THE BEAUTY OF DISTANCE

Two weeks ago.

713km from Melbourne.

Three days worth of Sydney in 80,000 steps.

166 artists from 36 countries.

The 17th Biennale of Sydney.





I should point out that these photos of the biennale are limited to Cockatoo island. Photography of works on the mainland were prohibited. That stuff (generally speaking) wasn't great anyway.

BROOK ANDREW
Australia






CAI GUO-QIANG
China/America








DANIUS KESMINAS, ROHAN DRAPE, NEIL KELLEY, DAVID NELSON and MICHAEL STEVENSON
Australia/Germany





KADER ATTIA
France/Germany







DANIEL CROOKS
New Zealand/Australia









RODNEY GLICK
Australia









SHEN SHAOMIN
China





SERGE SPITZER
Romania/America









ISAAC JULIEN
England

(We spent 45 minutes watching this video installation on nine screens. It was pretty spectacular. You'll have to take my word for it.)











KATE McMILLAN
England/Australia















Before we got on the boat to head back to the mainland, we were listening to the insightful conversation of the two women behind us.

"It was very artistic!"
"Yes! Quite creative!"






It was so strange being able to just walk out onto the balcony of our hostel and be met straight away with iconic Australian landmarks. Our conversation continued something like this...

"Where have I seen that before?"
"Yeah I recognise it too..."
"OH! It's off those famous tea towels!"
"OH YEAH! That's Ken Done's Sydney Opera House!"
"His tea towels were so good that someone must have decided to go and
turn it into a building."
"They did a good job."
"Not as good as the tea towels."
"No. It doesn't really live up to the tea towels."