Gertrude Street Projection Festival 2019

After a year hiatus, the Gertrude Street Projection Festival has returned in 2019 with artists exploring the theme of Persist. Resist. Shift. It was a quiet Tuesday evening as I walked down Gertrude Street tonight and it felt like there were a smaller number of pieces than in previous years. One of the first large scale projections I saw was Yandell Walton's Voice, which focused on images of young climate activists.

One of my favorite things in the festival each year are the projections on the Atherton Towers, and this year they were done by Atong Atem in her piece Looking On, which explored othering and the gaze that accompanies it.

Another piece that I really liked were the aerial landscapes of Taloi Havini's Habitat on the Builders Arms Hotel. This piece explored the cultural and environmental contexts of Bougainville during Papua New Guinea's independence period.

The Gertrude Street Projection Festival runs until Saturday, 3 August 2019.

Gertrude Street Projection Festival 2017

It's the tenth anniversary of the Gertrude Street Projection Festival, which has grown over the years to become a key cultural event in Melbourne each winter. Once again there were a wide variety of different projections displayed on the facades and alleyways along Gertrude Street.

Of the smaller wall projections I really liked Peter Waples-Crowe with Megan Evans piece Squatters & Savages which showed colonial occupation from both perspectives. Riza Manalo's Visitor III demonstrated the fluidity of physical movement, while Glynn Urquhart's Future Flesh Forms explored the interactions of technology and living tissue through 3D animation.

Once again this year the Atherton Gardens had different installations on display. Some of my favorites were Anne Truong and Dave Anderson's Light Cycles, Annie Edney's Moon Ball, Toggles Alternate Power Generator with its moving mobile and Prativa Thamang's Fall Into The Skies.

It took a week to get working, but there were also large scale projections on the Atherton Towers, this year on the Atherton Gardens side of the building. Susan Maco Forrester and Jody Haines' piece Future is Now! explored the voyages of ancestors and identity.

Other large scale building projections along Gertrude Street included Ash Coates' Mycolinguistics (Rubico-Sterolosis or Oneness) on the Gertrude Hotel and Amanda Morgan's If they build a wall, we can scale it on the Builders Arms.

Skunk Control had another amazing window display this year with Three / Four, which shows the now constantly lit warning sirens as we head to the end.

The Gertrude Street Projection Festival is on until Sunday, 30 July 2017.

Gertrude Street Projection Festival 2016

Tonight was the opening of the Gertrude Street Projection Festival for 2016. Once again there were many interesting pieces created for this year's festival, and the addition of the Atherton Gardens as its very own precinct.

The large building projections are always very popular attractions. Ian De Gruchy's Digital Op Pop was a kaleidoscope of color and design. The Atherton Towers were lit up by Jacob Tolo and Susan Maco Forrester's Fractures, which explored identity and whiteness. The Builders Arms Hotel was utilised by Kate Geck for her work Apeiron on the effects of technology on people's attention spans.

Ian De Gruchy

Jacob Tolo and Susan Maco Forrester

Kate Geck

Geometric shapes were evident in a few pieces. Kit Webster's Morphic Prism is a pyramidal video installation of a recursive reflection tunnel. Lauren Simmonds utilised sculpture and projections in her piece The State of Becoming. Skunk Control were back again this year with Systematic Sanctions, which contained a little urban landscape on a hill that had lights going on and off in the houses.

Kit Webster; Lauren Simmonds

Skunk Control

One of the more political pieces was Alfeo Sanches Pereira and Eneti Waretini's A Natural Resource Curse, an animation about the maritime boundary dispute between Australia and Timor-Leste.

Alfeo Sanches Pereira and Eneti Waretini

Finally, some of my favorites were filmed pieces featuring women. Youjia Lu's Chora showed the artist as a bath gradually filled with water. Petrina Hicks' Gloss featured a butterfly flapping its wings in slow motion while perched on a woman's mouth. The highlight of the festival for me though was Luzena Adams' piece Reverie with its graceful redhead swimming underwater and dipping in and out of the top and bottom of the frame.

Youjia Lu; Petrina Hicks

Luzena Adams

Gertrude Street Projection Festival 2015

The Gertrude Street Project Festival kicked off tonight, celebrating its eighth year with over 35 works by various artists on display over the next ten days. With the threat of the Antartcic Vortex hitting Melbourne this weekend and next week, I figured tonight was my best shot of getting to see the works and staying dry. These were some of my favorites pieces from this year's festival.

Deb Bain-King with Finding Your Way: Finding Home is a very relevant and topical narrative for Australia about immigration and refugees which superimposes images with messages such as "Finding your way," "Mother, I am safe now" and "Welcome home."

The light projections I look forward to the most every year are the ones on the Atherton Towers. This year's piece Form Work was done by Guled Abdulwasi. It explores architectural forms, lines and shapes and utilises some vivid colors.

The most humorous work in the festival this year is Freya Pitt's Fortune and Love Favour the Brave. The animated film clip has a hilarious narrative on human attraction and desire that is accompanied by images that are a mixture of photos and illustrations. It's very entertaining and had people laughing out loud.

Chase Burns piece White Wash is a commentary on climate change that sees the Builders Arms Hotel awash in waves like some coastal cities may be in the future as sea levels rise.

Once again this year Skunk Control has done a magnificent window display. Secluded Evolution is a very detailed piece that illuminates species and environments that would normally be found in darkness.

Finally, I also have to give a special mention to Federico Winer's Ultradistancia, which is an amazing film of different aerial photographs showcasing the geometric beauty of cities and other built environments. The Gertrude Street Projection Festival runs until 19 July.

Gertrude Street Projection Festival 2014

The annual Gertrude Street Projection Festival is currently happening in Fitzroy until Sunday night.  Between the recent rain and cold weather it has been hard to pick the best night to go, but I finally managed to check it out tonight after work.  As usual there are some great projections that have been done, and it's nice to make discoveries as you walk along the street.  Here were some of my favorites:

Freya Pitt- "The Beast"

Animatism

Anika Cook & Leigh Mannes- "Snjor"

Arika Waulu- "Young Blood"

Olaf Meyer- "The Peoples Car"

Skunk Control- "Pestilent Protrusions"

Lin Finch- "Progress"

Of course, one of the biggest attractions each year is the large scale projections on the Atherton Towers.  This year Nick Azidis brought his piece "Lighthouse."  The faces are probably the signature image from this year's festival.

Gertrude St Projections and The Good China

The annual Gertrude Street Projection Festival is currently on through this weekend, featuring a wide array of light projections on buildings and other objects throughout Gertrude Street in Fitzroy.  Last night was the first time I had been, and it was great to walk down the street and discover the different projections.  Here are a few of my favorites:

After checking out the Festival I walked up Brunswick Street to The Evelyn Hotel to catch The Good China play.  They started their set with "No More Maps, No More Roads," which allowed for some hand clapping fun.  We got to hear some of the new songs they have been working on as well as their recent single "You Looked Better A Brunette."  Mit sang lead on an awesome cover of The Temper Trap's "Sweet Disposition" and they finished their 40 minute set with the appropriately titled "We Knew That We Had To Leave."  It was good to see the Chinas live again and I am hopeful that their debut album isn't too far off.

Here's the video for "You Looked Better A Brunette" which was shot in Japan.