Saturday/ a day at the museum 🏛

There was more rain today, and so we checked into the Queensland Museum and the Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art.
Both of these are free to the public.

Queensland Museum

There has been expansive voyaging and cultural interactions across the Coral Sea (between what is today called Australia and Papua New Guinea), with seafaring craft like the model shown here. Evidence of human activity in the region dates back 6,500 years.
There is a large natural history collection on display on the third and fourth floor— of land animals, birds and fish.
There are 51 species of box jellyfish, large and small.
The one on the right is the infamous irukandji jellyfish (Carukia barnesi).
From the display case text:
‘Although irukandji are the smallest of the box jellyfish group, they are the deadliest. Stings are recorded every year, with some victims needing hospital treatment. Nevertheless, only 3 deaths have been attributed to irukandji the last 100 years. Always wear a stinger-suit when swimming in tropical Queensland’.
P.S. I see Stinger Suit™ is actually a trademark for the nylon/ latex bodysuit. The models wearing the suit still have bare faces, hands and feet, though. Maybe I will keep things simple and just stay out of the water altogether.

 


 

Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art

Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art are two galleries next to each other. The QAG moved to this location in 1982, and then in 2006 a sweeping new wing was added for the Gallery of Modern Art.
Kudusur (2017), artist Alick Tipoti
The mural Kudusur (‘poling with elbow’) depicts the spiritual ancestors and brothers called Thoegay and Kang, extending their elbows and using them as paddles for their canoe.
Under the Jacaranda (1903), artist R. Godfrey Rivers
Oil on canvas. Purchased in 1903.
Brisbane is full of jacarandas, in bloom right now, like in the painting— but the tree is not native. It comes from South America.
Dispela meri Lady Diana (‘This woman is Lady Diana’) (1998), artist John Kawage
John Kawage is from Papua New Guinea, and used synthetic polymer paint on canvas. Purchased in 1999.
Vertigoats (2021), artist Justene Williams
It depicts a humorous questioning of the desire to ‘climb the ladder’ of the social and economic order.

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