Neighbourhoods, Art Gallery and Dance

Wednesday March 27 was a mainly cloudy day with a few drops of rain.  High of 22C.  A totally different day than Tuesday's beach weather.

We had our late morning coffee at Street Espresso about a 10 minute walk from the apartment, which serves Toby's Estate coffee.  It also had some nice looking sandwiches, but it was too early for lunch.

Inside of Street Espresso

Morning coffee- I borrowed Alain's hat

We passed a poster for NSW Labor's renewable plan --- too bad the Ford government is so regressive on this issue.

We stopped at the Australian Design Centre, which had an interesting exhibit entitled: Steel: Art Design Architecture. The exhibit explored innovative ways that steel is being used by artists, designers and architects.  There was some wonderful jewellery, larger pieces and architectural models (difficult to take photos).  The Centre also had a great 'Object Shop'.

The next exhibit is going to be a group exhibit called Island Welcome which will explore contemporary jewellery as a gesture of greeting. The artists have each made a neckpiece interpreting the theme of 'welcome' in response to Australian immigration and refugee policy (sounds very interesting, but it opens after we leave Sydney).

Two pieces from the series Object 2009 by Mari Funaki (1950-2010).  We visited the gallery she started in Melbourne.

We decided to walk down Bourke Street (a very long street bisecting a number of neighbourhoods) to the Bourke Street Bakery in the Surry Hills neighbourhood about a 30 minute walk to the south and west of where we are staying.  The walk down Bourke Street took us through a neighbourhood in transition and then past some lovely homes with wrought iron balconies.  Part of the area was a very vibrant gay neighbourhood--- lots of rainbow flags and interesting bars/cafés.

En route- some old, some new

Lots of wrought iron detail

The white wrought iron looks like lace

Lots of wonderful homes

We got to the very small, but very popular Bourke Street Bakery (they also supply a number of coffee shops and grocery stores).  We shared a very good roast chicken sandwich.

Inside of Bourke Street Bakery-- a few tables inside and a number outside

We went around the corner to the Brett Whiteley Studio, an art museum and former home of Australian avant-garde artist Brett Whiteley (1939-1992).  He bought the former warehouse in 1985 and converted it into a studio and exhibition space.   Since 1995, the Studio has been managed as a museum by the Art Gallery of New South Wales.  Unfortunately, it wasn't open to the public on Wednesdays (just school groups), but the door was open and the man in the gallery who was standing at the door, hearing we were from Canada, let us in for a few minutes to walk around the gallery.   We weren't able to see the upstairs studio which has some of his unfinished work, but were glad to have the chance to see the gallery.   There were a number of drawings and one fabulous large piece on one entire wall (we we're supposed to take photos).  The temporary exhibit in the gallery was entitled: Wildlife and Other Emergencies.  

At the gallery

Drawings

We then walked back up Crown Street,  full of wonderful shops, restaurants and bars.

Fabulous clothing store (Sark Studio) where owner Theresa Jackson was painting a banner .  The clothes were very pricey, but all the work is done in Sydney.  She sells primarily to Asia markets.

We wondered some more and Alain found a sculpture by the same artist who had a piece in Hobart.

We then walked from Surry Hills to the Paddington neighbourhood.  There is a fabulous intersection of Oxford Street and Glenmore which has about 15 individual stores with Australian designers.  We stopped at a fabulous shoe store called Von-Röutte.   The name is a mix of different languages that together means: "on a journey."  The shoe designer was there.  Alain bought a fabulous pair of shoes that he is modelling alongside the designer, Gus.  The store we were in was just a pop up, but he is about to open a permanent store in Bondi.

Alain with his new shoes-- totally cool.

Plaque about the Intersection

There was also an Australian Fashion Walk of Style, featuring plaques of Australian fashion designers.   

R.M. Williams (1908-2001)-- Australian icon for his boots

Gus had recommended we walk up Glenmore until we reached a roundabout called Five Ways.  He said there were a number of spots to have a drink.  We passed some fabulous homes on our walk

Flowers match the paint job

Gorgeous homes with wrought iron 

Very fancy 'hood

Café Five Ways where we stopped for a happy hour glass of wine and a vegan treat

Lots of banners with Five Ways

More beautiful homes

After our drinks, we headed back to the apartment.  We stopped at a great wine store not far from us, and got a bottle of Pinot Noir to go with our pasta/chorizo dinner.

