Earlier this year, we heard about an ambitious project to transform Sydneys Harbours Cockatoo Island into a mecca of street art. When we first heard it, it seemed a long way away, and we weren’t sure exactly what it entailed. Over time, we started learning more, and getting an idea as to what it would encompass – and it was bigger, bolder, and more jam packed with awesome than we ever imagined. The Outpost project will be a showcase of Australian street art, and international street art, that outweighs anything that has previously been seen in Australasia.

Over the next five weeks, we’ll be focusing on the Outpost Project for our editorial content – we’ll still have our regular blogs, but we’ll also be running a string of content as we document whats going on up at the island. We’ve also been working with the wonderful ArtSeries Hotels to help coordinate several forums and artist showcases as well, and there will be all kinds of posts around those. The entire team here has been gearing up for this for the last few months – its here, and we’re totally amped!

So, this is your rough guide to the event – from here will be links to articles on each event, interviews, live blogging, photos and all the rest. Use this as your feed, or just keep reading as you normally would to keep on track – all the Outpost content will be tagged so you can always just check the tag feed … Outpost will be a ground breaking event in the Australian street art legacy – we can’t wait, because its going to be mad – so read on, bookmark this article, and keep checking back here for new content links.

This is only a guide, and we’ll keep it as up to date as possible, so if in doubt, please refer to the Outpost Project website.

Invurts Rough Guide To The Outpost Project

• What Its All About
• Whats Invurt Doing There?
• Where Its At – Cockatoo Island
• Outpost Project Festival Map
• Artists & Interviews
• Events & Exhibitions
• Outpost Forums
• Educational Programs
• Media Releases & Links

What Its All About

Outpost Project is a unique, five week event held on Sydneys Cockatoo Island – its the biggest ever International street art festival ever held in Australia, and the scope, variety and sheer creativity that is going to be on display is absolutely mind blowing.

“The OUTPOST PROJECT is all set to transform the gritty industrial spaces of Cockatoo Island into an explosion of urban art. An impossible outcome, without the talent, commitment and energy of more than 150 artists, all willing to come on a journey with curators Sydney Harbour Federation Trust and aMBUSH Gallery, in a first for the Southern Hemisphere.

Renowned international and local artists such us ROA (Belgium), Ethos (Brazil), Kid Zoom (USA/Australia), Anthony Lister (USA/Australia) and the Everfresh Collective (Australia) will illuminate the island with large-scale installations, live art creations including aerosol art, stencilling, paste-ups, sticker art, cup rocking, sculpture, murals and billboards.

Exhibitions and forums will immerse visitors into global street art culture. Must-sees include George Shaw’s Oi You! Collection boasting works by Os Gemeos, Swoon, Faile and the world’s best known and most influential Street Artist Banksy.

The OUTPOST PROJECT will also exhibit works from the 2011 Australian Stencil Art Prize, a major T-shirt streetwear exhibition, the MAY’s: The May Lane Street Art Project presented by Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, plus local collectives collaborating with international artists.

Against this backdrop, a vibrant live and changing weekend events program offers a mix of grand experiences and unexpected happenings. Street sports will take centre stage with the creation of a vast waterfront skateable plaza setting a scene for Skateboarding Australia’s Pro/Am Tour Grand Final.

Alongside the action, an array of pop-up bars, retail and gallery spaces, artist battles, demos, DJ’s, tours and art-making projects will cover the island with activity for all ages. The OUTPOST PROJECT will also present an innovative education program, engaging students with the artists, voices, styles and issues of Street Art. Escape the mainland and immerse yourself in street art on Cockatoo Island.”

To put it simply? If you read this website, love street art, and are not as yet going, you need to go and organise your tickets to Sydney, or get a ferry over to the island up right now.

Seriously.

What’s Invurt Doing There?

Attempting not to curl up in a ball from sensory overload?!! Haha …well, we’ve been planning our Outpost coverage for some time, so we’ll do doing a fair bit …

We’ll be on the ground as much as we can be, live blogging and keeping you up to date on what is happening on location. We’ll be (hopefully, artists time and willingness permitting!) conducting on the spot interviews and short chats with artists and visitors throughout the Project. We’ll be taking photos and lots of video. We’ll be hooked in to a heap of social media and pumping out as much information for you as possible – so if you can’t make it there, you can at least follow whats going on – with the amount of blogs and sites covering it besides ourselves, you wont be starved for info.

So we’ll be talking to everyone we possibly can, documenting it all as it happens so that if you can’t make it, or wanted to check or find out more about something you saw, something that you missed while you were there, we can, hopefully, give you a bit of a window into what’s going on …

Invurt has also teamed up with ArtSeries Hotels, to assist them in some of their many activities at the island. We’ll be helping with a bunch of events such as the Outpost Forums, and they will also be sponsoring one of the rising stars of Melbourne street art, Heesco, up there as he does a bunch of live art for them – tying his work into their advocating the plight of Australias many endangered species, particularly the Tasmanian Devil. With their video team, we’ll also be interviewing, documenting and generally roaming around the island in order to produce a short documentary of the event.

