The paradox of nature and modernity down under

Last Friday I went to the Hiede Museum of Modern Art for my Art History class, "Australia: Environment and Visual Culture" to look at Sidney Nolan's collection. (I must say it is quite a trek from St. Kilda by Public Transport, but a trek well worth it). Sidney's paintings reinvented the Australian landscape; he searched for a modern language that could express the ambiguity of the Australian landscape. Up until Sidney Nolan in the 1940's, classical Hiedelberg landscapes painters borrowed art language from the European and Claudian vision of the landscape as the "picturesque." In fact, Hiedelberg artists perception of the landscape was influenced by "anti-industrial sentiments of the industralised" world. Sidney, however, was one of the first artists to realize and visualize how the colonization of Australia would not leave the landscape untouched by industralisation. Sidney's work critiques the idea of dealing with intersection of urban experience (expansion of telecommunication line and railways) and country life. Ian Burn wrote, "The landscapes continue to convey the country as an ideal and as productive, but the image is now integrated into modern urban experience." In the painting below, called Railway Guard 1943 by Sidney Nolan, symbols of transport intersect with the railway guard's head. The spatial ambiguity and mixture of flat and modelled forms create a tension in the painting- a visual paradox.

With all of this in mind, the Heide's green pastures adjacent to the Museum ), there lived two cows that belonged to Mr and Mrs Reed who were famous art collectors and founders of the Heide. As a remembrance of the Reed's beloved cows, artists have installed metal statues of cows on the green grass. I enjoyed taking pictures (see below) of the cows because I could see the telegraph lines that intersected with them. It is powerful when forms art, technology, and nature collide. It is as each of these forms merge with one another and speak to each other. This intersection also reminds me of Nolan's paintings and the way in which he internalizes the process of understanding the landscape through objective realism.

It seems that no matter where I go in Australia there is a tension between the old and the new. In the city, there are old victorian buildings next to contemporary buildings. In Tasmania, the vegetation of Mt. Wellington is embedded with telecommunication facilities. It was Sidney's art that made this paradox evident to me, a paradox that it is crucial to Australia's national Identity. Ian Burn wrote, "We are still learning to with the landscape of this country (Australia). That remains the cultural paradox, even at the end of the twentieth century" (85).

stop 17 down under

On my way to the city from Campus on the 86 tram, stop 17 in between Johnston st and gertrude st. at 174 Smith street is Collingwood's old Post telegraph and office building that has been converted into a a modern apartment. I noticed the building while I was Half-spacing out on my tram ride to the city and I got really excited and took some pictures of it! It was built in 1892 and designed by John H. Marsden. The building holds many Victorian style architecture features such as a mansareque tower and arches. It is advertised on the web for leasing as a "modern twist on an old classic."

mapping within the taz landscape down under

Sometimes when you hike, especially on a difficult hike such as Mt. Wellington, the focus tends to be on the ground rather than the surrounding areas. In most cases, the ground gets quite boring and tiring to look at- but on this hike the rocky terrain kept me busy. The shape of the rocks constantly changed, as well as the angle and incline- it was exhausting. Luckily, on this hike I was able to capture an "Australian Map" embedded in the ground on the terrain. The foot stone has the shape of the mainland Australia as well as a tiny rock at the south east side resembling Tasmania separated by the Bass Strait- a self-reflexive mapping of the Oz ground.

Mt. Wellington's communication down under

On the Mt. Wellington hike in Tasmania last Monday, there were beautiful landscape sites- the infinite rocky terrains, the clusters of gum trees, the ghostly fog and mist, and the blue distant sea. Due to the fog it was hard to transverse the landscape, but when it cleared it made the landscape look twice as beautiful and desirable. It was interesting being in a landscape that I recently just studied in my Australian Environment and Visual culture class. I saw the landscape through early Australian painters such as Glover and McLean. I thought the artists exaggerated the "wavyiness" of the gum trees, but it turns out that they truly have amazing curvature.

Despite my lack of sleep from having to wake up at 3:30 in the morning to catch a flight to Hobart that morning, the "hide and seek" game the foggy landscape was playing with me made me want to further explore. Along the way up I noticed several manholes with a "T" for telecom, as well as many water pipes. It occurred to me, that although Mt. Wellington is one of Hobart's greatest natural landmarks it is also a landmark embedded with cables and satellites that provide the infrastructure for Hobart's telecommunications.

At the top of our hike, the fog was so thick it was hard to see anything at the top of the mountain. Several of us joked that we were just hiking in circles following the same hiking markers- lost in a sea of fog. Relieved with the sight of a fellow hiker, we were told that about 10 minutes away there would be a tower. When we reached the top we saw a translucent shadow of a phallic tower- we had no idea what it was. However when the fog cleared it turned out that this eerie shadow was actually the Mount Wellington Broadcasting facility. Surrounding the tower are several satellites, each with an orange lightening bolt in the center. Lots of people have commented on how the tower is "imposing" upon the beautiful landscape. However, I think the tower comments on how contemporary Tasmania is trying to "boost" their telecommunication facility to keep up to par with the Mainland's robust tele-network.