Weekending - in the City

 

I love visiting Brisbane City. There is always a sense that something is happening. A sense of possibility. A sense that you may stumble upon something fun, interesting or different. Something out of the ordinary from our usual day to day. And so it was Saturday.

 

When our previous plans fell through I asked Cohen what he wanted to do with our day. "Make art at the gallery." (Music to this Mama's ears.) And so we did. First there were little mouths to feed, public art to admire and bridges to cross. We peered in to the river, peered up at the buildings, pointed out all the interesting things we saw. We discovered a live band at the top of the Mall and Cohen did a little dance. We treated ourselves to our favourite foods. Looked at a few stores. Then we found our way to the Pop Up Ekka at Southbank, where we patted baby animals, feed balls in to the mouths of clowns and Cohen proudly caught a rubber duckie. As we neared the end of our loop Emerson fell asleep. We wandered through the Queensland Art Gallery and on to the children's art centre at the Gallery of Modern Art, where we decorated kangaroo masks and hopped around on the scenery. By the time we were driving home both children were asleep.

 

Yes, I love visiting the City, and the City didn't disappoint.

On happiness and art galleries

While the children slept and Dave was away for a golf weekend, I read the last pages of The Happiness Project. In the unusual silence, I contemplated the questions posed by Gretchen. I put pen to paper. It's the kind of book that it's difficult not to be inspired by. I adopted Gretchen's mantra and noted, 'Be Christina.' I mused on the things that made me feel happy and which created an atmosphere of growth. 

I find that it's easy for motherhood to swallow your identity. But it is something I don't really notice until someone asks me what I've been doing. Each response that springs to mind tends to be what I've been doing with my children - we've been going to the park/ playgoup, we've been making toilet paper robots, Emerson has her six month check up. But me? I feel like appologising. I've only been doing solitary things - knitting, gardening, reading, blogging. But I realised, I shouldn't appologise or try to justify it. I should 'Be Christina.' They are all things that are a source of creativity, growth and community for me. Things that make me happy.

It  made me think about what else made me happy. What else I hadn't been indulging in as often since becoming a mother? An entire empty Sunday stretched before me and I decided to make it an ideal Christina day. My first love has always been fine art and I'd been meaning to visit the 'Portrait of Spain' exhibition at the Qld Art Gallery since it opened in July. What better day that this?

I joyfully wandered the gallery, sharing the paintings with Cohen while Emerson slept. I renewed an old tradition by having a cuppa at the cafe, though unlike my uni days, I splurged on lunch as well too.  I visited the book store at the State Library and brought a set of three Moleskine cahiers in order to start a garden journal. I also brought myself a print of a painting I'd admired. 

The gallery assistant captured this image of us in front of a large photograph of the Prado, so that it looks like we stepped out of Brisbane and into Spain for a moment. And do you know what? I think I look pretty happy.

(We also visited the Gallery of Modern Art and the fabulous sculpture exhibition currently on there. I'll share some of my favourite pieces with you tomorrow.)

"I can like the City"

I remember my excitement when Cohen was learning to talk, yet people often commented that I would eventually wish he wouldn't talk so much. I couldn't even imagine such a thing. Oh, how I understand these sentiments now. Toddler speak. I love it. But at times my brain reaches saturation point and I begin to tune out to the incessant chatter. Cohen is like his own commentator and talk back radio host rolled in to one.

But there are many moments where his grasp on language surprises me, and times where he applies his logic and his vocabulary and comes out with some sweetness. For instance, recently he pointed to a ink stain on a thrifted wool blanket and asked, "What's that bruise on the blanket for?" He uses "all days" to mean all the time or always. And lately he lets you know his opinion with either an "I can't like that Mama," or an "I can like that."

Yesterday we spent a family day making the most of the delights of the cultural precinct in the City. We explored Southbank, visited the galleries, made paper birds in the children's art center at GOMA, ate by the river and wandered through the museum. Cohen assured us as we walked back to the car, "I can like the City."

Me too.

'Modern Women'

Portrait of a woman, Albert Besnard

 Portrait or Mme X, Marie Bashkirtseff

One of my very favourite things to do is to visit art galleries. I believe it was probably the main reason I decided to do a bachelor of fine arts. Yesterday we viewed the current exhibition at the Queensland Art Gallery, 'Modern Women: Daughters and Lovers 1850 - 1918.' The beautiful drawings in the exhibition were sourced from the Musee De Orsay, Paris, from a collection of over four thousand works. Some of the pieces, framed in simple blonde frames, are being exhibited for the first time. The works were beautifully displayed and hung in rooms according to their themes, from mothers and children, with depictions of breastfeeding, to women working on the farm. From performers, to women of the night. Featuring the work of artists such as Degas, Renoir, Manet and Cassatt, who are all linked by friendship or aesthetics, the pieces range from simple line drawings to intensely worked pastels. Drawing at this time was undertaking a radical reinvention and being recognised as art unto its self, and not merely as preparation for painting, making it a thoroughly modern way to work. 

I particularly loved the way dress came in to play across the works. Whether it be fur collars, silk or shop girls dresses cinched at the waist, much of the clothing featured in the drawings was also thoroughly modern at the time and really places the pieces in their period for modern observers. I'm also drawn to interiors from the period. The stuffed floral couches, elaborate carpets and lush drapes are always a joy for me.

While Emerson and I browsed the exhibition with my sister and her husband, Cohen and Dave were making a bird and nest as a part of the Fiona Hall 'Fly Away Home' interactive exhibit at the Gallery Of Modern Art. Dave assured me that he and Cohen enjoyed this activity so much I should take the little man back and do it with him myself. I think I shall indeed.

So, if you are in Brisbane, I can recommend a trip to either gallery or both.

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“As far as I am concerned, taking photographs is a means of understanding, which cannot be separated from other means of visual expression. It is a way of shouting, of freeing oneself, not of providing or asserting one’s originality. It is a way of life. “ Henri Cartier-Bresson

I need to allocate more time for play, culture and exploration. For together they make for wonderful days. Days balanced by the laughter and noise of a water park at Southbank and the quiet contemplation of the Henri Cartier-Bresson exhibition at the Qld Art Gallery. Days enjoyed by Fiona, Cohen and myself. And surely days like this are wonderful experiences for a child learning about the world.

 Having studied Cartier-Bresson at University (once upon a time), it was a remarkable feeling to witness this collection, reverentially hung upon the gallery walls. Pages from books and slide projectors, brought to life in a way that only gelatin silver prints can master.

I thought the exhibition well curated and admired the grey walls, bentwood chairs and the quotes writ large upon the wall. The collection was selected as personal favourites of, and printing overseen by, Cartier-Bresson in the last years of his life. Not just an impressive photojournalist documenting historically important times and places, Cartier-Bresson’s works are technically brilliant with their tonal qualities, use of thirds, shadow, framing etc, but they are also simply beautiful exchanges between photographer and subject, summed up so well by the phrase used to characterise his work – ‘the decisive moment’,” which can illustrate action, emotion and an entire story in a single image.” ( Taken from the wall of the gallery.)

$12 well and truly well spent and if you find yourself in Brisbane City at some point this month, certainly an exhibition I would recommend. (So too the new water park at Southbank, which Cohen adored, his smile plastered to his face much as his hair was plastered to his head. No photographs I’m afraid, as I was just as soaked as Cohen.)