Eastern Suburbs Art Group

 I went to Wollongong hoping to visit the gallery but found too late it opens at midday, so popped into this gallery near Sutherland instead. The show is about noisy celebration, but the gallery was remarkably quiet. The works are dynamic however. I thought of insects for some reason. These sculptuires are fun, though sculpture is quite rare in commercial galleries. Hazelhurst is not commercial but these works are all for sale. You would need some sort of large courtyard to properly show them off. The works are certainly exuberant. They seem to give off sound, like malformed tuning forks. I had some lunch in the gallery cafe as well, which was nice after the long drive.

I took the show down this week, it had been up for about 10 days. I sat the gallery probably for half that time but I am not counting. The show created different reacions in different people, but the Tree Veneration Society tapestry was the drawcard. It's on the right hand wall in the photo. Made by visitors to Rising Tide in November, the tapestry was a collective effort. As one person noted however the poems displayed across the room were more personal. The contrast between the two was interesting, she said. You can see the sonnets pasted to the wall opposite the tapestry in the above photo. I also included collages from 2022 or thereabouts, I don't remember all the details of each individual painting I don't have time. Cars feature in Road Trips, and the show preamble (also pasted to the wall) talked about how even though the road is always there it feels when you are driving between cities that somehow you are creating the road. A paradox perhaps but I don't ask too...

Yesterday I spent a few hours sitting this show in the Civic Hall. Two of us on the front desk. Some items sold, lots of good conversations. In total I had 7 items in the show. It was my first show of this kind so a learning experience. One of my oils in the nabove photo (bottom left). The order of the hang was eclectic to say the least, there didn't seem to be any logic to it, but the nquality of the art was often very good. Two watercolours (above right bottom) of mine. All of the works of mine in the show were plein air studies done in Victoria. The trips were in January and February.  The show ends Sunday.

It was a decent turn out. For me it was supporting a colleague from Tree Veneration Society. But behind the nice words, the careful epithets, the studied agreement with ideas artworks always try to embody, there was a stubborn fact in that some of Watanabe's works have perishable components. Other aspects of Watanabe's work struggle in this sort of environment, but the backlit items are simply going to fail one day. I wonder what is the point. Maybe late last year I discussed this aspect of some contemporary work with another practitioner. At that time the solution didn't present itself. With Watanabe's work it's a sort of category error that fights against the lightness of the design, the execution. But of course not all the works contain electric lights, which the gallery had carefully wired up in straight lines and with polity 90-degree curves. The framed works (see above) are also carefully finished, These frames being specially constructed again with curves. Th...

We hear a lot of stories about laneways in Melbourne. Some are covered (like this one). Some are nice, some are dirty. In Sydney laneways like these wre digested by the amalgamation of titles after WWII when the vast number of skyscrapers went up. An era of cheap oil, huge capitall influxes, and a burgeoning professional class trained in increasing number of tertiary education institutions. Of course this is not art with a capital "A" approved by the culture industry, it is commerical. But it is very strange and so I took a series of photos. The TV screen in the back diplaying I think fashion promotion images were especially intriguing. Not possible to say if the display is still there, these photos were taken some months ago. Maybe if someone goes to the city centre they can report back with news. Very strange sort of weitd cartoon character. Possibly frightening for some, even adults.

 In Melbourne recently I saw this social media ad and considered the idea too strange, especially for Sydney, where I live. In the end the experience was a bit disappointing but just the train trip was worthwhile. The displays were often interesting but not really what was promised. The museum is in a small street off a main drag. What impressed me about Collingwood is the lack of eateries. The suburb is relatively close to the city centre but I didn't even see a hamburger shop, though there was a kind of pub or hotel. Perhaps it was a bar. In contrast the city centre in Melbourne is crowded with restaurants and places to buy food, ice cream parlours and the like. What this means is anyone's guess, however it is clear that if you live in Collingwood and you want a kebab you have to go into town.

 When I waas down in Melbourne in January I saw this show, which sort of bookends the 'Dangerously Modern' show in Sydney at the same time. One show specifically about women photographers, but with a global perspective. The other show about women in Europe in the 1st Half of last century.  Writing about the Sydney show I said it was comprehensive, actually it was enormous. The guard knew how many works were on the walls. Aat the NGV I tried the same trick but the guard was not able to tell me. At the NGV there were many different subjects, as they were in the Sydney show. The photographs were sometimes portraits, urban landscapes, photos of children. A range of different things. The diversity of subjects was proof of the intensity with which the artists worked. And they were aware they were making art. The NGV show is still running if you want to see the works. When I was there it was sunny and warm and I stopped at a food van outside to get lunch. There was a fashion show on ...