Kmart Sculptures

Exit films Director Ben Saunders and Producer Tobias Webster contracted me to build 11 sculptures that were to be installed in a Kmart store. The sculptures were conceived by "Tin & Ed" and were to be built and clad with Kmart product. Once in store, the sculptures were part of a large television campaign, and were filmed over 4 days. All of the sculptures were built and tested at various workshops (we had to sublet more factories to house all of the stock and to provide more building space) over a 4 week period. They were installed over night before each of the shoot days. The most difficult installation was the sculpture made form the large Kmart lollie selection. There were over 2000 strands, each with around 80 lollies glued to each strand. This sculpture alone took 4 weeks to build and over 10 hrs for 4 people to set up in store.

Project Runway-Foxtel Arena

We were asked to come up with a simple and stylised set for the new 2012 "Project Runway" promotions. The task was made very much easier as the Director (Jessica O'sullivan), Designer (Sze Lock), Stylist (Leigh Dalton) and DP (Emilio Abbonizio) were all very willing to collaborate and work towards something that was achievable in the time frame and still look fantastic. We painted all of our own backdrops, had large hessian drapes made and built and painted most of the props. I really wanted everything to be knocked back and aged as much as possible so that set elements would always be part of the dark and smokey atmosphere.  Damian fitzgerald and Scott Janson both had a hand in painting the set pieces.

"Masters" Headphones in Perth

The final leg, Perth.

All the headphone pieces were loaded into 2 semitrailers and hauled from Sydney to Perth. We arrived a couple of days later (into a nine day heatwave) and began the task of stripping off all the Moove cartons and re-cladding with Masters cartons. Once again this took about 7 days and then we set up the headphones down on the water front. It all went very smoothly and despite the constant 39C degree  days we had a great time in Perth. The headphones also looked particularly striking with the green spearmint cartons.

Moove headphones in Sydney

The headphones were packed up and sent up north to Sydney. Once the 3 semitrailers arrived, our new construction team unpacked the pieces/cartons and we began re-cladding with Moove cartons. This took about 7 days and we then set it up just next to Circular quay.

"Big M" Headphones at St kilda festival

"Big M" big headphones at Faulkner park

This is the first set up of the headphones in Melbourne

"Big M" Big Headphones

Late last year we started making plans to build a large set of headphones that would be used in part for a TVC and also as an actual monument that was to sit in various locations around Australia. I was employed by "The Otto Empire" to design and construct this mammoth beast.

The finished structure sits at over four and a half metres tall and has a foot print of twelve by twelve metres. We had to make it so it could be broken down and transported and then erected in urban locations that were yet to be determined. We started with a steel frame which we then clad with plywood . The final cladding was to be done with empty "Big M' cartons, all 30 thousand plus of them. Each carton had to be glued and stapled into position so that they would not come off in extreme weather conditions. The base of each Earpiece middle section was engineered to sit on large steel girders and to hold 3.4 tonnes of ballast on each side.

Once completed the headphones were taken apart and loaded onto 2 semi trailers so it could be transported to a park in Melbourne and erected for the Television shoot.