Jonathan Zawada's 'Blackout In A Glasshouse' comments on the fragility and beauty of what happens after dark
Renowned Brisbane businessman, venue owner and live-music champion Scott Hutchinson is continuing his fight against Queensland's lockout legislation with the commissioning of a new art installation from Sydney-bred artist Jonathan Zawada that comments on the fragility and beauty of life after dark.
Blackout In A Glasshouse is a temporary artwork comprising a raised, modified prefab glasshouse with blacked-out windows. Inside resides a living, breathing display of flowers resting in bottles of tonic water and illuminated by UV lights. Underneath the glasshouse, six monitors live-stream the activity from inside (pictured below).
Constructed in the carpark of Harvey's, on James Street, in Fortitude Valley, the project is a reflection of the precarious nature of the city's nightlife, with the blooming flowers requiring nurturing and encouragement to reach their full potential.
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Explained Hutchinson in a statement: "The unique vibe that exists in places like Fortitude Valley is very fragile and even though it took years to develop, it can disappear quickly. I just can't believe the government can't see the link between venue opening hours and culture."
The project came together after three to four months of conceptual work, Zawada says, with construction ultimately only taking a handful of days.
"The greenhouse itself is prefab; we swapped out the original acrylic panels for the black ones, or the construction crew did — I think it only took them three or four days," he said. "Then it was a day-ish bringing it out here and installing it, and then another day here yesterday doing all of the flower arranging and lighting cycles."
After being approached by Hutchinson (who, along with being the co-owner of Newstead venue The Triffid, is the chairman of renowned construction firm Hutchinson Builders) with the idea of creating an artwork in response to the state's lockout laws, the now-LA-based Zawada (pictured below) called on his own experiences and peers from his hometown to inform the shape the project took.
"Not being from Brisbane, I wasn't aware that [the lockout situation] was happening here," he said.
"I'm from Sydney and I've worked a lot with bands like The Presets and used to be the creative director of a record label called Modular for a little while, so I knew from their side, and I know Tyson Koh [of nightlife activists Keep Sydney Open] and a lot of our old friends who are pushing back down there — we're in LA but we've been following that side of it for a while.
"So, when we were talking to the guys from James Street about what sort of things we could do, what sort of installations and pieces we could do for this, they said that Scott was keen to put some money into producing a work around this, and we got excited about that idea as well, after thinking some on it and trying to understand a little bit about the details of what it is."
The arrival of the artwork, which was organised as part of the current RESORT event being held on James Street until 15 October, comes in the immediate wake of a shake-up of sorts to Sydney's own lockout legislation under premier Mike Baird, which itself followed a massive protest at the weekend organised by Keep Sydney Open.
According to Nick Braban, the secretary of spiritual peers Our Nightlife Queensland, the timing couldn't be better for Queensland's Labor government to reassess their own stringent laws.
"With the NSW government flagging further softening of their controversial laws, which saw thousands march in protest over the weekend, surely it is time the Palaszczuk government revisited the introduction of the 1am lockout up here," he said.
In order to create the work, Zawada considered the "unforeseen side effects of when rules and regulations get put in place", knowing that he had a desire "to respond to the idea that there is a positive side" to Brisbane having a vibrant nightlife.
"It's not all negative sides to people going out, and there's a side to life … [and] definitely, to culture, which happens in environments which are kind of artificial," he said.
"Everything can't be sunshine and nature, as much as that is actually more my vibe. A lot of my friends and a lot of guys that are in bands that I've worked with, they love this stuff, and I love them — and I get, as a creative person, that different things stimulate different people in different ways."
Though a wholly realised vision now, Zawada says he passed through a couple of previous concepts before settling on the glasshouse approach, having originally toyed with the idea of constructing the work around an isolation tank.
"I was looking at sensory deprivation tanks and things like that, which was my direct response to the idea of, you know, once you start tightening down on what people can and can't do and trying to dictate what they can do in their down time, basically you end up in this environment where there's very little to do other than go into a sensory deprivation chamber," he said.
"So I started looking at those, and started looking at biohazard isolation chambers and things like that, which sort of have a similar aspect. I think initially it was going to be one of these biohazard isolation chambers with plants in it and all that sort of stuff, but I felt like that was probably a little too heavy-handed — a little too negative."
The installation will remain at Harvey's carpark for the next three days before temporarily relocating to Hutchinson's house while the team lock down a "semi-permanent" home for the artwork, at this stage angling to be placed in Chinatown Mall on Duncan Street, where, Braban says, it will stay for "probably three to six months, we hope".
"Probably by Saturday it'll go live at Scott's house or something," he said, "and then hopefully we'll fit it somewhere in the Valley to live for a while."
For more information about RESORT on James Street, see the event's website.
To read more about Jonathan Zawada and his past, present and upcoming work, check out his website.