Posted by kluster on May 21, 2010
Last Tuesday we were invited to take a sneak peek of all things Sydney Biennale. From early morning to late afternoon we ventured through the MCA, across the harbour, into Walsh Bay, around Cockatoo Island, back across the harbour, along the Circular Quay foreshore past the Opera House, through the Botanic Gardens, up to the Art Gallery of NSW and down to Artspace in Woolloomooloo. Who would have thought art could be so simultaneously rewarding and exhausting?
The breadth of Sydney’s 17th Biennale, The Beauty of Distance: Songs of Survival in a Precarious Age is impressively extensive. To say that Artist Director, David Elliott’s realised vision is comprehensive would be an understatement. 'Expansive' would bring the hammer closer to the head of that particular nail. 440 works from 166 local and international artists are dotted across kilometres of public and private Sydney harbour-side real estate.
From a viewer’s perspective, the undertaking is a mammoth one, best enjoyed at your leisure and spread over as many days roaming around the historical sites as possible.
It was for this reason that we decided to hold off publishing of this piece for a few days. It seemed imperative to dedicate more time to the exploration of the event - a night taking in Japanese creative cacophony/party that was the opening of SuperDelux @ ArtSpace and many more hours roaming around the industrial shipping-works-cum-exhibition-space that is Cockatoo Island of our own volition - before putting finger to keypad. This is what we discovered:
There is something so appealing about viewing Miguel Angel Rios video work, Crudo in the belly of a bomb shelter. Or Yayoi Kusama’s Song of Manhattan Suicide Addict in a vacated residence atop the island’s highest hill. Cai Guo-Qiang’s explosive suspended cars, Inopportune: Stage One are best viewed at last light and Choi Jeong Hwa’s optically manipulative Hubble Bubble and The unbearable lightness of being greet the dawn - between the sails of the Opera House and in a Botanic Gardens pond, respectively - with a luminosity that cannot adequately be described.
So, armed with that knowledge, get thee away from the computer screen and into the Biennale art wilds. Form a solid set of your own opinions and impressions and stop by, post ramble and express them here. Just below. In the comment section.
sydney biennale, the beauty of distance: songs of survival in a precarious age, david elliott, miguel angel rios, yayoi kusama, cal guo-qiang, choi jeong hwa