Things to do in Sydney today

Plants With Bite has been cancelled as the Calyx is current shut do to the Covid-19 crisis. Budding horticulturalists who like plants with attitude should head to the Royal Botanical Gardens for a free exhibition of carnivorous greenery. The Calyx is filled with 25,000 of the world’s hungriest, most clever plants. Watch as the venus fly trap lures unsuspecting insects with nectar and snaps them up in its jaws, where they’ll spend their final days being slowly digested. Or meet the drosera, who use their sticky tentacles to attract and snatch their prey before devouring them. Then marvel at the simplicity of the pitcher plant’s hunting technique, which is to lure hapless bugs with honey and let them fall into the pool of digestive enzymes in their pitfall trap. The Plants with Bite display does sound a little like a horror film, but it’s really all bark and no bite (for humans, anyway) and families can expect a very kid-friendly experience. Plus, there is a range of themed education programs, workshops and a regular feeding display that will intrigue little greenthumbs and their grown-ups.

For two weeks every spring, hordes of Sydneysiders head to the beach for the annual Sculpture by the Sea exhibition, which covers two kilometres of the city's most exquisite coastline, from Bondi to Tamarama. But the crowds can be pretty intense, and even if you're willing to brave them, most Sydneysiders are pretty busy – two weeks isn't really long enough for us to catch anything. For almost nine months, Casula Parklands is playing host to a new sculpture walk, featuring eight works from Sculpture by the Sea. Visitors will be able to follow the sculptures along the banks of the Georges River, starting at Casula Powerhouse. One of the key works you'll encounter on the walk is Southern Highlands sculptor David Ball's 'Celest', which stood proud on Tamarama Beach at this year's Sculpture by the Sea. The imposing corten steel sculpture will be installed in Casula for the duration of the sculpture walk.

Art can be both challenging and therapeutic. That’s particularly true for the artists involved in a newly reopened Casula Powerhouse’s exhibition Adaptation. Ohni Blu, Bruno Booth, Marion Conrow, Pat Larter, Prue Stevenson, Nell Syme and Louise Zhang are all artists living with disability or chronic illness. Their practices have adapted to meet the challenges of their physical conditions, and for many involved, art is part of an ongoing healing process. Chinese-Australian artist Zhang experiences repetitive strain injury (RSI) pain in her hands and spondylosis (a type of arthritis) in her lower back. The works she creates take inspiration from horror movies, Chinese mythology and botany. “As I began to be more considerate of my injuries, I transitioned away from the amount I used oil paints because for me, oils are more straining on the wrist than acrylics,” she says. “I have also been incorporating more block colours and illustrative lines in my paintings so that I can continue to try and narrate what I want to say or show within my capabilities (less shading, more silhouette). Sometimes my pain can flare up really bad, and it was a time like this when I began to focus on my digital banner works. I can make these on my laptop when I am in bed.” Freemantle-based Booth’s video work ‘The struggle is real’ explores the experience of navigating a wheelchair across difficult terrain. “Using a wheelchair is an endurance sport; it can be painful, exhausting and strangely beautiful.

Artists Jomakhan Jafari and Danny Kennedy met at Auburn library’s English conversation classes and struck up a friendship that has become an enduring artistic partnership. Their exhibition A Familiar Place I’ve Never Seen marks the re-opening of the Casula Powerhouse. It was the result of a residency at the Peacock Gallery and Auburn Arts Studio in 2012, during which the pair interviewed residents from across the length and breadth of Western Sydney, asking them about their dreams. The region is of the city’s most multicultural areas, with 40 per cent of Liverpool’s residents born overseas, and their stories contain vast riches. “Every night the dreamers of Western Sydney travel to thousands of different places,” the artists note. “Many go around the world, to unseen places, or simply down a local street. People relive events from their past, have extraordinary experiences, or just go about their daily lives, worries and hopes. It is this combination of geography and memory, the fantastical and the mundane, the local and the global that allows dreams to sketch a complex portrait of a city and its individuals.” Kennedy took photographs, which Jafari then augmented with ‘siyah mashq’ (Persian) calligraphy, as well as contributing sweeping paintings daubed in tar and petrol. Jafari’s painting ‘Opportunity’ recounts a bittersweet fragment from a person who had never been educated. “When I woke up during the night, I was very upset. I felt like I had lost everything. I couldn’t go

