Matt Dabrowski and the Many Hands of Glamour
Moreton Street is leafy street in New Farm, Brisbane, and the house at number 105 is a small Queenslander flanked by a five-story apartment building. On a semi-regular basis the tenants of 105 Moreton Street open their house to the public for contemporary art exhibitions under the guise of Moreton Street Spare Room (MSSR). On 16 May 2009, Matt Dabrowski and the Many Hands of Glamour presented An Abridged History of Western Cinema at MSSR. Smoking guns, cowboys and their trusty horses were aplenty, even John Wayne made an appearance, and on this night the battles of the Wild West were fought in a Brisbane backyard.
While MSSR appears on most accounts to be a domestic setting, there is one feature that sets it apart: the 6 x 3 metre projection screen in the backyard. Matt Dabrowski and the Many Hands of Glamour used this unusual feature and brought some of the magic of the silver screen to this suburban setting. Screening ‘for one night only!’ were abridged versions of a few of John Wayne’s films from the 1930s, including Randy Rides Alone, ’Neath The Arizona Skies, The Dawn Rider, and Hell Town. These classics were edited down to their essence: horseback chases and shootouts. Like a porn movie, the plot line barely made an appearance and the dialogue was kept to a minimum—so as to not to interfere with the action.
A remotely controlled smoke-ring canon was constructed and mounted behind the screen specifically for the event. Inspiration for this device was drawn from the Camel cigarettes billboard that blew smoke rings over Times Square from 1941 to 1966. The smoking cowboys who