A Bit of Culture

The more discerning shopper can go across the street
to the Specific Pants Co.

My team took me out for drinks last night after work for my birthday. They really are a great bunch, and their warm welcome has made getting settled so much easier. As a side note, drinks are awfully expensive in some places - last night cocktails ranged from $15-20. Yikes. After drinks, we went out for dinner to have some of "the best garlic prawns in the solar system." That's a direct quote from my teammate Rick. They were quite tasty, but I hear Proxima Centauri makes a mean garlic prawn as well.

Today, I figured I'd get a bit of culture and visit some art museums. The two on my list were the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

I will say this about contemporary art: I am generally very forgiving with what people consider art. Art is a term that is highly subjective, and I understand that when viewing the exhibits. That being said, however, I will fill you in on some of the pieces that I saw at the first gallery, and you can judge for yourself. There was a real, stuffed, preserved horse suspended seven feet above the ground by a leather harness. There was a video of a Swedish woman who taped herself slowly and methodically beating a bicycle to pieces with a large metal pipe. There was a room with half a dozen colorful hammocks slung from wall to wall with Hendrix music blaring and full-size photos of him projected on each wall. There was a series of clear, vertical tubes that slowly oozed foam in snakelike patterns. If the only prerequisite of art is that it really stretches the mind to its limits, then this truly was art.

This one was actually kinda cool. It was actually
composed of thousands of little nails hammered
into the wall. I was lucky I got this photo. When
I got closer to take a detail shot, I was informed
that photography was verboten.

After an educational romp through the Museum of Contemporary Art, and a quick pit stop for a burger I made my way across the city to the Art Gallery of NSW, which is much closer to what I had in mind when I set out on my journey.

One of the best darn burgers I've had in a while.
The 'Texan' was an angus beef burger with bacon,
jack cheese, BBQ sauce, and chipotle mayo. We do,
however, differ on our definition of a milkshake.
This was more like sweetened whole milk.

St. Mary's Cathedral

The Sydney Tower in all its splendor.

Archibald Fountain in Hyde Park.

Arriving at the Gallery.

The gallery had a wonderful collection of pieces. Much of it was 19th century European and Australian paintings, though it did have a small collection of contemporary pieces. Here are a few of the cooler ones that I found while wandering through the gallery (they let you take pictures here - I guess dead artists don't care too much about copyright issues):

The anatomy class at the Ecole des Beaux Arts
I love realism in paintings - it takes such a fine
hand to make the images jump out. This one had
an exceptionally somber feeling to it.

The visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon
There is a piece of classical music that I like
entitled The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba by Handel.
This painting reminded me of it when I was viewing
it. There was an incredible amount of detail, and
this was a huge painting. It took the artist over 6
years to complete it.

Requiescat
The term requiescat comes from the Latin phrase
requiescat in pace (R.I.P. - may he rest in peace).
This Victorian artist was known for his skill in
rendering animals, and imparting upon them
almost human characteristics, like the heroic
devotion of the dog here.

Classical landscape
I loved this one - it felt so atmospheric. Had
almost an air of fantasy about it.

The sons of Clovis II
I particularly enjoy it when a painting has a deep
story behind it. These two were the rebellious sons
of the 7th-century Merovingian King Clovis II. Their
mother, to punish them, cut the tendons from their
legs and set them adrift in the River Seine. This
does have a happy ending; they were rescued by
Benedictine monks and were eventually reconciled
with their parents.

Cymon and Iphigenia
Another one with a great story behind it. Galesus
(right) was the handsomest son of a noble named
Aristippus. Galesus was so uncouth and uneducated
that he was known as Cymon ('brute'). One day, he
came across Iphigenia asleep in the forest with her
slaves in a meadow, and became transfixed by
her beauty. His love for her caused him to
abandon his boorish ways and to acquire the
accomplishments fitting to the true nobility of his soul.

The end of a dream
When I stopped to photograph this one, a museum
volunteer commented that 4,000 people could
walk by this painting and never notice it. He went on
to explain the difference between wives and mistresses,
and how the latter always dreamed of being the former.
Key things to notice in this picture are the necklace
on the ground, the uneasy tension between the maid
and the mistress, and the very faint outline of a
man leaving through the door on the left. I just
loved the use of the dark red lighting as well.

Hott car(s) sighting of the day: Bentley Continental GT, and the Australian Mazda 6. The latter is not a supercar by any means (it was the previous car I owned, though). I mention it because the European / Australian version is so much cooler than the U.S. version. The good news is that this body style is coming stateside for the 2009 model.

Have a great weekend!