Advertisement
Published: February 17th 2014
Edit Blog Post
Thursday 6th February, 2014. Canberra, ACT, Australia
After breakfast we caught a bus (we plumped for the all day ticket) to the National Library of Australia where they had an exhibition called Mapping Our World. We managed to get some tickets for entry in one hours time. We passed this hour by visiting the Library's Treasures Gallery. This gallery holds all kinds of treasures including early maps and atlases, books, manuscripts, paintings, drawings and photographs. Some of the more notable exhibits include Captain Cook's handwritten journal documenting the voyage of the Endeavour, Australia's earliest existing printed document which is a playbill avertising an evening's entertainment at Sydney's first theatre, The Gallipoli Letter
which is a 28 page letter written by journalist Keith Murdoch which helped establish the notion of Gallipoi as both a disaster and a place of national sacrifice, the architects model for the Sydney Opera House, The Mabo Case and Land Rights document which recognised Aboriginal Land Rights, a painting of Abel Tasman and his family and too many more to mention individually. It was a great exhibition. Photographs were not allowed.
The hour was up all to quickly so we made our way to the Mapping
Our World exhibition. No photographs were permitted in this exhibition either. This exhibition brings together some of the worlds greatest maps, atlases, globes and instruments, many of which have never before been seen in the southern hemisphere. These maps changed the world and led to Australia's discovery and establishement. D was in heaven. We saw items from some of the oldest collections in the world which told the remarkable story of how Australia came to be on the map and revealed the history of the struggle to document our world from the medieval period through to the 19th century. It showed how the Europeans grandually unravelled the secrets of the 'south land'. There was also an Anglo-Saxon mappamundi which is an intricate world map drawn by Benedetine monk Andreas Walsperger. There was a Ptolomy document dating from the 15th century and the controversial 'Dieppe' charts and one of only 4 surviving copies of Mercator's groundbreaking 1569 projection and
many exquisite globes an instruments. It was an amazing exhibition and D could happily have spent all day there. We had to leave though as the next group was due in and we had other fish to fry.
Once outside the
library w strolled own to Reconciliation Place which is an urban landscape design in the Parliamentary Triangle. It was commenced in 2001 as a monument to reconciliation between Australia’s Indigenous people and the settler population. The design was selected by a national design competition in 2001 run by the National Capital Authority. The design is dominated by a convex mound in the landscape centred on Walter Burley Griffin's land and water axes, establishing a subtle presence while maintaining the overwhelming passage of the land axis and views to the lake from the steps of Old Parliament House. We walked down to the lake front where we took some photos back to Reconciliation Place and also of the flags outside the High Court Building.
We walked on until we reached the National Art Gallery of Australia. We first made our way to the Sculpture Garden which is a unique landscape displaying Australian and International artworks within a distinctively Australian setting. THe garden forms part of the High Court an National Gallery Precinct which was completed in 1982. The design of the garden was inspired by a strong sense of national identity, the ecology of the Canberra Region and the concept
of an unfolding series of outdoor gallery 'rooms'. The informal plantings and pathways are ordered by the same
geometry found inside the building. The area is divided into Winter, Spring, Summer and as yet to be completed Autumn Gardens which will reflect the seasonal flowering times of the plantings. All of the sculptures are worthy of note but there are two which deserve particular mention. The first of these is a piece called 'Slit Drums' by an Unknown Artist. The carvings at the top of these slit drums represent the faces of ancestors. According to legend magic would sometimes be employed by a drum's creator to ensure that these ancestral faces were properly evoked. Used in a variety of performances including initiation ceremonies, dances an long-distance communication, the deep resonant sounds produced by the drums was said to sumon the ancestors themselves. Today, slit gongs such as these are regarded as icons of Vanuatu's art and culture. The second piece is called 'Heads from the North' by Daang Christanto and is a memorial to those affected by events following an unsuccessful military coup in Indonesia in September 1965. The brutal suppression that followed had devastating consequences for the nation leading
to mass killings in late 1965 and early 1966. Daang Christanto was an innocent victim: the 8 year old's father was one of the many who disappeared at the time. Barely holding their heads above water the 66 sculptures signify lives lost and ravaged in 1966. There were a few sculptures by Henry Moore which were great.
We went inside the museum which had loads of amazing paintings. There were works by Andy Wahol, David Hockney, Gilbert & George, Roy Lichtenstein, Jackson Pollock, and Willem de Kooning. There was also a room containing the whole series of Ned Kelly paintings by Sidney Nolan. We had seen copies of a couple of these in Sidney but it was fantastic to see the whole lot in one room together.
We returned to the YH for lunch, finishing off yesterday's evening meal. By the time we had finished it was late enough to go and buy a couple more knock down meals for tonight's dinner. Beef and rice for M and chicken and noodles for D.
Next we caught the bus to the New Parliament Building. We entered the Great Hall and we were given a guide to something called
The Art Trail which is a special celebration of the building’s 25th anniversary, 25 artworks by some of Australia’s most notable artists are on display. Drawn from the Parliament House Art Collection, the artworks tell a story of how Australian landscape and identity are intrinsically linked. We followed the trail through the building to find art by the likes of Arthur Boyd, Michael Nelson Jagamara, Sidney Nolan, Grace Cossington Smith, Rover Thomas
and Gloria Tamerre Petyarre. We didn't stick religiously to the trail. We broke off fairly early on to go to the roof where we had great views of the city. We went into the House of Representatives which is also known as the people's house, and is where government is formed. It has 150 members, and the party or parties able to gain the support of the majority of the House form government. The House's other roles are to debate proposed laws, watch over government expenditure, including through its committee system, and to provide a forum for public debate on issues of national
importance.
After following the Art Trail for a bit longer we entered the Senate which is a partner with the House in the legislative
process, but is also a check on the government of the day. It consists of 76 senators - 12 from each state and 2 from each territory. The Senate conducts much of its work through an established committee system, including the budget estimates accountability process.
We left the New Parliament Building and walked down the hill to the Old Parliament Building which now houses the Museum of Australian Democracy. This was a bit more of the same as the New Parliament Building only older (and with more character). We saw the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the President of the Senate's Suite. There were some replicas of the Crown Jewels. In the basement there was a special exhibition of Caricatures which was good fun.
The cheap dinners were excellent, washed down with some white wine. Tomorrow we will go to the War Memorial.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.07s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 6; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0462s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb