Well, this is it, time to go home, we leave soon (and with the time warp, should get home tomorrow - floods in Thailand pending) and will be back in the loop from Wednesday. But before we go, we need to say a massive thank you to all the wonderful people who have made our trip down under so amazing: Marian and Ruth for all their hard work making Impact 7 such a great gig at Monash, Tommaso and Mariella for a wonderful feast and welcome to Melbourne, Robert, Suzie and Des for the welcome at State Library Victoria, Gracia and Louise, David, Angela, Scott, Willis and family, Sara, Monica, Peter and everyone in Melbourne who made it so great to be there; Tim, Mal, Jonathan, Alan, and all the students at QCA in Brisbane, for good times, talking and help all round, and especially Tim for looking after us so well and inviting us to be here in Brisbane to work with him. Helen for dinner and the wonderful tour of State Library Queensland, and Jo Diball, Gallery Director of POP for being ace, and making our work there so entertaining.
Our rules of engagement in Australia: look up, down and either side, don’t sit on any benches, sidewalks, pavement edges, wooden benches, grass, don't stand still too long, stand near water, under a tree, keep still outside or inside, don’t lean against anything, or get in the car without checking for a massive spider, don’t feed the wildlife, do talk to strangers, they have great stories to tell, and buy you drinks.
We will miss, all the amazing people we have met, and we will stay in touch; the octopus sushi in the QCA café, the knee breaking, gravity defying rides at Luna Park, Melbourne, our lovely balcony at QCA with views of the city, and the massive bats that swoop past each evening, races in the lifts to get to the 7th floor first, papermaking with Tim, POP Gallery, Tim and Mal (of course, for everything) peace and quiet, friendly strangers who love bio-engineering, lovely Thai food, Gordon the gecko who lives in our apartment (he is probably still there waiting for the next guest to arrive). We won’t miss: mosquitoes, scarily large Huntsman spiders, goannas, jumping spiders, strange animals and insects, being bitten by anything, and nightly birdcalls that sound like someone being murdered.
We hope to come back and do more in the future, and then if we blog again, we can call it Return to Oz, but in the meantime, we are really grateful to everyone for making it such a brilliant trip, and thanks for following our blog too. We’ll update our websites when we get back with proper info and images.
Paul and Sarah
As a fellow mosquito magnet I hope your bites don't itch too greatly.
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed watching your work appear then disappear on the gallery walls and getting a peak at your creative process.
See you one day again, louise