Saturday, June 13, 2009

Last night I watched a sinking ship....


as I made my way down to Campbell Cove to watch the performance Fire Water that is part of the Viv[]d festival in The rocks+Circular Quay side of Sydney...

I have been waiting to see the Smart Light festival since it opened a couple of weeks ago but thought better of it while the temperature plummeted - there is nothing worse than seeing art while frozen!! So I got all rugged up and went down last night so I could time it with the reinactment piece about the sinking of the Three Bees ship that went up in flames in 1814...

Starting at Observatory Hill I got the map out and started to search out the 25 light installations that have been set up all around the streets and museums in The Rocks ....But what I thought would be a thought provoking and sensory experience with light, sound, movement and fun, ended up being a very short stroll down the hill glancing at un-inspiring works that made me keep saying to myself...'is this it?' and sadly 'maybe the next one will be better'.... It was as if the pieces were rushed, not thought through properly or done with safety in mind! I might have totally missed the point - so if someone found more in the art works than me please let me know....


The Fire Water performance was alittle more engaging as sound, light, sculpture and theatre all combined to keep you entertained for longer than a minute - but as I stood there on a plastic stool trying to see it all between the crowded masses, what I loved most and something which you could even see from a car seat on the Cahill Expressway was the projected painting piece by Brian Eno, the curator of the festival... 77 Million Paintings is a truly beautiful piece and more tantilising and hypnotic from the waters edge on a clear and crisp winter's night... I may have missed the CreativeSydney lecture series and the Luminous live music performances by artists such as Lee Scratch Perry + Ladytron but Im glad I didnt miss this view....

{Oh Ive already have a comment from miss K who said that her niece loved all the Smart Lights and that the kids really did have the best time of it all! So maybe there was an age limit?}

Anyway on another subject I just wanted to quickly mention that the new Inside Out mag is out and that Megan Morton has done a couple of great articles on artists abodes! I am a lover of the stories that they do on peoples homes and if you ever want to see into some truly great artistic spaces have a look at theselby website .... the quirky illustrations and photos on the homes of creative peoples is brilliant !

In the July/Aug issue of Inside Out the layout above is my favourite... Its on the home of artist Catherine Woo in Tasmania and the colours and textures are so so good... The image below is of Natalie Woods space in Sydney that was photograpghed for theselby... The drawings just lightly pinned to the wall just look lovely + fresh...


Enjoy the rest of the weekend + keep warm....


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