Are you ready to POPP? Public Outdoor Ping Pong, or POPP, has landed in Perth. Think giant steel ping pong tables in public spaces. Think packing a ping pong bat and some balls next time you hit the road. Think about enjoying the public realm in an entirely new way. Perth Street Art chatted to POPP’s John Durey about this truly unique form of public art.
Where did the concept for POPP come from? The concept originated when we (two of the directors) stayed in Berlin in the summer of 2008. We played ping pong almost daily on outdoor tables in Volkspark, Prenzlauerberg and on many other tables scattered throughout the city’s parks and open spaces. Sometimes we’d be waiting half an hour for a game, but it was worth it (the beer at the nearby cafes also made the time fly). The Berlin tables were concrete and often covered in graffiti, however as our idea of having outdoor tables in Australia developed, and coming from a design and art background, we saw the potential to combine art and ping pong. Each POPP table is now seen as a blank canvas for a local artist to express their creativity, to do something different and new. It’s a completely new medium to work on in Australia and it goes one step further than most other mediums – you can play ping pong on it.
What can you tell us about these structures? The tables are steel and like, really heavy (over 700kgs). It was necessary to have tables that could stand up to bored teenagers, so the stereotype goes, and anyone else out to vandalise public structures. The flat, non-porous steel is also a great surface to work on for the artist. Being a truly local concept – we want local people to play on their local tables, and it made a lot of sense to encourage local artists to do their artwork. This has been great as it not only gives ownership of the table and the artwork to the community, but it also gives exposure to artists that may otherwise have found it difficult to get their art out in the public sphere. Sean Morris (www.illsean.com), one of the more established artists we have worked with, did the macabre, beast illustration on the Weld Square table in Northbridge.
How do you expect this project to change the landscape of Perth? Public art is a great way to get people talking about art without needing to visit a gallery. We want people to talk about the artwork and the tables and yes, use them! Sit around, hang out and play ping pong. When it comes down to it, ping pong and POPP is fun – it’s also active, it gets people using public space and it opens up the possibility to engage more with other members of the community.
Where can people get a really good set of ping pong bats from? Rebel Sport, Jim Kidd or our own soon-to-be-released range of POPP bats and balls (adorned with very POPP colours!) – stay tuned on our Facebook page (POPP Australia). If you’re in Fremantle, Mills Records also lends them out for free for the Kings Square tables, and Elite Cycles and Kaditj Cafe on Beaufort Street do the same for the Weld Square table.
For more information visit http://popp.net.au.
Scott-Patrick Mitchell
http://perthstreetart.tumblr.com
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