LOUNGE AROUND: Wishes from a Travelling Chair
LOUNGE AROUND: Wishes From a Travelling Chair was a small community project that asked the people of Mortlake, Terang and the south west region of Victoria to participate in a wishing exercise. Inspired by Enid Blyton’s 1937 novel about a magical wishing chair, Lounge Around engaged the community by inviting them to anonymously write and post their hopes and dreams over a period of a few months this year, by sitting in the chair to write their wishes.
Stage one saw a small group of Mortlake residents, with some contribution from the Terang community, decorate an old arm chair donated to the project by the artist Trevor Flinn. The chair is embellished with stitched and painted pieces representing aspects of the Mortlake landscape.
The ‘wish’ chair was then travelled around the community of Mortlake, Terang and other parts of the region such as Warrnambool and Port Fairy. Three hundred anonymous wishes were collected in the process and the result was exhibition of the wishes on election day 2010. Included in the exhibition was the chair and a short film of the project made by Trevor.
During the project we also asked the Mortlake Spinners and Weavers to embroider wishes onto doilies for stitching onto the chair. This small side project grew as we progressed and more embroidered doilies began coming to us from the Spinners group and the Terang community. (click on this link to go to the blog showing some of the doilies).
The exhibition was designed for the audience to take a journey through the 'thoughts of their community'. The wishes will now be collated into a book to be housed at Terang and Mortlake Health.
THIS PROJECT WAS A MOYNE SHIRE PROJECT IN PARTNERSHIP WITH TERANG AND MORTLAKE HEALTH and SUPPORTED BY REGIONAL ARTS VICTORIA
PARTICIPANTS IN THE PROJECT
Terang and Mortlake Health (project partners):
Lyn Price, Kerri Nicholson
Lead artist: Trevor Flinn
Project Coordinator: Jo Grant (Regional Arts Development Officer)
Chair re-upholsterers/decorators:
Hazel Fewell
Lynne Herry
Lyn Price and Adrian Price
Mortlake Spinners and Weavers
Volunteer coordinator:
Nola Brewer
(with the assistance of) Sandy Brewer
Other contribution and assistance to the project:
CR Jill Parker
Terang Men’s Shed
Florence Charles
Andrea Waddington
Trish O’brien
Chelsey Reis
Patsy Riordon
Cheryl Barrett
Heather McDonald
Mardi Brown
Lynne Hynam
Edna McColl
Maureen Giblin
Adele Richards
Ann Cook
Rosemary Barby
Theresa Ryan
Mark Johnson
Jane Fitzgibbon
Anne Body
Janice Harris
Residents of May Noonan
Residents of Mount View
Jenny Grice
Peter Mather
Community locations and groups that hosted the wishing chair:
Mortlake Probis group
Mortlake Senior Citizens
St Coleman’s School Mortlake
Abbeyfield Mortlake
Mortlake P12
Mortlake Library
Mortlake information centre
Lion’s Club
Rotary Club
South West Health Warrnambool
Moyne Shire Council offices, Port Fairy
Village Green markets, Port Fairy
Terang College
Terang Health Service
May Noonan Terang
Mount View Nursing Home, Terang
Cooinda Adult Training and Support Services, Terang
Mortlake Health campus
CLICK HERE to see a previous blog created featuring some of the doily wishes
