MAY

I am still in Argentina and often wondering why I am here. Perhaps it’s the great wine and superb steak or the impressive landscapes… not to mention my wife but for the rest, well not much for me to gush about. While scuffling away in the studio on my new work I flicked through the atlas looking for a stable place somewhere for us to relocate.  I sadly could not seem to find anywhere on the planet that's stable and offers both icebergs and Papaya trees in the same neighborhood. I may have to be more flexible.

In April I presented some of my Antarctic art via a dual exhibition in Beijing and I now begin planning a project in Russia. An art residency at the Pushkinskaya-10 Art Centre in St. Petersburg. This one month long residency will occur at the end of this year but much has to happen before we launch ourselves into the start of a Russian winter. There are also plans for solo exhibitions in Melbourne, NSW, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Amsterdam all of which are simmering in very different ways.

Image - Zhong Shan Chinese Antarctic station.

April at Guan Zhi Art Space saw a selection of my small Antarctic works from Mawson, Davis and  Zhong Shan  stations in east Antarctica as well as works from the Antarctic Peninsula.  These Antarctic works were shown alongside the wonderful ink drawings of Shi Yin. 

Speaking of winter, well that has arrived here as we had first snow on 22nd May.  Also at the end of May we took a short trip to Montevideo to see how similar and more importantly how different Uruguay is as a nation compared to Argentina. We found a tiny country squashed between the two big boys of South America but Uruguay shows no inferiority complex just plenty of rustic charm. Uruguay has the make-up of Argentina due to a similar history but it has somehow managed to kill a great deal of corruption found elsewhere over S. America. There are many positive things about this small country in terms of security, economy, pollution, water, politics, social justice and cost. It seems also very relaxed, has a humid sub tropical climate with no freezing long winter nor long steaming hot summers. History is there in the architecture, steaks are grilled, an active but tiny art scene exists, markets are aplenty and much fun can be had at a bar called Fun Fun that's over 100 years old.

Sitting in the shadow of its huge neighbours it sits quietly doing its own thing, which is all about cooking cows, drinking yerba mate tea, trade and a fair society.  Montevideo is 1.3 million in population, easy to stroll about and basically a cute city. We walked for a week just around the capital so have no idea about the other parts of the country but we liked what we saw. Now it is time to fly out of the sprawling monster of Buenos Aires and back to La Consulta.