Exhibition install on King Island

Sunday was a surreal day as I travelled through 3 airports – it’s been a while! At Hobart I almost missed the connection to King Island as I hadn’t registered the time difference of forward by one hour. Thinking I had an hour to kill, I bought a glass of wine and settled in, only to notice activity at the KI gate. Luckily I decided to check it out, and found that I was the last person they were waiting for! It was exciting to arrive and be greeted by June, my host for my two weeks here. Here is the view as you walk out of her house.

After a trip to the shops for supplies, it was back home to catch up with some drinks, and my favourite for dinner – Wallaby steak! In the morning it was up early for pod coffee – to get me through the getting ready process – then down to the bakery for real coffee, and a reunion with Aunty Fay! June kindly let me borrow her car, so after dropping her at work, I headed back to my beloved British Admiral Beach to see how it was. 

The waves have uncovered many more rocks on the shore, and there was very little kelp on the sand. I headed back into town for my gym session, then got back in the car to drive the kelp tracks once again, stopping to visit favourite nooks and crannies, and the rusting old dozer on the beach. 

In the afternoon I dropped into the King Island Cultural Centre and was happy to find Helen Thomas there – the lady that has made all this happen by inviting me back to exhibit here, and writing a successful grant application to RANT Arts for us! My anxiousness was assuaged by nutting out a basic plan for the week – I like to know what’s happening! Here's my exhibition poster in the window.

Tuesday morning was glorious, so I decided to walk into town for coffee on the way to the gym. 

Next it was to the pub for lunch and to catch up with some of the Intertwiners – crocheting ladies of the island whom I had many laughs with last time. There was great interest in the workshop – I took the sample along, and a man in the pub was fascinated by it too! 

I felt guilty being inside on such a fine day, so walked down to the harbour and along Big Beach, which last time was festooned with hundreds of bluebottles. I found a few skeletons which are stirring some ideas…

Coming back through the harbour I called in to the Cultural Centre, where Helen was in her office with the new contact Karryn, so it was great to meet her, and talk more about the exhibition and workshop plans – they will both be on hand to help me on Thursday and Friday to install. I am going to go down to the Cultural Centre tomorrow afternoon when it closes, unpack the pink box by myself, and work out what’s going where. It’s a little daunting, but with enough time I should be able to make it work. Well, I have to!