Sculptures by the Sea 2009
Summer of 2009 isn’t even officially here and suddenly the streets are buzzing with people, it’s like a switch that goes on in our head – ‘the sun is out so you must go out too’. Well this is what happened this weekend, it was a particularly hot and humid spring day and a sign that this is going to be a very hot summer. So I decided that I no longer have the weather as an excuse to be lazy and what’s best to do on a hot summer day in Sydney – barbie on the beach.
Sunday we were off to Bronte for a BBQ with a very strange lot of random people, always interesting (well Saturday could have been one too but let’s say I wasn’t prepared just yet). The water, as expected, was still particularly cold and so all we did was sit around, chat, eat, have ice-creams and lie on the grass. Having done this of about 2 hours I needed some activity. To our luck it was the very last day of the ‘Sculptures by the Sea’ so we picked up our stuff and bid our fellow strangers farewell.
The sculptures were something I wanted to get myself to see but couldn’t last year and so was very glad to grab this opportunity. We started our walk from Bronte to Bondi so inevitably we missed a few. Most of the sculptures were interesting, but when you are with a group of non-artistic people it is hard to justify art. Anyhoo I managed to take my time and due the lack of a decent camera (still waiting on my commission to get me a Nikon dslr) took the best possible pictures I could. Some were very innovative like Jennifer Orchard’s - plant people, Keld Moseholm’s - to be or not to be, Frank Malerba’s - scooter girls, Pamela Lee Brenner / Emma Medwell's - step by step, inch by inch ... towards the precipice and one of my favourites Gordon Mitchelle’s - a crab in the works.
Gretchen Lothrop’s - what the wind said II was perfectly position on a bend with the wide sea as it’s backdrop, leaving enough room for your mind to wonder the mysterious ways the wind. Another one that stood out was Stephen Hall’s - 6th Constructive Cannibalism. While I laid back and noticed people’s reactions (always amusing,) I noticed most were disturbed if not disgusted by this piece which actually showed some true insight into the artist’s perception about things.
After a nice long 2 hour walk, with hordes of people cramming in to see the sculptures on the last day, we managed to make our way to the Bondi bus stop where it took me about an hour to get back into the city thanks to the crazy Sunday traffic, but none the less a good fruitful Sunday.
