Complaints

 I was laughing out loud at the Queensland Gallery Of Modern Art (GOMA) today because I've just watched a series of video clips of an international community music project - The Complaints Choirs.

Two Finnish mucicians began this movement as a tongue in cheek way of giving local communities an opportunity to VENT. Some people confuse this whinging with, well, whinging, but I'm inclined to read it as a comment on whingers. You know, those people for whom nothing is ever good enough. There are now many choirs across the globe and the numbers are growing.

GOMA had clips of about a dozen - German, Scandanavian, Russian, Singaporean, Australian, British - the list goes on. My favourite was the Sointula, British Columbia choir. It's a small community in the north west of Canada which experiences some pretty extreme weather from year to year so they might have a lot to complain about. The line I like best is where they sing about the three days of summer they experience each year.

The Australian one was boring. I was surprised. I thought our sense of humour would shine in this piece. I was surprised to find that Germans and Finnish people have a great sense of humour and of self deprication. It seems we share a global sense of humour when it comes to whingers. Strangely no Complaints Choir from Mainland China at this stage.

I've also included the Toronto complaints choir for my blog friend Jennifer at Realia.