Canberra Sculptures

(Yet another catch-up post.)

As I already mentioned, Canberra is a city of museums. And most of them are free. I was stoked to go to the National Art Gallery and, once I noticed that photography was verboten, I really just enjoyed walking the halls. Not taking pictures was grrrreat. I saw Jackson Pollock's Blue Poles, a Monet, a Lichtenstein, lots of Aboriginal art, a few Warhols and, my favorite, not one dying Christ or crying Madonna. Actually my two favorite pieces in the National Art Gallery were James Angus' A Lot of Bright Ideas (a collection of about 100 lightbulbs in which the filaments are all different shapes- mostly modern culture references) and Fiona Hall's Paradisus Terrestris (while it has an erotic element, I really liked the detail of these tiny metal sculptures).

But all was not lost in the art department as Canberra has bunches of sculptures just laying about. Mostly they're in the sculpture park but scattered around central Canberra are lots of other sculptures too.

Some Rodin.

This was a piece dedicated to the Lost Generation- the Aboriginal children that were taken from their families and relocated to orphanages or to live with white Australian families.

The back of the sculpture is covered in stories such as these.

Canberra: Australian War Memorial

Canberra is a city of museums. Good ones. Most of them free. Hands down, my favorite was the Australian War Memorial. It's a memorial and a museum, and one that you could literally spend all day walking around. They cover all conflicts in which Australia has been involved- to include the current conflicts. Of course, World War I was pivotal to Australia and Australian identity, and it warrants perhaps the greatest amount of displays. I could not take enough nor post enough pictures to give a good idea of just how phenomenal this memorial is- here's just a few.

This reflecting pool has an eternal flame at the far end.

This wall is just World War I casualties. It's a very long wall. World War II is on the other side of the reflecting pool. It seems to have just as many names.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The wreath that is mostly cropped out was laid by President Obama; I was trailing him by about 15 minutes.

In the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, there are stained glass windows on all four walls depicting servicemembers in various uniforms, and at the bottom of each figure is a quality that is revered.

Australia, apparently, reveres "coolness" in their troops. It made me laugh and didn't seem too out of character in this country.

I visited the war memorial on November 17th and, like I said, was only about 15 minutes behind the POTUS.

Elaborate/field rigged deception. Dripping water into the canteens would allow these rifles to fire long after the Australian soldiers had left their beachfront battle sites in Turkey.

El Museo de Reina Sofia in Madrid

I did something very communist on Monday; I saw a long line of people, with more lining up, and I figured it had to be good so I jumped in the line too. Granted it was at the Museo Reina Sofia (the national art museum) and I heard gratis a few times. As luck would have it, it was their free admission day. I have no idea why. But, as a result, I got to check out a cultural fixture that I most likely would have forgone on my strict daily budget.

This is only about half the line to get into the museum.

Of course there were the Picasso's and Dali's.

But then there was Yayoi Kusama, an artist born in Japan in 1929, and her stuff, well....I fell in love. She painted, sculpted, made installation art, worked with fabrics, videos, social commentary, and this is just what I saw at this collection.

First, a polka dot room. Dots placed everywhere and then blacklit. Looks even neater through the camera because the dots look like they're floating.

An example of her fabric'd arts.

Just a few of her paintings.

By far my favorite item of hers was this room. It was mirrored and had strings of light that hung down, they'd change colors too, giving vastly different experiences in the room.

But here's 'a miss' in my opinion. This is a hat. (Perhaps for some.)