Market, Museum of Contemporary Art, Farmhouse dinner!

Saturday March 30 was our last full day in Sydney. It had rained heavily during the night, but by morning it had stopped, though it was still cloudy. The clouds blew away mid-day and we had a lovely sunny afternoon with a high of 26C.

We walked down to the weekly Rocks Craft Market (the area in Sydney near the waterfront), stopping along the way for a coffee at Grounds of the City. There was the usual mix of excellent and not so great crafts. Two streets are used for the Market, and there were lots of folks out on what turned out to be a great afternoon.

Part of the market

Sydney bags

Rabbit

Lots of card/ tea towel places

We bought a chocolate bar here-- rated in top 10 in Australia - Cicada Artisan Bean to Bar Chocolate

There was a very interesting three sided sculpture at the end of one of the Market streets. It was called First Impressions and was commissioned by the Sydney Cove Redevelopment Authority in 1979. Bud Dumas was the designer.

The Settlers (first free immigrants arrived in 1793)

The Convict- First Fleet in 1788 with 1500 people of whom about 780 were convicts.

The Soldier- The First Fleet arrived with 211 Marines.

There were some great older buildings where the Market was set up.

Sergeant Majors Row 1881-83

Mercantile Hotel 1915-- lovely tiles

We then dropped into the Ken Done Art Gallery. Ken Done (b. 1940) is an Australian artist and designer. At 40, he gave up his advertising career to become a full-time painter. His paintings of Sydney landmarks have wonderful colours. The Gallery was featuring some of his more recent work. The paintings are very pricey. The gallery also sells clothing with his paintings on them.

Parrots on the Sea Wall 2018

Black Boat 2019

Hot Day on the Harbour 2019

A Day at the Beach 1993

We then stopped at a small store called Hunting Hue, which had fabulous scarves with prints of photographs taken by the owner, Rebecca Collinson-Smith, who lives at Bondi Beach. Her mom was minding the store. Alain got a wonderful scarf with a photograph of one of the sails of the Opera House and I got one with a Bondi Beach photo.

Alain's scarf in a frame (excuse reflection)

Alain with his new scarf-- pic taken for store's Instagram

We then headed to our main destination of the day- The Museum of Contemporary Art. Blocking our view of the Harbour was the largest cruise ship we had ever seen. Yikes!

Wow-- talk about blocking a view

Ovation cruise ship

Another view with Sydney Bridge in background

Totally dominated the harbour

We went to the Museum of Contemporary Act (MCA) to see a number of exhibits. The first had just opened on Friday March 29 and was entitled: The National 2019: New Australian Art. It featured 70 artists in three of Sydney's cultural institutions including the MCA and is a celebration of contemporary Australian art. It is the second of three biennial survey exhibitions, showcasing work being made across the country by artists of different generations and cultural backgrounds in a variety of mediums.

The exhibit

There were some fantastic artists. We were both taken by the ceramics done by Janet Fieldhouse
(b. 1971, Cairns). She draws on her matrilineal connections to aboriginal communities and her father's European heritage. The pieces were spectacular.

Porcelain strips

With feathers

Kalene Whiskey (b. 1976, Indulkana, South Australia- 360 km south of Alice Springs) examines the kitsch of a pre-internet era in her work. Some of her favourite singers are featured in her paintings as she imagines what it would be like for them to come to Indulkana.

Kunmanara (Mumu Mike) Williams created a series of paintings on repurposed canvas mail bags. In his work, the bags, which are the property of the Commonwealth of Australia, "act as symbols of conflict, misuse of power, contestation of land and the impact of colonisation of Anangu people." In colonial times, rations were distributed from post offices and sometimes the food was deliberately poisoned." Tjukurpa is a system of knowledge, thinking and law that defies easy description in the English language.

Kunmanara (Mumu Mike Williams (1952-2009). The Government doesn't have Tjukurpa 2019

Abdul-Rahman Abdullah ( b. 1977). Pretty Beach 2019 -- a group of stingrays under a circle of falling rain (crystals).

We then saw the work of four women who share their work at the Mangkaja Arts Resources Agency located in the town of Fitzroy Crossing in the remote west Kimberley region of Western Australia.

