Millions of cars have rolled off the production lines in Geelong over the decades, so it seems fitting that the city’s latest arts festival featured an industrial car crusher.
As part of the “White Night” festival, a car was destroyed every half hour on Saturday night to the sound of a funeral march and the sounds of a heavy metal headbang band.
– It will be loud! artist and musician Joseph O’Farrell told AAP ahead of the show.
“It’s almost the last moment for this car and we’re celebrating its journey.”
The performance, aptly titled Heavy Metal, was part of the White Night events held in regional Victoria and was particularly fitting for a city that was once the center of Australian motoring.
But O’Farrell was unfortunately unable to say whether the eight cars that went into the crusher, supplied by Laverton-based Infrabuild, were Fords or Holdens.
The vehicle-destroying machine was four meters high and around 10 meters wide and flattened each car into a cube of recyclable metal, while an as-yet-unnamed heavy metal band played a song composed for the event called Crusher.
More than 110 artists, mostly local, were involved in White Night, which also featured the colorful projections on public buildings for which the event has become famous.
A giant lion-like creature with shimmering scales roamed the streets, while glowing giant eels also swam off the shore.
Since the final death throes of Geelong’s Ford plant in 2016, the city has seen several major construction projects, O’Farrell believes his performance also speaks to the city as it is now.
“Geelong is a city in transition at the moment with a lot of heavy machinery and buildings around,” said O’Farrell, who was also creative director for the White Night event.
But he said Geelong was coming to life as an arts and music hub, with local artists producing work of an international standard.
https://www.perthnow.com.au/entertainment/city-of-cars-makes-art-of-crushing-them-up-c-8490501
