Artist Roxy Paine's sculpture 'Neuron' sits in front of the MCA. I wonder how long till a child snaps a tendril off.

I went on a tour of the Biennale of Sydney on Tuesday, taking pictures for Time Out Sydney’s biennale coverage.

There’s so much on display i didn’t even see half of it. It spans lots of venues, but as usual, the highlight is Cockatoo Island which makes a lovely day trip on the harbour to browse some art.

Artist Kent Monkman with his painting 'The Death of Adonis'

A morbid sculpture by Jake and Dinos Chapman

What's a modern art show without fornicating cardboard figures?

Artist Newell Harry in front of his neon work at Pier 2/3. It's an anagram of 'The natives are restless'

Artist Brook Andrew sits on his 'Jumping Castle War Memorial'. It's a jumping castle that kids aren't allowed on. Only for over 16's.

Detail from a painting at the MCA. Love modern art.

Cai Guo-Qiang's 'Inopportune: Stage One' takes centre stage in the Turbine Hall on Cockatoo Island

Photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto

Choi Jeong Hwa's 'The unbearable lightness of being' in the Botanic Gardens. The NSW government must like this one as it so closely resembles their logo.

Peter Hennessey's 'My Hubble (the universe turned in on itself)' is a life size version of the Hubble telescope made of plywood

This isn't art, just the random old paraphernalia you spot around Cockatoo Island

Choi Jeong Hwa's 'Hubble Bubble' sits between the sails of the Opera House. The green colanders play havoc with your eyes. Choi told me the towers were intended to be 8 metres high, but customs withheld the colanders for 10 days, meaning the work had to be changed.

And then a couple of portraits that were done the month prior to Biennale at a bar in Woolloomooloo. First Korean artist Choi Jeong Hwa, then the artistic director of Biennale David Elliot.

Choi Jeong Hwa

Choi Jeong Hwa

David Elliot

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I took this portrait of Elizabeth Ann Macgregor the other week. She’s the Director of Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art. It was to accompany an interview Time Out Sydney was doing with her to coincide with the Biennale of Sydney.

I took along some lights and Craig for some assistance. After scouting around the MCA for a bit we decided the best and most obvious place to photograph Ms Macgregor would be underneath the taxidermied horse which has become a focal point for the Biennale. It’s a work called Novecento by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan.

After firing off some test shots with Craig we waited for Elisabeth to arrive. I ended up shuffling the lighting at the last minute to make the back light more even and add a bit of a hair halo effect. After she arrived i snapped off about a dozen shots and it wall all done and dusted.

You can read the interview here.

About the complaints the dead horse has drawn she states,

“People get quite hot under the collar about animals and they’re wearing leather shoes! Novecento is a dead animal – a horse that died of old age and would have ended up at the knackery. Yet as art it’s an extraordinary piece – the immobility of it, the fact it’s looking back at the 20th century and the revolutions that went nowhere. Nobody complains about the stuffed hide of Phar Lap.”

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