Brett Whiteley and Sydney Tower
ANZAC weekend and it’s been busy out and about in Sydney. As ANZAC day falls on the Monday it becomes a public holiday (Aussies hate ANZAC Day being on a Saturday or Sunday). The Friday night barbie at Originals was another fine one. At least fine since everyone’s paying $5 for a decent amount of food. Out for a few beers in World Bar, O’Malleys and other places.
I was up before 9am each day over the weekend and ended up singing Tesla songs in the shower on Monday morning. Talk about being in good spirits. Amazing what a good night’s sleep and a lack of alcohol can do for you.
Sunday morning and I had been having coffee at Joe’s when Viv arrived with exciting news about something going on at the Brett Whiteley Studio in Surrey Hills. It was a poetry type reading affair and Viv was desperate to go. I’d been wanting to see the studio, which is now an art gallery dedicated to Brett Whiteley’s work so today seemed as good a day as any. We got a hold of Toby and the three of us got a cab ride to Surrey Hills.
It was a fairly bland poetry recital. Nothing spectacular. Viv read one of his poems which was possible the highlight in amongst some stuff which could only be described as poetry by numbers.
The studio itself is a delight. The front door has a mini version of Almost Once (the two matchsticks) installation that can be seen out near the NSW Art Gallery. Inside the walls are filled with some of the better Brett Whiteley art works. I’m never quite sure about the way he distorts the human body but the more abstract the better.
Seeing odds and ends of stuff, Viv went through a wall of photos on a Who’s Who trip and had his usual dig at Wendy, Brett’s wife at the time of his death. I’d originally been introduced to Brett Whiteley through Billy Connolly’s World Tour of Australia a few years back (which I also now had on DVD thanks to Will and Georgie), Viv just made the visit to the Brett Whiteley Studio much more interesting.
It’s now Tuesday and I finally made it up the Sydney Tower. I went back to the NSW Art Gallery to get a book on Brett Whiteley which has a great selection of his art in and then went around a bit of Hyde Park to find the Sydney Tower observation malarkey.
Still couldn’t initially find it. I was expecting a tower but the entrance to it all is a regular building in the Sydney CBD so I walked past it a couple of times. Had a coffee in Starbucks as well before realising just where it was. Just look up!
There’s a weird and way too cheesy video of a brief history of Australia and a motion sickness inducing ride with some bizarre dioramas for the tourists, something I really would avoid if I had the chance to do it all again.
The Sydney Tower itself is terrible. Apart from the $22 entrance fee the views were awful. Skyscrapers have obscured much of Sydney Harbour and the sun badly reflected off the windows on the western side of the city, ruining Darling Harbour views. I realised I couldn’t even see the Opera House and most of the Sydney Harbour Bridge is obscured. It was all a bit of a let down. One of the world’s most famous harbours that could be enjoyed from very high up and it’s all ruined by bad sun reflections and buildings.
Someone needs to open a viewing point nearer Jackson Harbour.
