What's Special about the Museum of Contemporary Art

Hi everyone, 

After some time, I am finally back with a new post! The reason why I’ve not uploaded many blogposts last week is because I’ve moved from Alyssa’s house to the boarding-house last Wednesday and until now I haven’t had access to the Wi-Fi at school. However, from what I’ve experienced so far the boarding-house is great! I am still getting to know everyone but all the girls are really sweet and nice to me. I will definitely talk about my life as a boarder sometime later!

Today’s blogpost is mainly dedicated to the Museum of Contemporary Art. We visited this museum Wednesday the 23^rd of January. This is quite a while ago but I still want to tell you why I think this is such a great museum and overall this day was lovely! I would say grab a cookie, or a carrot (I don’t want to interfere with your healthy diet ;-)!) and read along!

We started our trip with a Japanese lunch in Concord, the suburb Alyssa’s family lives in. We walked to the restaurant. I ate my two Japanese favourites; avocado - and cucumber sushi rolls. A very interesting fact, I agree. Phoebe, Alyssa and I had lunch with just the three of us but afterwards we met up with Melanie, better known as Mel, one of Alyssa’s friends. We headed off to Sydney. First, we took the bus and then we took the ferry. This was a great choice since we had a very pretty view over the city and we saw the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House from really close-by. 

Once we arrived in Sydney, we got four frozen cokes at Macca’s (that’s how everyone calls McDonalds here) and then we walked to the Museum of Contemporary Art. The place that had been on my must-go list since I arrived here. I am a true lover of art and visiting a museum feels a bit like therapy for me. I get very calm by just looking at a painting or sculpture for a while and I try to observe it as good as I can (audio tours can definitely help you with that!) and in my head I make an opinion about the art piece or I try to think if I agree with the artist’s message. I probably gave a very difficult description of what most people do when they are at a museum, hahaha. 

In the Museum of Contemporary Art there were several exhibitions going on. The one we walked into first was called “Primavera 2018”. The theme of this exhibition was the politics of identity, visibility and representation. “Primavera” is MCA’s annual exhibition founded in 1992. Every year eight young Australian artists under the age of 35 show their work. This was MCA’s 27^th edition and this year’s question was, “Why is identity important today?” Artists used archival materials, installation, painting, performance, photography, sculpture and video to express their answer. 

Once we finished looking around at this exhibition we walked into the next big room. The exhibition that was being exhibited here was called “Compass”. This exhibition (yeez Louise ;-) how many times can one write "exhibition" in a single blogpost) was my personal favourite due to the subject; the practices of Indegious women and non-Indegious women. A lot of art works revolved around the question what it’s like to be a black woman in Australia but also universal themes of being a female were discussed. The artists I personally liked the most was called Linda Lee. 

After looking around in the room where “Compass” was exhibited we went up the stairs to another exhibition called “Yirawala”. Here only aboriginal art was exhibited. It was really pleasant to see something of the Australian culture. In this room there were mostly rock art paintings and the techniques that were used were dotting and rarrk (the use of fine lines).

Finally, we visited the exhibition “Tomorrow, Today, Yesterday”. The idea behind this exhibition is showing the impact the past has on the art of today. Each room represented a different perspective on the history of the present. This sort of exhibition suits the Museum of Contemporary Art very well since it tells the story of the ever-evolving nature of contemporary art. 

The reasons why I think the Museum of Contemporary Art is so special is because it shows the work of today’s artists which I think is really important. Why? Because people have the tendency to appreciate paintings of famous painters who are dead (Think of Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet) more than those of the (unfamous) once alive. I think this is a bit silly since the dead artists don’t need your appreciation while the once alive literally depend on it. There has always been a discussion about whether or not art is important. To that question I would like to answer, “YES! Yes, art is important. Artists criticize the world’s problems and make us think about those problems. While, at the same time they make the world a more colourful place. Imagine a world without paintings to decorate walls, without sculptures to brighten up neighbourhoods, without the pictures on tables. The world would be a dull and grey place. The world would lose its spark.” Therefore, I support the people who have dedicated their life to let the world shine a little. And therefore, I find the Museum of Contemporary Art a special place.  

After the Museum of Contemporary Art we walked to the Royal Botanical Gardens. These gardens were truly breath-taking and again they emphasized the cool contrast between urbanization and nature in Sydney. Wednesday was a really windy day so after walking for a while, we thought it was a good idea to have diner. We ate a hamburger at the Hard Rock Café. The servers here were very funny and the meal was delicious. After diner, we went bowling. This was great fun too. The only thing was that after about half an hour our bowling alley stopped working. However, after a while the staff fixed this problem and we continued playing. I didn’t win but it wasn’t as if I was expecting to since I never win at bowling. I think Alyssa won since she is literally good at every sport! It’s so cool! We ended our day with some late night shopping and an ice cream and then we headed home by ferry and bus again. 

As you may have noticed from this blogpost, I really enjoyed this day. We really got to know the city better. Now that my Wi-Fi is working (I hope it keeps working since I have heard there are often difficulties) I will post a lot of stories on my blog again! You can keep yourself up to date by subscribing to my blog! 

I hope you enjoyed reading this post despite its length ;-). I will speak to you soon! 

With love, Frederique