'This place is marked for past and future great handstands'

This is another artwork that I pasted up on Good Friday over Easter!

It is located at the corner of Ferguson and Wellington Sts in Williamstown.

The artwork is based upon a woodcut I made last year.

As you may know by now, I do handstands! And I have been doing them everyday for almost 11 years. And I do them as part of my self management for the chronic pain and other illnesses that I live with. Simply put, handstands make me feel good. 

So I have special handstand spots everywhere I go. And several times a day, I will sneak in a quick unobtrusive handstand. In a stairwell, at the end of a hallway, down a lane way. I am mostly never noticed.

This woodcut was carved with the specific purpose of marking out these almost secret handstand spots.

During the cold months of August last year, I went out on some freezing nights, to paste up these woodcut prints in Footscray, Seddon and the CBD to mark out my handstand spots! Here's a few of the spots!

It was a great thing to do. Placing art in public places is challenging, but also very rewarding. I love it that people have such strong opinions about the art in their own space. It is so different to the way we behave in the white cube of the gallery.

This recent huge paste up (for me anyway at almost 3 metres high) is based upon this small woodcut. 

This time I got support from both the local Hobsons Bay Council and the owners of the brick wall, SNAP printing. (Thanks guys!)

It is located at the corner of Ferguson and Wellington sts Williamstown, just near the Town Hall. With luck it should stay in place for the rest of 2015!!

'A Ritual of Handstands'

Well, it has been a pretty busy time over Easter for me, installing some public artworks in the shopping strips of Williamstown, South Kingsville and Altona Meadows.

The biggest by far, is A Ritual of Handstands. This comprises of 16 large and small, photographic based paste ups on the walls and shop fronts in and around the Vernon st shops in South Kingsville.

Words in the catalogue read:

This site specific artwork reveals an ongoing investigation into Larissa’s daily ritual of performing handstands. Over the past ten years, she has performed at least one handstand every day, often in unexpected and inconspicuous places – both public and private.

These are not public performances but private moments that bring the artist grounding, pain relief and joy. They are in fact, a key part of managing her chronic illnesses. This site specific installation provides us with a playful insight into her world.

Here's a pic of us installing the works. I had a great team assisting me over the 3 days it took. Thanks to Klaus, Adrian and Matthew, and many others who have helped me out over the past 6 months in the making of these artworks.

It has been a challenging but exciting journey making these artworks over the past 6 or so months. Not only has it has been a big departure from my normal practice of printmaking, but it has been interesting as well as confronting to explore such a personal aspect of my life, and then to make it so public.

It has also been exciting to be working within the public space as opposed to the more traditional gallery space. It brings so many new challenges, but the interactions have been incredibly rewarding.

This exhibition is part of the Art in Public Places, a festival of arts across the area of Hobsons Bay city Council, during April.