Sydney Gettogether, 1997

I turned up early (I'm that sort of person :), and spent ten minutes sitting reading on the very comfortable seat provided in the Museum of Contemporary Art foyer. David and Helen Stanhope were the first to appear, and Andrew Parle soon followed. After a while it occurred to me to check the other entrance, where I found Andrew Lang, Callum and Jenny Gibson, Richard Kerr, Grant Carlson, and Philip (who is/was a lurker). Michael and Margaret Hore also turned up, but somehow managed to miss us all.

After a bit of standing around discussing where to go, the ten of us finally got under way and headed off to Rossini's for lunch. The conversation (at least at my end of the table) was mostly devoted to personal stuff and computers rather than to religion; no one came to blows over anything, anyway. After lunch Richard took some photos outside the MCA, which should appear on the Web page sometime. The cost of musuem entry was $8 and not everyone seemed that keen on the idea of the Mapplethorpe photos, so we wandered over to the Opera House instead, discovering en route that fondness for gelato afflicted atheist and Christian alike!

Since the weather was so nice, we just sat around on the Opera House steps and chatted for a while. Then we headed back around the Quay, and people started leaving to go home or to do some shopping. Four of us (myself, Andrew Parle, Grant and Richard) made it back to the Musuem. Our responses to the Mapplethorpe photos were interesting -- they seemed to follow religious lines, unlike anything else I observed. Grant and Richard seemed a bit shocked, but Andrew thought it was boring (a far worse response) and I was actually rather impressed (though the flowers, portraits, nudes and more abstract compositions were more to my taste than the S&M and penises). A Taiwanese art exhibition was on show too; it's also worth a look.

All told a very enjoyable gathering; lots of interesting and pleasant people.

Danny Yee.