Fitback
Screening at dB project, Sydney. Special Tag: The Simple Things
screnning of a cricket ball hovering above a dark hollow (detail)
You probably made a long way to this project and I should do my bit... Problem: The documentation for "Fitback" is bad (I was more or less in holiday mode) and also you don't want to see the whole installation in proper details as it was the backroom, the toilet, of dB projects in Sydney, where my friend Thomas Jeppe showed his work ("Boon at the Hand of Circumstance", in the front room - of course). But exhibiting in the toilet seems to be one of the most hottest things in the city, so there was no question about participating. An interpretation of my readings about David Boon, former cricket player, and his role in Australian society emerged slowley in form of a 3D animation. The exhibition took place on Australia Day(!), the day before the best beach party of my life.
Test setting
Technical details: A pocket projector is leaning against a VB can. The screening gets touched by the surface (the table for example) so that a natural chasm emerges at the bottom corner of the projection. The ball seems to hover over this mystical hole...
David Boon:
David Clarence Boon (*1960), nicknamed Boonie, is a former Australian cricketer whose international playing career spanned the years 1984–1995.
-- Wikipedia
Ambivalent sportsman:
He is also alleged to have once consumed 52 cans of beer on a flight from Sydney to London in 1989, in a story that is considered by some to be part of Australian sporting legend. This has never been confirmed by Boon however though Geoff Lawson did confirm it.
-- Wikipedia
Boonie's 52's:
The most talked about statistic attributed to an Australian sportsman is David Boon’s 52 [...] So revered is the figure that it was once suggested that the Tasmanian speed limit be lowered to 52kmh as a tribute.
-- beebo.org
Boonie for VB Beer:
A senior Foster's executive has admitted the beer company was wrong to create the David Boon figurine, because it glorified binge drinking. [...]
Chris Maxwell, national sponsorship manager at Foster's Group, conceded the brewery had not anticipated binge drinking would become such an urgent social issue. "We thought that David Boon had a perfect fit with VB. He was a good Aussie bloke, with good Aussie values. However, we have had a lot of criticism around using him in regards to this binge-drinking issue," Mr Maxwell said.
"Looking back, we have decided that was the wrong thing to do. We didn't have the foresight to see that this issue was going to be so significant. And in glorifying that behaviour we have added to the issue of the normalisation of binge-drinking in Australia."
theage.com.au
Material about Boonie, Beer and Australia Day:
