The aftermath of a music festival can be sorry sight – discarded tents, mangled shade sails and forgotten tarps strewn as far as the eye can see.
While most would call it a mess, artist Georgina Humphries prefers to think of it as a gold mine of potential.
Georgina is one of four artists invited to exhibit work for this year’s Ephemera, alongside 20 competitive entries. Her work transforms textile remnants left at music festivals into joyfully coloured, site-specific installations.
“Luckily I had a big stash from 2019, pre-COVID … but I have been doing a collection for this work going to local community groups and getting people’s old tents there, which has been great,” Georgina said.
“People usually find (my art) really playful. They usually love the bright colours, because I can never get one particular colour of tent it’s always a hodgepodge of different colours but I think that lends to the playful atmosphere of the work,” she said. “
While art is often a case of ‘look but don’t touch’, Georgina said she is always pleased that her tactile work invites some interactivity from those who encounter it.
“Touch it like anything that you can touch,” she said.
“Not that you want to go and jump into it, but it’s certainly something that I want people to move in and amongst, especially this work [for Ephemera] which is going to be on ground level, so it’s going to act almost like walls that people can move in and out of.”
Georgina’s work will be exhibited near the Townsville Rockpool during Ephemera, which runs 17-25 July 2021.
