MELBOURNE 2016 # 3 PART 1 NATIONAL GALLERY OF VICTORIA

7/3/2016
MONDAY

Today seemed to be a cool day for our city.  May drove us down to city and parked at the Royal Child hospital where she work.  

 Autumn coming....

Every time, I go visit my sisters in Melbourne, there is something new and exciting to explore and to see. The city is full of charming heritage buildings as well as interesting new things to see.   

New building - cancer hospital 

one of the faculties of the Melbourne University. 

sure this building needs no introduction....... 

the CBD Melbourne station.... remember this building that I have blogged before...
the shot tower

RMIT University gallery. 

 

Oh no what happen... the library has fallen???!!!

 
"Architectural Fragment" by Petrus Spronk
Next time you are in Melbourne, check whether the State Library is still there.. hahaha

The National Gallery of Victoria

Somewhere over the rainbow.......  

......is the beautiful chandelier (a symbol of extravagance) - a 5 metre tall art installation of crystals and light by AiWeiWei who grew up in exile without lights or candles during China's Cultural Revolution.

Before going over to Melbourne, I was excited when I read about the Art Exhibition of Andy Warhol and AiWeiWei at the National Gallery of Victory (NGV).  You can goggle about the artist's biography and I just cannot help admiring them for their works (though I am no expert at all).  So we made our way down to the city after our breakfast.  There are so many exhibits but these were just a few of them and hope you like them as much as I do.

They have never meet each other, but their art shared many similarities including their love for cats!

Aiweiwei's installation of Forever Bicycles 2015 - towering with more than 1500 bicycles  used and it makes an awesome entry and anticipation of  more as we entered  into the exhibition halls. "Forever"  is a popular brand of mass-produced bicycles manufactured in China since 1940s.

  

one of Andy Warhol's self-portraits

He did a series of self-portraits before his death due to complications from a gall bladder surgery.

Aiweiwei's Table and a Pillar- a Qing dynasty table was dismantled and then re-assembled to create a new arrangement!

You can go in and play with the inflatable balloons.

The bird and the Caonima "that looks like a Llama" (in Chinese character "Grass Mud Horse" used as an expression of discontent) 

Andy Warhol's Butterfly Layer Cake.. what an inspiration for all cake-artists! 

Aiweiwei's Blossom 2015... thousands of beautiful intricate white porcelain flowers that serves as a memorial to people who live in restricted conditions because of their fight for freedom of speech or human rights in his Flowers for Freedom project.  These are crafted by the skilled craftsman from Jingdezhen whose predecessors once produced the highest quality of porcelain for emperors of past. 

Anyone interested to buy a limited edition of the peony? only  A$9,000.00 current price

Aiweiwei' "Grapes"

Here he reassembled the Qing dynasty  3-legged stools  into a cluster without nails/screws. 

Andy Warhol's iconic Campbell Soup.
Taking commonly use ordinary objects and elevating them into icons- Pop Art.

Aiweiwei breaking the Han dynasty pots
breaking our sense of  what is ancient and important and

and dipping these pots with industrial paint
 and turning them into new and commonplace.

40 Eyes- Andy Warhol 

Andy Warhol- Brillo soap boxes

Both Andy Warhol and Aiweiwei  images  of Chairman Mao 

Mao's wallpaper

the Feet 

"these stone feet are the remains of looted Buddhist statues dating from the Northern Wei and Qi dynasties.  These fragments are gathered by Aiweiwei and turned into art.  "He demonstrate that remembering history is important and that our past is what makes us who we are today".

A paid of handcuffs sculpture from jade (the most precious stones in Chinese culture) which replicate those worn by him in his imprisonment in 2011.

These sculptured figures depicits scenes from the detention cell where Aiweiwei  was kept for his dissident activity without trial for 81 days in 2011.


Both of them love cats......

Aiweiwei has great love  for cats in his studio and one of them can open the studio door using the handle believe it or not! 

