Biennale at Cockatoo Island - pic heavy

Aha! I knew it! This post was going to take me forever to write (not really, there were >10 photos to download from my phone, and I just ceebs). It's been like what... 3 weeks? 4? since I went to Cockatoo Island for their Biennale art exhibition.

Anyway, for those who haven't heard me blabber on about it already, Biennale is basically an arts festival held at a couple of locations in Sydney.  This includes Pier 3/4, Cockatoo Island, MCA, and the Art Gallery of NSW. 

If you're thinking about going to Cockatoo Island, I'd suggest you get to Circular Quay around 10ish in the morning to avoid the massive queue for the free ferry.

Once you're on the ferry, it's smooth sailing and lovely views of the harbour (bridge!).

Half a bridge.

The CBD looks so small!

Anyway, when we got there, we walked into this massive warehouse. It looked pretty empty, but later we realised there were all these cool things hanging around... like this one sided mirror!  It was just a hanging sheet of cellophane-like material. You can see your own reflection on one side, but if you make faces at it, you'll look like a fool because people on the other side of the sheet can see right through!

merged in wobbly plastic

Outside the warehouse, there was a FOGGY scene. So awesome, but so moist.  My hair clung to my face and frizzed a bit afterwards, and my coat was a little damp after frolicking around in the fog.  It was super fun and dream-like though. I stuck my hand out infront of me and could barely trace the outline of my hand.

it was also really cold.

more fog

By the way, apologies to those who've already seen my instagram pics. Doubling up on a few of these.

Back inside the warehouse, there was a massive polystyrene chain structure.

all wrapped up!

Then we found a container!  Except there were bits that were cut out and it looked like a really pretty gate of some sort.

iPhone lagged and this woman got in my photo :(

Add caption

Didn't get a chance to take a photo of everything we saw that day. I wanted to save some battery because I was out the whole day. 10am -11pm. Craycray.

There was a cool paper sphere thing which had holes in it. When you looked through the holes, you could see layers and layers of paper.  Looked like this:

HOLEY MOLY :P

 Other pieces of art:

There are 2 tunnels on the island.  If I wrote this post on the day I went, I would have remembered the name, but I'm writing it now and can't remember a thing.  I think one was called the Dog-End tunnel. Ceebs with google. The tunnels were exhibits too!  There were glowing sticks which made sounds when you clapped.  I just thought it was kinda creepy because it echoed a bit and .. nah, I'm just a bit of a scaredy cat.

 There was a little UV room in the tunnel.  Unfortunately I didn't wear anything white, and the only thing that glowed in the room were someone else's shoelaces!

Other things:

Cords that hung from the roof like thick rain

 Went outside in the sun to catch some rays and get away from the crowds.  Cockatoo Island is actually a really beautiful place.  On some parts, it has a really rustic feel (alot of the metal bits on their structures were actually rusty) but some other bits had really serene views. It doesn't feel like you're in Sydney at all!

rocky shore where we saw some dirty dried up oyster shells

slopey rock shore line

 While we were outside "exploring" we came across things that weren't exhibits. There were HEAPS of these tents set up in rows.  At first, we thought it was part of Biennale, but we couldn't find it in our Biennale guide.  Anyway, we walked up to one and found it was locked.  Went up to another one, peered inside and found someone's bed. Turns out the staff/workers on the island sleep in tents! Kinda cool huh. 

I actually don't know if this island is still used for commercial purposes, but there were heaps of structures like this (crane-like) which were used to pull ships and stuff onshore.  This was one of those rusty things.

We saw the sandstone buildings where the convicts were imprisoned back in the day.  It was actually quite nice. Ahaha. It's located on the top part of the island and to get there, you need to go up a few flights of stairs.

scattered letters

Indoor art:

had a good giggle about this, but only realised there was a human shape on th floor when I got home

Hanging ropes

We walked around for 3+ hours in the arty sections.  While exploring, we stumbled across the residential area of the island. Wowee the houses are nice, but there weren't too many of them.  The views were pretty nice here too.

looked nice IRL.

Anyway, I highly encourage you all to hit up Cockatoo Island for a day trip to see these artworks before they get taken down.  Make sure you go on a day with good weather because you need to get around all parts of the island to see everything.  Don't get there too late in the day, there's a lot to see!

I've been meaning to go again, but I've been busy with other things on the weekends.

Might as well talk about the week that just ended. I deleted something I posted up before. It was a really bitter and impulsive post about a really frustrating person from work. After posting, I went to bed and woke up feeling uneasy.  So I deleted it.

To summarise, my week was tiring. I was at work for long periods but there was a lot of time I couldn't charge to any engagement code because there wasn't enough work to do.  And when I actually got work to do, it was at 4-5ish in the afternoon.  The only good thing that came out of this was seeing my workmates for longer and that fact that I had sushi everyday.  Seriously, I wouldn't be surprised if I hard worms (not saying I do!), I eat so much raw fish :)

On Sat, I went to my friend's birthday/housewarming. His complex had a spa, pool, sauna, tennis courts and a gym.  My supersuper good workmate handed her resignation in the past week. It was a bit of a surprise (sortofnotreally. No one really loves audit with a passion) for some, but I guess I saw it coming.  So yeah, had a good catching up... in the sauna and pretty much shrivelled up after 1.5 hours. LOL We didn't even realise it had been so long and probably wouldn't have come out if someone didn't knock on the door and tell us that cake was ready.

Anyway, it was about time that J (birthday dude) invited us over for some weekend fun. But when we got to his place, I realised it was kinda.. empty. And kinda.. not cosy. I've always thought about moving out of home, but after Saturday, I think I'll have to think about it some more. I'll probs miss MDK heaps. The screaming matches, the community tv time and dinner time.

And today, L and I hit up the Rocks for some coffee action.  Will talk about that / stick up pics another day because it's getting late and I have work tomorrow.  It's been such a good weekend, I'm a bit bummed (but excited) to go back to work tomorrow.

Hope y'all enjoyed the pics and have a nice week at uni/work!  I'm not going to uni until thursday/next week because of work.

PS. I am so glad the Olympics are back! I have missed watching all these sports on tv. Although I have to say I'm not exactly very fond of watching cycling on tv. It is very boring, and totally reminds me of tour de France. Fuaaarr, it's not like they're doing anything very exhilarating.  I thought channel 7 was bad four years ago when they broadcasted the Beijing Olympics... but maaaaaaaan, channel nine will ALWAYS be worse.  They only play the sports which Australians are good at... like swimming. Gymnastics was broadcasted this evening, but only the bits where the Australians were performing.  What about the others? I want to see the Romanians, the Chinese and the Americans!  STOP going back to CYCLING. HOMG.