Thanks to a work colleague, I was fortunate enough to preview the 20th Biennale of Sydney before it opened to the public. The Biennale is an international contemporary arts festival held in Sydney every two years. The title of this years Biennale is  “The future is already here — it’s just not evenly distributed” – and it contends with the idea that we live in both a virtual and physical space and sometimes we are caught between the two.

Constantly surrounded by our phones and other devices, we are always connected to social media and the internet 24/7 in this ongoing loop of virtual/physical.

The Biennale, which is held in many different venues around Sydney – with each venue   designated as an ’embassy’ (or theme). I have picked three of my favourite works form Art Gallery of NSW (AGNSW), Cockatoo Island and the Museum of Contemporary (MCA).

The AGNSW is the Embassy of Spirits, which looks at the space between the spiritual and the philosophical. The work that caught my eye here was Japanese artist Taro Shino, who is inspired by  ‘Karesansui’ – Japanese rock gardens and zen ideology.

This artwork was a room that had a platform in the centre – and you needed to take your shoes off to enter the space. The walls and floor where covered in a layer of clay. I went and sat on the platform, the silence and chill of the room made me feel at ease. The clay had started to dry and cracks had appeared as some clay had fallen off the wall. This idea that the artist wanted to challenge was the space between meditation and nature as an evolving entity. The clay drying and changing through the duration of the Biennale.

The next place I visited was the MCA Embassy of Translation. Danish artist Nina Beier, who is fascinated by the relationships that create meaning between objects and images.

The artwork was made up of tiles that looked liked drought ridden land, cracked thirsty for water. Coffee cups sat in the air with a flow of coffee beans being poured out onto the floor. The room was filled with the smell of coffee.

This artwork captivated me: it combined site, feeling and smell. For me, this work evoked my senses towards the universal object of ‘coffee’ . No matter what country or language is spoke, coffee is universal – and despite the varying cultural contexts, no translation is required.

The final artwork I will refer to here is from Cockatoo Island: The Embassy of the Real – which asked artists to question the real. American artist William Forsythe created Nowhere and Everywhere at the Same Time, no. 2 which is an installation of plumb bobs (weights) that are suspended on wires from a hydraulic system that moves in a systematic formula.

The plumb bobs are fascinating to watch for once the hydraulic systems stops, the plumb bobs continue swaying and to change direction. The installation is interactive so that you can walk through whilst the plumb bobs are moving.

Forsythe is a ballet choreographer  and you can see this direct influence in the artwork. This piece is a perfect fit for the Embassy of the Real. My interpretation of the work is in comparison to dancers and how they attempt to perfectly follow choreography but they are still human: each dancer is just that little different, so it is not always aligned and perfect. Much like the plumb bobs, when the hydraulic system is working they are all moving in alignment however when it stops the individual plum bobs begin breaking that alignment.

I loved this year’s Biennale and if you get a chance to visit, I highly recommend the experience!