Mining and corrupt NSW Politics

This art and music blog is once again overtaken by politics. Current NSW twitter feed is astonishing and irresistible.

Geoffrey Watson at ICAC hearing

We are finding out through the ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption) just how corrupt NSW politicians on both sides of politics are. We heard about the dealings of Labour power broker Eddie Obeid and his colleagues in the last inquiry, and now we are hearing about equally devious and illegal practices in the Liberal Party.  A fourth Liberal MP has just stood down.

 It turns out that mining companies (among others)  have been buying favours.

At the same time as ICAC is sitting citizens are protesting on the farms against the mining companies and trying to prevent them destroying farmland and forests. Over 120 people have been arrested at the Leard Forest site (see blogpost of April 3rd), among them local farmers, doctors and others who have come to support them.

Go Knitting Nannas!

Now police are preparing to break down the Bentley blockade which is a gathering to prevent Coal Seam Gas drilling on a farm in northern NSW.  It has been suggested that the police should arrest the current government instead. The blockade has wide local support, including a group of knitting Nanas from Armidale. They are knitting yellow ties.

The Federal Government is enmeshed in the corruption as well as the State Government. The Federal Assistant Treasurer Arthur Sinodinos has already had to stand aside and there is an increasing feeling that the stench goes right to the top. The Government is paying spies to track what the population is saying on social media and intimidate them. As I blogged previously, government employees are particularly in the firing line.

When you have corrupt governments licensing corrupting mining companies and citizens being arrested for trying to protect the land that the corrupt politicians have sold off, it is time to change how we are governed.

I read that an increasing number of people are dying trying to protect their land: Study Finds Global Surge in Murders of Environmental Activists.  It makes me wonder how far corporate criminals and the people in their pay are willing to go in Australia.

Being a mother

Smiling through the clamour
Oil on canvas 45 x 60 cm

It is not easy being a mother, especially when your two  boisterous younger children are eternally in competition,  each demanding 150% of their mother's attention.

It is a gift to be able to keep smiling through the noise and demands, a gift I esteem very highly (not having inherited it myself). Greta has the gift, as you can see. Her lucky children are too small to know how rare it is, but one day they may look back, reflect and appreciate.

Lotus flowers for love

Philip and Cat with Lotus Flowers
Oil on Canvas
50 x 75 cm

Lotus flowers symbolise many things, among them beauty, purity, clarity of heart and mind and, in relationships, love.

I was intending to place this couple on a big lotus flower, but that would have been out of character and a bit twee, so I placed them among lotus flowers instead.

I saw this display of lotus flowers in the wonderful Aboretum Ellerhoop-Thiensen, in Schleswig Holstein north of Hamburg several years ago. The lotus flowers were out when I visited and were a site to see. It is a wonderful place to visit, most definitely worth a detour.

[Arboretum address: Förderkreis Arboretum Baumpark Ellerhoop-Thiensen e.V.Thiensen 4, 25373 Ellerhoop]

Biennale at Cockatoo Island

Passenger ship dwarfs ferry on Sydney harbour

On Easter Sunday the weather was perfect and I was at Circular Quay wharf before most of Sydney had woken up.

It is a short ride from there to  Cockatoo Island, formerly a convict prison, then a shipyard, and now hosting part of the Sydney Biennale artworks.

Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour

The island might look small on the map, but it is bigger than it appears with huge ship yard  buildings which provide perfect settings for large installation works. There are also various houses up the hill, formerly mess halls and staff quarters, with spaces for smaller works. It is quite a walk between the various buildings, up and down steep steps. Fortunately the coffee shops were open by the time I needed them,

Wicked, 2013  by Christine Streuli

The works I liked most were by European artists.

Christine Streuli had taken over the mess hall and as I wandered past her work, Wicked 2013 looking at the tattoo/graffiti inspired works that were partly painted on canvas and partly on the wall I started to wonder where her work began and ended.