Awesome Western-Sydney artist Khaled Sabsabi gets the solo show treatment at Art Gallery of NSW, in partnership with the Campbelltown Art Centre. Sabsabi and his family fled Tripoli and headed to Sydney with in the 1970s to escape the Lebanese civil war. Starting out on the hip-hop scene, he shifted to visual arts in the '90s. Regularly returning to the Middle East, his incredible body of work draws on the confluence of spiritual belief, politics and conflict in the region. A Promise presents major works exploring the complex relationship between self and other and includes large-scale works from AGNSW’s collection, like ‘Organised confusion’ (2014), putting the fanaticism and Western Sydney Wanderers football fans under the lens, as well as new works. The first solo artist exhibition to launch since the gallery reopened, director Dr Michael Brand said A Promise is a poignant reminder of the role of art and artists during challenging times. “We are delighted to have collaborated with Khaled on A Promise. His work resonates in new and unexpected ways at this time when our collective behaviour, beliefs and responsibilities have such urgent and apparent ramifications.” The exhibition will run for an indefinite period.

When shattered lives are reduced to numbers on paper, it’s hard to grasp the scale of human misery in war zones, and the resultant need to flee with family. It’s all too easy to demonise those we cannot see. But put a face to these lives, to the shattered places they leave behind, listen to their stories and it’s much harder to turn a blind eye. Particularly if those faces belong to adorable kids just trying to make the most of what little they have.   That’s what’s so powerful about Bow Echo, the new video installation from interdisciplinary artist Aziz Hazara. His searing work is presented at the MCA. It explores the relationship between young people and the sites of trauma that have become their playground,. Hazara is based between Kabul, in his home country of Afghanistan, and the much more peaceful Ghent, Belgium. Having recently completed residencies at the Embassy of Foreign Artists in Geneva (2018) and at the KHOJ International Artists’ Association in New Delhi (2017) he's a thrilling artist to keep an eye on.

Make do and mend takes on a new meaning for Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama. He commandeers hessian sacks originally used by the Ghana Cocoa Board and then re-purposed by charcoal sellers, turning them into his canvas. Their textural brown surface trace countless histories, marking out traders and trade routes to far-flung destinations and the colonial narratives contained within. They’re an inherently fascinating medium that Mahama then supersizes by sewing them together. He has transformed the towering interior of Cockatoo Island’s Turbine Hall, adorning it with stitched sacks in a colossal work that brings his typically exterior work indoors. While we’re enveloped by these rough and ready means of transporting goods, he asks us to think long and hard about how they came to be here. Who did the hard yards for us? What are their histories? How are they wrapped up in our larger colonial narrative? For a slightly smaller scale but nonetheless big-picture work, Mahama will also show A Grain of Wheat at Artspace – an immersive installation of 400 first aid stretchers from the Second World War, collected from a site near a refugee camp outside Athens.

Wiradjuri artist Karla Dickens is an artistic force to be reckoned with, exploring themes of gender, sexuality and spirituality alongside race. Her collage-driven practice – which also extends to sculpture, painting and photography ­– tackles the essence of self at the intersection of these lines. Her rigorous process often sees her break up and re-use existing works, remaking them in inherently fascinating ways, also incorporating the abandoned bric-a-brac of everyday life she up-cycles. The Lismore-based artist's work inhabit the colonial architecture of the Art Gallery of NSW’s sandstone vestibule. A Dickensian Circus is one of the highlights of our homegrown First Nations creatives showing work at the Biennale. The work exposes the dark history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who were forced to perform in masks under the big top. It also has echoes of the sky-high rates of incarceration of our Indigenous peoples today.

