Throughout the Fringe, the No Show Show Pony will be distributing flyers for The Lunatic Fringe No Show to cafes and public spaces throughout the city.
The catch is the show does not exist.The person-in-the-horse said it was something they wanted to create to draw attention to their experience with the public health system.
"Given the type of illness I’ve had, I found representing yourself and speaking from the position of yourself is quite fraught, really.
"So I decided that I wouldn’t do a show at all, I’d do a no show. I’d do lots of advertising, but there would be a vacuum, which effectively is a metaphor for the care that I received for eight years from a community mental health team."
The papier-mache pony will be going about its business, sitting on buses, returning library books and moving throughout the city.
The flyers listed a cast of characters and phrases the artist encountered in real life.
They include the Crisis Nurse: "If you’re not prepared to help yourself I can’t help you", and the Nurse Manager: "Our public health service gave you years of meaningless assistance for your great suffering. I am sorry".
"They’re all real. Probably about 50% of that is actually written down. The other half are things that were said to me."
The artist said it was about providing information so people could make up their own minds about the public health system.
"To provide it in a comedic package. I’m a visual artist so the idea was to visually create something that I think is kind of unexpected and interesting.
"The horse concept came from overhearing some youthful slang.
"Some young people at work were using this word. When they had a horrible experience and they said ‘it was a mare, it was a mare’."
At this stage, the pony was "still trying to define itself".
"My art starts somewhere and then it goes somewhere else."
The horse made its debut at the opening night showcase, where it picketed outside with a sign saying "disappointment guaranteed".
