how can art challenge assumptions about organised leisure for older people?

ARTIST: KATHY MACKEY
PROJECT: LET’S ORGANISE YOUR LEISURE (LOYL)
PROJECT PARTNERS: HORIZON FESTIVAL, HOTA HOME OF THE ARTS, SWELL SCULPTURE FESTIVAL, METRO ARTS, ARTS QUEENSLAND, REGIONAL ARTS DEVELOPMENT FUND GOLD COAST
DOCUMENTATION: ELLAMAY FITZGERALD, COREY CAM, MARK ZANOTTO

Responding to aspects of the Gold Coast’s identity and its geography being linked by beaches, rivers and canals, Mackey’s work Let’s Organise Your Leisure explores the intersecting liminal spaces of retirement/non-retirement, public/private, high/low tide and the natural/artificial.

Informed by her experience as a ‘retiree’ whose leisurely pursuits include mapping the Gold Coast as a runner and kayaker, Let’s Organise Your Leisure playfully comments on and challenges assumptions about ‘organised leisure’ for older people. Exploring how individuals and groups navigate public spaces and leisure through arts practice, Mackey plays with stereotypical representations of ageing as form.

Let’s Organise Your Leisure takes shape as a series of site specific workshops where participants collectively work with the artist to construct large sculptural artworks. These are then launched into the water (with or without their makers) in a spectacular Float-Off Finale.

LOYL has been launched onto the HOTA Lake as part of HOTA’s Summer Pick and Mix program and Currumbin Estuary as part of Swell Sculpture Festival in 2022, the Maroochydore River for Horizon Festival in 2023. Kathy also undertook a creative development of the work at the Ferryman’s Hut on the banks of the Brisbane River supported by Metro Arts in 2022.