Visiting the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.

Being only a hop, step and a jump away from Circular Quay, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) was an obvious destination.

A fake front door with no opening as the museum was shut.

However, I was having a lot of trouble trying to navigate my way around the door display at the entrance and try though I may, I couldn’t work out how to get in and felt like an idiot. Well, you could only imagine how I was feeling when I found out it was already 5.30pm and the MCA was shut. Thank goodness they didn’t think I was trying to break in and called the police! Mind you, daylight Savings does that to you, giving you a false sense that everything’s still open and swinging from the rafters because it still looks like midday until about an hour before sunset at 8.00pm.

Anyway, I returned the next day and had a bit of a fossick around through the free sections.

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As soon as you walk in, Vincent Namatjira’s larger than life mural P.P.F (Past-Present-Future) slaps you straight in the face. Vincent Namatjira OAM is an Aboriginal Australian artist living in Indulkana, in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara in South Australia. He has won many art awards, and after being nominated for Australia’s famed Archibald Prize several times, he became the first Aboriginal person to win it in 2020 In P.P.F. (Past-Present-Future), he has assembled seven figures significant to his life and practice in a large-scale ‘heroes narrative’. The work is semi-autobiographical – the artist states that each of the men represented on the wall have inspired him, and remind him of who he is. Read more here.

A panel from Julia Gutman’s work: Isn’t it all just a long conversation?

Personally, I was particularly encouraged by textilist, Julia Gutman, whose work: Isn’t it all just a long conversation? appeared in the Primavera Young Artist Exhibition 2022. Julia Gutman. I always seem to think of art as painting and trying to get things out in paint and getting them to look how I’d like is tough, but this work was a reminder that there are other ways to make a picture. Moreover, I’ve always loved collage and this is collage using fabric. The only downside is potentially having to wrestle with the sewing machine. Being mechanical and me having no mechanical empathy, the sewing machine and I have clashed in the past. Then again, there’s always hand-stitching and I’ve had a bit of practice on that front sewing ballet pointe shoes.

While the art is naturally why you visit the MCA, the building itself is very impressive and I wish I’d taken a photo of its entirety to share with you. However in my typical fashion, I have zoomed in and focused on aspects of the building and once again omitted the whole.

View of Circular Quay through the front glass doors of the MCA .

Of course, I managed to get a few door shots for Thursday Doors and these folks don’t care if the rest of the building is missing. It’s all about priorities.

Have you been to the Museum of Contemporary Art? Any thoughts? Perhaps, you might like to comment on the doors.

Best wishes,

Rowena