By Susan Knaap

It’s easy, as an artist, to take the road well travelled when it comes to promoting ourselves and our work – doing the standard marketing palaver, displaying our art in artist friendly cafes, or galleries if we’re lucky. Few of us ever think outside the square or, if we do, fear tends to nip great ideas in the bud fairly early on.

Not so for TLC student Catherine Sinclair who, long ago, decided with friend and fellow student Rebecca Fordyce that they wanted to establish genuine credibility and eventually get their work seen in places like the City Gallery. Some of you may remember an article I wrote on the pair last year when they set themselves up in Civic Square for half an hour at a time over a period of seven weeks, painting each other’s portraits.

Civic Square was again the location of choice for Catherine’s latest installation ‘100% Sheep’, but in contrast to the very public nature of the last endeavour this one was covert and unsanctioned, installed in the pre-dawn darkness. 100 miniature wax cast sheep – all white, but for one black sheep, wearing red scarves (“It was cold and they looked somewhat naked and in need of warmth”) and lined up in neat, precise rows. “I thought up the idea in response to seeing Gregor Kregar’s live sheep installation on the City Gallery lawns in early 2007,” says Catherine. “I felt that the lawns just cried out for sheep.”

So why the stealth and intrigue in setting it up? “Guerrilla art is an affordable way of getting your art noticed without having to rent space from galleries,” she says. “By gate-crashing the re-opening I gained an audience without having to send a single invite. I think that art should be accessible and I adore the Civic Square space and see it as an extension of the interior space. When I knew the City Gallery was being closed (for renovations) I thought the re-opening would be the best time strategically to install my sheep. When I saw the lawn space was vacant, I knew they would get maximum exposure, although I did expect them to get moved along by security. I guess the quality of the installation meant they looked as though they were meant to be there and so they stayed until I packed them up at the end of the day.”

Catherine kept a low profile throughout the day, choosing to sit across the Square to watch the reactions to her work. “Kids were counting sheep and making the rows straighter if they were moved out of formation. Most people smiled when they saw them, especially when they noticed the one black sheep in the family!” she says. “Many people took photos. It was funny seeing well-dressed people squatting down to have their photo taken with them.” And because no-one claimed the work as their own, there was quite a buzz about who the artist might be, with plenty of amusing snippets of conversation overheard.

There was one unexpected encounter of interest on the day. A local print artist, Moira Gaerty, was doing her own creative project called ‘100 Strangers’ which required her to go up to 100 strangers, take their photo and find out something about them (all of which is being recorded on www.flickr.com/photos/moiragaerty/3994253442/). As it happened, she approached Catherine (who turned out to be her 2nd stranger), whereupon she learned about Catherine’s installation and discovered they were both working with ‘100’ themes. To cap off their encounter, Moira produced a brown plastic Canadian Moose from her handbag and placed it in front of the sheep for a photo opportunity.

By all accounts, it was a worthwhile and confidence enhancing experience. “My art looked professional and sat well within the space,” says Catherine. “There was a playful interaction between the sheep and Yayoi Kusama’s ‘Mirrored Years’ installation on the external walls of the gallery. The weather was good and there was a ton of people enjoying the activities and live music. I felt I was living the dream – ‘100% Sheep’ looked like ‘real art by a real artist’.”

While this installation was ostensibly Catherine’s project, it profited greatly from the generous help and advice of others. “Rebecca Fordyce was pivotal to the success of the project, as I was able to talk issues through with her when things went wrong and I felt like giving up,” says Catherine. “Her technical advice was very handy and her belief in the integrity of installation art was steadying when I felt like selling sheep one by one!” Rebecca also crocheted all the scarves for the sheep and Jules Hunt photographed the installation and crowd interactions. Additional helpers included Carrie Burke, Ellen Williams, Andy Catton, Holly Horrid and her son Luca (the latter two helping to reinstate a handful of sheep who suffered broken limbs, thanks to an uncontrolled toddler late in the day!).

So, where to from here for the artist who’s out to get noticed? “I have a big and very different installation planned for next year,” Catherine says, “and despite being daunted by the huge amount of work it will take, I now have greater confidence that I can translate my ideas into reality.”