http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/west/footscray-artist-documents-her-favourite-places-to-do-handstands-as-part-of-art-in-public-places/story-fngnvmj7-1227303566560
Larissa McFarlane performs a handstand on a Williamstown wall. Picture: David Smith.
A great place for a handstand.
TOILET cubicles, building stairwells — when Larissa McFarlane feels the need to do a handstand she’ll turn upside down almost anywhere.
The Footscray artist taught herself handstands at 35 and has been doing at least one every day for the past 10 years.
But it’s not as though McFarlane one day felt the urge to flip herself over — the handstands have been an integral step on the road to recovery after a serious car accident.
McFarlane said she taught herself handstands with absolutely no childhood experience to draw on.
“I was always too scared,’’ she said.
“But I decided handstands were going to cure me so I practised and I practised because it felt good and I was living with chronic pain courtesy of the accident.”
Handstands have in turn inspired McFarlane’s artwork — photographs of the artist doing handstands have been pasted on walls in 16 places across South Kingsville for her “A Ritual of Handstands” exhibition.
An image of a woodcut of McFarlane doing a handstand can be seen on the wall of Snap Printing in Ferguson St, Williamstown. The original, and McFarlane’s other linographs and lithographs, are part of an exhibition on the walls of nearby Cocoa Latte Cafe.
LARISSA’S MORE UNIQUE HANDSTAND LOCATIONS:
■ Building stairwells.
■ Lifts: “when no one else is in them”
■ Against trees: “when I can’t find a good wall”
■ Toilet cubicles in restaurants
■ Queen Victoria Market: “I usually pick places where there is no one to see but in really, really busy places, nobody really notices. People just keep walking.’’
The exhibition, part of Hobsons Bay Council’s Art in Public Spaces, runs throughout April.
I am pretty chuffed, (even if they did spell my name wrong)! My mother reckons that it is hysterical!!
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