VISITING THE ART GALLERIES.....AND THE STATE LIBRARY

I love to take Willow into the GOMA when I am in town.....
They always have amazing things for the children to do especially at Christmas time...
This year was no exception....

My friend Kathy and I usually have a day when we take our grandchildren off on an adventure so we had organised to spend the day together with our little cherubs and spend the day in at the Library and Art Galleries....
We had been looking forward to it all week....
Willow was particularly excited to be spending the day with OUR friend Kathy and Mahalia or Ruby....

It was a sad morning on Thursday morning...
Our little cherub had been particularly disagreeable over the previous couple of days...
Not listening at all, always wanting to do her own thing....
In the end, her Mummy told her if she would not do as she was told, she would miss out on her special day with her Moppy...
She chose not to listen and get ready when she was asked, so she missed out....
She had to stay at home...
It was a very sad little girl, and an even sadder Moppy....
Still sometimes we have to learn things the hard way to make us better people down the track and this was a hard lesson for my precious little one....

This Moppy had to go alone with Ian and Kathy and two of their grandchildren....
At first I wasn't going to go, but Sarah thought it would be good to go as then Willow would see that she really was missing out on something special.....

We had a great day, and I know my little cherub would have loved it....
Hopefully we will get to go all together before I go home but it just won't be that special day with grandma's and their grand daughters.....

We drove in to the city and parked in there...
Ian let us off pretty much outside of the GOMA whilst he went to find a car park....
We thought we would visit the State Library first....
Great choice as they had a heap of puppet making going on and Mahalia was keen to have a go at making some puppets....
I took Ezekiel into the main part of the library and we did a little bit of research on the computers....
He was interested in finding out about the deadliest animals in Australia...
I did a little holiday research...

After Mahalia finished making her puppets, we went into the story telling time and singing time in the children's area in the Library.  I knew that Willow would have loved this...

Singing time in the Library

The whole theme of the children's section in there this time was to do with houses and construction.....

I just love the way they do it all up and make it so inviting for the children...
Wish I had the time and resources to do some fun things like this in our library back home too....
We waited for Ian to rejoin us from parking the car and then we headed over to the GOMA..

There was so much on offer for the children this year....
We spent most of the morning there and did not manage to do it all....
We literally spent most of our time on one floor....
We didn't even manage to get around and see a lot of the things that would interest us...
Still it was our day to do things with the grandchildren and we certainly enjoyed the interaction we had with them whilst they completed some of the activities that were around....

The first thing the kids wanted to do was have a go using the joy sticks to draw on the big interaction board....
It was UuDam Tran Nguyen's exhibit entitled "Draw 2 Connect with Licence 2 Draw"
UuDam Tran Nguyen combines art and technology to explore contemporary city life and the way in which people can connect across vast distances.  UuDam's multimedia interactive for APT 8 Kids is an extension of his artwork License 2 Draw, which is an app that allows users to log-in remotely from anywhere in the world to drive a remote controlled car to create a drawing...

This was very popular and had children lining up to have a go.....
They really did come up with some very different images...

 Using a joy stick, you control the little crayon vehicle and you can take it anywhere across the canvas and leave your mark....

From here we visited the YELENA VOROBYEVA AND VIKTOR VOROBYEV - I PREFER 2015
For APT8 Kids, the artists present their work I Prefer Watermelons 2002, which depicts them transforming green tomatoes into watermelons by painting them with black stripes.

Transforming green tomatoes into watermelons...

 In an accompanying activity, children could select a fruit or vegetable template and use their imagination to transform it into something different using coloured pens.

The children was so involved in this, all creating wonderful works of art....  it was great to see the many different ideas they came up with

A very popular activity

Some of the amazing works of art done by children using the fruit and vegetable templates.....

Next we ventured into the JUSTIN SHOULDER AND BHENJI RA CLUB ANAK (CLUB CHILD) 2015

Justin Shoulder and Bhenji Ra invite children to create their own mythical character by combining different physical attributes using specially designed templates. After completing their character, children can enter an immersive black-lit space and add their creation to a sculptural landscape or take them with them.....

Lots of different templates to make mythical creatures...

 Even I had a go at making a couple of mythical character and ended up taking mine home to Willow.....

a couple of my creations...

 They liked pretty impressive all hung up under the violet light....
Ezekiel was interested in checking out  ANGELA TIATIA  - LOOKING BACK 2015

Here New Zealand artist Angela Tiatia invites children to explore ideas of representation and perception in this large-scale installation. Young visitors can enter a series of spaces where they will encounter a number of unexpected views of themselves.
There were lots of different cameras placed at different heights and angles and it was very interesting to watch the children as they crawled underneath walls to see the changes to them selves and moved in and around the cameras to check out all the changes....
Even us adults got a little involved in this one, although I have to say I couldn't be bothered getting down onto the ground.... Boy the boys did though.... 

