By NOEL MURPHY
THE great Aussie drive-in theatre tradition is all about car-boot smuggling, deckchairs and ugg boots – even lounge suites, says Geelong fine arts student Tiesha Ita-Ulima.
Nostalgia about Geelong’s former Moolap drive-in drover her on an ambitious project culminating in an exhibition dubbed True Lies and Superfictions, opening at Deakin University’s Waterfront campus tonight.
With a small team of fellow students, Ms Ita-Ulima created an artistic version of the drive-in, complete with movie screen, ticketbox, old images, paperwork, speakers and project management documents and plans – even a community petition for a hypothetical restoration.
“It’s about drawing attention to things in an ambiguous way but also in a way that makes people believe it when it’s not necessarily true,” she explained.
The exercise allocated the drive-in team a mock budget of $10 million for a new facility.
“We have a whole mock drive-in with cars and all. Instead of speakers we have iPads,” Ms Ita-Ulima said.
“My part of the project was to buy back the site and redevelop it. I had to get all the original documents and assess the impacts on the community when those kind of iconic features are taken away.
“As kids in pyjamas, I remember carloads turning up with lounge suites, deck chairs, ugg boots. We’ve recreated that nostalgia.”
The exhibition in as the Waterfront campus Project Space on the corner of Western Beach Rd and Cunningham St.