“The Art Series Hotel Group is led by young gun property developer and art collector Will Deague and has created three boutique hotels from the ground up in less than a year. Each of the three boutique luxury hotels are inspired by and dedicated to a unique and celebrated Australian artist. They are inspired by; Adam Cullen, John Olsen and Charles Blackman.

Art Series Hotels proudly supports the following Outpost forums. Visit the forums space throughout Outpost to watch short film clips on the contributing artists and enter the draw to win a trip to Melbourne to stay in the Cullen Hotel. “

We’re really stoke to be helping out ArtSeries with their projects up on The Island, their ethos is solid and extremely supportive of the arts, and we couldn’t think of a better partner for the event.

Lastly, keep an eye on our LIVE BLOG every weekend to get an on the spot view of what’s going on at the Island! If you see us there, say hi – we’d love to chat!

Where Its At – Cockatoo Island

Cockatoo Island has a unique history – as the largest island in the harbour it has a special place in Sydneys history.

“Located at the junction of the Parramatta and Lane Cove rivers, Cockatoo Island is a former imperial prison, industrial school, reformatory and gaol. It is also the site of one of Australia’s biggest shipyards during the twentieth century. The first of its two dry docks was built by convicts and was completed in 1857. The island’s maritime industrial activity ceased in 1992.

Cockatoo Island’s prison buildings were added to UNESCO’s World Heritage list along with ten other Australian convict sites in July 2010. Large workshops, slipways, wharves and residences retain the texture of the island’s industrial past.”

Cockatoo Island couldn’t be a more perfect spot to host an event such as Outpost – the buildings, the surroundings, all conducive to a monumentally creative atmosphere.

For all information on amenities, Accomodation, Ferrys, water taxis and other and transport to and from the island, there is a host of information over at the Outpost Project website.

Outpost Project Festival Map

Cockatoo island is quite a big place, but, thankfully, all the action will be easily accessible from the point of landing at the main docks.

Download the festival map here and save it onto your phones/laptops/tablets for a bit more convenience!

Artists & Interviews

There’s are so damned many artists involved in the festival that its hard to count them all – they say 150, we’d say that there are probably way more than that!! For lists of artists, and feature artists involved in Outpost, head over to their website (these are not complete lists, there are many many more).

We’ll be featuring some special Outpost interviews over the next five weeks, so keep checking back. In the meantime, we have in the past interviewed a whole bunch of artists who will be working on the island on various artworks, including:

• Drewfunk – Interview | Website | Outpost Profile
• Rone – Interview | Website | Outpost Profile
• Max Berry – Interview | Website | Outpost Profile (also check out his Outpost video here.
• Deb – Interview | Website | Outpost Profile
• Ghostpatrol – Interview | Website | Outpost Profile
• Beastman – Interview | Website | Outpost Profile
• Shannon McKinnon & Secret Wars – Interview | Website
• Bennett – Interview | Website | Outpost Profile
• Makatron – Interview | Website | Outpost Profile)
• Ears – Interview | Website | Outpost Profile
• Jumbo – Interview | Website | Outpost Profile
• Zap – Interview | Website | Outpost Profile
• Numskull – Interview | Website | Outpost Profile
• Vexta – Interview | Website | Outpost Profile
• Shida – Interview | Website | Outpost Profile

With so many artists at the island doing things, its impossible to cover them all, but that’s a small primer on some of the many amazingly talented individuals who will be at the island. None of this even includes all the hundreds of artists from Australia and around the world, who will be converging on Sydney Harbour over the next few weeks – we’re sure that there will be all kinds of stuff popping up over the city from them in the next few weeks as well …

Exhibitions

God. Damn. SO many events and exhibitions spread over the five weeks. If you want to get all the information on the exhibitions running, check here on their website.

Some of the major exhibitions are:

PasteModernism 3

“Paste Modernism is the largest celebration of the medium of ‘paste-ups’ in Australia, and is now presented again for the 3rd time at Outpost Project on Cockatoo Island. Throughout its inception it has found residence in staples of the Sydney art scene, starting initially with the artist run residence Hibernia House in a guerilla exhibition, and finally graduating to the heritage walls of Cockatoo Island. Every available inch of over 300 square meters of wall space will be covered with the pasted artworks of over 100 local and international artists.”

Click here for our full article on PM3.

