John Dahlsen on one of his most successful projects – The Absolut commission
I made a statement at the time about the Absolut Dahlsen commission:
“The real beauty of the found object work that I create, especially when I use thongs, is that most people who view it have owned a pair, will enthusiastically scan this sculpture with the romantic and genuine notion that somewhere is an old pair of their thongs that they lost on the beach!
[private free|gold|free special]
Because of the images thongs conjure up like the great outdoors and beaches, you will most likely find that the public will interact very intimately and humorously with this sculpture, experiencing a fond and genuine sense of ownership of the work. I would like to propose that this work, which is expected to reach an approximate height of 5 metres (not including the plinth base), is to be seen as a permanent piece made with quality materials.
This piece could then be publicly donated to either the Powerhouse museum in Sydney, as a gift from Absolut Vodka, or to the Gold Coast City Art gallery, as a gift for their sculpture walk.
These are two public institutions whose collections I am a part of and may be interested in accepting such a gift for their collection. However, I must note here, that the work would need to be made from quality materials, which would give the piece an appropriate lifespan and durability and a sense of permanence for it to be accepted by either of these institutions.
This is art sending out an environmental message. In 2000 following my being awarded the Wynne prize at the Art Gallery of NSW with the “Thong Totems”, I was appointed the official artist of the new millennium for the environmental organizations, Clean up Australia and Clean up the World.
I am proud of this association, as well as being proud of my association with the Australian Conservation Foundation through Peter Garrett, who was kind enough to open my “Renewed” Melbourne solo exhibition, a percentage of any opening night sales was offered to the Australian Conservation Foundation Marine campaign.
I see this project at Bondi with its inherent environmental message, as a continuing example of my support for these two environmental groups.”
Having the whole project filmed and made into a DVD was another bonus, which I instigated because I knew it would be an exciting project worth recording for posterity and for the use of the general public. This filming continued all away through to the launch, which was held at the sculpture by the sea outdoor art exhibition in Sydney.
A launch, which as it turned out became an “A” list event on the Sydney social scene, this was a very interesting experience to go through and in fact to be the centre of the attention of. Another really exciting result this whole exercise apart from the enormous amount of media and positive response that this work garnered, was the fact that I was able to negotiate with the executives at Absolut and the Gold Coast city public art gallery to have this work placed in semi-permanent loan outside the front of the gallery in a prominent position. It is still there to this day.
In fact the team at Absolut agreed to foot the bill for any further updates that I may need to make to this sculpture as the years go by, and as some of those flip-flops are ceremoniously pulled from the surface via the expected vandals who can’t help themselves. I imagine I will probably do this after a five or 10 year period when necessary.
