The London Art Car Parade - Sunday 14th June 2009
Now that the dust has settled on the art car parade I have an opportunity to reflect on this project and its success. We were blessed with beautiful weather that day as predicted so a huge shout of joy and relief....Obviously creating from scratch all the temporarily transformed art cars for the day that morning was always going to be a stretch but having schooled my participants in the art of car decoration in the workshops running up to the parade, all ran smoothly. It also felt wonderful to direct and guide when it was appropriate and otherwise leave my car artists freedom to enjoy being creative, adventurous and playful. Their passengers some of whom were completely new to art cars also had a fantastic time it seemed experimenting and helping. As ever many hands make light work....
The Ham & High Express sent their very genial photographer Nigel who got us girlies to whoop and twirl and generally drape ourselves over our creations. After all everybody had had the brief to 'dress to impress' and mirror the themes of their art cars. Dressed in bustiers, feather boas, zebra and leopard skin dresses, cheerleader outfits, garlands, sarees and cowboy hats we were all set to bring the feel of carnival to London's streets. It was clear that he wanted the newspaper article to focus on the dedication of the art car parade I had made in honour of my mother's sudden passing at the end of April and we gathered and grinned around her hastily transformed proton.
It had felt important and appropriate to paint her car that week with black and white designs given these were her favourite colour combinations and to incorporate the patterns from fabrics she had lovingly transformed into clothes and furnishings throughout my life. I had meant to use two deep and meaningful quotes about life and death but I just ran out of time. Davide assisted me in the last couple of days and added a real whoosh of organic energy in beautiful spirals and swirls which I know she would have loved.
My tutors arrived half an hour before lift off; Tessa, Peter and Jini and we amused and entertained them and other guests and neighbours with feisty drumming and flag dancing. I particularly loved my darling friend Samantha's willful enthusiasm that got her astride and posing in her rainbow fairy outfit on the top of their car despite being pregnant. And soon she was sitting on her husband Tiago's shoulders waving, dancing and screaming. Go girl!!
And then my brother John showed up in his monster car, whirling with hundreds of metallic wind spinners with his young sons Herbie and Harvey. To my astonishment and huge joy, behind him rode my other brother Mark who had so ardently refused my invitation to drive my mother's car with a 'hmn I'm not into artcars, it's not my thing'. His proton also alive with vibrantly coloured spinners....I turned to my tutor and said 'you see art really is a great healer'. I was so proud that my brother had stepped massively out of his comfort zone to join me and my brother in being outrageous.
And then we were off....... my fears about us staying together, all eleven cars, dissolved - we looked so remarkable as a procession that traffic around us waited patiently. I led the motorcade up through the streets of hampstead with a cacophony of car horn beeping that became a complete musical composition for much of the parade. It was this 'sound installation' facet to our parade that absolutely took my breath away - so unexpected, rhythmical and participative. Soon many cars approaching us were beeping their horns.....fire-engines joined in too...I can honestly say that I've never ever experienced anything so amazing on the streets of London. The looks of sheer amazement, the enthralled cheers, the grins, the photographs......it made up for being stopped in Regents Park because we were making too much noise and the Open Air Theatre couldn't hear itself. (oops! - I'd checked everything else out ie. no demos/ roadworks/ health and safety but had forgotten about the theatre) It made up for the police being tardy with a bobbing Samantha and her sister Tracey standing, dancing and waving out the top of their estate sun roof.
Our final destination was Camden and that was when it all got a little bit hectic. My co-pilot Davide had got out to film us and then my Dita Von Tease follower art car went astray and led the whole procession around another part of camden. Nevertheless despite some stress on my part we did find them, parked illegally outside The Stables. There is something magical about a procession - it has its own miraculous protective aura, perhaps because people think that it has been orchestrated and has permission to be in place, when in fact it was an unknown quantity. I had spent many hours debating whether to inform Camden police of our intentions and in the end decided that given the shortened time constraints (due to my mother's death) I would not. I also had the sneaking suspicion that they may try and stop it if they knew about it, despite some reassurance of a police officer friend.
And in the end, it was happy ever after......Thousands and thousands of people in hamsptead, belsize park, primrose hill, regents park, camden and chalk farm were lit up by the colour and sound of London's First Ever Art Car Parade ! * ! * !
Future Plans? Absolutely. I would love to attract sponsorship and creative partnerships to enable this to become really big in London and becoming a major feature and focus for creativity from so called 'ordinary' people as well as artists and creatives. I even have the vision of enlisting 'art car ambassadors' that would not only raise money for associated charities but also help to set in motion education schemes for teenagers who would be perceived as being disadvantages and at risk of exclusion. Art and creativity and in particular using the cultural 'icon' of the motor car has been proved in the US already as a fantastic way to turn teenagers onto the arts and improve their self-confidence, identity and sense of belonging.
