The Thousands

From The Young Ones to John Birmingham, share houses persist in pop culture as an unavoidable rite of passage: leave home, be broke, live with strangers. Former bandmates Karen san de Miguel and Mattie Aitken created the North Perth No-Name Historical Society to pay tribute to share houses. During their public pop-up stall tribute at the Beaufort Street Festival 2011, they offered the public a chance to browse items donated by various share houses: a plastic ‘crystal’ skull, a block-mounted Beethoven 2 poster, a Moby Frisbee, etc.

On a balmy night only alleviated by jars of ice-cold green cordial, Karen and Mattie sat on a carpet floor to discuss their project’s ongoing evolution, North Perth Sharehouse Museum V.2.

Tristan Fidler: What inspired you to create a museum for share houses? For most people, a share house is a transitional space…

Karen san de Miguel: That’s really the reason why you should document these spaces because they’re transitional and they don’t last very long. Because they’re like a brief flame, a brief candle in the wind. They flicker out and that’s why they’re worth preserving because they’re so brief.
Mattie Aitken: I guess shared housing or student living gets romanticised a lot and sometimes it’s over-idealised and sometimes they’re places people want to forget, because they’re quite dramatic periods, a lot happens in them. And that can really go both ways. Very memorable positive experiences and very memorable negative experiences.
KsdM: That’s a really good answer, Matt! I like that better than my answer.

TF: The first time you guys did this was at the Beaufort Street Festival last year. How did the public respond to this idea of documenting the share house?

KsdM: They were really excited! We got a lot of extremely positive reactions from some characters.
MA: From some former, middle-aged people who were super nostalgic and had very vivid memories of shared housing in the 70s and 80s.
KsdM: Yeah, and a guy from Gosnells, remember that guy?
MA: Aww yeah.
KsdM: I can’t remember, was he topless?
MA: Nah, he was just like a mega skater.

KsdM: Yeah, a mega skater with dreadlocks. Um, and he was really keen for us to come out to his house in Gosnells but we were only doing it in the North Perth area… He was so keen, that guy, he was the keenest person we had. Who else was keen?
MA: There was an elderly Italian couple!
KsdM: And maybe about 80% of people were positive and maybe about 10% were ambivalent and the other 10% were confused… People tried to buy stuff as well. Like the super soaker.
TF: Ahh, a hot ticket item!
KsdM: Someone wanted to buy the plastic skull we had. Then there was the transvestite poster had a lot of offers.
MA: Yeah, that was top three in the popularity. Also, the waving queen Elizabeth doll was very sought after.

TF: Okay, a lot of public interest, a lot of public feedback, a lot of public desire for the share house items on display. In terms of Version 2.0, how is it different?

KsdM: Because we’re exhibiting in a gallery we’re making it a bit more formal in the way we’re presenting things. We’ve got a bit more space to put things, so it’ll be a slightly more…
MA: The difference was that the space last time was very motley-
KsdM: Haha, motley. I like your words!
MA: – and ramshackle. We had to build a stall that was quite open aired but we had to use old blankets and rugs from share-houses to make the walls. And then really build the room. But Free Range is a really nice, clean gallery. So items were all jumbled together before, but this time they’ll be separated and there’ll be more time to reflect on each one.
KsdM: Yeah, they have the space they deserve. The prestige.

TF: Can you reveal some of the things that are worth museuming?

KsdM: We have a bottle of three-in-one duck toilet cleaner. Matt hasn’t seen this yet. It’s from the outside dunny, or outhouse if you will, from a house on Walcott Street. The reason why I took this empty bottle of toilet cleaner was that this toilet seemed to be a main point of this house and it’s the only toilet for the house and the girl who had to live there, Vicki, had to walk twenty metres to go to the toilet. And she said that was very unpleasant during winter. On the other hand, the toilet is kind of covered by this huge vine and they said sometimes they would put fairy lights over it and then it became very romantic. So romantic that once a couple of her friends got engaged in the toilet.

TF: Woah.

KsdM: I felt so impressed by her story so I borrowed this empty bottle of toilet cleaner as a tribute to the many moments that have happened in and around the toilet.

TF: Seems the rationale behind the things you’re exhibiting is that they are items that a house needs and items that create the personality of a house.

MA: Stuff that gets left under the cracks, lingers around, and gets hidden in the corner. What’s that old cliché? “If these walls could talk…” Now we have an old duck cleaner that we’re twisting its arm to make it talk.
KsdM: It’s more than the items; it’s the story around them. It’s the mystery and the legend, which we’ll be including in a catalogue which you’ll be able to have a look at the museum. So when you’re in there, you’ll be able to find out about each item, where it’s come from and why we’re displaying it.

TF: Kind of a cross between MTV Cribs and Unsolved Mysteries! An introduction but also a memoralising of it.

MA: I feel nervous about getting involved in any blank-ising of anything. You know, memoralising, defying, like the process of changing something…
KsdM: We’re not putting these items on a pedestal; we’re putting them on a milk-crate!

[everyone laughs]

TF: Anything else you want to say about the North Perth Share House Museum? You’re open for a week, yes?

KsdM: Me and Mattie will be in there. Either one or the other, for most of it. If you mention this interview, we’ll give you a free curatorial talk! Oh, and by the way, we’ll also be screening 1990s ex-rental VHS from Tristan’s collection, on request. We’ll also have cup of noodles and boiling water. So we can make you cup noodles and that’ll be available for a gold coin donation!