Heide is the former home of John and Sunday Reed, in the north eastern suburbs of Melbourne. Back in the mid 1900’s it was the stomping grounds of many famous Australian modern artists, most notably Sidney Nolan and Albert Tucker. I had been aching to visit ever since they held the Louise Bourgeois exhibition back in 2012 and finally made it out there to see Emily Floyd’s exhibition Far Rainbow.
Situated in the middle of a former dairy farm, there is a sculpture garden which we explored first. Simryn Gill’s lovely work Half Moon Shine was open to the elements, collecting ripe orange fruit and falling leaves from the tree above. It was great to spot Andrew Burns Crescent House also among the green.
I was really taken by the building housing Heide II, Approaching from the gardens it looked a fairly uninteresting house but it was truly a delight once inside. Designed by McGlashan Everist Architects, it is one of those special homes built for the intimacy of daily life, but also looks out to the wider world.
Heide II
Heide II
I wasn’t familiar with Emily Floyd’s work before, and it was an interesting mix of childhood aesthetics and political ideology, some of which went wwaaaayy over my head. Bit like a Kubrick masterpiece where you walk away not sure what happened but keep on revisiting in a series of flashbacks. I bought the catalog to see if it would help decipher it but haven’t made much progress! I really liked some of the small scale sculptures and the Abstract Labour sculpture which the children were hiding inside out the front.
Emily Floyd Far Rainbow
There is a lot of great art to see in Sydney Galleries at the moment. LInde Ivimey’s work is best appreciated in the flesh and Brave to the Bone is currently on at Martin Browne Contemporary. Linde Ivimey walked us though the exhibition today, sharing some of its secrets which was a real treat.
Linde Ivimey – The Great White Hope
Linde Ivimey – Bucking black dog
Jamie North’s work at Sarah Cottier Gallery captures some of the Japanese aesthetic I was in awe of when I was in Kyoto recently. I’m a bit potty about plants at the moment, and great to hear most of them are native species. One of my favorite work I saw recently was Kate Mitchell’s Future Fallout at Chalk Horse. I like how she uses the absurd to confront and challenge reality, and it still makes me laugh out loud when I think back to it.
Kate Mitchell – Future Fallout
Just like those Darren Bader Burritos at MOMA PS1
http://www.artspace.com/magazine/art_101/how_post_everything_sculpture_works_today
Through the looking glass 