Field Trip

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  Sydney, Australia
Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Hiya! I'm just updating after my fieldtrip to Sydney with art theory. I am taking an art theory (kind of like art history) course called Contemporary Asian Art. This course happened to coincide nicely with the Sydney Biennale (Biennial) art exhibition in..well...Sydney. :) So, yesterday (Tuesday), I went with about 50 odd students on a bus up to Sydney at 6:30 am...ick. It took about 2.5 hours to get there. First, we went to the Gallery of New South Wales (NSW), then to a place called Pier 3/4, and lastly, to the MCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) of Sydney. The topic of this year's biennale was "Zones of Contact" (they always have to come up with some sort of arty name for it...it basically had to do with international art). We only got to see 3 of the venues, but the artwork was spread out over the entire city, which is really cool.

It's really interesting what some people were doing...my favorite was an installation by artist Anthony Gormley

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. He went to this small village in China to a school. He then asked each child to bring back 2 family members (one older and one younger, I believe) the next day. The only instruction Gormley gave these people was to form a figure out of a certain sized ball of clay. The only uniformity to them was two holes for eyes. So, each person worked on these figures for 5 work days. Gormley then fired them at different temperatures (reduction, oxidation, what have you), so they came out lighter and darker variations of one another. He then installed them in the upstairs of Pier 3/4 to create a sort of ripple effect. There were 180,000 figures in total. It was breathtaking. Alongside the exhibit was each person's picture with their name and a picture of their respective figurine. There is more detail in the photos I took...so enjoy.

Enough being an art nerd...if you care, you could look up the artists. I'll put their names with their work. Aside from that, Catherine made me a peanut butter and honey (yes, honey) sandwich for dinner after the bus ride. It was DELICIOUS with a carton of milk. You should try it.

Today I went into the studio to discover that the bottom of my ceramic arm had blown off along with the index finger. :( Ah well, we'll have to figure out what to do with that later. Otherwise, I helped set up for Open Day (open house for the ANU) on Saturday. I arranged ceramic work in the cabinets in the School of Art hallway, and later was the designer for the signs that will be put up here at Ursies. I'm sort of pooped after all that...whew! It feels good to be productive though. On the actual Open Day I will be doing pottery with little kids that come in with parents. I'm also going to get to learn how to woodfire a pizza...yummy! It's so cool, they have little kilns out back of the studio for just that reason! Tomorrow I have to work, so I'm currently doing my laundry..I hope it's done soon. Oh, also, our girls volleyball team won a game last night while I was still in Sydney! I'm so excited for them, since we really stink most of the time...however, I wasn't there to share in their victory. :( It's a big deal, I swear.

Anyway, enough of my chatty-ness. I hope you're all doing well, and enjoying the blogs. I know I still enjoy writing/typing them. It makes me feel like I'm talking to everyone all at a big party. I love you all. Have a great rest of the week!

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