Stilgherrian » Sydney

Review: Fiona Hall’s “Force Field”

Stilgherrian — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 22:05:41 +0000

I’ve always liked the witty, organic forms of Fiona Hall’s sculpture. A massive collection of her work, Fiona Hall: Force Field, currently fills two floors of Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art. It’s an almost overwhelming but immensely satisfying journey through her mind.

The photograph shows details from “Tender”, a collection of birds’ nests made from shredded US dollar bills. They’re incredibly realistic — especially in the exhibition environment where they’re collected into museum-style glass cases with each species’ nest labelled with its scientific name on the front of the case, the banknotes’ serial numbers listed on the back.

Other works include the finely-detailed sculptures of Paradisus Terrestris made from sardine cans, Scar Tissue, Understorey, Cell Culture and Leaf Litter. There’s also a smattering her photographs, and something about bees.

Cell Culture and many other works such as Dead in the Water are constructed from myriad tiny glass beads threaded on fine wire, shaped with loving attention to detail into precise organic forms. Photographs do not do them justice — you must see them in three dimensions, walk around them, revel in their reality. A video shot on a tropical field trip with botanists in search of blooming water lilies reveals Hall’s passion for getting it right.

Hall’s work explores the boundaries between the natural and the man-made with subtlety and humour. Works like Leaf Litter show how the global plantscape has been shaped by human economic “needs”. I’m still bubbling with the thoughts it triggered the morning after.

Fiona Hall: Force Field is at Sydney’s MCA until 1 June 2008. Free entry. Give yourself at least an hour for just this exhibition, let alone what else the venue offers.

[Photograph: Details from "Tender" 2003-2005; Image from Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery via UTS Gallery.]

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Sydney manic after 13 days of rain?

Stilgherrian — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 23:34:59 +0000

Will Sydney see an outburst of manic behaviour today? I’ve written about The Sydney Effect before. Today is the first sunny day after 13 days of continuous cloud and plenty of rain. Were we more depressed than usual? Perhaps. Will we be manic? Let’s see.

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Newtown Sunset, one month ago

Stilgherrian — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 08:42:03 +0000

Too long since I posted a photo. I thought of taking a quick snap of the street but after 12 days of rain King Street looks bleak. Instead, here’s the glorious sunset scene from 26 March. Enjoy.

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Earth Hour a dud?

Stilgherrian — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 01:11:23 +0000

My gut impression was that last night’s Earth Hour in Sydney was less about individual involvement this year, more about corporate sponsors ostentatiously turning off lights at head office. Agreed? There was little visible effect to be seen as my train approached the Sydney CBD just after the 8pm start time, and while walking past bars and restaurants in Surry Hills there was little difference apart from a few token candles at some eateries. Oxford Street looked pretty much as usual. Last year I had lengthy thoughts. This year I agree with the usually-irritating Helen Razer when she says A Blaze of Conceit Will Light up the World.

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Mardi Gras: The Slide Show 2008

Stilgherrian — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 00:19:35 +0000

I’ve just discovered that ’Pong and I are going to the showing of Mardi Gras: The Slide Show tonight. Presumably like last year it’ll also be an awards night. Maybe like last year one of his photos will win an award. I guess he hopes there won’t be a repeat of The Rowdy Boys Incident. It’s at Midnight Shift nightclub on Oxford Street from 8pm — ho hum, Oxford Street on a Saturday night. I guess it can’t be avoided. And which twit scheduled a slide show during Earth Hour?

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Sometimes I want to be a writer…

Stilgherrian — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:02:44 +0000

I enjoy writing (and talking about the things I write about) far more than I enjoy farting about with technology. For me the technology is a means to an end, not the end itself. But do I really want to be a writer full time?

Sometimes I do. Especially on days when things haven’t gone so well with clients. Then on other days I read stuff like Hugh MacLeod’s piece the quiet life of a writer yak yak yak. Explaining how he loved Hemingway and Graeme Greene, he says that even though their books were very different their daily routines were pretty much the same.

Basically, they’d live somewhere cheap, quiet and relatively conducive to getting a lot of writing done. The Florida Keys and Cuba in Hemingway’s case, the South of France in Greene’s.

