Eastern Suburbs Art Group

Actually it's sort of disappointing when you arrive at the Fever site (see pic below). The toilets are there. There is a kiosk where you can get a warm cappuccino. And the grubby white dome where the action takes place inside. But once you put on the VR headsets and start the adventure it's quite fun. For my family not so much as they didn't offer the right language selection. There's a green eyed cat. A woman dressed like Indiana Jones. You go into a pyramid. You sit on top of the pyramid. Then you're on a boat. A kind of barge actually. You move around by sort of walking as best you can (careful not to fall over) from one blue cordon to the next. Follow arrows. And whisper. If you talk too loudly the staff come and corrrect you. Silence essential so you don't bother people nearby.

I had some notice but in the end only took a few items. A few jackets. The jackets are not too small or damaged, but they are not what I currently want to wear. The organiser took a green leather jaacket I brought. I didn't find anything to swap it with. There were some short sleeved shirts but they were a bit too colourful for my taste. Natually most of the clothes at the swap were for women and I was the only man attending. In my art practice (for what it's worth) is also do repurposing. The collage process has some shortcomings buit I am working on resolving the problems. Mostly they have to do with fading. Magazine paper is not designed to be exposed to the light for 10 years, unlike a jacket.

Smith took a 2.5 month residency organised by Randwick Council. She would go down to the beach. She took photos of underwater features - rocks, steps - through the shallow water. She said normally the water was clear. For the first time I had spoken with her Smith revealed to me an influence, Berenice Abbott. This photographer had made photos of evidence of frequency by visiting scientific labs. On the other hand Smith herself uses the natural environment. The show is titled 'Precious Water' and is closed now. The day I met Smith there it was raining, I had some lunch from a small cafe nearby.

Had to go to the conservators wo while up north I popped into Manly Art Gallery. This show is a bit of a mixed bag. There are some items more interesting and others less so. Jennifer Turpin's sculpture is quit vivid, made also from seaweed derived materials (see above).  Danielle Creenaune's striking print (see above) has a looseness that is at odds with the form.  For personal reasons I liked Georgia Macfarlane's Poppey rendition of the suburban oasis (see above). Often it's Aboriginal artists who adopt the naive style in paintings, but not here. Louise Fowler-Smith's extraordinary paionting of a flower (see above) really stood out however. THere's something powerful and ambiguoous about the rendition of a flower.

 I was down in Melbourne for a few days. I popped into No Vacancy which is in like a shopping centre, surrounded by restaurants. It's a novel experience. These works are nudes and they are rendered in a delicate style with an excess of form. The semi sharp angles of the legs, torsos, arms, heads combine with a realistic palette. It's difficult to find analogues and I haven't really seen anything like this though obviously Lucien Freud comes to mind. Feeling tired from all the walking and not liking too much socialising I left before the opening began. Spoke with the gallerist for a while though as she was putting out wine glasses.

I was in the area to meet Natasha and we had a coffee then dropped by the gallery. It was a rainy day. The walls inside the gallery held colourful embroideries. Leslie Lockwood's minimalist works in soft colours are not big but they seem to burst out of their frames. See below. Joanne Steele's abstract designs are also forceful and solid (see below). The gallery is staffed. It's a bright and airy space. There are lots of windows to enable the outside light to filter in. Parking in the area is a bit difficult at times, the train station is close by.

The reason no posts here of late is because I was out of the country. While overseas I visited Hiroshima. In fact Hiroshima Day is today at least in Sydney, it might be the same elsewhere I haven't checked.  Probably no elaboration is needed but one thing I hadn't thought about is the extent of the blast. About 4km to be exact. If you take a train from the north side of Hiroshima Station (where the bullet trains arrive) you pass along a coastal track to Kure where the Japanese Navy made its ships early last century. Kure is about 25km from the blast zone so the old 19th C buildings it had then are still there today. I got a cab from Kure and went to Yasuura. The gallery is a large rambling wooden home and it has a number of display cabinets. One cabinet even has a fan of golf clubs. You take off your shoes to walk on the beautiful wooden floors in slippers. The real treasures are out the back. Minami was a very talented Impressionist painter but I had never heard his name befor...