Art trek

Jeffrey and I embarked on a trip to Waterloo yesterday. It’s only a few kilometres south of where we live but is a bitch to get to by public transport so, armed with print-outs of connecting bus routes and a sense of adventure, we hopped on the 311 from Kings Cross, more than happy to be leaving the streetside ‘ya fahkin cahnt!’ drama behind us.

The reason for the jaunt was an exhibition by Ricky Swallow, an amazing sculptor who represented Australia in the Venice Biennale a few years ago. He creates incredibly detailed still lifes, or carves skulls wearing Adidas hoodies, out of wood – everything he does is beautiful and mind-boggingly work-intensive:


Disappointingly, there were only a few pieces on show among some watercolours, so we headed for Danks Street, which has become the focus of the much-vaunted gentrification of the suburb, still semi-industrial and pretty grim in parts.

Unfortunately, between my lack of knowledge of the area and the fact that Jeffrey has absolutely no sense of direction whatsoever, we walked and walked and walked… At one point we found ourselves in Zetland, surrounded by shiny new apartment developments and manicured parks. It’s still in its infancy as a residential neighbourhood and the streets were eerily devoid of people. It’s not unattractive but frankly kinda creepy. A little Truman Show for my liking.

Aware that we should have taken a left somewhere, we headed what we were pretty sure was north and ended up in the middle of a gigantic industrial loading bay, which was like being in a particularly desolate Jeffrey Smart painting:


Eventually, after trudging along what I would later discover was one big circle, we found Danks Street. It’s really just one small block with some cafes, fancy food outlets and homeware emporia, plus a group of art galleries in an old warehouse (not to mention more hand-holding gay couples than I've seen in quite some time).
It’s the perfect place to find, oh, say, a five-foot-tall bronze chimpanzee finger for your courtyard:


The artist is Lisa Roet. She specialises in chimps, apes and orangutans and these body-part bronzes are monumental.
Quite the conversation pieces.

The only other artist that really caught my eye was Will Coles, who has created, among other works, a larger-than-life green toy ANZAC soldier – wearing a tutu.
I took a photo, whereupon an immaculately groomed woman glided up to me and said, in that blood-chilling combination of perfect manners and headmistress authority, “You will delete that as soon as you leave, won’t you.”

She gave me the willies so you’ll just have to imagine it.