NEXT – T-Shirt Exhibition

“Throughout its evolution, street art has taken on many forms and mediums. However, it is arguably street fashion in which it finds its most natural progression from the static streets into walking works of art. NEXT is an excision and examination into the heart and soul of one of the most influential and vibrant subcultures – T-shirt culture.”

Click here for our full article.

Australian Stencil Art Prize

“Back in 2008, the Australian Stencil Art Prize was born from a simple idea – the desire to put a spotlight on the amazing calibre of Stencil artists – and it has now transformed in three short years to a fundamental piece of Australian street art culture.”

Click here for our full article.

Oi! You! Exhibition

“Yes you heard right. The Big Brand, The Can’t-Stop Can, The Unseen Man. Banksy!… and Swoon! Faile! David Choe and more! – “The Bad Artists Imitate, The Great Artists Steal” and Banksy surely steals…the stage, where ever he goes! Now his work comes to Cockatoo Island for Outpost Project, along with many other fine fresh streetartists, in the form of the “Oi! You! Collection”

Click here for our full article

Urban Uprising – Full article to come.

That, however, is not all. It is near impossible for us to do a full write up on all the exhibited stuff at Cockatoo Island (we’ll try over the next few weeks to post as much as we can, though!), but these are some of the other displays and live art events – there is a heap of information on these over at the Outpost website.

• ANTHONY LISTER INFLATABLES
• ARTERY
• C-ART DIGITAL ARTWORK INSTALLATION
• Buff Diss Wall
• Ethos Live Art
• EVERFRESH STUDIO
• FOUNDATIONS
• IRONLAK BUS
• KID ZOOM: HOME
• MISO & NAILS INSTALLATION
• PROJECT UGLY
• TEMPLE: BY PHIBS, BEASTMAN & NUMSKULL
• THE ECOSYSTEM OF MOON TITAN BY GHOST PATROL AND TRISTAN JALLEH
• WILL COLES MERMAID & ARMCHAIR

Ahh, wow. Amazing.

Events

Part event, part exhibition, these are some of the many showcases of featured events and artists that are participating at Outpost.

ROA WALL – 4-5 NOVEMBER, 10AM – 5PM

Belgian artist ROA works on large scale, painting black and white animal images on abandoned factories and urban walls. Created using simple means – typically only black and white house paint and black and white spray paint – ROA’s street paintings reflect the aesthetic of naturalistic drawings more than a graffiti sensibility, even when painted on hundred foot-long walls.

Check out Roas website here as well as his Outpost Profile.

SECRET WARS

12 NOVEMBER, 6:00 – 7:30PM
19 NOVEMBER, 2:00 – 3:30PM
26 NOVEMBER, 6:00 – 7:30PM
3 DECEMBER, 2:00 – 3:30PM

“Secret Wars showcases artists and their art in the form of a live battle using simple but dynamic techniques. Artists are encouraged to have fun, think outside the square and use the platform to play off one another. Similar to the way MC’s battle, Secret Wars artists go head to head. It’s a display of amazing artwork by the world’s best artists in a way that has rarely been seen. Secret Wars is one of the country’s unique events and the only live art event of its kind. Often compared to fight club, it has a rapidly growing, dedicated and loyal audience. In particular, it is acknowledged amongst the ever present creative community and attracts a wide demographic cross section audience of different ages, cultural backgrounds and communities.”

We’ve followed Secret Wars and been to many of their Melbourne events, and, we have to say, in terms of art battles these are not to be missed. Watch your favourites as they go head to head to claim the Outpost Secret Wars championship!

Check out our interview with Shannon McKinnon from Secret Wars, the Secret Wars Australia website and the Facebook page for more info.

SHADOW WARS – 3 DECEMBER, 2-6PM

Shadow Wars is an exciting annual dance spectator event that has quickly developed a reputation as the most respected and highly-anticipated event on the breaking calendar. Check here for more details.

THE PAY OFFICE READING ROOMS FOR ZINES

MONDAY TO THURSDAY: 10AM – 5PM
FRIDAYS: 10AM – 8PM
SATURDAY – SUNDAYS: 10AM – 5PM

Take time out in The Pay Office reading room and explore the Outpost zine library. Zinesters are invited to add their own zines to the installation throughout the festival, providing The Pay Office readers with new discoveries on every visit.

Check out our full article here.

PROJECT UGLY

“Project Ugly is an outdoor exhibition to contradict the expected format of the billboard, and use the space to advertise art and promote a culture that struggles for support from its councils and government. This outdoor exhibition endeavours to change peoples opinions of street art, and show it in a positive light. See Shida and Mr Sprinkles paint live to complete the final two panels of Project Ugly. ”

Check out our full article here.

THINK TANK – What sort of creative future do you see for Cockatoo Island?

“The Sydney Harbour Federation Trust is seeking contributions and ideas to help shape the future of cultural programs and creative opportunities on Cockatoo Island – find this at the Water Towers on the island.”

