a curated photography gallery of [extra]ordinary places
Hold Me Dear collaboration with Testing Grounds community art space - an evolving outdoor exhibition
The Hold Me Dear project recently collaborated with an exciting new outdoor community art space in Melbourne - Testing Grounds - to create an evolving outdoor exhibition for four weeks in May - June 2014. As photographic submissions were received during these four weeks to the Hold Me Dear website from individuals worldwide, they not only formed part of the online Hold Me Dear gallery, but were also been added simultaneously to the evolving physical exhibition at Testing Grounds.
As the exhibition on site at Testing Grounds grew over these four weeks, more people became engaged in the project, culminating in an exhibition closing party where individuals could not only meet each other and see and enjoy all the submissions of treasured places and stories, but share their personal memories associated with places that meant a lot to them. Photographs and their associated 50 word stories were exhibited using waterproof prints framed with hand-crafted branches, and also projected at night onto the large wall on site as part of the exhibition.
About Testing Grounds
Testing Grounds is a free outdoor art space. It is a place for experimentation and testing ideas, for public gatherings and educational opportunities in the heart of Melbourne’s arts and cultural precinct. Testing Grounds is a place for new works of art and creative ideas to be developed and shared. Testing Grounds is also an exploration into ways to use vacant or under utilised civic space in order to provide the general public with greater amenity.
Testing Grounds is made up of 2000 sq m of ground made up of grass, plants, concrete and interesting left-over building rubble, a blue neon sign, a large concrete wall often with projections, 784 reclaimed timber pallets, three toilets, 24 maples, 40 pear trees, one nectarine tree, more than 68 different plant varieties, a film projector, 16,000 litres of water in IBC storage containers, lots of car stereos playing predominantly Classic FM, 22 car headlights, 312 pot plants and a Kelpie called Sunday. We also have a 20ft shipping container workshop, a 20ft shipping container performance stage, an artist-in-residence studio and a refreshments bar serving wine, beer and coffee.
Regular events and activities including free film screenings, public workshops and an artist-in-residence program.