Mindsigh

Sydney travel – encountering art works

Posted by jerry on August 17th, 2008 — Posted in Journal, Travel

As you walk around Sydney, it pays to be alert to the amazing art works that you can encounter. Here are three of them that I found yesterday, just by walking around.

Brett Whiteley’s matches – titled “Almost Once” – This sculptural work can be found at the Domain. While Whiteley is known more for his paintings and wall panels, such as the ‘American Dream’ – now in the Art Gallery of Western Australia – or his views of Sydney Harbour, he also made sculptures. The two matches – one unused, and one burnt set up a contrast between potential and extinguishment, life and death, future and hindsight. And all this can be viewed while eating your sandwiches and resting on the lawn. They were erected in 1991 behind the Art Gallery of New South Wales. They are made from blackbutt timber and fibreglass.

Bert Flugelman’s sculpture is encountered almost by accident in a side street in the Rocks. He was famed for his stainless ball stack in Adelaide’s Rundle Mall, but this one mirrors in broken facets the surrounding chaotic high-rise development in Sydney. It is known colloquially as the “shish kebab” and was constructed in 1978. It was originally located in Martin Place, but has since been moved to its current location in Spring Street. Flugelman was born in Vienna in 1923, but moved to Australia before WWII.

The third is a street mural in black and white of a laneway taken from a 1901 photograph. It was commissioned by the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority and was paited by Pierre Mol of Artempire. The scene is an image of Brown Bear Lane, later called Little Essex Street. It’s original name was taken from a pub of that name that existed on that site between 1804 and 1901. The pub was demolished the 1950s to make way for the City Circle railway and Cahill Expressway. As I took the photo a woman stepped into the frame about to cross the road – it looks as though she has just stepped out of the 1901 scene into modern Sydney!

Cheers
Jerry

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