Back to All Events

Looking at the stars

  • Laneway btw Moorabool & Claire Street Gore Pl Geelong, VIC, 3220 Australia (map)

A light based installation developed by David Dellafiora and Sue Hartigan.

Gutter

  1. a channel running along the kerb or centre of a street for carrying off surface water
  2. A degraded and squalid class or state of human existence

Gutters are part of the cityscape, disposing of excess street water so our feet stay dry. Rarely do they attract our attention except when they overflow. They have been described as a liminal area situated at the bottom of the internal hierarchy of the “street” trope. (Peter Andersson: Streetlife in Late Victorian London, 2013 p23)

Gutters are rich in negative connotations, associated with dirt and disease. To be called a guttersnipe is to be abject indeed. Gutters are also a distraction, requiring downcast eyes, diverting us from views of the horizon and the light. But Oscar Wilde regarded us all as gutter dwellers, with only our position in the gutter that differentiating us.

Looking at the Stars lowers our gaze to the gutter – to its materiality as a drainage device but also to an alternative worldview. It invites the audience to look more carefully at that which they step over, perhaps reflecting on the era of bluestone gutters, and deciding whether they are face up or face down. If we want to we can see the stars.

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars
— Oscar Wilde 1893
Earlier Event: 8 May
Ukes D'Jour
Later Event: 8 May
Pop up Choir ACABELLAS