The best things to do in Sydney for free

In 2021, thanks to a certain global state of affairs that has had us living most of our lives through a screen, sex and relationships look a little different for most people. Whether you’re navigating the socially distanced online dating scene, or cohabitating with an intimate partner, Aunt ‘Rona has had an enormous impact on the way in which we navigate our intimate lives.  If you’re feeling a little dusty, this free online festival might be just what you need to shake off the cobwebs this spring. Sextember offers fun, informative and spicy events free of charge for those seeking to explore intimacy, consent and frisky new frontiers (whether partnered or solo). Get amongst talks with folks who know what they’re on about, like sex worker, author and public speaker Tilly Lawless, certified sex coach Georgia Grace, Indigenous health educator Dominic Guerrera, and ACON's peer education team. Dip your toe in with Let’s Talk About Sex on Wednesday, September 22. It’s a deep dive into the sex ed you never received at school, as led by Georgia Grace and Aussie sex toy manufacturer and sex educator Normal. They uncover libido, arousal, healthy relationships, sexual confidence, full body pleasure, safer sex practices and anything else you want to know. On Thursday, September 23, the Invisible panel platforms the voices of people who are often left out of the conversation when it comes to body autonomy and sexuality because of their identity – including sex workers, transgender people,

UPDATE: This exhibition will not re-open at Art Gallery NSW and can only be viewed online. Melbourne-based artist Julia Ciccarone has taken home the $5,000 2021 People’s Choice Award for her spectacular self-portrait ‘The Sea Within’. She painted it at home in Alphington during the Victorian capital’s extended 2020 lockdown. The work depicts her wrapped up in a beloved blanket from her childhood, with her head resting on a suitcase that her father carried when he migrated to Australia from Italy during the ‘50s. The ocean rages behind her. “When I painted this work, life was intense and overwhelming,” Ciccarone says. “It’s hard to believe that we are still experiencing times of great uncertainty, more than a year on. I believe we share in a collective trauma. But the ocean, which features large in my life and art, is my healing place.” While we might not be able to visit Art Gallery of NSW IRL right now, you can still admire Ciccarone’s work thanks to their digital walk-through. The Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prize exhibitions have been given the digital treatment, with a swish 360-degree immersive experience. It’s heaps of fun to explore, with the self-guided tour flagging loads of interesting facts along the way as you click on the works to read their labels. Elsewhere you can admire Peter Wegner’s Archibald Prize-winning ‘Portrait of Guy Warren at 100’, and Yolŋu painter and printmaker Nyapanyapa Yunupiŋu’s Wynne Prize-winner, ‘Garak – night sky’. Also, look out for Sulm

Even though we can’t get out to properly explore our city right now, the Australian National Maritime Museum is making sure we can find out heaps of fascinating facts we never knew about Sydney while we wait to get out and about again. The new History@Home lockdown talk series pairs the museum’s expert curators with passionate guest speakers to deliver weekly insights into how life has changed in the city over the centuries. And you get to join in too, with each half-hour chat followed by a 15-minute Q&A session. You can register to take part here. Even if you don’t tune in live, you can stream the chats on demand via the museum’s YouTube channel. First up on Tuesday, September 7, at 4pm as part of History Week 2021 is Shore of the Past? Surprising Short Stories from our Maritime Collections. Split into three short chats, you’ll be able to find out about the random 19th-century habit of naming children born at sea after the vessel that brought them to the colonies. You’ll also hear about Annette Kellermann, one of Australia’s first celebrity fashion labels that went off in the Roaring ‘20s, and oral histories of Portuguese colonisation, Indonesian occupation and the eventual liberation of Timor-Leste in 1999. If your brain has been fried by some of the dialogue happening in social media comments right now, you might also be keen to check out Does quarantine really work? Happening at 4pm on Tuesday, September 14, you’ll be able to hear from medical historian Dr Peter Hobbins a

