I’ve been going into this gallery since childhood – with varying degrees of awe, crowd-o-phobia and curiosity.
Tatzu Nishi - Kaldor Public Art Project Gallery of NSW
Today was one of those AHA ! moments.
Outside the gallery, are two monumental equestrian sculptures – Gilbert Bayes’ The Offerings of Peace and The Offerings of War. I have walked past them – up there in the gods on their massive pedestals – with but a flicker of interest year after year.
Well, today we encountered two of Tatzu Nishi’s wonderful pieces of public space art magic. The pieces are on display until the 14th of February next year.
I was going to just show you the outside and encourage you to delve – but what the heck – here is one of the interiors.
It massively outdoes the Godfather’s horse head in the bed …….
Nishi Exterior
Nishi Interior
Fabulous, eh ?
Wait till Warrigal gets his peepers on the wonderful exhibition of 18th and 19th century lithographs – also on display at the NSWG. I predict a new era in digital mischief…..
Here’s one by Jean-Jacques Grandville (not on display ay NSWG) – even before Waz gets his hands on it !
Jean-Jacques Grandville Scarab Procession
Window Dresser's Arms, Pig & Whistle 
I like the Jean-Jaque one; is that were my dungbeetles have gone…
The Nishi ones look rather messy, worse than the Pig’s Arms renovation photo.
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Do you think it significant that that bishop looking bug at the tail of the line, the one carrying the crook, has the mandibles of a dung beetle?
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Shit, eh ? Highly significant. I feel a Waz treatment of a Pell or a Jensen coming on…….
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Not without a full HazMat suit with integrated air supply you don’t!
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Blue, my second favourite colour
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“Here comes the Equestrian Statue!
Prancing up and down the square…
All the old ladies stop and say,
“Well, I declare!”
(Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band)
🙂
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Gotta respect a band that has a tuba playing the bass lines (Vivian Stanshall) and Neil Innes went on to write scores for Monty Python and Handmade Films.
“Rawlinson End” remains a very fond favourite. My father too wore bicycle clips when he mowed the lawn.
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Indeed, Mirri… and I’m a great fan of the Kranski Sisters too!
Did I tell you that once upon a time, in another lifetime, I used to play solo euphonium? Lovely instrument; not quite as deep as the tuba or Bass Eb, but with much greater potential as a solo instrument… such a beautiful tone… as its name suggests!
🙂
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It was always going to be Bass for me, BBFlat with four valves no less, ever since hearing Tubby the Tuba as a child. I remember profoundly identifying with Tubby and thinking the bullfrog must be just the wisest of creatures.
The highlight was performing the entire piece with a local scratch orchestra when I was about 15. There were four of us playing unison for the Tubby solos, and ripping some deadly harmonies with the band, sort of tuba orchestra.
My mother was a big Danny Kaye fan, which amusingly put my father’s nose out of joint. Dad and Danny shared a lot of features in common, red hair, chin, blue eyes. Haven’t thought about that in a long time.
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We could form the Pigs Arms Brass Band Auxilliary and have a cake stall out the front of the pub to raise money for uniforms.
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I would absolutely support a real gig at the pub like this. MP3 me, baby !
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I wonder if my ante-diluvian internet speed will let me attach MP3s to an email and send it…? I could send you a song or two featuring yours truly on guitar and vocals and my mate Abner on drums… I have this terrible feeling that it won’t work though. Nonetheless, if you’re up for it, I’ll give it burl…
Any other musical piglets want to do the same? We could have a ‘musical exchange’ blog!
😉
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What happened to the mp3 I sent you, Emm? I know you got it okay… are you having trouble putting it up on the PA?
🙂
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Ooooaaaaahhhhnnnnnmmmmm! The Kranski Sisters………………, hhhaaaaaaahhh…….
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Eve, Maune and Arva. I forget the name of the one who departed. Maybe it was Arva and …. whatever. Youtube, I think has some wonderful clips under the name Kransky with a “Y” . Skyhooks’ Horror Movie – one of the great saw pieces……..
