Sydney Sightseeing

Well today (Friday) I decided that I would move my increasingly fat butt into gear and go and do some sightseeing in a city I have already visited half a dozen times. So leaving the house at 10ish I proceeded to walk into the city. Its a fairly pleasant walk through Newtown, vaious parks and through the Uni of Sydney into the south of the city.

A bookshop was closing down and had an insane sale on its books. The owner, a very Okka Aussie block in his 40's with jet black hair, spent the whole time yelling out at the top of his voice 'nathin in the place is more than 5 bucks people', repeatedly to the point where I wanted to say 'yeah mate i know you have said so about ten times now!!!'

Leaving the booksop with a rather large blue bag full of books (I bought 7 books for AU$15)I proceeded to make my way down to The Rocks which is an area of the city near the Opera House. Now The Rocks is the oldest part of the city and definitely one of the most interesting places to visit. It was where the first settlers in Sydney made their homes and is hence one of the main historical sights of the country. In many ways it reminds me of Covent Garden in London as it has the same close knit streets, old architecture and friendly cosmopolitan nature to it. Walking around The Rocks is, in itself, an interesting experience with the Opera House on the other side of the Pier and the Bridge overlooking The Rocks wherever you stand. Pebbled streets and old shops provide a real feeling of history in what is actually a very modern city.

I had heard that the Contemporary Art Museum was an interesting place to visit and decided to take a closer look. Situated in a gorgeous old building which used to be used I think for processing goods being delivered to the Docks, it only had one floor open. The current exhibition was entitled Interesting Times and featured 17 'up and coming' Australian contemporary artists. Now I admit my knowledge of art, especially contemporary art is minute. In the past I have looked at a piece for 10, 15 hell even 20 minutes and been so puzzled and perplezzed by the piece as I so rarely actually understand what the hell the piece is trying to say!!!

Whilst many pieces in the musuem did make very little sense to me, or to some of the other people on my guide trip, one or two pieces did stand out.

Our guide was a small old granny like lady called Barbara who was very passionate about art, even though I often didn't have a clue what the hell she was talking about! But over the half our tour their were three or four pieces which stood out.

George Gittoes
First and formost I would definitely suggest you look into work by George Gittoes. He is a fascinating artist who draws pictures in scrapbooks. The kind of pictures we all used to draw as graffiti in our books at school. Her progresses from the drawings to make film and music on the topic covered so as to add depth and meaning to what he had drawn. He had a 90 minute documentary being played which was entitled 'Soundtrack to War' which was extremely thought-provoking. He was interviewing US army personal in service in Iraq about what they were listening to whilst they were stationed in Iraq. Although he was focusing on the music you couldn't help but get a sense of the situation in the country, the unease in the army and how the people on the ground feel. One girl with jet black hair and in her young 20's choose the Dixie Chicks as her favourite current music. When he enquired about why she had chosen them she simply responded 'I love the lyrics as they are trying to say something'. The Dixie Chicks are well known for their anti-war stance and this is reflected in their lyrics so it was interesting that she made that choice. Another scene which stood out was five guys rapping and making lyrics up together in their compound as they found it one of the only ways they could take their minds of all the destruction outside the seemingly peaceful compounds.

Robert Boynes
Another piece that stood out to me was by Robert Boynes and was entitled 'The Great Divide'. It was a piece painted in acryallic, set on a street with one half in white and the other half in a dark red. The picture had people, shadows to be more precise walking down the street. Looking at it you felt it was a very dark and erry picture. It felt almost like it was set at the height of the Cold War as you could imagine the light left hand side as the West and the right hand side the East. Looking at its date of creation I realised it was 1997!!! Interesting, especially as I was looking at it with a tall German guy who also felt the same feeling about the painting as me!

Shaun Kirby
A piece by Shaun Kirby also really resonated with me but for a different reason. It was a plain white table in the middle of the room. At first I stood looking at it thinking 'what the hell is artistic about this?'. Then on closer examination I saw this brown hairer finger coming from underneath one part of the table slightly onto the table. Looking down underneath the table I could see that the finger was actually the leg of a HUGE model spider!!! I think the piece was trying to say that even such a clean and apparently safe table can harbour dangerous creatures and the fact that in a country such as Australia creatures such as spiders are not necessarily always in the most obvious dirty places but could be underneath our own beds, tables or chairs!!! Or in other words 'what lurks beneath?!?'

The musueam also contained other works which frankly puzzled me. One piece was a collection of floor tiles which a painter had painted on and this was meant to reflect art! Other pieces included random pieces of woods thrown together on a wall, or on the floor which was also meant to be a form of art! I seriously need a re-education!!!!

The Sydney Library
After leaving the Contemporary Art Museam I walked across to the Sydney Central Library which is located in front of the Circular Quay railway station in one of the oldest buildings in the country. Although the Library is in a beautiful old building it has been completely redesigned inside with a phenonemal amount of light entering the building from all angles. When you enter there is a model of the city located on a glass panel underneath your feet so that you really feel that you are walking over the city!

Here lies the start of the invasion!
Next to the Library I almost missed a British flag flying next to the road. At first I wondered what a British flag was doing in the middle of the sidestreet. Upon closer inspection it states here lies the beginning of the invasion as this was where the first British flag was raised when the settlers arrived!

The Exhibitions in the State
Realising how late I was I proceded to walk back towards the cental station round the outskirts of the city. The State Library, which I had no intention of visiting, stood out as worth a closer inspection. Upon stepping into the library I noticed that it had three free exhibits which was just as well as I had no money! The exhibition which really stood out was by Australian photographer David Moores. He is renowed in Auatralia for his pictures over the last half century. Before his death in 2003 he selected 100 of his most favoured pictures which he felt epitomisd his work from over 200,000 negatives in his position. Everyone of his pictures are in black and white and range in subject matter from Sydney, Aboriginal children through to the coronation of the Queen and New York City.

Some of the pictures really captured the times in such a timeless fashion. One picture of aboriginal children playing in the outback of South Australia in the 1950's really stood out. Another picture of the rain soaked coronation ceremony of the Queen really showed what it meant at that time as so few people in the UK or the world at this time know what a coronation is like.