Brisbane-born, Los Angeles-based artist and Palawa woman Jemima Wyman gets a homecoming of sorts with her new exhibition Fume. While she can’t come to Australia in person, we do get to see her latest work at Zetland artistic outpost Sullivan and Strumpf. OK, we can’t actually visit the gallery in person either, but they do have a swish video walk-through and an online gallery so everyone citywide can still check it out during lockdown. Working in photo collage, Wyman draws together images of global activism to create stunning murals with magnificent swirls of colour. Pulling together three series of work – ‘Billow’, ‘Haze’ and ‘Plume’ – she hand-cuts and arranges photographs to recreate the dramatic landscapes formed in the midst of street protests. Here, the smoke and spark of flares and other missiles, and the ignition of fires, is reclaimed by Wyman, creating art that allows for hope even amidst the tumult of the 24/7 news cycle. And goodness knows we all need a little light in our lives right now. Love to look at art online? Also explore the latest exhibition at Aboriginal Contemporary. 

In the Martu language of the Western Desert, the word Marlpa means companionship. And so it’s a great name for a new online exhibition hosted by Waverley gallery Aboriginal Contemporary in conjunction with Martumili Artists, run by the Martu peoples. Marpla pairs emerging artists Corban Clause Williams and Judith Anya Samson for their first joint exhibition together. Painting in good company is a tradition for desert artists. Williams, who teaches cultural awareness, also worked at Martumili behind the scenes, before stepping into his own painting practice. Samson is the granddaughter of renowned Martu artists Dadda Samson and Yanjimi (Peter) Rowlands. “When I paint with Anya, we always laugh,” Williams says of his collaborator. “We tell jokes, we talk about our paintings. I learn about her Country from her paintings, and she learns about my Country, Kaalpa, from my paintings.” Samson agrees. “I always want to paint more when I’m painting with Corban.” The exhibition was originally planned for a year ago, but gallery owner Nichola Dare says the wait has only made it even more exciting to finally share these 14 works. “Anya and Corban’s work is truly astounding. These two artists, who are close friends, are destined to shape the future of Western Desert art. The virtual walkthrough of Marlpa will open at noon on September 17, as hosted on Aboriginal Contemporary’s website. Locals will also be able to see the works on rotation in the gallery window. Love online arts events? Fin

Last time we checked in with A Place to Call Home star Tim Draxl, he was wearing a different cap. The performer is also an avid painter, unveiling his debut solo show of beautiful abstract paintings at Rex-Livingston Art + Objects in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains earlier this year. As fate would have it, he wasn’t able to attend because he was shooting a Liam Neeson blockbuster in Melbourne at the time. Flash forward a few months and now no one can go to his second show, Ten Degrees. Which is a bit of a bummer given lockdowns also scuppered his star turn as Zac in Darlinghurst Theatre Company’s A Chorus Line. Instead, the same gallery will host a digital version of his latest exhibition online from Saturday, September 11, running until the 27th. Draxl will attend the Zoom-hosted ‘opening’ at 1pm that day. Anyone who wants to attend should email info@rex-livingston.com by close of business Thursday, September 9.  Like many of us turning to our passions during lockdown, painting was a form of therapy for Draxl. “My process wasn’t about producing works of art, but rather working through what I was dealing with at the time,” he says. “Whereas the first lockdown came with a lot of unknowns, the effects of this second lockdown are very apparent. There is a complacency born of fatigue and some days I’m much more conscious than on others. That is reflected in the paintings.” As an actor, Draxl knows all about expressing himself. “These emotions manifest on the canvas, but it’s not a

While we are big fans of surfing television streaming offerings as it’s possible to be, every now and then you crave something a little artsier in your life. That’s why we’re psyched about Carriageworks delivering a thought-provoking new video work from award-winning Polish-Australian artist and filmmaker Kuba Dorabialski. While we can’t visit the Eveleigh arts institution right now, they are keeping our cultural lives well-fed with this chance to stream the Invocation Trilogy – a series of video works exploring the intersection of language, politics and cultural memory – totally free from August 18 to October 10. Dorabialski examines his Eastern European ties, taking a somewhat unique approach. While Slavic language speakers will pick up bits and pieces, the work also features an entirely made-up lingo. Presented as absurdist comedy, the artist uses the imagery and this new tongue to ask what we really mean when we refer to ‘Eastern Europe’? Anyone who has ever found themselves stereotyped by their background will get a kick out of this new work, which begins with an encore for his award-winning short Floor Dance of Lenin’s Resurrection from 2017, and culminates in the world premiere of the third and final film in the sequence, the feature-length Connection of the Sticks. The series was due to be unveiled at Carriageworks IRL, but they’re treating us to a digital pivot instead.   You can check it out here from August 18, and a chat between Dorabialski and curator Daniel Mudi