Thursday March 28 was a beautiful day.  Mainly sunny and a high of 26C.

I took a few pictures of the courtyard where we are staying.  Lots of lush vegetation and one very noisy bird that gets up early.  It is generally very quiet as we are far from the street (which is not too busy in any event).

Courtyard

Entrance to our building- there are about 6 low rises in the complex

Our first destination of the day was the Art Gallery of New South Wales, which is located in a huge Park, called The Domain.  We walked from our apartment and our route took us into the adjoining Woolloomoolloo neighbourhood and past Woolloomooloo Bay (such a great name).

The Finger Wharf in the Bay

Sculptures on the Bay- and apartments with a great view

Dragon on the Bay

There was a map of the Domain area and adjoining Royal Botanic Gardens (to the North) and Hyde Park (to the South). Lots of joggers out, even though it was quite warm at around noon.

Outside of the very large Gallery of New South Wales

The Art Gallery was in the middle of installing a number of new exhibits.  We went to see the gallery with 20th and 21st century Australian art and then the gallery on another floor with Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander art.


The first section dealt with Cubism in Australia which flourished in the late 20s and 30s.

Grace Crowley (1890-1979) Portrait of Lucie Beynis 1929 - she was a central figure in the modernist movement which flourished in Sydney in the 1930s and 1940s.  

Dorrit Black (1891-1951) The Chinese Statuette 1929

Frank Hinder (1906-1992) Tram Kaleidoscope 1948 -- "captures the essence of Sydney modernism-- statement of the city as a dynamic living organism".

Lots of colour.

Grace Cossington Smith (1892-1984) Interior with wardrobe mirror 1955

Grace Crowley Abstract painting 1950, Abstract 1953

There were a number of paintings of Central Australia.

Sidney Nolan (1917-1992) Central Australia 1950. Nolan travelled through Central Australia in 1949 - the dramatic landscapes "had a profound impact on his practice."  

Angelina George (1937-2014)  Untitled 2008.  She was born in Ngukurr, an aboriginal community.

Aboriginal art section 

View from window of the Gallery

Mawalan Marika (1908-87) Djan'kawu creation story 1959.  He is remembered as a revered elder and ceremonial leader and was also an acclaimed artist.

There was a series of works by the Papunya Tula artists.  "In the vision of these artists, the desert becomes an intimate and vibrant landscape, part of their lived experience, rather than a desolate expanse.  The connection to country gave rise to this extraordinary painting movement that emerged at Papunya in the early 1970s.".   Alain and I really love these paintings.

Most from 1974-- Timmy Payungka Tjapangati (1940-2000) Children's goanna dreaming; Charlie Tarau Tjungurrayi (1921-99) Frog spirit dreaming and Love story of man and the moon; Uta, Uta Tjangala Untitled c. 1971

Dick Pantimus Tjupurrula (c. 1940-83) Water and wallaby dreaming 1981

In a small room there was an exhibit entitled: Chinese Bible: revolution and art in China.  Part of the exhibit was a video showing the artist Yang Zhichao (b. 1963) and his wife, Zhang Lan, washing a collection of 3000 notebooks, which he had collected, many of which were so dirty they couldn't be read.

Yang Zhichao (b. 1963) Chinese bible 2009 - installation of notebooks with cloth, plastic and paper covers.  There were two groups of notebooks- non-political and political.  Most are political especially those dated between 1950 and the 1970s. "Political study sessions were organised for attendees to take notes and write down their reflections and submit these writings to their supervisor for checking".

Zhang Xiogang (b. 1958) Mother with three sons 1993, from the Bloodline series

We then went down to the Yiribana Gallery in one of the lower levels of the Art Gallery to see the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art.  Yiribana means 'this way' in the language of the Eora people and acknowledges the location of the Gallery on Gadigal land.  The Gallery features work from aboriginal communities across the country.

