Mike O’Connor “The Interview 1”
HE appears to be everything that Big Brother is not – earnest, intelligent, well mannered and concerned about the wellbeing of those with whom he shares the planet.
I decline the herbal tea and opt for Bushells. There’s not a Monte Carlo or Iced Vo-Vo in sight, so I take a handful of raw peanuts from the plate on the table.
It’s late in the day, and from the deck of this Byron Bay retreat I watch a herd of cows plodding homewards across a far paddock.
There is, however, a nexus between John Dahlsen and Big Brother, for it is his artwork that hangs on the walls of the Big Brother house, a symbol of the latest series’ attempt – in between under-blanket gropes and midnight bonks – to embrace the message of environmental consciousness.
[private free|gold|free special]
We walk around to his incredibly tidy studio, past a totem-pole-like artwork made of several hundred thongs, and he explains his involvement with BB.
“The executive producer approached me and gave me this pitch, and when I was presented with the sort of audience figures they could reach, I felt there was the potential to take advantage of them and use them to make a difference,” he says.
“They contacted me because I was known as an environmental artist and they said the house was going to have a green theme.
“I thought that if my art could make an imprint on even a small part of that viewing public and show them to view the environment in a different way and get the environmental message, then it was worth it.”
Dahlsen exudes that aura of health that comes from exercise and a careful diet. He and his wife Rago walk the several kilometres from their property to the Byron Bay lighthouse every morning, and my bet would be that they don’t stop for a blueberry muffin on the way home.
“My hope was to lend a degree of sophistication to the debate in the house that wasn’t there previously,” he says. “I’m biased, but I hope the artworks add something, another level.”
I wonder privately whether most of the BB inmates can even spell “environment”, but admire Dahlsen’s optimism.
“I feel the planet is in very fragile shape. I believe it could go either way, and I felt that by joining with Big Brother I could do my bit to help,” he explains. His motives were initially misconstrued by some of his associates, who accused him of selling out to the forces of commercialism, but he claims to have won them back.
“It doesn’t take too much intelligence to see what my intentions were. Some people saw my artworks on the program and judged me because they weren’t aware of the green theme,” he says.
As the light fades we leave his studio and he walks me through Cape Heritage, a four- bedroom luxury home which he and Rago rent to tourists by the week.
“I enjoy it,” he says of his dual artist-landlord role. “It’s a big property, and there’s plenty of privacy for the house guests and for us. We live in very separate accommodation, but it’s fun for guests who may want to view my work.”
