Sorry for the delay in my follow up to Opening Week - after running around like a crazy person for 10 days, I got tonsillitis so have been trying to recover (oh, and write 3 essays....)!
Opening Week: around 10 days of madness! Meeting artists, parties, jumping on and off ferries, artist performances, artist talks, forums... Such an incredible experience! I think around 120 artists/curators came into Sydney for the week from all over the world, so for me, it was enough to just be in the same space as all of these amazingly talented people and hear their take on the world!
One of the highlights was the Opening Week Forum. Day 2 included discussions on Indigenous issues in the arts, with speakers from New Zealand, Canada and Mexico; a panel of curators that included David Elliot, James Putnam (a curator at the British Museum), David A. Bailey (from the International Curators Forum), Simon Njami (from Paris) and Hu Fang (Vitamin Creative Space). Listening to them bounce ideas off each other was really inspiring. Not necessarily to be a curator, but to have that passion about what you do. Then there was the Nick Waterlow Memorial Lecture given by Lawrence Weschler, another inspiring speaker. His discussion on Vermeer, the Dutch wars in the 1660s and the Bosnian-Serbian conflict in the 1990s was really powerful - when they make the taping available, it is definitely worth watching!
Having survived the dramas, the exhibition is now up and running. If you decide to head out to Cockatoo Island, you may just run into me giving free guided tours!
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Monday, May 10, 2010
Opening Week Update
So it is Monday of opening week and I am already tired! It really started for me last Wednesday, with...
Office work - last minute paperwork, finalisations etc
Airport pickups - picking up artists from the airport. Let's just say that being at the airport at 6am on a Saturday morning, surrounded by hundreds of people, holding a sign, searching for someone you have no idea what they look like, is not one of the best things about this job. But so far, the artists have been lovely - even after 20hr flights - and have just been grateful to have someone meet them and take them to their hotel. Its been a great experience to meet all of these people, and I think if someone can be lovely at 6am, after an hour and a half in customs, they've got to be alright!
Random driving excursions - driving a hire car is fun, though it took a bit to get used to a new car. Trip to Bing Lee? Sure. Bondi Junction? No problem. Bunnings? Yep. Drive to the airport, pick up an artist, drop them off at their hotel in the city, without getting lost? Maybe?
Oh, and of course, the parties - the best bit! So far Cockatoo Island and the Roslyn Oxley Gallery, with more to come. It's a little nerve-racking, meeting all these new people, but after the initial, 'Hi, I'm Kate' (added, of course, with the blessing/curse of these things, free alcohol) you end up with some great conversations (Seinfeld-Confucius-Planet Earth Geological Society...)!
And 6 more days of opening week to go.....
Office work - last minute paperwork, finalisations etc
Airport pickups - picking up artists from the airport. Let's just say that being at the airport at 6am on a Saturday morning, surrounded by hundreds of people, holding a sign, searching for someone you have no idea what they look like, is not one of the best things about this job. But so far, the artists have been lovely - even after 20hr flights - and have just been grateful to have someone meet them and take them to their hotel. Its been a great experience to meet all of these people, and I think if someone can be lovely at 6am, after an hour and a half in customs, they've got to be alright!
Random driving excursions - driving a hire car is fun, though it took a bit to get used to a new car. Trip to Bing Lee? Sure. Bondi Junction? No problem. Bunnings? Yep. Drive to the airport, pick up an artist, drop them off at their hotel in the city, without getting lost? Maybe?
Oh, and of course, the parties - the best bit! So far Cockatoo Island and the Roslyn Oxley Gallery, with more to come. It's a little nerve-racking, meeting all these new people, but after the initial, 'Hi, I'm Kate' (added, of course, with the blessing/curse of these things, free alcohol) you end up with some great conversations (Seinfeld-Confucius-Planet Earth Geological Society...)!
And 6 more days of opening week to go.....
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