Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Cockatoo Island Adventure

One of my best friends turned 40 a couple of weekends ago.  It was a super celebration weekend as he and his partner rented the holiday houses on Cockatoo Island.  We had never been to Cockatoo Island.  It's in Sydney harbour at the junction of the Lane Cove and Parramatta Rivers.  I stressed about how we were going to get there with all of our luggage, but we were able to get a parking spot at the Woolwich wharf which is only one stop from Cockatoo Island.

The house is pretty special. 

federation duplex

the house

See that tree on the left.  There was a lovely table and chairs underneath it.  We sat out there a lot. 

The tennis court next to the house.

tennis court



Ed's party was on Saturday afternoon.  I didn't take very many pictures at the party which was at the Island Bar.   Here's the birthday boy at his party

the birthday boy
Happy Birthday Ed!

Here's Will partying down.

will party boy2

will party boy1
His poses made me laugh.

The same weekend was the beginning of the Outpost Project on the island, so we spent a bit of time looking at the art and doing some of the activities.

The chalk was really popular.

chalking with Mollie
We still don't know what "218?" is about.  Mollie is enigmatic at times.

Will conquers Ed.

Will conquers houseEd

Will recording his observations.

Will working

We had to correct someone's grammar.

correcting grammar

Some artsy stuff

cockatoo island buildings


skull house
This exhibit had this really dark music playing which echoed in the shed.  Mollie hated this work.  We discussed how sometimes art makes you uncomfortable.  Then we joked about how it just like where Daddy grew up.  (not really, really.  Col grew up in the western suburbs of Sydney which have a bad rep.)

There were tons of screenprinted t-shirts.  The KMFDM shirt made me giggle.

screenprinted shirts
For the record I am a Depeche Mode fan.   I bought Ed one of the specially screen printed shirts made there.


spraypainted


wallart


steve clare ed



obselescence

There was lots more stuff that I didn't photograph.  It's definitely worth a trip over there if you are interested in this type of art.  My only word of warning is that if it is a really hot day, it's going to be stinking hot on the island.  There isn't much shade outside of the buildings.   And if you want an alcoholic drink, the bar will be full of hipsters out for a drink.

Waiting for the ferry to go home.

waiting to catch the ferry home


There are some photos that I haven't blogged which are interesting views or buildings or crazy psycho seagulls.

Thanks Ed & Steve for a wonderful weekend.  It was really great to meet some more of Ed's "family".  Ed had friends fly in from the US, NZ, up from Melbourne and down from Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast.  I got to meet Ed's other woman, R, and Steve's sister.  The people made the weekend.

1 comment:

toadstooldots said...

What an awesome party. And they made extra an art event for him - great ;-)