Let's give him a big hand

Artist Carl Scrase with four-year-old Jaya Santoso playing on the giant hand The Generative Power of Opposites that was created for Splendour In The Grass and had a stopover in Lismore on Tuesday.

What do you do with a 20-metre inflatable hand once it has had its three days of rock ’n’ roll glory at Splendour In The Grass? After spending a year working on the installation, that is the question Melbourne-based artist Carl Scrase is now asking himself.

“I am hoping to get invited to tour it around to some of the European music festivals,” he said.

But regardless of whether that comes off or not, he is going to need a big shed to store it in.

Carl and his giant hand were in Lismore on Tuesday as part of the Splendid Think Tank: a series of lectures and forums designed to help the next crop of artists come up with installation ideas for next year’s festival.

Carl’s work is titled The Generative Power of Opposites, a term coined by Carl Jung about creativity happening in polar opposites.

Carl said the hand represented both the hippy movement as a symbol for peace, and also the f*** you attitude of the punk movement.

“As people walked into the festival site they were greeted by this giant peace symbol, but as they walked around and saw it from different angles they saw it as the “up yours” sign,” Carl said.

While he was at Splendour Carl did numerous media interviews and was invited to speak on a panel about his work.

“If you make something big enough, it gets people thinking. And that’s part of the idea, to get people thinking and talking,” he said.

The idea first came to him when he was watching the Flaming Lips at the 2009 Splendour festival (who are known for having giant inflatable objects bouncing across the stage and the crowd during their shows) and lead singer Wayne Coyne gave a big peace sign.

“Inflatable was really the only option when you’re talking about exhibiting for three days and the idea of touring with it,” he said.

Carl started by making a plastercast of his hand and then that was put into a 3D scanner. From there he and a crew were able to make the hand entirely from recycled materials. It takes four people to inflate and secure the hand.

Unfortunately the wind was too strong to get it upright in Lismore, but Carl said he was happy to display it on its side. Situated down from the Regional Gallery in Spinks Park the giant hand looked either like a giant jumping castle, or something from Gulliver’s Travels.

“It’s fun, I’m still playing with it,” he said.

The Splendour Think Tank continues until the end of next week and is sponsored by the Lismore Regional Gallery.