By Tan May Ling
Updated by 23th October, 2012
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Photo by Candlelight Productions
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Indulge yourself in the
aromatic scent of freshly brewed coffee beans from The Café at Beer DeLuxe and
let your senses guide you down the flight of stairs, leading you into the
Atrium. There you will be greeted with colourful models of buildings, delicious
looking food replicas and many other items, spread across four customized
tables and some placed next to the greenery. This surreal view is what greets
visitors upon entering the Atrium.
Inspired by the title “A
Tale of Two Cities”, one of the novels written by Charles Dickens, the
Candlelight Productions has brought to life “A Tale of Two Melbournes” at the
Melbourne Fringe Festival this September. The event, which spans across ten
days, from Thursday to Sunday (27th September to 14th
October) takes place at the Atrium, opposite The Café at Beer DeLuxe,
Federation Square.
There are four main tables,
one for questionnaires, another for display, and the another two for visitors
to express “what you love of Melbourne” and “your vision of Melbourne”. A Tale
of Two Melbournes is all about using unconventional art materials to express
their thoughts by building 3D communal artworks.
From afar, a gathering of
people of both young and old is visible. They surround the tables with glue
sticks, paperboards and other crafting materials used to create their replicas.
Young children are seen to be having fun, fluttering from table to table,
eagerly searching for the materials needed to craft out their vision of
Melbourne. Once their ideas are solidified into tangible objects, they carry
their work carefully around the event, enthusiastically sharing their ideas
with the volunteers.
One may wonder why “A Tale
of Two Melbournes” and not just “A Tale of Melbourne”?
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Eugene, with The Visionary,
where visions
are display.
Photo by Candlelight Productions
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According to Eugene Wong, the founder and executive director of
Candlelight Productions, in “A Tale of Two Cities”, Charles Dickens compares
two different cities. Candlelight Productions adopts a different approach by
comparing the same city, a comparison of the current and the future Melbourne.
With recent issues such as
the likes of Jill Meagher, the media has been focusing a lot on the negatives.
However, at “A Tale of Two Melbournes”, the opposite can be said. This project
puts the spotlight on the positive side of things, showcasing the wonderful
things that Melbourne has to offer.
“We heard a lot in the news
about the two flip sides of a coin, one being good and one being bad. And they
usually focus on the negative stuff. So we want something different, rather
than highlighting on the bad side, we highlight the positive side, the amazing
things that the city offer us,” said Eugene Wong. “We all know there is a dark
side and let’s strike a light on it and the dark side will dissipate, and
that’s why we have this. Positive side have stronger impact on people.”
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So what do you love about Melbourne and
the vision for it?
Photo by May Ling
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As one of the special events organized during the Melbourne Fringe
Festival, Candlelight Productions invites everyone, regardless of age, gender
or race to participate in the event and explore the three main questions raised
during the event:
1.
What I love about
Melbourne is…
2.
What my vision for
Melbourne is…
3.
One thing I commit to
doing to make this happen is…
These questions which are
printed on red paper with a heart shape lollipop attached to it is given out to
everyone who participate in the event. Once participants finish building their
vision of what they love of Melbourne, they are invited to sign on the “A Tale
of Two Melbournes” banner. This is a tradition for Candlelight Productions,
where they collect signatures of participants and display it in their office at
Hawthorn. Eugene mentioned that after almost a decade since Candlelight
Productions started, they collected more than a dozen of banners, lining up
across their office and running out of space soon.
“It is fun, to see anyone
who volunteered in the past events coming back and search for their names on
the banner,” he said.
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Andrew (left) and Lachlan (right)
with their Ferris wheel that actually works.
Photo by
Candlelight Productions
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When asked of what people love of Melbourne or what their visions
are, there were various replies. Locals view Melbourne as a great social city
where people have space to connect to each other.
“One of the lovely thing I
love about Melbourne is there is plenty of space to create weird and wonderful
things, like my Ferris wheel,” Lachlan, a local said.
“I’ve travel a bit and so I
like how Melbourne has a lot of cool shops like café and creative things.
Melbourne is pretty good as it is so it can pretty much stay the same to be
honest,” Andrew, who came with Lachlan told me while both were building their
Ferris wheel.
As a contribution and a gift
to Melbourne, A Tale of Two Melbournes encourage the people, especially
Melbournians, to not just embrace the amazing things the city offer to them but
to also be thankful of what the city has offered them. Many people often take
what we have for granted. This was what Candlelight Production wanted to put
across, that we often take the things we love about Melbourne for granted.
“We hope to deliver the
message to not just be thankful of what we have of Melbourne but also own the
city because it is our city,” Eugene said.
According to him, once
people take ownership of the city and start to have visions for their city, one
will be amaze with what can happen.
As a project with the
objective of building a community, nurturing creativity among people, and
encouraging an attitude of service in arts while trying to pursue excellence in
their work. It is no surprise that this event has received countless positive
feedback from locals.
Bex Hinton, a school
teacher, brought her son with her in support of the event as she believes it is
good that people are encouraged to express their vision of Melbourne through
art and craft. .
“I’m an art teacher and I
think that anything that promotes arts in the community is a good thing. If it
is involving a community making something about Melbourne is great,” she
commented.
Hanna McDonald, a passer-by
who stumbled across the event while visiting Federation Square on the weekend
loved the idea of using recycle items as it is environmental friendly and added
that the location for the event was perfect as The Atrium is one of the arts
precincts and will definitely reach out to art lovers.
“It is really interesting to
become familiar with this vision that everyone has, young and old, and see how
creative they can be when they are converting their ideas into art,” said
Hanna.
As the afternoon passes, one
can easily notice the increase in artworks made by the public. Stadiums, foods,
trams and many lovely crafts decorated the table to the point of overflowing.
Volunteers and staffs will
then move some of the work and display some with the plants behind the tables
and others on The Visionary. At the end of the day, some of the masterpieces
will be brought back by their creators while the others will be displayed at
the library for the public’s adoration.
To know more about
Candlelight Production and any future events, you can visit their website: http://candlelightproductions.com.au/index.php
(1250 words)
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