Opening post-mortem

Howdy Kids!
Thought i might give everyone the second installment of my blow-by-blow update on the exhibition, seeing as you were all so exhausted by the last one :)

Friday 28th April - The Big Day
Pre-opening
After getting stuck at the gallery sorting out running times with the circus WOW gals until late and then cooking stuff until about 10pm on thursday night, i thought i might go to bed 'early' only to get stuck watching hilarious TV until about midnight... not the smartest thing i've ever done, but hey. Got up early to get out to Unanderra and pick up the pie-warmer and glasses from Go-Hire and was trying to not stress about finances while hoping that i could stretch the fuck out of my credit card. By now, i've got $100 left in my accounts, $150 in my wallet and about $400 worth of stuff to buy. My credit card was already maxed out, but I closed my eyes and hoped for the sweetest words in the english language: transaction approved. Thankfully, it worked and i drove out with a huge hunk of catering equipment and glasses for the juice/softies. Got to the gallery just in time and opened up, starting to set up the space for the opening - setting up a bar area with the extra plinths that had appeared from Thirroul Seaside Festival (I hated them, now i love them..lol!) Set up glasses, printed up little signs to acknowledge mooroduc estate for donating the wine (http://www.moorooduc-estate.com.au) and to Workshop Theatre for the blacks. I had a few people come to see the show who i didn't know and one woman was challenged by the work, but she had the courage to still discuss it. She asked me what the work was about and why I'd produced it. This was really encouraging actually because i'd had a few people through who couldn't deal with the images of gashes and slashes. While not speaking with visitors, I was trying to not stress about the opening and just stay in the moment, although i found myself stressing about really important stuff, like the serviettes that I'd bought, realising that they weren't little at all, but like big red tissues. Thankfully my gorgeous and hugely pregnant friend Mel came to the gallery with coffee and some sanity. Jade came into the gallery at lunchtime to take over for the afternoon so i could finish running around - thank god for that girl - she's saved my ass about a million times with this exhibition! Talk about the beginning of burning fossil fuels for the cause! So it went something like this: *grog shop to pick up the beer (and that credit card stretched to unbelievable lengths and my car had to work a little harder),
*home to load in the wine and glasses that i'd spent hours washing,
*cook about 50 crumbed chicken drumettes, which was such a fantastic experience for a vegetarian like me - talk about taking one for the team!
*load up all that stuff, plus platters, bits and pieces like knives, toothpics and bowls
*head to Woollies (again) to get some more platters, softdrink, extra serviettes, pretzels, peanuts, plastic cups (in case 50 glasses wasn't enough) and filters for my fags.
*rush to the gallery to dump all that stuff and get back for a nap. a nap? yeah - i need my nanna naps. i didn't get much of a nap, but enough to kind of slow down for a bit and not get my nickers in a knot about the uncontrollable.
When i got up, i decided that i was gonna kick ass that night and cranked a bit of Sing Sing Death House - singing in the shower and generally rocking out - hell, i might as well enjoy it! I arranged to meet Sara and Jade at the gallery at 6, so i could finish prepping the hors d'oevres, get the alkamohol ready and have enough time to breath before the opening.

The big bang.
After running around like a mad thing, i had about 5 minutes to suck in some fresh air and people started rocking up - early! People don't come to openings early.. they arrive about 20 minutes after it starts.. don't they? The night ended up really well - the first half, i kind of ran around and made sure food was going round, that the coffee guy could drive the van in and that the performance would be OK. Loads of my friends arrived and a couple even gave me a congratulations card - how cute is that! I was starting to stress a little 'cos people couldn't go into the final room, it being blocked off by the scrim for the performance.. but it kind of added to the suspense of it all. I jumped up on a speaker - in my stillettos mind you, and said thanks to a bunch of people, welcomed people to the gallery and plugged the trivia night we'll be having next month and jumped down - in my stilettos! The performance by the WOW girls went so fantastically. It was the first time i had seen it all the way through and I was so inspired and flattered at the same time. They had developed the work based on my video work and some of the images and it was amazingly beautiful and chilling at the same time. The feedback from the performance and the rest of the work was all fantastic! I had a grin on my face most of the night! I had a great chat about my work and installation with an artist from austinmer, great discussions about Project with Lisa, the first director and some great feedback from friends! All in all there were about 200 people at the opening, which was great. It was what i wanted - for 200 people to see the work, either at the opening or during the week, so I'm ahead already! And I sold a work!! Backy loved the work and was totally into the whole concept of it - gave me money at the pub and told me to choose.. so I promptly put a red dot under a gory drawing of a sliced-up penis!! He's gonna hang it on his bedroom wall! lol! So there ya have it kids - I'm pretty excited about. Check out the show if you have a chance and I'll be posting pics in a few days! Now it's time to catch up on some sleep!