opening of #TheTrenthamEasterArtAndCraftShow2018 (tree installation)
DATE: Saturday 24 March 2018 at 3pm (installation opening ) and Thursday 29 March official opening of the actual show
LOCATION: #TheOldTrenthamRacecourse, race-goers enter on foot via Golden Point Road (approx 500 metre walk). Parking available on Rahills Road and Gleeson Street. Enter the course via Gleeson Street & Rahills Road,Trentham
WEB : http://www.trenthamartshow.org/ and http://www.trenthamartshow.org/events/trentham/
Major art installation will dress 100 Trentham racecourse trees
Trentham artist Bern Barry will use 1000 metres of colourful fabric to dress 100 trees at the old Trentham racecourse over Easter 2018 in an installation designed to recapture the colour and movement of the days when horse racing was a major town event. The old one-mile long race course, on the south-west corner of the town site, operated from 1880 and attracted crowds of up to 3000 people before falling into disuse and being
reclaimed by natural vegetation in the early 1900s. The track where horses’ hooves once pounded is now part of the Trentham Wombat Walk which takes in Trentham’s sights and natural attractions as it loops the town. Barry said the idea for the installation came while walking the race course bush after an
overseas’ trip, struck on his return by his hometown’s forest beauty and thinking about how to make people aware of it.
He was also moved by the story of a young jockey being killed at a race meet at the course, and recalled how little life was sometimes valued back then.
“I remember the start of Banjo Paterson’s poem, ‘Only a Jockey’ back then about another fatality of that era, which is prefaced with a media report of the time that read: Richard Bennison, aged 14, while riding William Tell in his training, was thrown and killed. The horse is luckily uninjured”, Barry said. “The object of the installation is to bring attention to the beauty of this forest as well as the plight of the jockeys in the early days of racing, where it would seem the horse was more important that the jockey, as seen in that poem”. He plans to spend three days wrapping the trees to heights of up to 2.5 metres in a variety
of bright colours to echo the colours of jockeys’ silks and the colours worn by the crowds in the now long-gone grandstand.
The colours have been chosen to co-ordinate with the tree types, colours and shapes. The giant art work will open on Saturday 24 March and run until Sunday 15 April, to be
open over school holidays (with free entry) and to be open during Trentham’s major annual Easter Art and Craft Show.
Barry hopes his installation will attract many visitors to experience the delight it is to walk on the Wombat Trail.
The fabric will be removed at the end of the installation period and is being attached and subsequently removed in a manner to ensure no trees are harmed.
all thanks to our friends at #TheTrenthamEasterArtAndCraftShow Bohemian Rhapsody Club and Magazine media crew is proudly covering the opening on 24 March that will be followed by reception (media: Bryanna Reynolds) Please stay tuned for more information.