Exhilarating in its modernity, this exciting Art Gallery NSW exhibition brings together  acquisitions from the previous 50 years only and captures a real snapshot of where we’re at now and where we’ve come from. Part of the Sydney Modern Project, expanding the footprint of the gallery, the show includes the radiant colours of David Hockney’s ‘A Closer Winter Tunnel’, which makes winter look exactly like we need it to be right now., the title is drawn from the words of American artist Philip Guston musing art-making: “There’s some mysterious process at work here which I don’t even want to understand.’ You can also see his work ‘East tenth 1977’. Weaving together multiple threads of history, it to tells the story of how the international contemporary collection has come together through the alchemy of planning, serendipity, curation and philanthropy, as well as tracing the evolution of societal expectations. The exhibition runs until September 15.

Bringing together Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists, Under the Stars highlights our shared understandings of the night sky. Highlighting the commonalities and connections in our shared attempts to understand the sky above our place in relation to it, the exhibition has a particular a focus on Indigenous knowledge. It presents an opportunity to explore, engage and educate at a time when discussions surrounding the 250 years since Captain Cook’s arrival have sparked great debate, as further highlighted by the Black Lives Matter marches. Under the tars includes the work of artists like Lindy Lee, Mick Kubarkku and Shaun Gladwell. Shining a light on complex ideas, it also centres the idea that the night sky is an expanse that is not owned, and that connects us all. The free exhibition runs until sometime next year.

Multi-disciplinary Peruvian artist Fátima Rodrigo Gonzalez corrals sculpture, drawing and video work to examine the impact of modernism and colonialism on Latin American art, architecture and pop culture. Melding these ideas with an exploration of gender identity, she takes nothing for granted, subverting and queering the status quo. Interrogating violence against women and non-binary people, she also questions the cultural appropriation of consumer culture, including our fast fashions. What does modernity mean? And how does that relate to the relationship between the coloniser and the colonised? Gonzalez will get you thinking Artspace with this new exhibition of exciting work at Artspace, which recreates the iconic set from beloved 1960s Latin TV show Sabado Gigante (Gigantic Saturday).

The fine artists from Cork and Canvas have been spreading colour all over Sydney with their wine and painting classes. Even while we were all stuck at home, they kept us occupied with creativity kits and on-demand virtual classes – and now as the city opens back up, they’re inviting us back into the studio again. That’s right, you can dip your brush and wet your whistle in public once more at their Crows Nest and Darlinghurst sip and paint studios, with classes having started up again in early June. While the doors have been closed, the team have been busy coming up with new paintings for budding artists to interpret, including a ‘Stargazing’ design on a brand new round canvas.  The studios are amping up hygiene and safety practices, including spacing out guests in accordance with 1.5 metre physical distancing rules (allowing for couples and small groups to sit together), offering hand sanitizer at the door and sanitizing all equipment and wine glasses.  Check out the website for session times for both the Crows Nest and Darlinghurst studios and to make your booking. Most classes run from Wednesday through Saturday nights, with afternoon sessions on Sundays and some Saturdays, starting at $55 including materials (just BYO wine and snacks).  For anyone who is out of town or who’d rather stay home, Cork and Canvas is continuing to offer virtual alternatives, providing step-by-step video classes and mailing out creativity kits nationally, from $80.  It isn’t too late to pick up

Starting life as an art therapy program supporting Aboriginal men facing alcohol and substance addiction, as run by the Anyinginyi Aboriginal Health Organisation, the Tennant Creek Brio (from the Italian word for vivacious life) has taken on a life of its own. Many local men have embraced the healing positivity of the project, guided by artists Rupert Betheras, Fabian Brown, Joseph Williams, Jimmy Frank and David Duggie. It has become so popular that the Brio boys now live at Nyinkka Nyunyu, Tennant Creek’s dedicated art and culture centre. Fusing Aboriginal desert traditions with abstract expressionism, street art and art activism and a love of repurposing junk, a rebel streak underpins each artist’s work, and a desire to shake up the status quo. You can witness their work at Artspace during Biennale. 

