It’s Finders Keepers in Adelaide’s art scavenger hunt
Adelaide artist Adam Tarif has been hiding his art around the city scavenger hunt style. He chats to CityMag about how the SALA festival project grew his Instagram following and is still going strong.
On August 4, the first week of the South Australian Living Arts (SALA) festival, Adam posted to his Instagram a scribbled-out painting with the caption “First to find, keeps it. Somewhere in Adelaide CBD. Thursday.”
That Thursday at 6pm, he would hide the painting somewhere in the city, posting hints to his Instagram story before someone found it.
What started as a one-off art drop has become a bigger project than he initially expected, upping Adam’s social media presence to more than 3000 followers.
“As opposed to registering with a venue, which is sort of the traditional format (of SALA), I thought I’d try and do something a bit different,” he says.
“It was kind of a bit of a joke, but then people turned up and it turned into a race, and it sort of really snowballed in these six weeks.”
The artist originally intended to end the project after its fourth week, but the demand was too strong and he’s now keeping the project going at least until its eighth drop.
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“I made a bet with the people that followed me, that if they can get me to 2400 followers, then I will do another four drops,” Adam says.
“It wasn’t a huge feat to achieve, but I didn’t think we’d get to it, I was expecting to have at least a week off, but literally within two days they reached that mark.”
Adam is a visual artist, primarily working with paintings, and has had his work displayed inside local cafes and restaurants around the city.
“I think people have also bought my paintings off the back of the fact that they love the Finders Keepers and they want me to continue doing it,” he says.
He says French artist Lórem is a key inspiration behind Finders Keepers.
“What he does is he gets like one of these graffiti pens and he does his work on people’s hard rubbish… then he hides it somewhere near a distinctive landmark in Paris and then the first person that gets it, keeps it,” Adam recalls.
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Despite a European inspiration, Adam believes Adelaide is the right place for his project.
“Adelaide is considered a city of art. Everywhere you go, there are murals, there are artworks in every café, I think it speaks to everyone,” he says.
“Even if you went to the bigger cities, I’m not sure if you could really carve out a following.
“I initially made them pretty straightforward and simple, but it turns out that people really know their Adelaide landmarks.”
With the growing support and recognition of Finders Keepers, he’s considering adding extra factors to his formula to give art hunters a fairer chance.
This comes after the fifth art drop, when Adam was recognised in the street minutes before the project was to go live.
“She didn’t know what I looked like, but obviously if you have a big canvas under your arm, it’s kind of a giveaway,” he recalls.
“Definitely one thing that’s crossed my mind is having a decoy, so having someone with a blank canvas and getting them to run somewhere to lead people astray.
“I’ve thought about trying to give people clues that may mislead them, in a friendly way, obviously, but just to make it ambiguous, kind of like a video game.”
Adam plans to continue running his Finders Keepers art project for a total of eight drops, with the final two going live Thursday at 6pm on September 18 and 25.
