Artists in Transit ( Ro Murray and Susie Williams) with the very full “Work Mate” of found furniture, camping gear, canoe, jars of preserves, grass (synthetic), tools, bike, eskies of food and wine cellar, set off from Redfern. Ro had done a dry run with Sarah Goffmans “Tea House” on the Sunday before, in record time.
At camp (a tiny tent) was set up on the Honeysett Charbon Dam, beside Chi‘s Taj Mahal (I never found the front door) with Diego grazing on blackberries up our driveway. The ensuite had a pit toilet with plein air bathing. Nights of star watching and card playing beside the camp fire, until the night of the opening of Cementa, when it poured. Mid-festival there were 12 tents along the dam’s edge.
Dunns Castle installation at Christine’s on Dabee Road took a little while to orientate ourselves, a bit like a dog walking in circles until it finds the spot, except we were hauling a frig, table, wardrobe and oil drums around. The dog came later, and pissed on our grass (synthetic), then a small child who also pissed on our work. Despite this interaction, the “Castle” stood up to various interpretations, including a local who identified the makers of the preserved plum and mulberry jams ,we had found at the local tip in the frig.
The highlights of Cementa where the tours; making connections with other artists; locals contributing inside info about Kandos (like what was a “Burn Out” and who was Dunn) and the overall good spirit of the festival. De-install was comparatively quick with Peter Williamson helping with the fridge onto the Ute. Then our sad final trip back to the tip and dropping Susie at Lithgow train station. Ro headed off into the sunset for Hill End for her residency with BRAG at Murrays Cottage, with the preserves, the canoe, the grass (synthetic), and theremainder of the coloured tape and wine cellar.