Lara Thoms: Ultimate Vision - Monuments to Us

Ultimate Vision – Monuments to Us is the latest C3West project by Australian artist Lara Thoms, in collaboration with Hurstville City Council and Westfield Hurstville. Thoms has specifically devised a project for the retail spaces of Westfield Hurstville that questions youth visibility within the shopping centre, and offers an alternative image of how teenagers engage with these spaces. Like many shopping centres, Westfield is a focal point of Hurstville. Its spaces, although privately owned appear, and are treated, as public. Ultimate Vision embodies the vocabulary of retail marketing, within the shopping centre, as a means of offering an alternative perspective – one with a strong focus on the local community.

For three weeks in January 2013, Thoms was artist-in-residence in Westfield Hurstville at the Hub of Democracy, a space reserved for those between 12 – 19 to spend time and vote in various categories including the 'ultimate’ time, music, smell and best person. Since January, Thoms has been working with local teenagers to create a series of ephemeral monuments that will alter the spaces of the shopping centre.

From 4 – 10 April, these monuments can be seen across the screens, window displays and advertising spaces of Westfield Hurstville. A number of retailers in Westfield Hurstville have participated in the project by changing their window display to incorporate the ultimate colour and time. They are: Events Clothing, Dollar Store 123, Jacobson’s Jewellery, Prouds Jewellery, Target, Wanted Shoes, Watchworks, Watch World, Williams Shoes and Vibe Clothing.

The Screen Monument, a short film made by Thoms in collaboration with local youth, can also be seen on the display televisions of Dick Smith and Myer.

On Wednesday 10 April the film will screen at Greater Union cinema, followed by a Q&A with the cast and crew. The session begins at 7pm.

This is the second successful partnership between C3West and Hurstville City Council. The project welcomes Westfield Hurstville as a new business partner, whom were previously an associated partner for Angelica Mesiti’s C3West project, The Begin-Again.

You can read an interview between the artist an C3West Curator, Anne Loxley here.

Artist: Lara Thoms
Business Partners: Hurstville City Council and Westfield Hurstville