Art Activity — Museum Visit
So for this week, I went a bit more of an unorthodox way for two reasons, one it allows me to look back on an amazing experience and two, hopefully give you a quick look at a new art museum. Over the last four months I was living and studying in New South Wales, Australia, in a small town called Wollongong. Luckily for me, I was a quick 40 minute and five dollar train ride away from Sydney, which is always busy and always a fun place to walk around. One of my favorite experiences was training up there to check out the Sydney Opera House, and as I was walking around I stumbled upon the Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art. So instead of going to a local spot, I decided to look through my photos from that trip and pick out my two favorite pieces and analyze those (hopefully this still counts haha!).
Sydney MCA Background
So, the Sydney Museum of Contemporary Arts is an amazing spot that highlights the works of artists around the world, but tend to focus on local Australian artists. My favorite part about this museum is the design and layout, both inside and out. It has such a cool modern look on the outside with its boxy concrete features, and on the inside it seems like every thing flows together perfectly. In most cases I found myself being mesmerized by these cool paintings on the walls, only to notice they weren’t part of an exhibit, it was just how it was designed! With that said, there is definitely one thing that really stands out to me when walking round inside, and thats the location:
How can you not fall in love with a museum filled with amazing art, and a view of the infamous Sydney Opera House just across the bay?!?!
Work Analysis
A little bit of new vs. old between these two exhibits! Robert Macpherson, a Brisbane artist born artist, born in the 1930’s is using simply shades of paint to express his works. White/Black is 4 canvases the exact same size with an individual color on each one (cream, white, black, grey). This exhibit caught my attention because it was so simple, and not many people were paying attention to it, yet there was something “relaxing” about it, it was kind of just easy to look at. On the other hand, Sun Xun’s Maniac Universe gave me the exact opposite reaction. In this exhibit, Xun uses bark paper/canvas and UVA lighting to create this crazy bright work of art filled with planets, animals, and a plethora of random objects that all blend together. In both cases, I was intrigued, yet for completely opposite reasons.
