Tag: Museum of Contemporary Art
String Theory
Saturday, August 31st, 2013 Sydney Morning Herald Column,String Theory is loosely defined as “a theory of everything” – which makes it an appropriate title for an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Be prepared, however, for a different experience to that provided by the usual cutting-edge creations. Allowing for a few conspicuously sophisticated items, most of this show of indigenous fibre-based […]
South of no North
Saturday, April 6th, 2013 Sydney Morning Herald Column,South of no North may seem an enigmatic title for an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, but a moment’s reflection provides clarity. The name of this show, which brings together the work of Laurence Aberhart, William Eggleston and Noel McKenna, is borrowed from a book of short stories by Charles Bukowski (1916-1994). This […]
Anish Kapoor
Saturday, January 26th, 2013 Sydney Morning Herald Column,Some artists have greatness thrust upon them, others keep waiting but it never seems to turn up. Even if you are among that select group of the rich and famous, with every museum and collector clamouring for your latest creation, there is no guarantee it will make life easier. Material success has a strange tendency […]
Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro
Saturday, November 3rd, 2012 Sydney Morning Herald Column,Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro may be the first Australian artists to take full advantage of the new globalised art world. Over the past decade they have travelled incessantly, undertaken residencies in Europe and Asia, and exhibited their work in museums and private galleries from Kathmandu to Washington DC. The Museum of Contemporary Art has […]
Ken Whisson: As If
Saturday, October 6th, 2012 Sydney Morning Herald Column,Ken Whisson says he has always enjoyed being “outside of the awful mainstream”, but it may be that he is about to redefine what is mainstream and what is marginal. Ken Whisson: As If at the Museum of Contemporary Art, is the most fascinating retrospective since the National Gallery of Australia’s George Lambert survey of […]
The Clock, Marking Time
Saturday, May 12th, 2012 Art Essays, Australian Art, General Art Essays, Sydney Morning Herald Column, Uncategorized,Switzerland gave us the cuckoo clock, and Swiss-American artist, Christian Marclay, has created the most preposterous time-piece in the history of art. The Clock is such a unique artifact it defies all but the most impressionistic responses. This is obvious from Zadie Smith’s essay in the brochure published for the work’s showing at the Museum […]
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
Saturday, January 14th, 2012 Sydney Morning Herald Column,Like a Virgin Airlines flight, we are assured there is a serious side to Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s Recorders, at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Although this free exhibition of interactive installations feels like a piece of light holiday entertainment for the kids, it wouldn’t be an MCA show if we were not informed that the work […]
In the Balance
Saturday, October 2nd, 2010 Australian Art, Sydney Morning Herald Column,Can an issue be of overwhelming, global importance and not be a great subject for artists? After experiencing In the Balance: Art for a Changing World at the Museum of Contemporary Art, I’m almost inclined to write off the environmental movement as subject matter. This would be unfair, because I’m sure there have been significant […]
Chuck Close
Saturday, September 25th, 2010 International Art, Sydney Morning Herald Column,Chuck Close is celebrated as an artist who has made creative use of his disabilities, although one might say he has simply refused to be beaten by them. Struck down by a collapsed spinal artery in December 1988, he has been in a wheelchair ever since, painting with brushes strapped to his wrist. Close’s stroke […]
Olafur Eliasson
Saturday, February 13th, 2010 Sydney Morning Herald Column,When a show is called Take Your Time, and runs for four full months, there seems to be no great urgency in visiting the Museum of Contemporary Art. So little urgency that I’m always talking to people who missed an MCA exhibition because they thought they might go next week, or perhaps the week after, […]