Canvas and wall

Still life on the window panes, partly on canvas

Graffiti/tattoo 

Streuli is inspired by so many art forms, from 17th Century still life to wallpaper. I admired the faded pictures on the window panes and wondered how she had stuck them on so seamlessly.
I looked closely at the peeling paint on the lower wall, mindful not to touch anything, obeying the 'do not touch the artwork' notice in the middle of the room. I really could not tell where the art work began, so I asked the attendant seated by the door.

"Oh" she said, "I don't usually tell people when they walk in, but the whole thing is the art work. Have a look behind the wall - she has mirrored it exactly."

Streuli had had a false wall built into the room a meter from the original and the images on the wall reproduced those on the actual walls behind them, with the addition of the various art images.

It was very clever and made me smile.

The other work I thought outstanding was an installation in one of the giant shipyard buildings. It was called The Village, by Danish artists Randi and Katrina (Randi Joergenson and Katrina Malinovsky).

The Village

The Village is a series of quaint buildings, each one rather anthropomorphic. I paint portraits so I very often see faces where there are none, but these houses were definitely people-like, with two eyes, a nose and a mouth.

House with a face

The houses looked so cute and so welcoming but all the doors were fake, even that into the church. There as no access into this charming world.  As the program notes say, 'This is particularly and unfortunately apt as we witness the perilous situation of those who seek asylum.'

Under the harbour bridge

At noon when the ferries were packed with visitors I was ready to leave. We motored along under the  bridge and around the corner to see the opera house glinting in the sunlight. 

Sydney Opera House from the Ferry

Waiting for the Ferry to Cockatoo Island

Sydney is a city of immigrants, many of them former asylum seekers, and when I saw the long lines of people waiting to board the ferry to Cockatoo Island, I thought 'Well, they will understand The Village, even if our Immigration Minister would prefer they didn't'.

Fabulous Four

Salut Salon

This is a MUST WATCH!

Salut Salon, a quartet from Hamburg give a memorable performance of Vivaldi's Summer. 

They call it Four in Competition.

F

Beethoven Muppet style

Bust of Ludwig van Beethoven by Hagen

Time for a little light relief. ...

A muppet plays Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 8 in C Minor, op. 13,  "Pathétique".

Appreciating each moment

View from Point Clare

I joined my local art group for a paint-out today but it had been so long since I had used my portable painting kit it was lacking essentials, like a water holder, borrowed for other projects. But I had a picnic cup with me and there was plenty of water in the inlet we were painting.

This is Point Clare on Brisbane Waters. As the tide receded, mangroves roots poked out of the mud and little flying insects joined the painters.

The foreshore is popular with walkers and today they included a long lost work colleague who told me he is undergoing chemotherapy. I was left looking out over the view and thinking how short our time is, each moment to be appreciated.

Toi toi at the seaside in Waikanae, NZ

The previous sheet on my watercolour block had been painted last January in Waikanae, New Zealand. It is a view over toi toi plants in a garden overlooking the sea shore, painted from the top floor of a friend's house. The weather had been so inclement, with such strong winds that it had been almost impossible to paint outside.

Not that you would know from the painting.

Stasi Australia

Anyone who lived through the Stasi era in Germany would be getting goose bumps right now in Australia.  Newspapers today are reporting that the rules are being changed to encourage public servants to dob in mates who they think might be criticising Abbot Government on social media, even if it is in a personal sphere or anonymous. But isn't it a public servant's job to critique proposed policy and point out flaws before they are made law? These new rules would have the effect of making that impossible. (There are interesting comments after the article.)

.

(Courier Mail, page 20) Tweet:Welcome to East Germany!
#auspol pic.twitter.com/n8bL3i7ECW
— Anna (@AB_Nanna) April 5, 2014)

So we can be bigots, but not criticise the government. Right.  I wonder when we will be required to get a haircut like that of our dear leader?

Coal mines, police and twitter

This art/music blog seems to have been captured by politics, but how can I resist when politics here has become high art (or high farce)? This week NSW Police are claiming intimidation by Twitter!

In Australia coal mining companies are using the tactics that oil companies have used for years in Africa. You can always find a corrupt politician to bribe and here in NSW they come from both sides of politics. Farmers are being left with no one left to defend their interests, so they are starting to take direct action themselves.

