance of trade between the Europe and South Asia, I was told to get my "bloody show back in friendly water", otherwise I was going to be left "high and dry!"
And that's how things stand right now. A lot of time and good feelings have been wasted (along with a lot of feeling and good times!) but hope is not lost: new plans are under way to move the whole show to a wreck in the Bahamas and Sea-Petal assures me she is still on the bandwagon, as is my Hawaiian producer. In the meantime my sheet metal paintings are back in storage and I've learnt a very important lesson about putting on art exhibitions: always check with the local fishermen before you do ANYTHING!
antnee - Fort Lauderdale- November 30th. 2008
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