Works by Daisy Japuliga (b. 1948); Sonia Kurarra (b. 1952); Tjigila Nada Rawlins (b. 1936) and Ms Uhl (1976- 2018)

Fabulous painted panels

Kylie Banyard (b. 1974) is a painter who also works with photography, video, textiles and sculpture. In her new series, Modes of Associated Living (2019), she looks to Black Mountain College (1933-56), a communal art facility in rural North Carolina that set out to transform how art was taught and made. While the college is known for its famous male teachers and graduates, the woman who studied and worked there have been largely ignored. Beginning with research into the College's extensive photographic archives, Banyard made a series of painting that attempt to refocus attention on these women and their work. The paintings were very strong.

There were many more artists in the exhibit.

We then went see: MCA Collection Today Tomorrow Yesterday, which featured works from more that forty artists from the MCA collection. The exhibit, which spans pieces from the 1960s to the present, shows the impact of the past on the art of today.

Mabel Juli (b. 1931) Garnkiny Ngarranggarni 2016 (a story of forbidden love)

Gareth Sansom (b. 1939) Amyl 2015-16 (portrait of a psychedelic experience-- evokes the artist's memory of first taking the drug in San Francisco in 1976)

Cool Art Gallery visitor

Nicole Foreshew (b. 1982). ngayirr (sacred) 2015-17 --made using mineral and wood materials

Maria Josette Orsto (b.1962) Miyinga (Scars) 2015

Barayuma Mununggurr (b.1980) Manbuynga 2015-incorporates painted sculptural forms into the story

Fiona Hall (b.1953) Manuhiri (Travellers) 2014-15 Collection of driftwood

Timothy Cook (b. 1958) Kulama 2015- based on traditional Kulama (or yam) ceremony

There was an Artist Room featuring the works of Yirawala, a senior Kuninjku artist and leading figure in the struggle for land rights against mining interests in western Arnhem Land. He was born c. 1903 and died in 1976. The MCA was gifted these works done on bark.

Barramundi c. 1976

Sacred Mardayin body painting 1962

The final exhibit we saw was Janet Laurence, After Nature.Laurence has explored the interconnection of all living things-animal, plant, mineral- through her artistic practice. She works across painting, sculpture, installation, photography and video. She focuses on the environmental challenges we face today.

Forensic Sublime from the Crimes Against the Landscape series 2008 (mirror, oil glaze )

Heartshock (After Nature) 2008/2019

Cellular Gardens (Where Breathing Begins) 2015- presents endangered rainforest species in delicate glass vials.

Vanishing was made by Janet Laurence during a residency at Sydney's Taronga Zoo. It features filmed footage of threatened species that are the focus of conversation and breeding programs there. Vanishing was also created when Laurence's father was on life-support in a hospital. Very powerful peice.

The last piece in the exhibit was a major new installation created especially for the MCA. Entitled Theatre of Trees, it brought together a decade of the artist's research into trees and medicinal plants as a metaphor for the healing of the planet. Presented as a large circular structure that one can walk in, it also has three smaller, enclosed environments.

Theatre of Trees

Small room with various elixirs

Reflection of visitor taking a picture of floating silk panel in the exhibit

We had a great visit to the MCA-- lots of food for thought. We emerged to see the Cruise Ship still dominating the horizon. The Opera House looked very small by comparison.

Cruise ship-- with Opera House across the way

We walked back to the apartment as it was still a beautiful day and then went two doors down for our last dinner in Sydney at Farmhouse Kings Cross. The restaurant does just two sittings an evening- 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. and seats up to 30 both inside and outside the restaurant on communal tables. We had made a reservation a few days before for the 6:30 p.m. sitting.

It is a prix fixe dinner but they can cater for dietary requirements (fabulous for my lactose intolerance). The price was $60 AUS per person-- very reasonable for the five course meal we had. The appetizer plate had fried artichokes (one of our favourite foods), creamed edamame and peas, pickles and house baguette and cob loaf. The next course was a fabulous cured Kingfish with fennel, lime and green peppercorns; the main course was lamb belly with farmhouse grains, charred radicchio, beets and a small tomato salad with chimichuri sauce for the lamb. The grains were wonderful. There were two desserts-- a tapioca pudding with maple syrup over plums (made with coconut milk) and a plum and pistachio tart with ice cream (coconut ice cream for me and Alain had the pastry). We had a lovely glass of Malbec with the meal. It was a memorable evening-- the door was open and we sat at the communal table inside.