I love Sydney. This is my home and there is always so much to see, taste and do. I had a thoroughly enjoyable day yesterday from singing Happy Birthday with our Prime Minister to meeting a gorgeous Mexican perfume and scent maker, Carlos Huber who is here in Sydney launching his new fragrance range. It was one of those days where, although you know where you need or want to be, there was an element of spontaneity and surprise that makes the day memorable and usually it’s the people you meet and come across.
Art comes in many forms. It’s not just painting on the walls. Artists create things that stimulate your senses, whether it be sight, sound, taste, smell or touch and I had the pleasure of exploring and meeting a number of talented artists yesterday. Some homegrown in Sydney and others visitors from the other side of the world. This is what I love about Sydney. It is a magnet for attracting talent and creativity, the city’s laidback atmosphere and appreciation of all things lifestyle is conducive to allowing people to show case their work, flourish and making them easily accessible to the Sydney community, both residents and visitors. You only have to make the time to appreciate their work.
I had the pleasure of sharing this weekend with my good friend and fellow fashion and lifestyle blogger, Scarlett of Trends VIP and we started off the day with a bang! This weekend the Museum of Contemporary Australia (MCA) celebrates a milestone, 25 years in public life. The MCA put on a 3 day extravaganza including new interactive and performative artworks. The celebrations included the cutting of a 5 tier cake created by the talented baker and creator, Cakes By Cliff, an office worker by day, baker by night who only started a baking a year and a half ago and now is jetsetting around the world running cake workshops and baking cakes. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was given the honours to cut the cake for the celebrations, and our PM was also joined by Mrs Turnbull, an avid philanthropist and supporter of the arts.
Before continuing our journey to see the new exhibition at the MCA called Tatsuo Miyajima: Connect With Everything, I thought to mention there is an awesome restaurant next door to the MCA called Graze MCA that has also opened up a little Cherry Blossom garden too where you can hang out for a drink or if you are feeling like a proper lunch, there are excellent shared plates. They have recently launched their new menu and I tried one of their poultry dishes this time. I’m so pleased to see the Seafood Bouillabaisse is still on the menu. I highly recommend trying this dish if there are 2 or 3 of you dining. The Za’Atar Crusted & Persian Marinated Grilled Spatchcock Almond tarator with seared spiced roasted cauliflower & brussels sprouts, crimson raisins, mint, coriander, toasted hazelnuts & citrus labne with chips was an deliciously tender dish to share too, whilst you laze about observing the beautiful view of Sydney Harbour. Many thanks Scarlett for the lunch shout.
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| My portrait of Scarlett of Trends VIP blog |
Bellies full, we headed off to the Tatsuo Miyajima: Connect With Everything exhibition. As we walked in, the galley was dark, dotted with arrays of LED lights in saturated fields of colours of red, blue, orange and turquoise, making you think you have walked into some giant screensaver. On a closer look at the works, some of the lights are blinking lights of numbers and soon you will notice numbers are the artist’s main theme. What does it all mean? Without giving too much away as this is a total immersion experience and I want you to discover it yourself the way I did, there is an element of life and time in his work in the message Miyajima gets across. It took me awhile but I got his concept in the end. See if you can figure it out. This exhibition is an interesting experience and just another one of the excellent works showing at the Museum of Contemporary Art.
We headed to Becker Minty in Darlinghurst after the exhibition to meet up with Mexican perfume creator and designer, Carlos Huber of the Arquiste brand. With a background in architecture , Carlos Huber studied fragrance development and collaborated with internationally recognised noses in order to recapture the olfactive notes of historical moments. His beautiful and complex creations honour history and embrace modernity. I first met Carlos last year in Sydney when he launched his beautiful fragrance L-Etrog Acqua the memory of Early Morning, October 1175, Calabria, Italy. This time he has transport us to another place in time with his new fragrance El and Ella which having done basic Spanish before my travels to Spain, I know now this means He and She with Ella pronounced ‘Eya’ in Spanish. There is always a story and romanticism that is linked with Carlos’ fragrances evoking your imagination and translating a time of history to the present, being realised through a scent. This time El and Ella transports you to December 1978, Armando’s Le Club, Acapulco, Mexico. Boy meets girl in Acapulco, Mexico, “a bit of his scent is on her and her scent on him”, Carlos told me yesterday.
Ella is described as:
It’s a sultry night of disco, plunging necklines and champagne-soaked skin. Lights flash and strangers kiss, but it’s her, dancing, that commands the attention. She moves, panther-like, her honeyed skin creating an addictive sweetness and magnetism that only a deep chypre fragrance can deliver. She’s met her match on the dance floor, and it’s her animalic instinct that follows him outside, onto the golden beach, under a silvery moon.
Notes include: Cannon ball tree flower (curupita), Angelica root, Carrot seed enriched essence, Turkish rose, Jasmin absolute “vintage crop”, Cardamom absolute, Black buckwheat honey, Ambergris, Patchouli, Civet, Vetiver, Cigarette smoke accord, Chypre accord.
El is described as:
Notes include: Clary sage enriched, Moroccan rosemary, Egyptian geranium, cinnamon leaves, orange flower water, oakmoss, vetiver, castoreum and fougére accord.
These would make excellent Christmas presents are available from Becker Minty in Darlinghurst.
And to wind down after a long day we had coffee and desserts in the afternoon at The Apollo, a modern Greek restaurant in an industrial chic space with a marble bar at the DeVere Hotel, 44 MacLeay St, Potts Point. You have to try the Greek honey donuts loukoumades! It’s not as heavy as it looks as its just like a donut with honey drizzled over the top.
Phew! What an awesome Sydney weekend!