A few years back I became sick of the tizz of the big city—the late night parties and the unbanned substances that probably should have been, the nicotine and plonk and shimmering vodka, clear as the conscience of a new-born child. In the end I galloped out of Sydney, like one of those wild grey horses that roam the Snowy Mountains—the ones that have now become far too prolific and need to be culled by gunshot from helicopters.
That’s how I came to establish my company, the High Country Thought Balloon Company. I specialise in changing peoples’ perspectives. I travel around the Snowy region, looking for somewhere flat, like a football oval or an open field, so I can take off (and, more importantly, land). Once I’m in the air, it all seems flat, fields, hills, mountains—everything.
Over the last couple of years I’ve seen some strange and fascinating things—people, events, places. I’ve also had time to think a great deal about the big issues of life. Where we are, why we are there, who we are with and where we are going next. Being blown from one moment to the next, travelling high on hot air helps with this.
I’ve lived almost everywhere in Australia but this is my favourite. It’s the hard-edged dry, high country, in the shadow of hills, where the rain rarely falls. It’s just like the Central Highlands of Tasmania that I know so well, the country where I grew up. Here, in a strange way, I have come home.
I’m the balloon man, with an overview of everything. I have no opinions of anything at ground level, but plenty to say about what the world looks like from a detached observer, gliding by, high above.
© Stephen Cassidy, 2004
Work from Conversations, group exhibition, Goulburn Regional Art Gallery, 2004. A collaborative exhibition of writers and visual artists.
See other work from the Conversations exhibition.
State of origin
Multimedia piece developed with visual artist, Deborah Faeyrglenn, State of origin looked at where we come from, where we go next and where we truly belong. In this work the writer and visual artist combined word, image and computer technology to make visual music. Words and images moved across the computer screen, with no fixed address, State of origin.
The lost art of conversation
Installation, developed with visual artist, Deborah Faeyrglenn, on words, meaning, reflection and infinite (or at least, partial) regression. Three tall thin vertical mirrors stand against the wall, covered in bursts of words. Three matching paper shadows flow out from the wall along the floor. Words on the mirrors flutter and blur into shadows, The lost art of conversation.
balloon
A fictional narrative work in the form of a website, the website as writing. About the adventures of a refugee from the big city who sets up the High Country Thought Balloon Company. A series of brief vignettes about the characters, situations and stories which intersect the path of the balloons as they soar across the skies of the Southern Tablelands and Snowy region. It is about changing perspective, balloon.
Malacoota Inlet
‘Shutdown in a flat, wet land, the line beween sea and sky where grey meets grey, where stricken yachts come in’, Malacoota Inlet.
Sitting on twigs
‘Sitting on twigs in the flat lands, in a piece of country loaded with meaning, like a tightly coiled spring’, Sitting on twigs.
See also
Signature of water
A series of artworks as part of the Waterworks exhibition at Goulburn Regional Art Gallery responding to the shared task of facing up to life on our dry continent. It ranged from short, minimalist animations, using cartoons, to hyperfiction drawing on the styles of crime novels. It was a mix of poetry, storytelling, images and sounds which were heavily influenced by the styles of popular culture and the urban and rural landscapes around us, Signature of water.
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