Outpost – Cockatoo Island
Cockatoo Island
Cockatoo Island is the largest island in Sydney Harbour. A heritage listed site, the island is a former imperial prison, industrial school, reformatory and gaol. It is also the site of Australia’s biggest shipyard during the twentieth century.
Cockatoo Island is open to the public everyday and plays host to a number of events and exhibitions year round, including the Biennale of Sydney. The Island Bar and The Canteen serve up refreshments but we recommend bringing your own and parking yourself on the grass.
Getting there
A round trip to Cockatoo Island from Circular Quay will set you back just over $10 AUD. Check the ferry times on the day, they tend to shift around a little bit. Oh, and enjoy the view.
Outpost
Glamour Camping: Unlike traditional camping where you lug all your gear with you, Glamping at Cockatoo Island affords you a pre-erected tent, bedding, sun lounges and and other amenities. Tents are pitched in rather close proximity, but the harbour side water front location makes for an interesting proposition, especially on New Year’s Eve. Sydney Harbour Federation Trust has detailed information.
Outpost Field Report
I don‘t suppose it‘s without a touch of irony that we‘ve shipped off a bunch of "urban artists" to a former prison. Still, the scale of the exhibition is rather impressive; it is after all the biggest street art project in the Southern Hemisphere.
The NEXT: The future of T-Shirt Graphics was a highlight for many. Curated by T-World founder, owner and editor Eddie Zammit, over a thousand t-shirts were strung up above panels featuring international legends including Ron English, Mr Cartoon, and Jeff Staple alongside local heroes like Ben Brown and We Buy Your Kids.
And then there‘s Kid Zoom: The new New York based artist celebrated his return home to Australia by rebuilding his suburban childhood home from memory. Inside, a documentation of the destruction of three Holden Commodores, a cathartic exercise, an expression of suburban angst revisited.
By and large, Outpost was a celebration of Australian street art, and it really is great to see the artist given a solid platform to showcase their work the a large audience. Will the scale and breadth of Outpost ever be repeated or bested? For me at least, that more than made the trip out to Cockatoo Island worthwhile, much more so than the chance to see “24 Banksy originals”.
Outpost was on from 4 November – 11 December 2011.