In the city...

 We have headed south for a few weeks - house and cat-sitting for family as they celebrate a major birthday milestone with penguins in Patagonia.

We find ourselves in Sydney, in summer, and with the weather being kind.  Last summer they had mountains of rain; so far we have had sunny days for which we are grateful.

One of the joys of the city is the access to marvellous art, and we have been filling ourselves up.

We caught the new light rail into Circular Quay and went to the Museum of Contemporary Art to see the exhibition by Do Ho Suh. My goodness, what a wonderful show it is. Not that you can tell much about the show from this blog post because I became besotted with the detail of the door handles in one of the installations - Hub Series 2015-2018.

The Hub series are interconnected structures, crafted with exquisite detail in brightly coloured fabric. You walk through them, two people in a 'room' at a time and you transition and move through space whilst memories and recollections flood through you. It was an extraordinary experience.

Me striding out in the last two of the spaces, courtesy of Barry.

Suh's work centres around concepts of home and identity. This piece Staircase - III is based on the staircase that led between his apartment and the landlord's apartment above him in New York. He speaks about how staircases both connect and separate; how they transition from public to private spaces. I loved thinking about those places of transition that can both include and exclude.

And then the minute detail of every doorway in Hub

Barry and I talked about how the transparent nature of the material spoke of memory in a ghostly manner. It was so finely detailed, yet not solid. 

And always this seeking out of understanding, of attempting to come to grips with such an ephemeral notion - home.

I am so so pleased to have been able to observe, and participate, in these works. It seems to me a highly sophisticated reckoning and expression. 

There were many brilliant, evocative, delightful, thought-provoking, credulity-stretching, aching pieces in this show. 

"Home is what we carry with us" 

- Do Ho Such