Embracing these hybrid times when we’re often online more than we’re out and about, the Art Gallery of New South Wales has launched the mother of all digital galleries, and it’s a kaleidoscopic trip to creative wonderland. Part of their ongoing Together in Art series, Hyper-linked assembles seven exciting contemporary Australian artists pushing the envelope on how we engage with art from wherever we are in the world. Heath Franco’s 'Home Videohome' is a trippy, dystopian stare into the abyss of the interwebs through the search portals of doom. You'll very likely recognise one in particular, but to avoid any nasty lawsuit, it's been rebranded as Newspider. Get caught up in this web full of unnerving animalistic figures and ‘90s-style pop video imagery gone awry. It’s wrong-town in all the right ways. Justene Williams’ explosively colourful video 'The Unboxers' opens with shades of apocalyptic wrestling matches and a montage with a glimpse of a superhero-like character who resembles someone who rhymes with Maptain Carvel (prob don’t want Disney legalling this either). With creatures that look like sun-melted lollies and a bizarre egg experiment, it’s loopy goodness inspired by the unfurling of the legendary Bob Fosse's jazz hands. JD Reforma’s dreamy drone imagery in ‘I Want to Believe’ captures stolen glances of the world as seen from Sydney’s rooftops, with the traffic drifting by oblivious below. Exploring the idea of escape from abusive relationships, what at first seems li

Every year since 2017, the Sydney Opera House’s gleaming sails have been transformed by light and sound into a celebration of the lore and artistry of First Nations people. During Badu Gili – which means ‘water light’ in Gadigal language – mesmerising projections undulate on the world-famous canvas, showcasing the work of Indigenous artists.  This year’s theme is 'Wonder Women'. Overseen by Coby Edgar, the Art Gallery of New South Wales’s curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, the dazzling array showcases the work and stories of six female First Nations artists, Marlene Gilson, Kaylene Whiskey, Sally Mulda, Judith Inkamala, Marlene Rubuntja and the late Aunty Elaine Russell. The traditional owners of Bennelong Point, the site of the Opera House, know it as Tubowgule, or ‘where the knowledge waters meet’. The glimmering spot has been a gathering place for community, ceremony and storytelling for thousands of years, long before the harbourside icon was erected. You’ll be able to watch the mesmerising, six-minute long animated light show daily from April 23 until the end of the year, kicking off at sunset, or around about 5.30pm, but check the Opera House website for more details. It’s funded by the NSW Government through the Culture Up Late initiative. Want more First Nations art? Check out Hayley Millar Baker's There We Were All in One Place.

For many ardent cinephiles, Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai’s lushly lit romance In the Mood for Love (2000) is their favourite film of all time. It certainly wowed critics at the Cannes Film Festival, where it was nominated for, but did not win, the top prize, the Palme d’Or (which went to Lars von Trier’s also excellent Dancer in the Dark). Star Tony Leung did take home Best Actor for his remarkable turn as a cuckolded man who slowly but surely falls for a neighbour, played by a radiant Maggie Cheung, whose spouse is also doing the dirty. Her dresses alone have been seared into cinematic history, as gorgeous as the sumptuous cinematography they’re folded into, as captured by Aussie Christopher Doyle alongside Kwan Pung-leung and Mark Lee Ping-bing. To celebrate 20 years of the film sashaying into the sublime, the Opera House staged a livestream event In the Mood: A Love Letter to Wong Kar-Wai and Hong Kong, a night of entertainment inspired by Kar-wai’s vision. You can watch it here.  Performing on the Joan Sutherland stage, Hong Kong-born, Australia-based pop star Rainbow Chan debuted new music inspired by the movie’s unforgettable score. She also threw some Bossa Nova moves from a famous sequence. Chan was joined by Sydney-based composer, singer and performance artist Marcus Whale – who has popped up at Liveworks, Vivid and Sugar Mountain Festival – and regular collaborator Eugene Choi, who narrated this lavish audio-visual feast, guiding us through a fever dream brought