Menace Presents: Pleasure & Temptation
We had a chat with the founder of Menace, Elle. A young creative from Wollongong, curating events for local artists from all different mediums and cultural scenes. Her next event is on at the Shy Postie tomorrow! If you’re late to grab tickets we have them linked here! So if you don’t have much happening tomorrow night come down to the Shy Postie, have a drink and catch some local art, live music kicks off at 6pm!
WANDERER: So why did you create Menace?
ELLE: I think that the main thing with starting Menace, was that I just wanted to do something fun. And something that had more of my friends involved. I did find the Wollongong scene quite intimidating, because I didn't really know anyone and didn't know where to reach out. So I was like, I might as well, just start my own thing, out on a whim and just start making events for fun. I just started putting things on for my friends to create a kind of supportive circle for people like myself not knowing much and just learning as I'm going kind of thing.
What's the whole sort of vibe around Menace, what do you hope to inspire through these events and through doing what you're doing?
As I said, I like started it off as creating events for me and my friends, and progressing from there, I'm loving it because I'm learning so much as I'm going. And meeting so many different groups of people and getting to know the different kinds of like cultural scenes, and working my way into the sort of art and creative scene of Wollongong. What Menace is about is really enjoying yourself and the inclusivity, I guess.
So through having people come through the door and look at all the event that you've pulled together, what do you hope people take out of it?
I found through creating more events, it's really exciting when you're working everything out when it comes to the day, setting up everything up and you're like, who's going to walk through those doors, just meeting new people and creating an experience. I guess the whole reason I love to keep doing it, is like, it's a new experience every time. And I'm meeting so many amazing people from everywhere, people from Sydney and some friends from Byron are coming down the whole thing is exciting. It's just keeps me on my toes, which I find so fun.
So you have your event coming up tomorrow, Pleasure & Temptation! What’s it all that about?
I had my last exhibition, like a year and a half ago because of Covid and it was so depressing because I was planning one like straight after. Because I had a good response from the crowd in Wollongong. And so I was like, Oh, well I'll do another one. And because theres been no events for so long, I just had to get myself back into it, and being like nah, I have to do another one. I was planning for the last exhibition to be Temptation, but it ended up being Pleasure and Temptation. So the event tomorrow event is going to be at the Shy Postie, and it's called Pleasure & Temptation. So, it's showcasing, a range of local artists, Phishb0ne, Marli Maddison, Urch4y, P.i.g.m.a.m.a, Daniel Bodey, Bridie Nicholls, Kiara Sarusi, Sahara.media and live music from Sunset Headrest and Slinky Red.
So through your events, you hope to bring different types of communities together that may not necessarily come across each other at other events, through the artists you've mentioned theres quite a range of different mediums and styles.
Like the inclusivity and the different types of genres of people and art keep it running because I feel like, like there's heaps of different crowds going we've got like, you know, Sydney art students, we've got local artists, we've got a whole lot of different skaters coming through like graph artists. I think it's like a whole mix of people, which will be exciting. It's kind of trying to cater for everyone's tastes, while being inclusive. So they're just feeding into one perspective.
What can we expect for the night?
For tomorrow night which has been so long overdue because of Corona… expect to feel safe in the space and enjoy yourself, meet new people, create new experiences and ultimately feast your eyes on fresh local art!
What are you planning on doing next after this? Do you have anything else in the works?
Yes yes, we got some things happening. Another event will be happening very soon after this one! We can't say much else just yet as a lot of things are being confirmed but you will hear about it as soon as it all is. Keep an eye out!
art by: Marli Maddison