from the jaws of defeat

We’d attended the first biannual sydney contemporary in 2013 and dithered quite a bit about whether or not to attend this year.

In the end we decided to pay the extra for opening night tickets (though we decided this a little too late to score the advance purchase discount).

It was incredibility crowded and felt like half of Sydney was there. We ran into at least 10 different peeps from SML over the course of the evening (including Heather and Vincenzo who were given freebie tix at the last minute – bastards.)

I was really, really taken with this ross bonfanti concrete crocodile at rebecca hossack art gallery:

I felt like it really fit with the low-to-the-ground grey/green creature thing we have going on. I was very keen to acquire it, but agonised over purchasing something so expensive (even though in the scheme of things it wasn’t that expensive) when we were supposedly on the frugal project. Art acquisition was not exactly part of ThePlan.

We had a really lovely evening, but left empty handed.

But then I couldn’t stop thinking about the lovely croc and by Sunday morning had resolved to email the gallery (stupidly i had not taken a card so had no immediate contact details) and see if he was still available. In the unlikely event that he was, I would run down and snap him up, if not … obviously not meant to be.

So I waited and waited and waited and … nothing.

I had resigned myself to the fact that he had been sold, when at about 8:30pm, long after the show had closed, I got a call saying he was still available, they would be packing up for the next few hours, but he was mine if I wanted. Hell to the yes I wanted!

I paid over the phone, we popped down to Carriageworks and collected him under cover of darkness – rather like some sort of 50s espionage micro-film drop.

I really do love him and looking at him makes me ridiculously happy. I don’t regret the purchase for a second.