The Studio Cats -

There is one exhibits which I completely overlooked.... Aiweiwei's Circle of Animals (in gold) together with Andy's silkscreen of Skulls  which he did months before his death. If you have seen the film by Jackie Chan about the 12 zodiac animal heads you will get an idea of what these animals are like.  And according to history, these animals heads were actually part of  a water-clock fountain  in Yuanmingyuan Palace (Summer Palace) in the Qing dynasty. They were looted from the palace by the foreign troops in the 1860.     

You can read more about them in this article: http://theconversation.com/andy-warhol-ai-weiwei-the-american-and-chinese-centuries-meet-in-melbourne-52288

LET'S PLAY DOUGH

26/3/2016
Saturday

Yip Yip Hurray.... yeah, first time success!

For the past 2 weekends, I have been coaching my sister to bake.   She had retired early last year after working 30 over years with the same hospital. Nowadays she spend her time with her new found love, Qigong in the morning besides cooking delicious meals for her family.

So with plenty of time on her hands, its time to get those hands dirty and start baking.   

We started with an easy recipe from The Good Food Magazine ..... Paul Hollywood's recipe for Hot Cross Buns....even though Good Friday was over (25/3/2016). He was one of the judge to the Great British Bake Off. 

  

 1st Proof... sweating under the shower cap..... 

So while waiting for the dough to rise, I shared with her Justonecookbook recipe for Steamed Custard Pudding.  I have tried this recipe and just love the texture and easy method.  Got to get her to try it. The trick is covering the lid of the pot with a tea towel to catch the drops of moisture that may spoil the surface of the pudding. 

Just 1 cup of milk mixed with 3 tablespoon of caster sugar and 3 eggs. Whisk to combine and add your flavouring (this was vanilla extract. Maybe the next time can try orange or lemon). Then pour through a sieve into the ramekins.  Place on pan and steamed over LOW HEAT. Ready- steamed 10 minutes and leave in pan for another 10 minutes before removing to cool. Can be serve warm or chilled with sauce.

Steamed Custard Pudding with caramel sauce- bring to boil 3 tablespoon of water and 1 1/2 tablespoon of sugar till light amber colour. Add another 1 1/2 tablespoon of water (careful it will bubble) whisk and remove from heat.  

Opening ceremony of the oven... freshly baked Hot Cross Buns...

2/4/2016

Saturday

 This weekend is all about cakes..

Banana Muffin with dark chocolate filling

Marble Butter cake- using from  recipe NgSK Butter Cake which is so popular with foodbloggers.

The cake was lovely, moist and not too sweet and a keeper.  

Walnut Cake- another variation of the butter cake... we added about 100 gm chopped toasted walnuts. 

Actually not all about cakes, we did practice bread making again.....the White Loaf Bread. 

In a bowl add 1 large egg and top up with full cream milk to make 160-180 gm (depending on your dough texture).  Sieve 260 gm bread flour, 4 gm instant  yeast, 30 gm sugar, 1/2 tsp salt together in a large bowl. Add egg + full cream milk to combine and knead till elastic (around 10 minutes). Incorporate 30 gm of soft butter into dough and continue to knead for 10 to 15 minutes. Cover and proof till double in size.  Shape dough into 3 rolls and proof again 2nd time.     I realised that we should have left  the 2nd proof longer till it has risen up to 90% of the pan before baking.  However,  the bread was still soft the next day. 

Just to show you, my version of the Mille Feuille Nabe Hot pot before cooking. I adapted the recipe from Justonecookbook again.  I used the ikan bilis stock and used pork belly instead.  First just chilled the pork so that it will be easy to slice them thinly.  Layer them in between the cabbage leaves and tuck them tightly around the pot. Can add other vegetables, eg carrot, mushroom etc to fill up the center. Pour stock into pot and bring to boil.  Let it simmer for around 10 minutes and off heat (I let the residue heat of the claypot to finish the cooking). This is a good one-pot meal.!

And I find teaching and sharing rather fun and fulfilling too .....can consider doing it full time maybe.