Idea Mining

The show "Unearthed" is now hung at Britannia Beach Mining Museum.

Krisztina Egyed coordinated hanging the show for the last few days. Sensitively and with encouragement for me as an artist.

Erica, Krisztina's sister helped for two days and my son Brendan Hurley slung, carried , installed and constructed. All but me took turns on high ladders. The only complaint I have about the gallery is the hanging system which required work to be suspended from line and wire. The rest of the site is completely industrial and beautiful. I feel like spent the day sewing to finish the work and watching people from the top of high ladders. Even Jim Hegan, Krisztina's husband climbed up to move lights and snap photographs.

The hardest decision through the day was hanging 3 long works which hang from the rafters. We tried an incredible bamboo hanging device that Brendan made. Ended up hanging the work from the heavy old wood. The windows behind end up changing how the work looks throughout the day.

So it is now all up and will start to change as the next 2 months allows further patination and deterioration of some of the work. The little rust gardens will continue to blossom. The copper iron rust will deteriorate the silk. Some of the patinas will further develop during the summer.

My serious weakness is not imagination or skill in producing the pieces. It is in hanging the work.
It and pricing are the hardest part for me. Ideally the work should be finished at least a month before but that almost never happens. Almost everyone I know tucks in until right before the show opens.

The "Copper and Fire" Festival is happening at the mine this weekend. My closing, not opening will be held in the middle of September. I feel confident the work is worth seeing. So is this incredible interactive museum.

We were leaving last night as the sun was starting to go down. The old buildings cast shadows everywhere. There is probably enough inspiration in there for more than one lifetime.