Carlsberg don't make Art Galleries but if they did
Trip Start
Sep 09, 2011
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86
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Trip End
Jun 29, 2012
Where I stayed
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Saturday, February 25, 2012
The hostel we stayed in was shocking. A 10 bed dorm, stuffed to the rafters with people, several of whom were clearly living there and had turned the room into a bit of a dingy squat. There was only one light working, and despite asking for the others to be fixed, they weren't. I was told both times I asked that 'we'll get the handyman on it.' I cynically believe there was no handyman, and that it was code between employees for 'Good luck love... you'll be lucky.' The kitchen was also a disgrace, so we headed out as quickly as possible for a look around.
Our first stop? Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, or as I like to call it, 'The Gallery of Awesomeness.' It was a brilliant space, with work by some amazing contemporary artists including Tracy Emin, Julian Opie, and Yayoi Kusama, who in fact had a whole exhibition of work. Part of this was an installation room that was open for visitors (with especial encouragement for children) to interact with. It had begun as a white room with a white table, white crockery, a white piano, white icture frames etc.etc. and as you walked in you were given a sheet of coloured sticky dots (if you know her work, she is BIG on dots... she even said "polka dots are a way to infinity." She's mad by the way) and you were allowed to stick them wherever you wanted. This meant that the room was covered in coloured dots all over the place. It was brilliant!
And the most magical thing was seeing kids completely engaged in contemporary work. And this is why I award it the 'awesomeness' title. This was not just a gallery of pompous, pretentious work purely for the enjoyment of the self-titled educated few... this was a space which respected Art and gave it due significance, but while still allowing people to enjoy it... to question it... to engage with it... to find it funny if they wanted to... to find it sad, or inspiring, or infuriating, or beautiful, or ugly... but to actually really experience the work. How wonderful. How rare...
There was a sign on the wall as we went into another excellent installation that kids were actually queuing up to go into, that said "Through collaboration with artists, the children's centre aims to engage children with contemporary cultures and enable them to experience the many ways artists approach their work." What an excellent ambition to have. As part of this they have made the gallery so user friendly. They had separate plaques of information for kids next to the various art works, written in kid friendly language with questions and prompts for thinking about. Many of the works also had neo-reader images so that people could use their phones to connect to more information about the work... and to help accommodate this use of the Internet for further research? Free Wifi... brilliant.
They had a Matisse exhibition on there too, but I have seen a lot of Matisse work in my time, and decided not to go in. However, inspired by the exhibition they also had a drawing section, where for a small fee you could go in and sit around some fabulous still life set ups, using the drawing materials and easels that the gallery offered. They had a schedule where either life models or musicians played for further inspiration, and for those who were more digitally and technologically minded? I-pads to use as drawing tablets. So you literally had kids sitting drawing still life scenes on an I-pad, next to their parents drawing with charcoal... or sometimes the other way around!
I honestly think it is one of the best gallery's I've ever been to.
The next morning we went along to Christ Community Church, and it was lovely to be part of a congregation for the week. We met a lovely Aussie lady called Mindy who was very welcoming to us... it was a really nice little church.
After the service we wandered along to the Queensland Museum, which has been newly renovated and reopened after the flooding. It was a lovely museum with exhibits on marine life, dinosaurs, insects and native animals, as well as national history.
In some of the sections about the mistreatment of native Australians, which is quite frankly appalling, there were sometimes photographs or videos of Aboriginals. What was a really interesting is that there were signs up next to these images (moving or still) that said:
"Cultural Advice: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander visitors are advised that this footage may contain images of people who have died."
This is because Aboriginals traditionally do not speak of their dead; it is as if they don't exit anymore; so seeing photographs or footage of them would be disrespectful or upsetting.
There were lots of other interesting bits and pieces in there, including alarmingly some information about Saltwater crocodiles, including that they can grow up to 6 metres long and weight up to 1000kg... more worryingly (as if this wasn't worrying enough) they can travel incredibly long distances out to sea, and one has in fact been sighted 480km off-shore!! Bear in mind Norman Reef, where we went diving, is 70km off the coast of Cairns... Cairns where there are dangerous Saltwater crocodiles... and you see my concern.
It was another good museum, and when I think of the galleries, museum, and the state library, which was also excellent, I really have to applaud Brisbane for the dedication to Arts and Culture in the city.
After an enjoyable and insightful look around, we headed into the business district where we managed to find Sunday roast dinner for $5... good work... and where I finally gave in.
I have been, for the last six months, just making do and getting by, knowing that I was lacking a certain something... knowing that I was sacrificing and minimising; living more simply... but I could stand no more. So I gave in.
I. bought. straighteners.
And I do not regret it for a moment.
Having a fringe cut whilst traveling was actually a stupid thing to do anyway, but having a fringe cut, with curly hair, and without straighteners? Well that's the sort of stupid that gets you put in padded cells.
Managed to Skype Jon that same evening and wish him an early happy birthday (another thing the private jet would solve... nipping back for birthdays) and spoke to Jakie who informed me that he doesn't want a 'pirate souvenir' anymore (which was the request the last time I asked him what he'd like) but a 'dragon souvenir.' So I am now looking for an Australia themed dragon present... tricky. Very tricky.