They’d get up early each morning, then write diligently till noon.

Then they’d head for their local café, drink gallons of booze for hours on end, and stagger home late at night.

Then they’d do the same thing the next day. And the next. And the next. For years on end. Women came and went, friends came and went, children came and went, money and fame came and went, but the daily writing-booze combo remained the great constant.

I’m not sure I like the idea of staggering home drunk every night, but as somebody who likes to write, likes his beer, and likes the simple life, I can’t say I find their overall Modus Operandi unappealing.

On a sunny Friday morning in Sydney, in the city’s most beautiful time of year, I think I agree.

And now, back to reading a company’s office manual so we can build them a CRM system…

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69 Blankets

Stilgherrian — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 09:58:54 +0000

’Pong has just published a lovely photo series, 69 Blankets, documenting the diversity of picnic blankets at Mardi Gras Fair Day the other weekend. See them all as a slideshow with music.

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Thursday Reading, 6 March 2008

Stilgherrian — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 20:18:47 +0000

Three quickies for you: The 40 Most Inappropriate Children’s Book Covers (I like Sharing is for Losers: an Ayn Rand Primer and Pop! Goes The Hamster And Other Fun Microwave Games). A nice rant about Sydney’s Fireworks Display Exhaustion Syndrome. And the story of the Bluetooth Burqa (hat-tip to 3 Quarks Daily).

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Bronte Beach is better than my office

Stilgherrian — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 02:30:44 +0000

You can see why I much preferred to meet my client at Bronte Beach in Sydney’s eastern suburbs this morning, rather than an office somewhere. I’m slightly annoyed to be back at my desk now.

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’Pong’s “Pink Force” a finalist in Sydney Now

Stilgherrian — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 05:10:53 +0000

’Pong’s photograph Pink Force (above) was a finalist in the Sydney Now, a photojournalism contest run by the Historic Houses Trust. Congrats, babe! [high-resolution version]

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Mini Review: The Fabulous Punch & Judy Show

Stilgherrian — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 15:33:23 +0000

OK, I don’t see much theatre these days. But when I do, I usually stumble across something special. And so it was with The Fabulous Punch & Judy Show.

In many ways this is perfectly a standard Punch & Judy show, apart from using live actors instead of puppets. And apart from three actors playing Punch simultaneously, including Arky Michael. And apart from the gay angle, with Punch’s masculinity under threat from an attractive youth.

And apart from a most disturbing version of a Sherbet song.

Written by Brent Thorpe, who also plays Punch, and directed by Anthony Skuse, this play is a dark, wittily delicious one-act treat. ’Pong’s photos show off the simple but effective staging. I suspect it’ll be swamped by other, higher-profile Mardi Gras fare, but it deserves to pull audiences.

The Fabulous Punch & Judy Show is playing at the Cleveland Street Theatre, 199 Cleveland Street, Redfern, until 29 February.

[Disclosure: My old friend Garry Finch is stage manager and he gave us tickets, but I wrote this of my own accord.]

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Today’s partial solar eclipse

Stilgherrian — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 13:01:34 +0000

Sydney (as well as other places) will have a partial solar eclipse today. The peak moment is 1534 Sydney time, though the moon will only take a small bite out of the sun.

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Abandoned party girls

Stilgherrian — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 20:46:27 +0000

Spotted on Oxford Street, Sydney last night: an abandoned clothing boutique, recently repossessed by the landlord, with these rather forlorn-looking dummies holding an impromptu party.

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Another storm approaches… now!

Stilgherrian — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 07:52:29 +0000

As I type this, it’s just beginning to rain, and I can hear the sound of thunder in the background. But 20 minutes ago I took this photo of the gathering storm clouds over Enmore in Sydney.

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Are you proud of your culture?

Stilgherrian — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 00:05:25 +0000

Are you proud of your culture? It depends which culture you mean, I guess. Over the weekend I’ve pondered that while we all celebrated our Australian culture, and somewhere — not that I bothered participating — gay men celebrated “gay culture”. Again.

The photo (above) is from ’Pong’s photo essay on Australia Day. Classy eh?