South African filmmaker and photographer Zanele Muholi’s work is intrinsically wrapped up in the fight for the rights of the LGBTIQ+ people whose lives she documents. The challenges and injustices they still face are at stark odds with the dream of equality, post-Apartheid. The MCA’s celebration of her proud and powerful visual art encompasses three bodies of ongoing work. Faces and Phases features black-and-white portraits of lesbian, trans and gender non-conforming people. Muholi began the series months before the Civil Union Act legalised same-sex marriage in South Africa in 2006. She has captured some 500-plus people since.  Brave Beauties zooms in on a stunning series of trans women, particularly those who have competed in community-based beauty pageants. Marking South Africa’s 20th anniversary of democracy in 2014, the work highlights the stark contrast for these women who are far too often the subject of violent crime.   And pointing the camera at herself, Somnyama Ngonyama documents Muholi’s many travels across the globe in the line of duty. “I’m producing this photographic document to encourage people to be brave enough to occupy space, brave enough to create without fear of being vilified,” she says. “To teach people about our history, to re-think what history is all about, to re-claim it for ourselves, to encourage people to use artistic tools such as cameras as weapons to fight back.” 

The creeping chill of Darkfield Radio’s terrifying immersive show Double has warped reality to its own ends, reshaping history by becoming the first audio-only entry to be selected by the illustrious Venice International Film Festival (running September 2-12 this year). From the macabre minds behind shipping container-bound freak outs Flight and Séance, Double will stream out of competition in the Venice VR Expanded category, which showcases exemplary augmented and virtual reality productions against the best of the best worldwide. Up until now, the line-up has always fielded immersive films, so the eerie radio play-like Double totally breaks the mould. It’s no wonder they’ve been recognised alongside the big guys, including Marvel movie director Jon Favreau’s in-competition Gnomes and Goblins. To say the team behind Darkfield Radio’s first audio-only experience are stoked to be recognised by such a prestigious festival, and in such illustrious company, would be an understatement. As such, they’re celebrating by extending the run right through to September 30. You can book tickets here. Read our four-star review Reality as we know it has become unmoored. Separated from loved ones, our homes oscillate between sanctuary and prison cell. Now, with the icy hand of winter creeping in around the edges of creaking doors, these strange and trying times are ripe for spooky stories. Hearing our silent screams in the abys, immersive theatre company Darkfield are back to tear away our gr

Impressed by the local response to the global Black Lives Matter movement and by the ongoing work of dedicated Stop Aboriginal Deaths in Custody activists, Australian artist Hugh Van Schaick wanted to do more to help in a concrete way. Van Schaick reached out to fellow artists who shared his desire to be better allies, and also to First Nations creatives – including Amrita Hepi, Stanislava Pinchuk, Zaiba Khan, Anu Kumar, Glendyn Ivin, Saskia Wilson, Bryce Anderson and many more – and the idea for Printing In Solidarity was born. The curated site is an online fundraiser presenting beautiful digital prints delivered on fine art paper. Ideal for brightening up your home, the prints available span the mediums of photography, painting, drawing, collage and more. The artworks are affordably priced at $100-$150, and all proceeds from the sale will be donated to First Nations charities the Aboriginal Legal Service and Children’s Ground. You can opt for the glowing amber of Melbourne artist Evie Cahir’s painting ‘Max’s Room’, or Sydney-based Claudia Brand’s dreamy sketch ‘Cloud Study II’. There’s a touch of Peter Weir’s classic film Picnic at Hanging Rock to Saskia Wilson’s summery photographic study ‘The Lake’. Stanislava Pinchuk and Zaiba Khan’s ‘M.D. (Rice, Dahl, Chilli)’ offers beautiful close-up look on hennaed hands, with the work commissioned by the Immigration Museum of Australia for Immigration Granulation last year. Van Schaick, working and living on Gadigal Land in Sydney,

Tony Albert’s project for the Biennale of Sydney: NIRIN extends and expands upon his Blacktown Native Institution project, supporting Aboriginal custodianship, honouring the Native Institution and their families, and aims to raise awareness of the Stolen Generations. His stained glass work ‘Brothers (The Prodigal Son)’, draws from his series of photographs of young Indigenous men who were staying at Kirinari Hostel and from his sighting of a protest where demonstrators painted their chests with a red target. Incorporating religious iconography, the stunning work enshrines a beautiful act of defiance. Originally installed as part of the Biennale 1.0 and then showing at the National Art School (and former Darlinghurst Gaol), with that venue remaining closed, it has now been relocated to the newly reopened Carriageworks. It shines in the vast exposed brick hall flooded with light. Exploring contemporary legacies of colonialism Albert’s work draws on personal and collective histories and embraces hope where for a better future together.

