lifeasdaddy - Lucas Ihlein: performance artist.

Flicking throught yesterdays' Sydney Morning Herald, I burst out laughing when I read these lead paragraphs written by Sununda Creagh:

If you were in Double Bay on Sunday, you may have seen a young man wearing an airline-style eyemask at an outdoor cafe. It was the artist Lucas Ihlein, pretending he was in Petersham.

The PhD student is part way through an art project called Bilateral Petersham, which requires him to stay within the boundaries of the inner-west suburb for two months. An unforeseen but important family commitment led to the emergency trip to Double Bay, but the blindfold protected the project's integrity - in the past fortnight he hasn't laid eyes on anyone or anything outside of what he has come to refer to as "the 'Sham".

The item became more interesting to me, because I used to live in the suburb adjacent to Petersham, and infact drove along New Canterbury Road, Petersham this morning.

Before it disappears behind the subscription wall, you can read the full article here.

Ihlein's got a blog about his art project here, and if the SMH article has disappeared, you can read a version of it in one of his blog posts here.   

It's also intereseting to see Ihlein's account of his interview by the SMH's Creagh here.  Hilarious in fact.

It's fascinating to read the comments on the blog posts, and it looks like the Petersham and near petersham community is getting behind the project.

The project's funded by a grant from the Marrickville Council.  We used to live within the Marrickville council area. 

I think this is a pretty cool project.  And I'm glad my money's not being spent on it.