The rest of the pics show precisely how we celebrate the Birth of Our Great Nation at the very place where the key events of 1788 took place. It’s pathetic. It’s embarrassing.

As I Twittered to ’Pong at the time, “So many people in your Oz Day photos use the flag as clothing. Fat-arsed drunks sitting on it! Nation’s flag: show respect.”

’Pong is primed to become an Aussie. Citizenship has been approved. But the disorganised mess that is the Department of Immigration and Citizenship failed to hook him into the year’s biggest swearing-in ceremonies. That’s OK, because he wants to do an Aboriginal Welcome to Country first, and he has trouble with Australia Day.

[A] national day is normally set on the birth of the modern nation: a revolution or an independence from the colony… In general, it is a significant event in the history that reminds the people and draws them together to value the pride of the nation.

On the other hand, Australia Day is on 26 January, the day British first fleet of convicts arrived. What is to be proud of? It neglects the fact that there were indigenous tribes living here thousands years ago and the settlement has never been reconciled with them. I have not seen any message of this history in any publicity piece of the day at all. It seems to be suppressed everywhere. Therefore the core content of the day is very shallow. What to feed the punter are just public live show, fireworks and getting drunk, not any difference from New Year Eve, Melbourne Cup or even Mardi Gras.

Ah yes, Mardi Gras. Where “gay culture” (whatever that is in 2008) is reduced to a parade which is really only a public freak show followed by yet another self-indulgent dance party.

“Oh no,” I can hear certain inner-urban gay men cry, “It’s a chance for us to express ourselves as gay men and celebrate as a community.”

Yeah right. Because chances to “celebrate as a community” are so goddam fucking rare, aren’t they! There’s only Mardi Gras and Sleaze Ball and New Year’s Eve and the Harbour Party and Homesexual and one party after another every weekend of the year. Not to mention a swathe of nightclubs. There’s no shortage.

Imagine the Sydney gay scene’s response to, oh, an Australian equivalent to the Tianamen Square incident. “OMG, the government has called in the army and is shooting students at Sydney Uni. Quick! We’d better organise a party! I can wear those Diesel camo shorts!”

Actually, no. If the slaughter were at the University of Sydney the response would be a whine. “Oh, that’s so far! I’m not going all the way over there!”

My friend Richard Watts in Melbourne was spot on yesterday when he complained, “I don’t get gay culture”.

Last night I had to go and take photographs for MCV at Midsumma Mooning at the Laird, which is an event where men show off their arses to the audience, with the most attractive arse voted as the winner. When one man made his arsehole wink the crowd went wild. It was about as tasteful as a wet t-shirt competition, and just as sexy.

This afternoon, I have to go take photographs at the Peel, which is hosting an underwear party. Yes, a party of gay men, dancing, in their underwear. Don’t ask me where wallets will be kept, because really, I don’t want to know.

Now before anyone complains that I’m wrong, that Mardi Gras is more than just a party — there’s theatre and exhibitions and music and — yeah, you’re right. It does have those things. And when someone asks “When is Mardi Gras?” and you tell them that it runs right through February into early March, the response is always, “No, I mean the party.”

Anyway, I don’t want to structure my social life around one specific aspect of my persona — being a gay male — any more than around being a geek or being right-handed or having brown hair or blue eyes or a penchant for a particular kind of curry. Variety is the spice!

The Snarky Platypus and I were right to stay well clear of Australia Day celebrations, instead writing a new National Anthem.

Thankfully, Geoffrey Robertson took away all Australia Day concerns for both me and ’Pong.

Last night on SBS, in Who Do You Think You Are?, Robertson discovered that he’s descended from dirt-poor Scottish peasants and a woman who was probably the illegitimate daughter of a Prussian prince. His closing speech summed up our feelings brilliantly. I can only paraphrase it here because we weren’t recording it.

Being Australian, Robertson said, isn’t about where you come from — you can come from anywhere. It’s about knowing you can build your homes here and make your connections with this wide brown land wherever you’re from. And wherever you may travel after that — he now lives in London — you may be an ex-patriate but you’ll never be an ex-patriot.