WELCOME TO SOUTH BEACH

South Beach is known for a place where people with hotted up cars or had a love for cars would congregate every sunday.
During 1997 I was offered a residency at Wollongong City Gallery as project artist over a one-year period to produce a body of new work for a solo show in 1998. My project proposal was to document the car culture that existed and has been a long standing: tradition regularly since the 50’s and had never been documented.
During the residency I would hang out every Sunday to gain an insight and understanding into how and why this subculture existed. It was a period also to develop relationships with people and gain their trust and respect. I would have met over 1000 people of very diverse background and ages who all shared a common interest and passion of cars.
" For this is a place of meeting. A place to watch, see and be seen. A place of lively, anticipated interaction that is all out in the open. A place to check things out. This is also a place of difference, where 'skips' and 'wogs' might keep to themselves yet effortlessly share a common space, time and, more importantly, a human arena. Everybody seems aware that there are many types of subculture as there are, well, makes of car."- Lina Kastoumis