It’s a truly DIY affair out on the paddock. Unlike commercial construction projects, the meagre event budget doesn’t extend to lifting equipment or lighting towers. Thankfully, there was one leftover length of 2”x4”, just enough to knock up this makeshift tower.
The unpredictable and slow affair that is building large artworks, particularly in isolated locations, often requires crews to work from early in the morning until late at night. Without sophisticated lighting and power arrangements however, this can be a serious challenge. In order to dissuade Leo from relying on night work as the event drew nearer and the pressure mounted, we decided to go out and work under lights for a short while on Saturday night, just to give everyone a feel for how challenging it can be.
Before dusk, we set up a makeshift lighting tower (pictured above) and tidied all the tools, consumables and other equipment back under the marquee and secured anything that might blow away should the wind pick up - rule number one of working in the dark (or in the daylight I suppose) is to know where the hell your tools are! Otherwise, very little will get done.
After dinner we loaded the trailer up with firewood, snacks, and a good playlist and headed back out to site. I offered a brief safety pep talk, just reminding everyone to be extra vigilant, and to call it when they were too tired. It was agreed that we would only work around the ground for tonight - there was no rush, and there was plenty to be done down low in any case.
The exercise more or less had the desired effect - Leo agreed that night work is a pain in the ass. However, by Tuesday, the urgency of finishing things off before gates opened superseded the hassle and the work went late into the night…