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Ah… I remember that vesrion of ‘Horror Movie’ too… as you say, it is one of the great ‘saw’ pieces… a most underrated musical instrument the saw… Sounds just like a therumin only before it was invented! And saws don’t need electrickery either!
🙂
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So! You’re an exponent of the ‘Double B Monster’ (Double-bass, Bb) are you, Mirriyuula? Takes a big set of lungs to fill one of those!
My euphonium also had four valves… but the fourth one was rarely used, if ever. Indeed this valve came with a special lever meant to hold it in place as it’s purpose was solely to put it into ‘4th pitch’… whatever that was! Never used it myself…
Would love to form the Pigs Arms Brass Band Auxiliary, cake stall or not… uniforms or not… but I’m afraid I haven’t played a brass instrument since I was fifteen years old. However it does seem to me that this delightful little e-pub has more than its fair share of musos amongst its patrons… It would almost be a shame not to make use of such talent… (Hung, where are you mate? Still looking forward to that jam session!)
Not sure whether your ‘Ooooohhhing and aaaaaaahhhing over the Kranski Sisters is positive or negative… No matter I love ’em anyway! There version of Steppenwolf’s ‘Born to be Wild’ is an absolute classic! These girls are certainly rock-n-roll’s most creative and original exponents since Rolf Harris’s version of ‘Stairway to Heaven’…
😉
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Its deeply ironic that the player I inherited my instrument from was only in his sixties and died of emphysema. He smoked Erinmore Flake in rollies. Now that must have been a set of lungs!
I wasn’t a smoker then. I remember complaining about the tobacco taste and stink of the instrument to Harry Sloggett, the bandmaster; and he recommended that I fill the instrument with water and wash through some bicarb. Then flush it with something palatable and fragrant. I chose eucalyptus oil. It worked a treat.
We played at the old boys funeral. Very sad for the older bandsmen.
Now of course I smoke, am probably in the early stages of emphysema and would give anything to be able to have the air I used to have.
I also think it ironic that you become addicted to the nicotine but its the tars in the smoke that kill you, (and made that Bass stink), and yet without the tars in the smoke, and peer group pressure, most people would never take the filthy despicable addiction up.
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I did discover one of the uses of ‘4th pitch’ though… one time the brass band I was in was playing in Manchester City hall, as a guest brass band, backing up Manchester’s own band…
It was our first big gig away from home… we only knew how to play a few popular hymns; and our masterpiece, a very sweet arrangement of ‘Just As I Am”; a Savlo favorite (it was a Savlo’s Young Person’s Brass Band, you see…).
And the young Lieutenant who had taught the whole band to play from scratch was proud as punch when we played our party piece… beautifully and without a single bum note.
But when the conductor of the resident band asked if we’d like to join them in playing something together, he declined gracefully, saying, “Oh, I AM sorry! I’m sure we’d love to but we can’t because we’re in 4th pitch’
It was the first and only time I’d ever see the Lieutenant lie… though I understood immediately he was trying to decline without any loss of face due to the limitations of our repertoire…
I know how you feel about nicotine; fortunately I gave that up many years ago…
I was once told to pour a pint of milk through my euphonium to give it a nice tone… can’t say I noticed too much difference to the tone, but it tasted cheesy for months afterwards!
🙂
After we
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Just you ‘n me then MJ?
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Nope, just you, Waz. I’m not here. I think the beer’s getting warm too…..
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I love the idea but the look of that scaffolding and the safety fencing is disgraceful. I understand its about whats going on inside the box, internalising externalities, but to have the patrons walk through what is effectively a building site seems to my mind to detract from the overall experience.
Architecturally the blue box is damn near perfect. I love it against the Cumberland Sandstone of the gallery and the interior, well we all like to role play in bed. Don’t we? (?); But the supporting structure, ingress and egress, and the treatment of the area in general looks like they just didn’t care. I cannot accept that Tatzu Nishi can have wanted it this way.
Or is there something I’ve missed?
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