Sometime in August, a rag-tag bunch of West End HippiesTM (and Modifyre cult members) got drunk together, lamenting the gentrification of their suburb and the unaffordable shoebox apartments popping up everywhere they look. It seemed to them that creating facetious participatory art at their fave community event of the year, the forthcoming Kurilpa Derby (sorry Modifyre) was a reasonable response to the issue. It was to be Topical! Political! A Societal Commentary! A Big Middle Finger to The Man! Thus, THE END IS HIGH was born...
Centred on the building of a “Luxxury” high-rise apartment float on wheels, design and construction was led by (actual, legit) architect Stirling “Smokey” Blacket who decided the best construction material for the job would be milk crates. Shoeboxes might have been cool and funny, but we didn’t have any of those. Anyways, sorry Norco, but they went to a good cause!
As we pulled our high-rise apartment block (complete with golden toilet) down the street, we were joined by a collection of Queenslander houses, frenzied developers and real estate agents, golden flags, deranged doomsdayers, and, of course, a marching band.
A definite highlight was watching Smokey accept first prize for best float from a local LNP Councillor, dressed as the seediest of scumbag developers.
First Prize turned out to be a voucher for beer, which made us all very happy, but then it turned out the voucher was for a new, expensive pub on Boundo street that DIDN’T EVEN SERVE JUGS, which we thought was kinda ironic but, you know, free beer!
And we even appeared as the cover image on a Westender article the next day about keeping the vibes in West End vibin’, officially confirming that WE ARE THE BRINGERS OF VIBES!
Special thanks to all our participants but especially to the residents of the Russel st house for hosting us (and cleaning up!)
Keep the Soil in West End, Dudes!
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