Liquid Architecture

FORUM: SUSTAINABILITY OF SOUND ARTS IN AUSTRALIA

A good forum requires a worthwhile topic and a suitable mix of minds. Obvious enough, though more often than not discussion at forums can feel teased and exhausted, with what sometimes appears to be an over-problematisation of issues for the mere sake of (trying to start) a debate. The sustainability of 'sound art' is certainly a notable topic; the economies of sound art and the 'sustainable' arts sector (or as proposed in the forum, if there indeed is one), seem at times irreconcilable. Both the panel members and audience of LA10's first forum were experienced and opinionated enough to make this an informative and lively discussion.

CarriageWorks, formerly the Eveleigh Rail Yards, (re)opened in 2007 as a contemporary arts centre. Despite its new purpose the coloured history of CarriageWorks remains present in the traces of steel and worn concrete apparent throughout the building. Cemented railway tracks stream across the floors of the massive space; it is far from a 'white cube'. At the opening night of Liquid Architecture's Correspondence exhibition in the Performance Space section of CarriageWorks, somebody told me that he had performed at the site 15 years earlier in a large rave. A group had obtained access to the space to photograph a band, but held a dance party instead. Authorities shut the rave down as an old Red Rattler train was obscuring the exit and causing a potential hazard for people in the case of an emergency evacuation. It is anecdotes like these that make this a perfect location for Correspondence; as an audience member you are presented with new conversations and ideas, but you can't help but think too of the correspondences that have taken place beforehand, and the ongoing recollections and stories about them that trickle in and out of CarriageWorks' spaces today.