A Day at National Gallery of Australia

A day at the National Gallery of Australia visited March 2019; near Parliament House, the High Court of Australia and next door to the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra Australia. Photos taken by Hai and I with my Canon D70 DSLR and Google Pixel 3 Phone

Hai and I visited the National Gallery of Australia which is located in the heart of Australia: Canberra. Lots of people think Sydney or Melbourne is the capital city but no, it's actually peaceful and sleepy Canberra. Driving there is three hours from Sydney and its long straight highways and once you reach Canberra, the roads are just wider and even quieter. 

We even followed Google Maps and you know how the roads get coloured orange when there is predicted delays due to lots of traffic? Well we got to one of those orange coloured roads and expected lots of cars but in reality it was only ONE car. The delays were minimal but because Canberra is so sleepy this must have been big news, haha.

One of the main reasons Hai and I made this trip was to visit the amazing exhibition Yayoi Kusama's The Spirits of the Pumpkins Dsecended into the Heavans which is the bright yellow installation you see in my photos. It was so unique and the artist really gets her to immerse yourself in her claustrophobic and infinite space world. It's now closed but we were happy to visit at the time especially since we were in lockdown since March 2020. 

One of my favourite things to do is to visit museums or art galleries and I've visited so many. I personally like going by myself because I enjoy the peace and quiet (but I also like the sound of echoed foot steps?) and I love to admire all the artworks and reading the artist's back stories and inspirations. I always bring my glasses because I read everything, especially in the low lighting situations that galleries seem to love so much.

And I absolutely take my time, I don't like being rushed. I walk around with my arms crossed, studying hard, and bend over backwards to try and understand a piece of art from corner to corner. And If I had more time, I usually circle a museum or art gallery twice because often I'd find I miss something the first time around. 

For this visit, I was with Hai and we walked around together. Hai was very patient with me. There was lots of areas to explore and there were spaces dedicated to eras and countries of origin. He sometimes left me alone to explore and he took some pretty photos of me when the area was quiet. He's a good husband, hehe. Afterwards I of course browsed the gift shop and picked up some books to take home, which is also one of my favourite things to do. I can spend hours in bookshops. But since I already spent many hours in this gallery, I made sure to make my book purchases quick so we could head out and grab a beer during Canberra's Happy Hour.