Kym Ortenburg founded the Gertrude Projection Association (GPA) with mate Monique McNamara in 2007 and started producing the Gertrude Street Projection Festival in 2008. In recent times, the GPA has wandered further afield than Gertrude Street, this August finding itself south of the river, bringing its skills to Glow.
Ortenburg sits on the production side of the fence with the GPA, as opposed to being one of the artists, but she finds the works irresistibly magical. “I started this whole journey about 11 years ago, when I co-founded the Gertrude Street Projection Festival,” she explains. “I just loved the way light projection can change the space that you’re in and streetscapes become completely new areas to explore. We started with eight sites for the first GSPF, but it’s grown and grown and grown.”
The GPA ran a pilot projection festival on a small scale last year in Greville Street, but this year is going large with six artists set to light up the street, namely Fairy Turner, Ian de Gruchy, Kate Geck, Nick Azidis, Olaf Meyer and Yandell Walton. “If people saw it last year, it was something of a smaller event,” Ortenburg says. “This year is a bigger and brighter event, featuring much bigger projections.”
Without giving too much away, Ortenburg hints at the luminous wonders awaiting. “Some of the signature pieces that happen in Gertrude Street will be featured,” she says. “Basically, we are aiming to draw people in off Chapel Street and down Greville with big, bright, colourful works. People are really going to be struck with how engaging and vibrant this is going to be. Also, without saying too much, people need to keep a special eye out for the rubbish bins.” Apparently, they’re becoming ‘disco bins’ – appropriate for the off-Chapel location.
Other highlights for the festival include the return of the pop-up cinema at Prahran Market, which will see movies paired with appropriate food truck fare on Friday and Saturday nights. The series kicks off with David Bowie’s gloriously camp spin as the Goblin King in Labyrinth and US-related grub from Twisted Mac, Round the Way Bagels and Caliko BBQ. The program closes out with a chance to catch our Nic when she still had red, curly hair in BMX Bandits and Aussie tucker courtesy of Grumble Tumms, Billy Van Creamery and Smokin’ Barrys.
The Glow Comedy Club also makes a return, taking up residency at the Melbourne Bowling Club. Enjoy headline performances from funny peeps Claire Hooper, Tom Gleeson and Luke McGregor.
Keep an eye out too for roving performances from street artists Arts Burst. Expect roving CIA agents, rooftop opera, giant snails, geishas, sexy dudes in high-vis, floating jellyfish and a bike that runs a projector, among other curiosities.
Claude Van Ullin, Mayor of Stonnington, puts Glow’s success down in part to location and demographics. “There’s a very strong arts community in Stonnington, partly because it’s in the inner city and because we have lots of people who support the arts philanthropically,” he says. “We’ve had a very good arts program for the last 10 years or so, including opera in the park. We try to involve everybody for all sorts of arts. I think the only thing we haven’t done successfully is dance, but ballet’s very difficult to do outside – a spot of rain and you have to cancel it.”
Ullin won’t be pinned down on the events that have most piqued his interest. “Well, the whole program is terrific,” he says. “I’m looking forward to everything across the board. I’m not sure that I could put one event before another. I’ll say this though, the projections are bound to be very popular.”
Ullin is duly proud of the festival. “We do a lot of events in the City of Stonnington, but I always felt that we needed a community festival,” he says. “Glow has grown so much, that’s for certain. There are so many terrific events and it caters to such a diverse range of tastes. It’s a diverse and roving program, and some of it is quite kooky. Francesca Valmorbida, who puts it together, has a terrific understanding of the arts and things that are exciting and innovative. That’s what we aim to do with Glow – we aim to put something on that’s innovative – things that people wouldn’t ordinarily see.”
BY GEM DOOW
