Kites in flight

On a cloudy Bondi day, there is light and warmth inside the Bondi Pavilion Gallery. This is where husband and wife installation artists, Isabella and Alfredo Aquilizan have set up their work In Flight (Project Another Country) as part of this month’s Festival of the Winds, a celebration of all things to do with kites and flight.

The couple have filled the space with model aeroplanes, nearly all made by members of the public using foam, string, shiny cardboard, plastic cutlery, toothbrushes, flowers, and whatever else the Aquilizan’s visitors have pulled from big containers full of odd materials in the centre of the work.

Some visitors even bring their own materials. Isabella points to an aeroplane that holds special significance for her.

“One boy that I cannot forget just had to bring his favourite dinosaur toy to the exhibition,” she recalls fondly. “He wanted it to be part of the work so much he made it into an aeroplane-dinosaur.”

The 15 centimetre-long stegosaurus hangs from the ceiling, complete with cardboard wings on one of which someone has signed ‘Gale’.

“When we were installing I realised that I could still remember the boy’s face because it was so poignant,” says Isabella. “This one always gets hung.”

The aero-saur is one of 12,000 planes the Aquilizan’s have accumulated since the project began in 2006.

“Behind each object there is always a narrative, in relation to the story of that person,” says Alfredo.

One of these stories is their own.

Alfredo and Isabella left the Philippines with their five children four years ago to settle in Brisbane, where they still work and live. A country with a strong culture of migration, the Philippines exports up to 1 million workers every year.

For the Aquilizans, the aeroplane is a symbol of this resettlement, and all the pain and joy that it brings.

“It reflects dislocation, it reflects our experience,” explains Alfredo.

The couple will be taking these ideas about the migrant experience with them in coming weeks when they, appropriately enough, catch an aeroplane to the UK port city of Liverpool to begin installing a similar work at the Liverpool Tate Gallery.

This time they will be making boats.

In Flight will exhibit from September 2 to 27 in the Bondi Pavilion Gallery. All materials are provided although favourite dinosaurs are more than welcome.

The Festival of the Winds takes place at Bondi beach on September 12 and will feature kite-flying displays, kite making workshops, music, stalls and food.

– By Paris Cowan