Biennale Cockatoo Island

The three month long 20th Biennele of Sydney comes to an end tomorrow.

One of the venues each year is Cockatoo Island.

It's a fabulous venue for a large exhibition as well as being a fascinating place to visit in it's own right. Full of history, industrial beauty and a scenic spot to watch the boats on Sydney Harbour, Cockatoo Island can easily take up a full day of exploring at the best of times.

But when you have the added bonus of an art exhibition and all the food stalls that go along with that, then that day trip can become a huge affair indeed!

I confess that this year's installations on Cockatoo Island didn't do a lot for me.
It felt like someone forget the fun.

Thank goodness for the dumpling bar and the beanbags in the sun!

There were also a lot more video works than previously. And video art doesn't usually do much for me.

However, one of my favourites, because it was so intricate, other-worldly and layered with meaning, was Conscious Sleep by Chiharu Shiota.

It was a whole body experience to enter this space. 

This particular room has three entrances and numerous windows. It is situated high on top of the island. Passing through the doors from full sun into the cool, dark, woven space created by Shiota was quite surreal and a little disturbing.

The threads were beautifully complex and suggestive of connections, constraint and cocoons.
It felt dreamy and nightmarish at the same time.

Six Women by Bharti Kher was intriguing.

According to the official website, she made use of the minimalist, abstract and readymade to "engage with a range of ideas, including gender politics..."

These six sculptures were modelled on real women.

Kher describes them as "mythical urban goddesses".

The island itself is also quite beautiful with all it's industrial, now historic workings.

Not to mention the views across the harbour!

(For those who want to know, the green headland across the water is Elkington Park in Balmain.)

Then there was just the weird.

Justene Williams with the Sydney Chamber Orchestra, used a combination of light, sound, costuming and performance for a Reinvention of the 1913 Futurist Russian (anti) opera Victory Over the Sun. The website used the words 'nonsensical' and 'heady'.

Noisy and jarring were closer to my experience.

Willing to Be Vulnerable by Lee Bul was an alien like experience involving giant helium balloon shapes and metallic and plastic screens that flowed through the space which is, apparently, "emblematic of the dreams and aspirations of humanity".

It's always a good day out going to Cockatoo Island, but the art was a tad disappointing.

This post is part of Saturday Snapshot

Biennale Art Gallery of NSW

Once again the 20th Biennele of Sydney is coming to an end after three months of exhibitions and excitement.

Various venues around Sydney have been adorned with art loosely gathered under this year's theme -

The Future is Already Here-It's Just Not Evenly Distributed.

Rather clunky as far as themes go, but open to wide interpretation, I guess.

The Art Gallery Of NSW hosted several artists and their works.

One of the entrance pillars was adorned with coloured fabric cords by Sheila Hicks called Questioning Column.

Her second piece, The Embassy of Chromatic Delegates, graced the foyer area.

I loved the look of the silk & linen 'boules' that dotted this work and would have loved to be able to run my hands over their texture.

Along one of the long walls within the gallery, Erub Arts presented a strong environmental work that captured my imagination, Solwata, 2015-16, ghostnet.

Erub is also known as Darnley Island, one of the inhabited islands of the Torres Strait.

"Erub Arts, founded more than 20 years ago by a small collective of artists from four tribal groups seeking to preserve and revitalise traditional Erub culture through a variety of artistic forms, including printmaking, jewellery, textiles, weaving, ceramics and the creation of traditional dance ornaments such as shari (traditional headdresses). 

Erub artists have been working with reclaimed fishing nets since 2010, when GhostNets Australia came to Darnley Island to conduct a workshop and invited local artists to apply traditional weaving techniques to a new medium." (AGNSW webpage)

"Crossing from the shoreline to the shallows and out into deep water our faces are reflected as we peer into the depths. It is a beautiful, colourful world and our reflections are caught between the dichotomy of discovering the unknown and witnessing environmental abuse. The shadows create a dialogue between the surface beauty and a deeper message around the ghost net problem that the ocean and reef is struggling to communicate." (Erub Artists)

On the way out I played around with a few more shots of the Questioning Column.

This post is part of Saturday Snapshot

19th Biennale of Sydney

You Imagine What You Desire

Biennale runs from 21 March until 9 June.

