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Airports are usually environments which try hard to rule out surprises, but recently Qantas travellers at Alice Springs Airport had more than a few in store. Artists from Cairns and Alice Springs, in a joint project which was run by the Cairns-based Kick Arts Collective and Alice-based Watch This Space, with the backing of Qantas and outgoing airport managers, the Federal Airports Corporation, staged a multi-arts experience in the baggage claim area, called Baggage~ Transfer/Tranship. The focus of attention was some thirty art objects on the baggage carousel, but as well there were performers and musicians moving through the crowd, with voice and music also relayed over the PA system.
While the local audience, which at its peak must have been two hundred strong, were forewarned and predisposed towards the exhibition before it happened, travellers were genuinely nonplused . They mostly remained focused on the primary task of retrieving their baggage and moving on towards their destination, although they certainly lingered longer than they otherwise would have done. Thus the aims of Baggage were, in some measure, realised. These were: to take art to a non-gallery audience; to extend the viewing time of art objects; to enrich 'the cultural life of our communities, wherever they may be'; and to bring off a collaborative project between regions , between artists, and across forms. The project's creative director, Kick Arts's Sharon Pacey prescribed a broad journey- related theme. Much of the work was initiated through a literal interpretation of this theme, and worked its way from there towards metaphor, reflection or poetic statement. Hence, there were many suitcases, trunks and other forms of packaging used as a starting point