Patju Presley (b. 1945) Kali impil 2015 -- great colours

Spinifex Arts Project- Men's Collaborative established 1997 Watiku Nguru Pulkana 2015 -- completed during a bush trip in the Great Sandy Desert

The next piece was Swimming before School 1995, by Ian Abdulla (1947-2011).  The notes say that what at first appears as a simple record of country life-going swimming before school- turns out to reference matters of social alienation, poverty and hardship.  The swimming served as a necessary bath, the warming fire as a means to make a rudimentary breakfast of toast as a prelude for a 16 km trek to and from a distant government schoolhouse.

The writing on the top of the painting reads: "Swimming in the River first thing in the morning before going to school which was our way of having a bath in the morning while some of us would put a slice of bread on a stick and then hold the bread near the flames so the bread would just be like a piece of toast.
Then we would walk about ten miles to school and back again".

Godon Hookey (b.1961) Cognative frontier 1995 -shows the divide between the Aboriginal residents of the Block in Redfern and the local police force.

After our visit to the gallery we walked through the Domain and Hyde Park into town.

Robbie Burns

Archibald Fountain in Hyde Park

We stopped for coffee and a sandwich at Industrial Beans, which had just opened a Sydney location.  We had coffee at their café in Melbourne.

At Industrial Beans- waiting for our sandwich

Very minimalist organised set up

We then returned to the Queen Victoria Building to check out a few stores and find the second large clock in the building.

The Royal Clock which we saw the other day - designed by Neil Glasser in 1982 and made by Thwaites & Reed of Hastings in England.

We returned to the Royal Clock just before 4:00 p.m.  The clock activates on the hour from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.  Each performance begins with the music of the trumpet as miniature trumpeters emerge from the tops of the clock's four outer turrets.  They withdraw at the end of the trumpet part.  Then one sees six scenes (one at a time) through the two windows on either side of the clock.  Each scene briefly illuminates to display a diorama of English royal history, before dimming and rotating to the next scene.  One scene depicts the execution of King Charles I.  There is music playing throughout the approximately five minutes it takes to go through the scenes.

Trumpeters emerge

Trumpeters gone and scenes in window lit up

The other clock is the Great Australian Clock, which includes 33 scenes from Australian history seen from both Aboriginal and European perspectives.  This clock was designed and made by Chris Cook and installed in June 2000.  There is an Aboriginal hunter circling the outside to represent the passage of time.

Great Australian Clock- showing Thursday 28   

Second Fleet landing 1790

The Taking of the Children

We wandered some more-- it was a lovely warm afternoon.   We stopped for a drink in the Rocks outside Tayim (the restaurant we ate at the other day), and had a nice glass of wine.

We walked to the Roslyn Packer Theatre not far from the Sydney Bridge to see the Sydney Dance Company.

Outside of Roslyn Packer Theatre

The performance was starting at 7:30 p.m. and we arrived just before 7:00 p.m. to pick up our tickets.  We wandered into "The Chair's Event" in a small room and listened to a few of the speeches to donors.

Chair talking about the 50th anniversary of the Dance Company

Artistic Director Rafael Bonachela talking about the evening's program

Poster board for the evening performance

We saw three wonderful pieces by a superb dance company.  The first was Neon Aether choreographed by Gabrielle Nankivell, an Australian choreographer from Adelaide.  The costumes, music and lighting were amazing as well as the dance.  A bit of science fiction and the intangible.  (I  wasn't able to get a photo of the fabulous costumes).

The second piece Cinco was choreographed by Rafael Bonachela with music from Argentinean Alberto Ginastera, String Quartet No. 2 Op. 26.  The String Quartet was in five parts, and Bonachela used 5 dancers to explore the music.  He designed the movement within the imaginary constraints of a pentagon.  Great piece.

Bows at the end of the piece

While the first two pieces were premieres, the third piece was called Woof and was choreographed by Melanie Lane, another Australian choreographer based in Melbourne.  It had been commissioned by Sydney Dance Company in 2017 as part of their New Breed season. The dancers have black paint on their arms up to their elbows (like paws) and the paint gets all over their costumes by the end of the piece.

Bows for Woof

It was a great night. We walked back to Circular Quay and took the train to our apartment for a very late salmon dinner.