 By the time we had done these activities, the children were getting hungry....
We left this section of the GOMA and did wander around and look at a few of the adult exhibitions..
A couple of them were quite entertaining....
It was great to see the children picking up head sets and listening to the different stories....

Viewing  and listening to one of the displays...

 The massive construction of recycled timber display was also interesting and they had lots of sound effects of creaking wood,  etc.  It was a massive display....and very interesting.

I was particularly fascinated by this lighting display, and the many different coloured pieces of glass...

Pretty spectacular lighting display...

Mahalia was particularly hungry by now so we ventured outside and over towards one of the concert venues, where Ian and Kathy had bought a picnic lunch and I ordered a hamburger which was massive but very enjoyable....

 I love this precinct on the Brisbane River.  Brisbane has done this well...  It is a beautiful space with many  spectacular views of the city....
Beautifully manicured lawns.....
Lovely sculptures around everywhere....
Lots of lovely eating spaces....
Great views....

Some of the many sculptures around the precinct

One of the many impressive highrises in the City

The Goodwill Bridge

William Jolly Bridge across the Brisbane River....

Watching the City Cats cruise by...

Beautiful parklands....

More magnificent sculptures around the precinct....

After lunch,  we parted ways....
Ian and Ezekiel went off to the Museum to visit the Medieval Display....
Mahalia wanted to go back to the Library and Art Gallery, so Kathy and I took her.....
The Art Gallery was fantasic...
I particularly enjoyed seeing some of their many contemporary displays this year...
I particularly enjoyed this one by  Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh and Hesam Rahmanian.
Brothers Ramin and Rikni Haerizadeh collaborate with Hesam Rahmanian to construct provocative installations that challenge conventional modes of display and standards of value... The theatrical tradition of Tozyel, a type of passion play is a particularly important influence on their practice with it's use of props, theatricality cross-dressing and irony.  Sets and costumes are comprised of everyday and personal items, with audiences drawn into moments within the play...

The following are some of their works of art....

 I could quite easily have wandered around her on my own all afternoon....
They really did have some amazing displays in the Art Gallery at the moment....

Mahalia was keen though to go and see the CHOI JEONG HWA - THE MANDALA OF FLOWERS 2015
Korean artist Choi Jeong-Hwa encourages young visitors to activate a large-scale installation where they can explore the beauty of everyday objects by creating mandala-like shapes using a colourful array of plastic bottle caps and lids.
It was amazing to watch the different children creatively produce some wonderful works of art just using these colourful bottle caps and lids....

Children working under a canopy of colourful balls, beads, streamers etc...

Watching children stack and sort and arrange their different bottle caps

A work of art in progress....

A view of creators at work...

working as a team

Hello Kathy.... what are you making....

Helping Mahalia sort her bottle caps....

Amazing roof decorations... very fitting for this activity...

Some of their works of arts...

Mahalia building with her lids...

a great activity...

It was a pretty popular activity....

 We spent quite a bit of time here, as Mahalia was really interested in building with her lids..
From here we moved onto the ENKAT RAMAN SINGH SHYAM - THE WOMAN AND THE PARROT 

Indian artist Venkat Raman Singh Shyam presents a drawing activity for children based on the distinctive patterns used in Gond art and a story entitled The Woman and the Parrot. Young visitors are encouraged to learn about the meaning and significance of the different patterns included in the activity.
This was a little difficult for the young children as their paper would often move,  but Mahalia sat here for quite some time trying to do her drawing....
She did really well...
Kathy and I both got sucked in and ended up sitting and doing a pattern also...

The Woman and the Parrot....

The story of the Woman and the Parrot

Mahalia working on her masterpiece...

The patterned table we worked from...

Kathy at work....

At work myself...

Concentration is high...

We had a quick wander around this level of the Art Gallery after finishing our work....
There was so much to see...
These couple of things caught my eye...

 Really loved this larger than life Elephant ...

Mr. Elephant...

Very impressive...

Aboriginal Art...

These panels all told a story....

 The Art Gallery is a real credit to Brisbane with lovely water areas within the library and fountains.  so soothing and relaxing to be around...

 Such a great day...
So disappointed that Willow wasn't here to enjoy it with me....
By now it was after three o'clock, so we decided to head for home...
If we left it much later traffic would become a real hassle...
As it was we had a pretty slow trip home with a couple of bottlenecks in the traffic that held us up for a while...
Mahalia sure enjoyed her day.....
We totally wore her out....
She fell asleep in the car heading home...
Great day and I really do hope that I can find the time to take Willow before I go home...