Emily Sexton admires the creative spaces of the Shebeen bar in Manchester Lane. Photo: Eddie Jim
What artwork has best captured your sense of the city?
Elizabeth Dunn's Flyway project in the 2012 Next Wave Festival. We started in Carlton and went on a walk through the city ending in Docklands. The walk mirrored the migration of birds affected by climate change. These birds are finding that the places where they rest are slowly being taken over by humans. We went through Flagstaff Gardens listening to headphones. One of the interesting observations was that the gardens aren't really nature, they're man-made creations. By the end we were in Docklands as the sun was setting. It was industrial and epic, windy and foreign, and it gave a sense that Melbourne can constantly reinvent itself.
Elizabeth Dunn's Flyway project.
The best people-watching spot?
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Journal Canteen, upstairs, overlooking Degraves and Centre Place. When I moved back to Melbourne from Sydney about eight years ago I thought those laneways were utopia. I couldn't believe how good it was compared to the places I could hang out in Sydney. Melbourne doesn't really offer spectacular geographic views very often but its views of humans have great clarity. In that spot you can look down and get quite close to people and they would never think to look up. When I moved here that area was so special and these days it's the ground zero of cliched Melbourne - but it's still kind of gorgeous.
Emily Sexton, 6, with her brother James and toadstool in the Seawinds Gardens in 1989.
Your favourite public space?
What we think of as public spaces are often very controlled by government or private entities. I've done a lot of projects in the public realm and it's a very bureaucratic process to be spontaneous and creative in Melbourne. The airways of Triple R are my favourite public space because it's more genuinely a space in which diverse opinions and different voices can be heard. It feels more like what we would philosophically want a public space to be than architectural geographic spaces.
What are your most vivid childhood memories?
I have a photo of my brother tearing up a toadstool at Seawinds Gardens in Arthur's Seat. The photo is part of a series where mum and dad managed to capture James' fascination with toadstools and the gradual process as he destroyed them. I also remember going to Albert Park to visit my grandpa, my dad's dad. He passed away when I was nine, not long after we moved to Sydney. My dad's parents ran a pub in Williamstown, the Terminus. It was also known as the Jungle because once you went in you never came out. My poppy was pretty hardline but at times there was something incredibly soft about his face.
The place that most surprised you?
We are using a non-profit bar in Manchester Lane called Shebeen as our festival club this year. I heard a lot about it but when I finally got there I was amazed at the multiple different spaces. It's difficult to be creative in Melbourne because of rising rents but the fact that Simon Griffiths and his team have been able to run this social enterprise venture in such a dense city space and do it beautifully speaks a lot to their skill and passion.
Which doorway would you most like to go through?
Callum Morton's Hotel on Eastlink. It's such a successful cool work and it would be great to go through the door of that hotel. The first time you pass, it glimpses in the back of your mind and then you realise it's a little bit small and desolate and there's no driveway. Although it is a sculpture it would be exciting to imagine what would be in there - probably twins in a corridor, a cleaning lady listening to weird music, some characters from The Shining.
Where do you never want to go back to?
I did the Oxfam Trailwalker last year through the Dandenongs where you walk 100 kilometres in 36 hours. It's an amazing event but when we were climbing the 1000 steps we had to pass four or five ambulances. A very healthy and fit man, one of the participants, ended up passing away. It was a difficult thing to see so many ambulances in such beautiful surrounds.
The Next Wave Festival runs until May 11. nextwave.org.au.
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