18/11/06
Cold and overcast

A one-day guided tour organised by the Liverpool International Biennial – Art in the Public Realm as commissioned by Liverpool International Biennial 2006.
Tagged onto the back of The 2nd Annual National Public Art Conference, for a modest fee of £5.00, delegates, and even non-delegates, could attend the tour. No need to gatecrash this event as I consider £5.00 to be very reasonable. And indeed it was good value - comprehensive, articulate, and enlightening. And for added value - we all received a limited edition of the artist’s book ‘Log Book Ballast’ by Hans Schabus.
Only a small handful of delegates took advantage of this day’s event, but 3 freelance Public Art Project Managers, and 4 freelance artists turned up – not one of who felt they could afford to attend the conference! And 2 want to gatecrash the next event with me.

After lunch, I opted out of the 2nd part of the tour – to see ‘Another Place’ by Antony Gormley on Formby beach.
I still had one more task to complete before I could draw to a close liverpoolwastelands Phase 1… back at the Outhouse.
Before I headed off to Woolton, I nipped into the ‘Museum Man’ near the A Foundation, to experience “GIFT”, a participatory exhibit by Penny Whitehead and Daniel Simkins, fellow Independent artists.

Back at the Outhouse I needed to rearrange the installation, and add new drawings, and collect Carol’s stray golf balls from under their tree hiding place …
During my titivating I noticed a lady stood outside, looking in at me.
I beckoned her inside.
“I’ve always wanted to come in here. My name is Kath, Kath with a “K”. What is it you’re doing?”
She assumed that I was Claire Oboussier the co-creator of the Outhouse.
I explained who I was, and the installation – traces of my journey…
One major difference between talking to people on the city streets, and to the folk that wander past the Outhouse, is that those who wander along the tree lined way appear more relaxed and seem to have the time to engage in lengthier conversations.
I showed Kath the picket fenced Liverpool O.S. map adorned with the little red dots marking all the sites I had evaluated. She was curious about every aspect of liverpoolwastelands, and most concerned about Cressington Heath and the Redrow development; concerned, but not surprised… She talked about her mistrust of the Council, how worried she was about the rapid changes within Liverpool, and how powerless she felt.

In my 7 weeks of speaking to Liverpudlians I have repeatedly heard the word ‘corruption’ in reference to the Council – and seen hand gestures too – hand turned upright and the thumb rubbing the fingers – ‘money’. Kath used the word ‘corruption’ and made the hand gesture too.
As she left the Outhouse, her parting words were…
“Is there anything we can do to save the wildlife? I really hope you can manage to do something, especially with sites like the ones in Garston – good luck”

On every visit to the Outhouse, time has literally flown by. This day was no exception – after my long talk with Kath, I found myself racing against the drawing in of the light light – and I was loosing.

The last thing I did was to ceremoniously remove the cone from my bike and place it in the centre of the Outhouse.

My Independents Biennial ‘open’ cone was now a ‘closed’ sign.