Whitehaven Coal, already involved in a high profile political corruption investigation, is forging ahead with their disputed Mauls Creek mine regardless of hundreds of submissions against this mine (I read that there were 300 submissions and only one wanted the mine to proceed).

Protesters in NSW were inspired to action this week by the most recent IPCC climate change report and decided to have a picnic in the forest where the disputed Whitehaven Maul's Creek mine site is to be built. They were on their way when they were stopped by a police car blockade. (When did police start becoming the private army for coal mining companies?)

Police were photographed by activist journalist Margo Kingston blockading the road and she posted her photos on twitter. The next day NSW police claimed intimidation by twitter!

Later in the day eighty two protesters were arrested for trespass including Bill Ryan, 92 year old veteran of the kokoda trail. He said he was proud to be there among the cream of Australian society. 

Here is a video made by the farmer organising actions against mining in the Leard State Forest in northern NSW.


And below is a video featuring Bill Ryan.

Sirs and Dames not legal?

Quentin Bryce in the SMH

Oh dear, perhaps conferring Imperial Honours on the outgoing and incoming Governor Generals in Australia was not legal?

The picture the Sydney Morning Herald used to illustrate this breaking news shows a laughing outgoing Governor General Quentin Bryce, which says it all really. There was talk that Prime Minister Abbott had shafted the popular and charming Bryce by nominating her as Dame (an honour she could not refuse without getting into a dog fight with Abbott)  because her son-in-law is current leader of the opposition and she herself is a republican. She accepted the honour but said she wouldn't use it. Now we find it may not be hers to use!


In the meantime, here is a little video that shows Australia's reaction to the Sirs and Dames issue.

Parliamentary giggles

Bronwyn Bishop (is not amused)

The Australian Parliament dissolved into giggles last week when Australian parliamentary opposition members found they couldn't control their mirth about the 'Dames and Sirs' issue.

They were ejected from Parliament for laughing by the frowningly stern speaker Bronwyn Bishop (who is a member of the ruling Liberal party).


Not everywhere do politicians find laughter so objectionable. This video from the Swiss Parliament is delightful, even if you don't understand German.

In fact the politician in the pinstriped suit, Hans-Rudolf Merz, is talking about meat products. He found some of the bureaucratic language amusing and obviously his Parliamentary colleagues did too!

Coffee and fragile glass barrels

La Renaissance courtyard

The French Cafe Patisserie La Renaissance has good coffee, French pastries and a charming back courtyard. It is also near the Museum of Contemporary Art which I visited on Friday to see the Sydney Biennale.  I had an hour to kill before the 10am opening time and I spent the time at La Renaissance, drinking coffee in their wet and  almost deserted courtyard. It was meditative and peaceful.

Ten Liquid Incidents, by Roni Horn

The item which stood out for me in the part of the Sydney Biennale housed at the MCA was Ten Liquid Incidents, by Roni Horn.

They were glass barrels that looked for all the world like glass tubs full of water but are solid glass and very fragile. Much as is our life on this planet right now.

Dames and Sirs in Australia

Living in Australia is becoming more and more surreal. One day the Attorney General says he is changing the racial vilification laws because it is okay to be a bigot in Australia and the next day Prime Minister Tony Abbott tells us he is bringing back Imperial Honours.

There's nothing like a Dame

I wonder if Abbott expected the mirth that has engulfed the twitter-sphere? He is being ridiculed as too clever by half. Some are saying our outgoing Governor General (was she too popular?) was made a Dame to put her in a bind because she came out as a republican and her son-in-law is Leader of the Opposition.

Current Government policy does all seem to be based on  pay back.  The racial vilification laws were changed because of the Andrew Bolt saga :

"Andrew Bolt was found to have committed an offence under section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. ...  Bolt had not breached the Act because he had written critically about the question of racial identification. He had breached the Act because his articles were filled with “errors of fact, distortions of the truth and inflammatory and provocative language”. (From The Monthly)

Now the interweb is alight with suggestions of who might be a dame or a sir and many have already preempted the honours list and added the title to their twitter-verse names.

