I headed over to Smith’s Alternative Bookshop for You Are Here and Scissor Paper Pen’s debate, We Gotta Get Out of This Place, which posed the question: as an artist in Canberra, do you stay or do you go?  My personal question up for debate was: aren’t debates terribly boring? Will anyone attend?

I was sorely mistaken.

I arrived to find a large and enthusiastic crowd packed into Smith’s Alternative Bookshop to hear the debate, which ended up being a combination of debate and entertainment: debatertainment.

With this description in mind the first speaker of the affirmative team, Sam Townsend, a.k.a. dragqueen Venus Mantrap, began with fervour. A product of Canberra, Townsend voiced harsh words for his hometown, such as the opinion that “Canberra and its people weren’t willing to nurture its soul.”

BMA editor Julia Winterflood opened the negative team’s debate with finesse; humorously tearing shreds of the fortunately absent Julia Johnson, the missing third speaker for the affirmative team and famed songstress. She described Canberra’s community by saying, “We’re young, but we’re keen!”, which drew cheers and whoops from the crowd.

Following Winterflood, was affirmative team’s Andrew Galan, local yeller and published poet. I mostly had no idea what he was saying (or spraying; at one point an umbrella was erected in the front row by a wet patron), and the only part I fully understood was a two-second impression of Uma Thurman’s dance from Pulp Fiction.   However, I saw others in hysterics, hanging onto bookshelves for support, which made it all worthwhile.

Next, journalist Eleri Harris began illustrating (quite literally) her arguments for the negative team. Armed with her cartoonist talents, marker, and easel, Harris highlighted the benefits of Canberra’s lack of hipsters, its abundance of time, and the fact that “I [Harris] am standing here with a shitty biro, and saying shit but people are loving it!”

The final speaker for the affirmative, and last minute ring-in, was Rosie Stevens, writer, poetry advocate, and operator of the absent Julia Johnson’s cardboard cut-out face.  In a speech that was indeed more poetry than vicious debating, she mused that it was necessary to leave the ACT to insure a roof over one’s head, and that “we need to leave to anticipate our return”.

The debate closed with Funmachine’s Chris Endrey who brought the debate to its pinnacle by comparing *NSYNC to The Beatles. He described the capital as a “beautiful melting pot of people coming and going” and that it’s nice not “being shot at.”

With vigorous applause, the wildly entertaining debate came to a conclusion and it was no surprise that Canberra herself was the winner. The entire event echoed the success of the You Are Here festival; the city has been enlivened by local writers, musicians, and performers, and faith in Canberra has been wholeheartedly restored.

Photo by Adam Thomas

Photo by Adam Thomas

- By Amelia Drew

Now Hear This was an evening of enlightening, hilarious, but at times slightly waffly, real life stories. Eight performers were tasked with telling a story about ‘The First Time…’ doing, seeing or achieving anything, in less than ten minutes.

The arriving audiences were serenaded by Zach Raffan’s marvellous musical talents, and as the sun set, the spectators settled down in the intimate courtyard of the National Film and Sound Archive. The weather was in favour of the outdoor event, and stayed pleasantly rain-free. Unfortunately the mosquitos seemed to enjoy the change in weather as much as the crowd.

But the mosquitos were soon swept aside when Joel Barcham began to recall childhood memories of catching and ‘pacifying’ a fish with his father, a traumatic event he described as arising from a “biological desire to impress my dad”. Stephan Walker sent spines tingling, at the Indian funeral of Indira Gandhi. Ben O’Reilly spun a tale about suffering a botched hair extension job, after getting desperate living with “Marge Simpson” hair.  Jane Vincent told of the pride in winning a bronze medallion. And an inspirational walk along the Kadoka track was on the menu thanks to Nick Peddle. The cringe-worthy account of Rod Saciler holding up cricket at the MCG with an announcement blunder made the audience laugh.

An honourable mention must go out to Kylie Walker and Jeff Thompson. Walker who tugged at our heart strings as she shared her pain and joys in overcoming cancer, and Thomas by retelling the first time he experimented with “nightly emissions”, and almost being caught by his evangelical family, in a can’t-help-but-pee-your-pants funny story.

Between these tales of delight, Melanie Tait, our host from the ABC and whose brain child Now Here This is, explained to us the rigorous process the speakers undertook in order to take to the stage. The procedure involved scrupulously auditioning and workshopping their tales, and most notably memorising their scripts. Indeed the memorised stories enabled the tellers to become more animated in their movements, but disappointingly only a few of the performers took the opportunity. Instead the rehearsed lines led to some of the acts feeling slightly stale at times. Another fault of the overall show was the time limit. Where at times I felt a conclusion had been reached, many of the storytellers continued to press on, presumably to fill in the allotted ten minutes. Perhaps a more succinct time limit would be more entertaining, and lead to crisper climaxes? Pardon the pun!

Canberra’s CBD has been unknowingly hijacked. The culprits are miniature art installations. You Are Here have invited a range of artists to create, and distribute, small artworks around the city centre. This comes as a reaction to the millions spent on bigger public artworks which often seem out-of-place, and are laughed at by visitors to our Capital (the giant sculpture known as Optimus Prime’s pubic hair, along the GDE, springs to mind).

The shame Canberrans have felt for so long, over these embarrassing artworks, is over! Petite Public Art flies against the traditional, and takes its viewers to a new level of appreciation and respect. Armed with only a map, the art must be hunted down. But be warned, the map acts only as a rough guide, and while the hints from the artists are vitally helpful, you may draw a few odd looks from those not in the know.

Yolande Norris, one of the producers of You Are Here, described searching for the artworks as “looking like you’ve lost your marbles… Looking under park benches”. This I soon found to be true, as I wandered down alleys, rummaged in pot plants, and peered into tree tops. But I’ve not had as much fun, looking like I’d escaped a mental asylum, since I was a child on an Easter egg hunt. The thrill of suddenly spotting a tiny creation is like seeing a hidden chocolate egg! You’ve won! But with the triumph of finding a piece, comes the disappointment of realising what you thought was an artwork, is actually just a half-eaten finger bun. But it is seeing that finger bun, staring at the beer bottle, and judging the artistry of a tap, which is truly the art in this whole endeavour. This project enables us to look, and see Canberra like we’re seeing it for the first time.

But when a finger bun can be mistaken for art, what is the expected quality of the art? The answer is modest, but revolutionary in its simplicity. The beauty of the art comes from appreciating the materials used, the creative position of each piece, and in the joy it takes to find them.

Unfortunately as I delighted in the treasure hunt of Petite Public Art, I was reminded of the darker side to Canberra. Disappointingly some of the art works have been ‘acquired’ by more greedy members of the public. The artworks that can no longer be shared due to this destructiveness are a terrible loss.

So before the all the art is pilfered, I urge those who wish to enjoy a change of direction for Canberra, and see art that is beautiful in is simplicity, and captive in its creativity, then visit the Canberra Museum and Gallery soon to pick up your map, and go hunting.  Good luck!