According to the brochure I picked up during the week it is "Australia's largest and most exciting contemporary visual arts festival. Held every two years across multiple venues in Sydney, the Biennale is a three month exhibition, with an accompanying program of artist talks, forums, guided tours & family days - all FREE to the public.

Under the artistic direction of Juliana Engberg, the 19th Biennale of Sydney: You Imagine What You Desire celebrates the artistic imagination as a spirited exploration of the world, seeking splendour and rapture in works that remain true to a greater, even sublime, visuality."

I began my Biennale adventure this week at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA).

My day off work this week was another grey, wet autumnal Sydney day. Our house was musty & very unappealing with several days wet washing strung up around the place! 

So I decided to escape for a couple of hours into the arms of art & culture!

Glasgow based artist Jim Lambie has filled the first floor of the MCA with his taped lines.

Titled 'Zobop' (2014) he "uses brightly coloured vinyl tape to trace and accentuate the architectural nuances of the building."

Below is one of Lambie's earlier works 'Vortex (Come Together) (2013).

"A circular sculpture that has the visual effect of being recessed into the wall of the gallery."

Pipilotti Rist from Zurich presents a video-installation Mercy Garden Retour Skin (2014) that encompasses three entire walls.

"Lush and Edenic, sexy but sinless, the hedonistic pleasure worlds...delight, revive and relax."

The floor is scattered with cushions to encourage you into a comfortable viewing position.

The day I was there, groups of high school students were also visiting. It felt a little weird to be sprawled on the floor in a darkened room watching a very sensual film with a group of uniformed giggling teenagers!

Hubert Czerepok's Madness is Like Gravity (2012) was inspired by a quote from the Joker in the Batman film The Dark Knight.

Another Glaswegian, Martin Boyce has created Last Light (2014).

"Boyce creates an environment full of mood and poetry. His objects set the gallery space in a surreal drama of stillness and anticipation."

Nine Liquid Incidents (2010-2012) by US artist Roni Horn was a room full of glass bowls "with rough edges and fire-polished surfaces, these exquisite sculptures seem to both draw in and exude energy, appearing transparent or highly reflective depending on the play of light in the space."

When I first saw them, I thought they were glass bowls filled with water thanks to the way the light shimmered across the surface.

On my way out, I was pleasantly surprised to spot another Wild Rhino.

This one is called Camo - he has a view to die for!

How did I remember so much information about these sculptures?

Like almost everything in modern life - there is now a MCA app!

This post is part of West Metro Mommy's Saturday Snapshot.

18th Biennale of Sydney

The Biennale of Sydney is held every two years and runs for 3 months. 

It's a comtemporary visual arts celebration using various venues around Sydney. 

All the events are free. 

Even though Cockatoo Island, one of the main venues, is just across the water from my front porch, I have yet to attend any Biennale event.

Last month I finally went across to Cockatoo Island to see what all the fuss has been about.

Cockatoo Island is an old ship building yard in the middle of Sydney Harbour. It is now Heritage listed and home to many events including festivals, concerts, conferences and exhibitions.

It also has camping sites, cafes and bars and a regular ferry service to make it easy to get to and from.

Today I have posted a few of my favourite pics from this years Biennale.

* Philip Beesley's Hylozoic series (above) was an interactive exhibition with touch sensors, LED lights and aromatherapy. The crowds were regulated so that you had time and space to enjoy the sensory experience of the exhibition.

* Fujiko Nakaya's Living Chasm (above) creates temporary fog installations using pure water fog.

* Ed Pien and Tanya Tagaq's Source (below) consisted of a spiral shaped paper and rope maze. The centre piece had several cut out tunnels to peep through...I managed to get a my lens into one to get the shot below.

The old cranes and sheds on Cockatoo Island are works of art on their own. We often hear this one creaking and groaning in the wind. You can almost spy our house through the legs of the crane!

* Tiffany Singh's windchime installation (below) in the old Coal Room was proabaly my favourite piece though.

It was so peaceful and calming.

To enter the exhibition, you had to duck down and crouch through the old coal chute.

Inside was a haven - away from the hustle and bustle of the crowds as not everyone realised there was something special going on inside.

A gentle breeze lazily moved the bamboo chimes and whichever way you looked, the lines of chimes made pleasing lines against the blue sky and clouds.

Snapshot Saturday is a meme hosted by Alyce at At Home With Books.

The rules are simple:

To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.