Overnight, sculpted metal ‘bin chickens’ began appearing around parts of Brisbane. Two years later, artist Ryan Forster has unmasked himself as the ‘bin chicken man'. As his bin chicken trail gains greater notoriety, the artist has begun his next campaign to build a 10 metre tall ‘Big Binny’, with hopes his artworks may even be considered for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics mascot.
00:00Okay, check this out. It has got to be my favourite build for the bin chicken trail so far.
00:06Look at that, how cool. Two night bin chickens holding swords.
00:12It's up now on top of Round Table Coffee in Bracken Ridge.
00:15Yeah, it kind of started with just the idea of making one and putting it up somewhere,
00:21just a little bit of a sneaky install so that people would wake up and drive along
00:27and see a bin chicken out of the corner of their eye and do a bit of a double take
00:31because it's holding a beer. So I did that. The 4X Brewery were up.
00:35People started asking, oh, can you make one for us? Make one for us.
00:37So, yeah, fast forward almost two years later and there's almost 200 out there,
00:45about 40 on public display, so on the actual bin chicken trail itself.
00:49And yeah, the rest just hidden away in homes and pool rooms and everywhere else.
00:55Look at this distinguished gentleman. Look at the way he is sitting. Yes, very distinguished.
01:02Mm-hmm, I see, I see.
01:04It takes a fair bit of time to make each one. I have got a template for the actual bin chicken itself,
01:12which is it's laser cut and I fold it up and then spot weld it.
01:16Then all the accessories, so like the legs, what pose they're in, what they're holding,
01:21might have to make all those generally from scratch and that can take quite a bit of time.
01:26But all up, each bin chicken probably takes about two days. So, yeah, it's a bit of a long process.
01:32It's the unfortunate reality. You put something out there and it's possible that it's going to get stolen.
01:39I want the art to be accessible and that's where there's a bit of a fine line.
01:45You want it to be able to be seen and enjoyed by the public.
01:49But if you make it too accessible, then you run the risk of someone wanting it and being able to take it.
01:56And that's what happened with the Dandy Cinema one.
01:59They wanted it in a garden bed at ground level so people could have photos with it.
02:05But it also meant, obviously, that someone could take it and that's what happened.
02:09And there are a few other ones.
02:11There's a toothbrush binny that's gone missing from Waterworks Road.
02:15And that was installed up on top of the building.
02:18So, someone went to great lengths to take that, which I guess in some ways it is an honour that people like it so much that they want to take it.
02:28But it's selfish, to be honest.
02:31It's taking away all the fun and joy from everyone else.
02:34So, yeah, I'd really like people to think about that and maybe possibly return things and have a bit of a conscience.
02:42But, yeah, I live in hope.
02:44Ever since I've made the first one, it's been in my head to make the big binny.
02:50An actual proper tourist attraction.
02:53Something that really cements the whole journey of this, you know, the bin chicken trail.
02:59And it's like this is it.
03:00This is what it all culminates in.
03:03So, I've been waiting for the right time to start campaigning for it.
03:07I have spoken to a couple of councillors about the possibility of using council land.
03:12One was pretty open to it at one point.
03:15So, if I have another conversation with them and we can secure some land, then I'd love for it to be big enough to actually be a proper big thing.
03:25So, you know, I'm thinking 10 metres or so.
03:28There's a lot of big things out there in Australia that aren't quite big enough to be, you know, the real, really impressive.
03:34Like the big banana is massive.
03:36It's great.
03:37But like even this morning, I drove past the big shoe and it's not that big.
03:44Come on, you gotta go big.
03:46I haven't talked about the cartoon with the music.
03:49Yeah, yeah.
03:50You know, we got .
03:51Very good.
03:52On, you gotta do so.
03:54Yeah.
03:55You can look good.
03:57...
04:02As this is Daniel, I've been looking for feedback.
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