This is no white cube experience. You are invited to sit inside a post-apocalyptic zombie shelter as well as embark on a kind of adult treasure hunt.
Brought to life by Melbourne creative studio, Moth Design, Penthouse Mouse is a pop-up shop that takes deserted urban locations and turns them into short-lived art, fashion and design hives.
Kirsty Hulm declares, "Permanence is over-rated!" summing up the social mood that PHM locks into with its pop-up style invasion. For artists like Kirsty, temporality is a theme with a deeper cultural significance, "The temporary nature of the show is important, and hopefully it encourages people to re-think ways they consume and operate within public spaces."
The Venue - The Former Naval and Military Club
Penthouse Mouse is like a couch surfer, a gypsy and a jack-in-the box all in one. It is a space, an event and moment in time that comes together, rocks out and then dissipates. Like a flower that blooms, you have to just appreciate the momentary beauty when it pops up. But unlike a flower, it's a different garden bed each time.
With each different incarnation, the space, the architecture and the history offer up different moods, structures, light, limitations and ideas to the artists that respond to the venue. And this year's building is a platform of character, charm, ghosts and surprises that has been a central inspiration to all of the participating artists.
The former Naval and Military Club was built in 1967 with a brutalist architectural agenda. A mixture of gentlemen's secrets, maritime agendas, glamorous memories and lots of lacquered wood. For Volker Haug and Chris Nash, "the best ever PHM space maybe!"
"This building is a hive of hidden treasures, be it the internal courtyard, the gentleman's change room or the squash courts and just the big spaces," says Sonia Rentsch from Moth Design.
For artist Sam Stewart, the building's history is palpable, "It feels like something sinister may have taken place there and it's been left vacant ever since." Or as Joel Zika suggests, "The space is very opulent, it could have been the headquarters for an evil genius or corporate tycoon who had to make a run for it."
Jamie Boys, on the other hand, responded to the space with theatrical excitement, "You can't get any more classic than this, I feel like I'm in a Wes Anderson movie set." His work takes the subtle reference of red and white barrier tape to point back to naval history.
Volker and Nash also embrace this maritime history, "... we liked the idea of boats and beach and fishing nets and port holes. We think the work will be very eye catching, and stand out as being very different to the style of the space but by using symbols and textures that are connected to its history... it will relate to the space that way."
Art alongside Fasion
Rentsch talks about the nexus of fashion and art, "Fusing art and fashion is not a new thing but definitely a positive thing! Fashion is art and art is fashion. That sounds totally wanky but the way people view and value objects from these fields in our daily lives is very intertwined."
Many of the artists reference elements of fashion, garments and sartorial crafts both directly and obliquely. Joshua M Longmore and Joseph L Griffiths' large sculptural dwelling acts as a kind of cloak-room. And their construction techniques turn to stitching, fabric dying and patchwork. Sam Woud's dense fabric crocheted from strips of reclaimed clothing and old upholstery swatches references a family history in crafting. Likewise, Kirsty Hulm's use of jewellery and folded blankets sits very close to the materials and methodology of fashion.
As well as dipping into fashion and craft, most of these artists wear other hats and lead flourishing interdisciplinary practices. Crossing into animation, theatre, graphics, film, tattooing, writing, design, lighting, illustration and more, many of the artists connect this multi-facetted way of being back to a passionate drive to create. And for the most part don't draw hard distinctions between the modes they engage.
The result is a going to be a carnivalesque salon of amazingness. Think mirrors and laser beams (Sam Stewart); gold, gold and more gold (Lance de France); stacks of Black & Gold tinned ham (James Carey); beautiful flickering lanterns (Joel Zika); pneumatic rams echoing in the squash courts (Jem Selig Freeman and Laura Woodward) and a tee-pee par excellence (Joshua M Longmore and Joseph L Griffiths).
In terms of the curatorial vision (which could best be described as a mash-up), Sonia Rentsch explains, "There is no overriding curator this year other than Moth Design. We spend a lot of time speaking with each artist ... ensuring that the space is cohesive while expressing individual ideas and personalities that may be worlds apart. We set no brief other than to respond to the space. It's really very organic and joyful."
From a distance the lack of tight curatorial premise or brief might seem a pointless folly, but the beautiful chaos and happy surprises that it creates through the friction of ideas, colours and personalities is bigger than anyone might predict. This is the electricity of a battery of artists humming together creating a powerful level of inspiration.
While Longmore and Griffiths talk about their own installation in terms of a goal "... to celebrate the connections between art and life, between things which are beautiful and functional. Offering a friendly service reveals the potential for an artistic approach to the social realm," this open, celebratory philosophy could also easily describe the beauty of the PHM micro-community as a whole.
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ARTISTS
JAMIE BOYS "Take a Long Hard Look at Yourself Sunshine"
www.visualarts.net.au/gallery/jamieboys
VOLKER HAUG + CHRIS NASH
www.volkerhaug.com
chrisnashart.blogspot.com
JEM SELIG FREEMAN + LAURA WOODWARD "Air"
likebutter.com.au
laurawoodward.com.au
jemselig.com
KIRSTY HULM "Trash +" and "Letter to My Lovers (Blankets, Bleach)"
www.kirstyhulm.wordpress.com
STUDIO ORGANIC
www.studioorganic.com
JAMES CAREY "A Portrait of Sir John Monash, if I say so"
akustikstudio.blogspot.com
SIMON BOUCHER
JOEL ZIKA "Dark Ride"
www.joelzika.com
LANCE DE FRANCE
www.lancedefrance.com
JOSEPH GRIFFITH + JOSHUA M LONGMORE
www.verywells.com
SAM STEWART
www.samuelstewart.com.au
www.middlegrey.com.au
SAM WOUD "Shelter"
PENTHOUSE MOUSE
Saturday March 6 - Sunday March 21 12.00pm to 9.00pm
The Old Naval and Military Club
27 Lt Collins Street (enter from Coates Lane)
Melbourne
Free entry
www.penthousemouse.com