I arrived in newcastle at about 11am and had Mia, our friendly runner, pick me up from Newcastle station. It was pretty warm and I was carrying my luggage, equipment and an artwork. Hard work, so it was great to get a lift.
I went straight to the Octopod and worked on assembling the cone – did that for a few hours until I needed some food, then decided to actually see some stuff, rehydrate.
there’s a lot of great stuff about – lots of street-based sticker stuff, random performances and a bemused kind of vibe.
I met Mika Meskanen – a Berlin-based Finnish artist, who has assembled a Temp Sauna: a temporary sauna (see what he did there) in Civic Park. – right in the centre of Newcastle. It’s fabulous – constructed from tent-structure, thermo wraps, a wood oven with granite stones.
Mason’s festival club launch was great fun – I just scooted around the outside, checkin’ stuff out. I saw Dan Mackinlay’s fantastic performance, chatted with some of the peeps, handed out flyers, etc.
Laughed at the Giraffe Carafe, by Belle Brooks: Typing ‘giraffe sex’ into google yields ungodly results – A pixelated sculpture of two giraffes fucking (see above). Ooh, naughty. Taboo aside, the work is also really well-presented – in a long, narrow room, with a locked, reinforced glass door and dramatic spot lighting. It screams ‘enclosure’.