Hobart-based artist Lucienne Rickard was the artist in residence at Adrift Lab’s scientific research post on remote Lord Howe Island in 2014. Adrift Lab is a group of researchers studying plastic waste, chemicals and the effect on marine life. Analysing data gathered at sea and on beaches, they use the information to engage communities and inform policy-making. The Lord Howe outpost examines the ongoing impacts on the local shearwater bird population. Drawing on their work and responding to it through his art, Rickard’s resulting work ‘Extinction Studies’ merges creativity and science. He spent the year drawing and then erasing a recently extinct species sourced from the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. For this new performance of the gesture, now installed at Carriageworks after a stint at the now-closed National Art School, Rickard uses the same paper that was daily drawn upon and erased, and which bears the traces, memories and indentations of this accumulative engagement with loss. Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous support from Detached Cultural Organisation, Adrift Lab’s artist in residence program, it’s a haunting picture of what we have lost, and what we might yet be able to save.

One of Sydney's favourite modern Thai eateries is throwing a month-long birthday bash – and you're invited. The CBD's Long Chim, a name which means "come and try" in Thai, is kicking the celebrations off in exactly that ethos. On Monday, August 10, they'll be throwing a curry night where you'll get to sample a new menu of four brand new curries served in a four-course feast alongside flowing beers – for only $40 per person. On Monday, August 24, it's all about the noods with an 'Oodles of Noodles' feast featuring four noodle courses, a platter of snacks and a beer or wine – again for $40. The main event however takes place on Thursday, August 20 – settle in for a big birthday bash which will bring you the best of Long Chim over the years in the form of a single nine-course feast. They'll be slinging classics like fish cakes, miang prawn, green chicken curry, beef massaman, nongs eggplant, banana roti and a whole lot more. Book in now for $69 per person. If you can't make it to any of those, worry not, because Long Chim is determined to make every day of August feel like a festivity – which is why it'll be slinging $2.50 coffees every day from a pop-up café near the picturesque Angel Place, and extending happy hour to last four whole hours from 2-6pm – settle in for wine, beer and snacks all for $4. Plus, whenever you dine, you'll be allowed to put your luck on the line by literally 'rolling the dice' – and depending on what you roll, get 25, 50 or 100 per cent off your whole

The creeping chill of Darkfield Radio’s terrifying immersive show Double has warped reality to its own ends, reshaping history by becoming the first audio-only entry to be selected by the illustrious Venice International Film Festival (running September 2-12 this year). From the macabre minds behind shipping container-bound freak outs Flight and Séance, Double will stream out of competition in the Venice VR Expanded category, which showcases exemplary augmented and virtual reality productions against the best of the best worldwide. Up until now, the line-up has always fielded immersive films, so the eerie radio play-like Double totally breaks the mould. It’s no wonder they’ve been recognised alongside the big guys, including Marvel movie director Jon Favreau’s in-competition Gnomes and Goblins. To say the team behind Darkfield Radio’s first audio-only experience are stoked to be recognised by such a prestigious festival, and in such illustrious company, would be an understatement. As such, they’re celebrating by extending the run right through to September 30. You can book tickets here. Read our four-star review Reality as we know it has become unmoored. Separated from loved ones, our homes oscillate between sanctuary and prison cell. Now, with the icy hand of winter creeping in around the edges of creaking doors, these strange and trying times are ripe for spooky stories. Hearing our silent screams in the abys, immersive theatre company Darkfield are back to tear away our gr