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Published: November 23rd 2005
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Recliner Rex
I liked this one, it was a real recliner and pair of flippies, just giant! Sculpture By The Sea
Here’s a disclaimer right up front before we even get into anything further. Les and I are not great art aficionados. We like some art and are happy to have nice paintings and photographs on our walls, but we don’t regularly go to galleries, and the last time we went to an art museum was to see the traveling Monet exhibit in Philadelphia. It was our first date in the early summer of 1992.
But here we were 13 years later with a major art exhibit essentially in our back yard. Each year there is a huge modern art exhibit called Sculpture by the Sea. It runs for most of November. This is the last week. What is most impressive is that most of the over 100 sculptures are all outdoors along the cliff walk and beaches from Bondi to Bronte. Pieces of huge (some this year are house-size) and small and odd art are wedged, nailed and fastened to the beaches and cliff sides along the whole walk.
Most of the art was modern and slightly bizarre. One piece was a van-sized wooden house with clear walls. You could look through the walls
Abby and the Octopus
This was a fun one as it had air blowing thru it so it always flapped around. Impossible to "keep off" it though! to the various rooms. Each room was filled with things such as huge crayons, plastic ants, and the artist’s hair. I didn’t know what to take from that except, she sure must have fast growing hair or else she is bald right now. Her official statement about the piece indicated she was teaching us about perspective and subtle preconceptions. Uh-huh.
Considering all this takes place along the edges of cliffs and dangerous riptide currents it’s amazing that it continues each year. Who knows how many people walked along the narrow path high above the wild waves when they were suddenly startled by, say, the huge flock of plastic geese covering the ground and path in a rather menacing way? If they keep statistics on, 'surprised right over the cliff' they aren't saying. The artist behind that bit of work was apparently expressing some deep feelings he had for Darwin. I’m not sure what they were, but one interpretation that sprang to my mind was that only the most fit would survive such an encounter. Mere inches from a fast plummet into the sea, perhaps the artist was trying to personalize his feeling for Darwin by putting the theory to
Love Eggs!
We knew Abby liked eggs - but this much?? a direct test.
Abby and I actually walked thru the exhibit once by ourselves the day before it opened so we were able to see it all without the crowds and hoopla. As we were walking I saw a sculpture that piqued my interest. It was simply a large wooden shipping crate with, ‘To: Sculpture by the Sea’ and the address, and then ‘From: Mark Whyte’ and the artist’s address. It had all sorts of fragile stamps and other official freight and shipping stickers but of course you had no idea what was in it.
I thought it was fairly clever since I spent the next 30 min wandering around imagining what might be in the crate. Finally I actually returned to the crate to look at it once more. As I was staring at it, an official walked up.
“This is a pretty cool one,” I said offhandedly. “I’ll probably spend all afternoon trying to guess what it is in. That’s fairly creative of the artist - letting each person decide for themselves what they believe is in it. It’s a real conversation starter.”
The official stared at me, then coughed and said, “Err, we just haven’t
Les' Shadow
This statue was somehow about consumerism - but we just thought it was cool. opened it yet. Sculpture’s inside.”
“Oh.” I said.
The next week when Les was with us we walked by it. Sure enough, no more mysterious crate full of possibility. Instead there was a chunk of granite shaped like a cone supposedly creating the, ‘feeling of projection suggesting larger volume than it fills.’
He shoulda stuck with the crate.
Abby liked the ones she could play in the best. All of them had signs saying, ‘do not touch or climb on’ but when you stick a huge plastic fried egg on the beach, or a giant inflatable octopus, what exactly were you expecting would happen?
The biggest sculpture was a massive wave made out of metal poles. All month you could see it from most vantage points on the local eastern coast. Up close it looks like scaffolding that is about to collapse into the water. The statement regarding this big metal wave was that it was, ‘an attempt to make something so ugly and purpose-built look aesthetically pleasing.’ So I guess this one succeeded as long as you are pleased by big metal waves.
And there you have it. Sculpture by the Sea 2005. We’ll check back in 13 years and see if we’ve hit our third art show. In the meantime the exhibit has brought quite a crowd to the area and it seems to be the official kick off to the summer season down here.
And in Oz, summer means Christmas - the carols are playing in the stores and the halls are definitely decked and most importantly to those of you who I know have been worried about this - - Starbucks just got their Gingerbread Lattes in this week. Hurrah!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Eat some turkey and stuffing for us and enjoy your days off!
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Daisy
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Hi Esther!! I just bumped into Stacy this morning in Genuardi's and she told me about your blog, so I came to check it out. It's great!! I always wanted to visit Australia, and now I can through your blog!!