High Maintenance glamours Giffin Lane

Urban explorers, office workers and retail regulars will once again be greeted by one of Jackie Ryan’s temporary artworks as part of the Brisbane City Council’s Vibrant Laneways art program.  High Maintenance has been installed in Giffin Lane in the Brisbane CBD, bringing some unexpected tongue-in-cheek glamour to the back of the Manufacturers Mutual Insurance Building.

The Vibrant Laneways art program continues to invite discovery and delight, and offer incidental cultural experiences in the city.  High Maintenance is Jackie Ryan’s second artwork to be featured in a laneway.  CREATIVEMOVE had the pleasure of curating the artists for the 2014 program; Jackie Ryan’s Little Girl Lost series was installed in Hutton Lane from October 2014 – January 2015.

As Jackie describes the work:

“The people of Queensland have a long and well-documented love of sun and fun, the embodiment of which is arguably the large artificial beach located at the heart of the South Bank Parklands across the river from the capital city—the environment colloquially known as ‘Brisbane’s backyard’.

This Vibrant Laneways concept design—a near-building-sized image of a glamorous bather conducting her business via phone while lounging by a pool—locates that love of sun and fun within a laneway in the Brisbane CBD: a juxtaposition as incongruous as constructing a beach on the rundown old docklands at Brisbane’s South Bank would once have seemed, and an image similarly indicative of repurposing and rejuvenation.

The design takes advantage of ‘slow reveal’ possibilities when a portion of the image—the bather—is glimpsed from an adjoining lane. Interested passers-by drawn down the laneway to see the full image will be rewarded with a playful twist evocative of the ‘larrikin humour’ associated with this city and state: the sight of a Kreepy Krauly pool cleaner hard at work.”

Find out more about Jackie Ryan or see Available Works

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