Tourist In My Town

I spent some time on the weekend as a “tour guide” for some friends visiting from the US. On Saturday, I took them to “Wendy’s Secret Garden” https://jamesobrien.id.au/2018/04/22/wendys-secret-garden/ and the “Cartoon Walk”, both at Lavender Bay. If you’re ever visiting Sydney, or have visitors, they’re both highly recommended things to do. Catch a train or ferry, and then walk around past Luna Park.

Lunar New Year

“This is better than Vivid”, I said to my friend, visiting from Canberra, as we walked around the Lunar New Year Lantern Display around Sydney’s Circular Quay. “Every year”, I told her, “it rains at Vivid”, the festival of light held in Sydney. And even though it was awfully sticky tonight – we’re waking most days to be told on the radio, it’s 80% humidity in Sydney – it was still really lovely being out and about enjoying a very fine evening.… Read the rest “Lunar New Year”

Chinese / Lunar New Year (Year Of The Monkey)

On Saturday night, I was fortunate enough to be a +1 for the launch of the Chinese / Lunar New Year celebrations in Sydney.  Here are some photographs from the festivities.

Chinese / Lunar New Year in Sydney (Year Of The Monkey)
Chinese / Lunar New Year in Sydney. Great to see same-sex marriage advocate (and City of Sydney Councillor) Christine Forster and her partner attending in support.
Chinese / Lunar New Year in Sydney

4A’s Twilight Garden Party

These are some photographs from the 4A Gallery Chinese NY Event at Sydney’s Chinese Garden of Friendship, held earlier tonight, featuring works by the visiting artist collective, Yangjiang Group.

Face Calligraphy
4A’s Twilight Garden Party
Calligraphy with left-over food
Calligraphy
One of the DJs

As noted by the burb on the 4A site…

Celebrate the Chinese New Year with 4A and Chinese artist collective Yangjiang Group as they take over Sydney’s Chinese Garden of Friendship! This one-night-only special event will feature live art performances led by Yangjiang Group, a contemporary art collective hailing from the coastal city of Yangjiang in China’s southern Guangdong province.

Read the rest “4A’s Twilight Garden Party”

Chinese New Year Exhibition in Sydney

I had a fantastic time last night at the opening night of “Crossing Boundaries – Chinese New Year Exhibition in Sydney”, curated by my friend Kate.

As part of the exhibition opening, Kate introduced many of the exhibiting artists, noting the culturally diverse background of the artists. Not only Chinese, but also Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean and others.

The exhibition runs at Sydney Town Hall from January 22 to Feburary 9. There’s some really terrific work in the exhibition, and here are some of my favourite photographs and works from last night.… Read the rest “Chinese New Year Exhibition in Sydney”