EC-Rider Travels

There were two last things to tick off on my list for Sydney and that was the Rocks and the MCA – Museum of Contemporary Art. Lovely Amanda agreed to join me, but as it was pouring with rain we decided to do ‘The Rocks’ by car! The Rocks is the most historic part of Sydney and was given its name by the First Fleet, who landed on the rocky peninsula (26 January, 1788) and settled there. It is now a smart neighbourhood of historic warehouses, houses and lanes around the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It is touristy but has some of the oldest pubs and lovely looking restaurants and apparently great markets. It is Mardi Gras and World Pride this weekend, so lots of preparations were underway. I am sad to miss it.

To one end, is the MCA, an Art Deco building attached to the 1930’s Maritime Services Board on the edge of Sydney Harbour. It is another stunning space, representing international artists and over 4000 works by Australians including many by Aboriginal and Torres Strait artists.

There was an extraordinary exhibition by a South Korean, called Do Ho – his first solo exhibition spanning three decades. Following a theme of ‘identity and belonging’ he had replicated spaces where he had lived, recreating household objects – door handles, switches, utilities – through to a full scale replica of his family home in Seoul. This was done through ‘paper rubbings of every part of the house and then reconstructing it in 3D Amazing!

My favourite piece, however, was called Floor a vast glass floor, which you could walk on, held up by thousands of tiny, sculpted PVC figures….. or was it indeed their ceiling?! Around the wall of this room, was extraordinary dotted wallpaper which when you looked closely had a face/portrait (from his year-book) in each dot – called Who Am We?

And loved Going Home, made using coloured thread.

This evening we went for a final delicious dinner at a nearby restaurant called Ten William. We were looked after by a charming French waiter who had worked in London and was on a seven year Gap-Year! I think i better continue planning! We walked through the pretty little streets to get there, seeing sweet dogs lying on verandas in the evening sun and on our return, possums walking along the telephone wires – not quite like London!