Great day out in Sydney

On Monday we had a whole day to play in Sydney before Jetstarring it for Melbourne after dinner.

So a trip to the now renovated Museum of Contemporary Art in Circular Quay was arranged, meeting Peter for a look at the exhibition of sculptural works by Anish Kapoor. Kapoor's work is so monumental and expensive that to actually see an exhibition would usually require an overseas trip, but this extraordinary exhibition was made possible because of the MCA renovation and was staged in that context.

It was really worth it. No wonder Kapoor is one of the wealthiest and most successful artists alive today. His works sell for millions. But then they take breathtaking sums to construct. Nothing simple and thrown together here. These are refined, intellectual and highly finished pieces, made to exacting standards with no expense spared. Some of them are just enormous. Others are small but extraordinary in construction. Like nothing you have ever seen. The gallery experience is an interactional one rather than one where you just stand and look. In Kapoor's world you are invited to participate in the works by moving around them, sometimes inside them and delighting in the way the perspective changes. It's still look but don't touch, but somehow you get involved in an experience rather than an observation.

Here are some photos which won't do it justice, go and see for yourself if you can. It's a lot of fun.

This is our reflection in "Sky Mirror" a 10m diameter polished stainless steel mirror that reflects the sky. Best seen from a boat on the harbour, but spectacular up close as well.

David is standing in front of a "void" work, which looks like a flat round of vivid colour, but on closer inspection turns out to be a bowl recessed into the wall that reflects your own image back, upside down.

(Below) This is a work from 1979, a very early piece called "1000 names". It is constructed from powdered pigments arranged as if to be solid objects coming through the wall or floor. The title references the many names and forms of Vishnu.

One of the attendants told us it takes ten years to create the polished surface of the many works in stainless steel. Curved surfaces create the artwork from reflections caused by people observing. Sometimes the reflected walls, floors and windows of the gallery space itself become incredibly beautiful and mobile as you move around. Hard to capture in a static image but I guess that's the point.

(Above). This work is called "Memory". It is a 24 ton massive steel construction that is so huge it completely fills the room. Or perhaps the room was built around it. There is a portal to the interior from another room, which invites you to make sound into the vast echoing interior blackness of the inside of the work.

This (above) is not a sculpture as such. It is the glass fronted lift that takes you in scenic style from the gallery levels back down to Circular Quay. So you can go to the Orient Hotel for a cheap pub lunch. Which we did.