If you avoid Pitt St Mall, walking through Sydney CBD anytime between Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve makes you feel a little like Tom Cruise running through Times Square in Vanilla Sky. Unnerving to say the least. George and Castlereagh streets enjoy temporary emancipation from the hoards of suits that usually clutter their footpaths and you can almost see tumbleweeds blowing down Martin Place. I found myself in these circumstances on the way to Monet and the Impressionists at the Art Gallery of NSW and a few questions passed through my mind. Was my music up so loud that I hadn’t heard the newly installed city alarms blaring and was I now walking around a recently evacuated city, oblivious to Godzilla or whatever else was about to terrorise Sydney? Was I the star of a new Truman-like reality TV show in which the severity of my reaction to a city emptied by frantic TV producers would determine whether or not I would win one million dollars? Should I have listened more carefully to the stories of a Rapture that I had only ever thought of as fictional?
Unsurprisingly (and a little disappointingly), the answer to all these questions turned out to be no. No Godzilla, million dollars or hell-on-earth for me this year. Walking across the Domain, I realised that the crowds that usually populate Sydney do not completely disappear during this time of year, they all just descend upon the Art Gallery. At least, I think it was the Art Gallery. It was difficult to tell as the building bulged with what must have been all of Sydney’s inhabitants. This usually diverse population seemed to have undergone a radical transformation from a cosmopolitan melting pot to a homogenous group of grey haired, quietly cultured and immaculately dressed senior citizens.
Somewhere amongst the smell of lavender and between walking frames Monet and the Impressionists lay waiting. After queuing for about 15 minutes it was time to check out what all the fuss was about. I held my breath and ventured into a crowd that could easily have doubled as the audience at an Aled Jones concert. Walking around, I appreciated the clear chronological lay out of the exhibition and the amount of thought that had been put into hanging the paintings. The vast numbers of people didn’t detract from the experience of viewing the paintings or obscure their view. Alongside Monet were works from artists that inspired the Impressionist movement such as Millet, Rousseau, Courbet and Manet and works of his contemporaries such as Cézanne, Pissarro, Sisley, Renoir and Degas.
Feeling a little out of place, I searched for any evidence that would confirm my hopes that an enjoyment of Impressionism was possible for all ages. Luckily, that evidence was easy to find. One of the forms it came in was the small snippets of useful information that were written on the wall of each room. These were easy to understand and managed to effectively contextualise the paintings without overloading the viewer with too many facts. They also brought to light the radical nature of Impressionism in its day, its initially unfavourable public reception and the use of pioneering techniques by its adherents. These important aspects of Impressionism would otherwise have remained hidden behind pastel colours and calm scenes. Finding out about the way in which Monet and colleagues pushed the boundaries of what was considered art in their time held a certain appeal to me and reminded me of recent controversy around Bill Henson’s work.
Like any exhibition featuring well known art, it was difficult to believe that what lay before me once lay in the studio of a famous artist and was the end product of their long, hard labour. Once I recovered from feeling a little starstruck, the works themselves were further evidence that it would be difficult for anyone, irrespective of age cohort, not to appreciate Impressionism. Comprising millions of tiny brushstrokes which catch the light at different angles, the trademarked luminance of the works of Monet and colleagues shone brightly as each work was observed in the flesh. Every painting seemed to somehow espouse light from within whilst portraying the complexity of shadows, reflections, dusks and dawns.
Also impressive was the high level of detail which the artists managed to capture on the canvas. Up close, most of the works appeared to be a blurry, random splattering of colour but from a few steps back, tiny pink flecks would come together as rose petals and different strokes of green would suddenly materialise into a shadowy riverbank. Intricacy from a distance may sound like a contradiction in terms but these artists master it with aplomb and the soft way in which they manage to achieve this was fascinating to observe. The works by Japanese artist Utagawa Hiroshige I, from whom Monet drew inspiration, were also a pleasant surprise in the exhibition. My untrained eye would not have seen any overlap between the work of Hiroshige I and Monet if they were shown to me in isolation, however when these works were hung beside each other a number of unexpected similarities emerged. Although Hiroshige I’s creations possess an integrity and quality in their own right, it was especially interesting to see how Monet transposed Japanese motifs into a European context.
Having enjoyed Monet and the Impressionists, it was time to check out another exhibition. A hop, skip and a jump across Circular Quay (where all the inhabitants of Sydney must have shifted after the Art Gallery) led to the Yinka Shonibare exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art. The artist Shonibare was born in London, moved to Lagos, Nigeria at the age of three and was schooled there until he returned to London at the age of sixteen. The strong influence and juxtaposition of these diverse cultures is evident in Shonibare’s work. Headless mannequins clad in elaborate Victorian-era costumes made from strikingly colourful Dutch wax-printed cotton comprise the majority of the exhibition. Sometimes these are used to recreate famous artworks, other times they partake in scenes which Shonibare himself creates. Shonibare also appears in a number of carefully posed photographs which convey scenes from famous works of English literature such as Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray. Just like the vividly coloured Victorian costumes, the ebony presence of Shonibare in such a traditionally ivory setting powerfully jolts the viewer into thinking about the issues of identity, colonialism, social justice and class structure which pervade Shonibare’s work.
A strong connection with the body is another theme which characterises Shonibare’s work and which is tangibly present in this exhibition. Shonibare effectively manages to capture and portray movement, personality and even communication style solely through the caught-in-a-moment body language of his mannequins. This is particularly evident in his 2003 work ‘Scramble for Africa’ in which 14 headless figures are gathered around a table the middle of rigorous discussion. Some have their hands thrown up in the air whilst others lean back in a chair, but there is such dynamicism to the piece that as I was circling it, I kept turning my head, swearing I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. The corporeal, visceral body is also very present in Shonibare’s short film Odile and Odette in which two ballerinas, one black and one white, explore the roles in the title (from Swan Lake) by reflecting each other’s movement through a large baroque frame. The viewer’s perspective in the film changes constantly and subtly. One moment the reflection in the ‘mirror’ is of the white ballerina, the next it is of the black ballerina. The sound in the film is limited to the breathing and foot movement of the ballerinas which further brings the body into the fore of the viewer’s consciousness.
Visiting the Monet and the Impressionists and Yinka Shonibare exhibitions in one day makes for a good outing into the city. The enhanced depiction of depersonalised landscapes by Monet and colleagues is a nice contrast to Shonibare’s emphasis on the grounded individual and his broader socio-cultural statements. After viewing both exhibitions, one walks away feeling a little better informed about a small subsection of history and culture and thinking about some of life’s bigger issues. Sure beats being eaten by Godzilla.
Monet and the Impressionists is showing at the Art Gallery of NSW until January 26th. Entry is $48 for a family, $18 for an adult and $12 for a concession. Visit www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au for more details.
Yinka Shonibare is showing at the Museum of Contemporary Art until February 1st. Entry is by donation. Visit www.mca.com,au for more details.