TRIPLE J COMPETITION – “Keep a watchful eye out throughout OUTPOST for Triple J’s emerging artist competition winner, who will present their Street Art on Cockatoo Island throughout OUTPOST and be mentored by one of the leaders of this urban art form.

View all the Outpost events here on the Outpost website.

Skateboarding Australia Pro Am 2011 – Saturday 10 December 2011, 12:00 – 6:30pm

“In partnership with the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust, Skateboarding Australia will stage the 2011 Pro/Am Series Grand Final at OUTPOST PROJECT on Cockatoo Island on Saturday – 10th December, 12:00 – 6:30pm. 40 of Australia’s best street skaters including the likes of Tommy Fynn, Jack Kirk, Chima Ferguson and Sam Giles destroying a custom built street course in the hope of winning their share of the $10,000 prize money along with the chance to be crowned Australian Champion.”

Check out the Skateboarding Australia page over at the Outpost website.

The Outpost Forums

National Gallery and ArtSeries Hotels have teamed up to present the Outpost Forums. We’ve been helping outthe team at ArtSeries with some of these events, and we can’t wait to be a part of it and see them in action! You can check out our full article here, or read on.

The Art Market For Street Art and Who and What To Collect

The rise of street art has been greatly influenced by the market. Museums may not be investing in the work, but corporations are. Basquiat, Haring and Banksy are highly sought after and their works constantly break records at auction. Are all street artists looking for commercial acceptance? Does the increased value of street art pose a risk to works being ‘stolen’ from the street or misappropriated?

Sunday 6th November
3pm – 4.30pm

The Politics Of Street Art

Street art is not exclusively political but there is a political dimension to claiming a space, the personal empowerment of not being locked out and the DIY ethos. All street art is a battle over public space: who controls it and what it gets used for. When there is no expectation to sell a work, and your anonymity is assured, should we expect more political commentary than we currently get? Do Australian artists have different dialogues with their viewers than the street artists in other countries and why are some topics repeated and others ignored?

Sunday 13th November
3pm – 4.30pm

The Future Of Street Art – Documentation vs Ephemeral

Without proper documentation (pictures, videos, web,) street art would only exist in a temporary space. One day a piece is there, the next day it’s gone, and without proper documentation there would be fewer people to know about it. For the artists and the viewer is it more important to document than participate? Has the landscape shifted such that we are losing the fun of discovery and are at risk of creating imagery to fit an iphone’s capabilities? Is user generated content a good outcome for street art, and its creators?

Sunday 20th November
3pm – 4.30pm

Educational Program

Something like Outpost is already educational by default – you cant have hundreds of artists working in the biggest global contemporary art movement this century, at the same place, without it being a massive learning experience. That said, the XBOX Kinekt team have teamed up with the guys over at the island to put on a great little educational program for primary and secondary students – with a little more structure than just “Wow, that art is amazing” – and we think its great!

“PRESENTED BY KINECT FOR XBOX 360

Students and young people can discover the possibilities of Street Art and connect with OUTPOST’s artists and artworks through a range of programs, including tours, artist-run workshops, interactive projects, camping packages and online education resources.

Primary & secondary students and youth organisations are encouraged to visit OUTPOST and experience this global contemporary art movement in the unique environment of Cockatoo Island. Education programs can be arranged for weekdays and weekends.”

You can email the team at Outpost here for more info, or head over to the Outpost Project website.

Links & Media Releases

All of our coverage of the Outpost project, and any associated articles can be found by clicking here.

You can find all of the official Outpost media information on their website. Here are some direct links and links to other helpful content, as well as press releases from various news sources.

• Invurt @ Outpost Project (All Outpost Feed Content)
• Outpost Project Media Kit
• ArtSeries Hotels & Outpost Project – check out more on the ArtSeries Hotels website
• The Sydney Harbour Trust
• Outpost Project @ aMBUSH Gallery
• Outpost Project @ Sydney Morning Herald
• Outpost project @ TimeOut Magazine
• Outpost Project @ Sky News
• Kid Zoom & Outpost @ The Australian
• Beastman @ Central Courier

Thanks …

Just as an aside, we (well, me, Facter) would like to thank Bonnie (Cholo), Facie (Grace), Starma, Sally, Jack Douglas, Emma at ArtSeries Hotels, aMBUSH Gallery & crew, Sydney Harbour Trust, Conrad, James Watkins, Carl Allison, Five Creative & James Baker for getting the new site all done in time, all the artists and others we’ve interviewed and spoken to (who took out time from their very busy schedules), and everyone else for helping out with the coverage of Outpost, as well as our readers – its been a huge project for us and a lot of work (and its only just starting), and we couldn’t have got it done without them!

GAME ON!!!