Ambush Exhibiting , Westwood Place Melbourne

Charlie don’t live here anymore. Acrylic on board. 85x60cm.

I put a work out in the city on Friday in Westwood Place Melbourne, off Collins Street behind the Melbourne club. 

I normally place a note next to the artwork saying 'For You' which grabs people's attention. This time I thought I wouldn't make it so easy, instead stuck the note behind the work and lent it against the wall then found myself a vantage point across the road where I could stand and watch through a carpark, to see if anyone took the painting while I was watching. 

It gives me a thrill if I'm there to witness someone taking it.

The location I chose wasn't that busy itself but it was lunch time and only a few metres from a bustling Little Collins St. I stood there for about half an hour and not one person went over or it seemed even barely noticed the painting. Lately works haven't been lasting more than 10 mins on the street. I was getting hungry and so leaving the work there sitting on the street unclaimed, went off for a Japanese lunch and beer. At lunch I decided that if the work hadn't been taken when I got back I'd maybe make it a bit more obvious and take the note off and stick it on the wall next to the painting like I normally do.

After lunch I went back to Westwood Place, this time from the other end via the small pedestrian walkway off Collins Street. Just as I turned into the lane I could see a lady looking at the painting. Getting closer I could see it was a 'bag lady' with fully loaded trolley and all. She was inspecting the note and obviously deciding whether she should take it or not. 

She did take the painting and piled it on top of her trolley. Intrigued I followed her down Little Collins Street.

The note I left with it said 'this is art that has escaped the gallery', she headed in the general direction of Melbourne's main gallery the NGV and I thought that she may have taken the note quite literally, intending to return my painting to it's rightful home. Feeling like a bit of a stalker I followed from a distance until she turned into a deadend laneway a few blocks down that had another laneway branching off it. 

Where was she going? Is this where she lives? Who knows?

Many people have commented how well she was dressed for a bag lady which makes her even more intriguing. Who is our mysterious art lover? Anyone know who she is or anything about her?

I hope she's enjoying her new acquisition.

Ambush Exhibiting Calle de Jalapa in Roma Norte, Mexico City

Ambush Exhibiting in Mexico thanks to foreign Correspondent Jackie Hocking

Hey Troy

I've been back from Mexico now two weeks and every day I keep meaning to send you a pic of your painting in Mexico…

I carried it all over Mexico with me and to Cuba too and finally picked Calle de Jalapa in Roma Norte, Mexico City.

Jalapa was more or less the first place I was in when I got to Mexico as well so the street name was a great little coincidence. 

I'm sorry the photos are so blurry… must have been the fog I was in after a night of beers and Luche Libre.. very good fun…

I'm curious! Has anyone contacted you? (No)  I translated the note into Spanish and then I thought about going back and writing it in English but we had too much to do and see so I didn't go back. 

I hope your painting has gone to a cool home in Roma Norte or surrounds as this was a cool part of Mexico City.

Anyway see you soon.

Hasta luego amigo

Jackie

Ambush Exhibiting Devonport, Auckland New Zealand

Ambush Exhibiting in New Zealnd thanks to Foreign Correspondent Nicol Tonkin.

May have procrastinated on location for too long and too many days that rained so I just did it. am sitting in a cafe for a while hoping that someone passes with it while I am here. Hahaha good fun.

Great!! Thanks Nicol Yeah i do the same. I mean the work's for free so what's it matter where it goes?... but it does matter somehow... and then you hope someone takes it while you're there. I don't always get to watch them. great you've got a spot. What suburb? I'll put it on Instagram.
Devonport on the North Shore. 
People don't trust taking it. Have watched a few stop and the unease they display. I'm like TAKE IT.

Ha ha ha this is great! Some people drive across the city to try and get one of my works and I can't even give it away to others.
Let me know how it goes I have left it in the hands of the people.
Ahh thanks heaps. Now we waait. Sometimes i hear from them but many times I never know what happens to them. It's all part of it.

Update the next day via Instagram:

Ambush Exhibiting, Byron Bay New South Wales Australia

Bright floor

My preference is for darker colours. Actually I love the purity of just black and white. These brighter colours started to emerge in my work after I started Ambush exhibiting. I felt the works needed brighter colours to compete with the visual noise of the street.

Ambush Exhibiting Collingwood, Melbourne

 

Ambush exhibitng today in Peel St Collingwood, Melbourne

I WISH I COULD KEEP LIKING THIS AND YOU WOULD GET TONNES OF LIKES BC I JUST WANNA LOOK AT THIS 4 EVA!!!!

21 Aug - 06 Sep 2014

Fort Delta

Melbourne Australia

www.fortdelta.com.au

I WISH I COULD KEEP LIKING THIS AND YOU WOULD GET TONNES OF LIKES BC I JUST WANNA LOOK AT THIS 4 EVA!!!! Catalogue text

Rapid mash-ups of colour and line as well as a palpable sense of gusto distinguish Troy Mendham’s paintings.

As a painter-turned-image maker working through contemporary Abstraction, his new solo exhibition I WISH I COULD KEEP LIKING THIS AND YOU WOULD GET TONNES OF LIKES BC I JUST WANNA LOOK AT THIS 4 EVA!!!! sees Mendham progress his exploration of new ways in which audiences are engaging with Abstraction in both physical and virtual arenas.

As the exhibition’s title suggests, Mendham’s practice as a painter encompasses that of the avid instagrammer or online content creator who uploads imagery for online exchange; approximating aesthetic value with mass receivership. Mendham’s engagement with the perpetual image stream of the screen follows on from his ‘Ambush Exhibiting’ series where he distributed his paintings in various public locations for audiences to find, document and re-appropriate as techno images using smartphones.

Most intriguing about Mendham’s new series is how he presents a contemporary situation for abstraction whereby the painterly gesture has virtual sensitivities towards compressions, transposition, and simulated impressions. Yet, by their physically defined presence in the gallery, Mendham dually acknowledges the genre’s history and current evolvement, the consumption of its rendering, and how these split sensibilities are integral to the future of the artistic practice.

James Bowen, 2014
Fort Delta

Installation in progress at Fort Delta

Fort Delta, Melbourne 2014