The in-laws

The In-laws

The in-laws were going to be in the family portrait, but they didn't fit on the gap left on the sofa so I made a small painting just of them. I used acrylics on a very smooth canvas billed as 'good for any water based medium'. It was a hard taskmaster, slurping up the colour as soon as it was applied and drying before there was a chance to make any changes. Not unlike watercolour really.

So there they sit, these visitors to the antipodes, just about to go for their afternoon walk.

Artists and politics

The conversation about artists and politics has been re-ignited by the boycott of Sydney Art Biennale by artists who felt compromised by the contract that sponsor Transfield Holdings holds providing detention center facilities in Papua New Guinea's Manus Island (where asylum seekers are sent, then held with no hope of having their asylum claims heard) and by subsequent comments by Australian Government politicians and others who seem to want artists to be seen and not heard.

Politicians discussing global warming. Sculpture by Isaac Cordal.

But politics is life and art is about life so it is no wonder that art and politics are intertwined. Isaac Cordal comments on life/politics in a thoughtful manner. The photo shows a clever sculpture by Isaac Cordal exhibited in Berlin.  Waiting for climate change is another of his works, shown in Nantes last year.

(More comment about Transfield.)

The Sydney Biennale is now open and I think it is a 'must visit' year.

'Not now, not ever': the choral music version

Now there is a choral version of former Prime Minister Gillard's famous misogyny speech. Gotta love it!

Julia Gillard

Nod to Velázquez

Antipodean family portrait

Constructed paintings take time and make you appreciate the talent of the masters. I have been working on this family portrait for some time, adding figures and changing them, starting in acrylic, finishing in oils. Now I think it is finished.

The Spanish baroque painter Diego Velázquez painted a lot of portraits but also had a talent for such constructed  paintings. My portrait is a nod to his painting Las Meninas ((below) which is a complicated work and a favorite of art scholars.  Somehow Las Meninas (The Maids) sticks in your memory once you have seen it. I had not consciously carried it with me, but when I thought of painting a family portrait, Las Meninas immediately came to mind. 

So this is my Australian 21st century version, with elements of the 1950s and bright antipodean light.

Las Meninas has had whole books written on it through history and still today there is a running commentary, like this interesting piece in the Guardian newspaper. Just look at the size of the canvas that the artist is working on. It is about the size of Las Meninas which is 3 x 2.6 meters.

La Meninas by Diego Valázquez

 Other painters have also been fascinated by this Valázquez painting.

Pablo Picasso made a series of 58 paintings analysing Las Meninas which he donated to the museum in Barcelona.  Below is one of his versions, painted in 1957.

Las Meninas by Pablo Picasso

Stephanie McCallum talks Gavrylyuk

The piano virtuoso Alexander Gavrylyuk gave a concert in Sydney last Saturday as part of the Sydney Symphony piano series which is held in Sydney's Angel Place, a hall with much better acoustics than the Sydney Opera House concert hall (which is why I bought a subscription to this series).

Stephanie McCallum talks music

The pre-concert talk was given by pianist Stephanie McCallum. It was such a pleasure to hear the thoughts of a pianist on the program we were about to hear. Some of the excerpts she played were her own recording.

Alexander Gavrylyuk earned wild applause for his virtuosic performance, perhaps partly because we understood better what we were listening too?

Answering life's questions

ALL. Try we life-long, we can never
Straighten out life's tangled skein,
Why should we, in vain endeavour,
Guess and guess and guess again?

LUIZ. Life's a pudding full of plums,

DUCH. Care's a canker that benumbs.

ALL. Life's a pudding full of plums,
Care's a canker that benumbs.
Wherefore waste our elocution
On impossible solution?
Life's a pleasant institution,
Let us take it as it comes!

From The Gondoliers.  
(Written on Facebook in response to a 'friend's request for answers.)  

Let us take it as it comes.

Singing softly

Singing loudly all the time is neither good for your voice, nor for the listener. So says vocal critic Fred Plotkin in his article The pleasures of Soft Singing.

If you need an example of finely modulated singing, listen to Jonas Kaufmann's  'La fleur que tu m'avais jetée' from the opera Carmen.