Icy Photos A Splash In Uk

Sun Herald

Sunday October 7, 2007

William Petley

ANTARCTICA, a photographic exhibition resulting from Angus McDonald's partnership with the Mawson's Huts Foundation, has opened at expat Australian lawyer Rebecca Hossack's new gallery in Charlotte Street, London. Of the adventure, which he's begun to translate to canvas (one is in the show), a humble McDonald said he'd never seen a sky so big. Iced: Anna Nieuwenhuysen, cultural advisor to the Australian High Commission and something of a spelling bee; David Jensen, chair of the foundation; painter Adrienne Gaha (wife of artist Tim Maguire); and another expat, enigmatic investment banker Hugo Heath with his German-born wife, Julia. Melting Antarctic ice caps contribute at least 15 per cent to the current sea level rise. Trigger point, anyone?

A page in history

PAGES Event Equipment - which, it could be said, invented our event industry - received 650 RSVPs for Friday's bash at Fleet Steps celebrating 50 years of operation. You entered through a museum featuring a Sydney Turf Club water pipe that Pages had managed to "find" twice in consecutive years. Glen-Marie Frost told of the benchmark Pages set during the Sydney Olympics (it is working on Beijing 2008) and of glamorous parties arranged in the '70s for the upper echelon - Atwills, Horderns, Murdochs and Potters. Tess Page, founder Greg's widow, spoke, too; a show reel, fireworks and tap dancers using catering equipment as timpani followed. Holidaying in Europe missing this was one of the company's staunch supporters, Our Lady of the Cointreau Ball, Deeta Colvin.

Spring sniffles take off

IF you've spent the past week streaming, giving the impression that you'd been on the bong at a Bette Midler movie, thank the council that planted - despite pleas they not - plane trees. The City of Sydney's website says: "Allergy experts at Royal North Shore and Concord hospitals have advised that plane trees are not generally recognised by either of their allergy clinics as a particular problem." Anyone welcoming spring's drifts of yellow pollen might like to discuss same with an interested party on (02) 9265 9333 or at council@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au. Up next: migrating moths.

North cooks up French lessons

THE idea of French lessons makes most boys' hearts skip, none more so than that of Justin North. The nimble North - Pilates twice a week - is the owner of Becasse and launches French Lessons, a compilation of cooking a la ze French, tomorrow. The restaurateur, despite making a family with wife Georgia in little Sophia, plays a monthly game of poker with chef mates, cooks privately for Gerry Harvey and Katie Page, and has plated boeuf en daube with caramelised parsnips for executives of every stripe, the Whitlams' Tim Freedman and John and Caroline Laws (she certainly knows her parsnips).

Barry's birthday bash

THERE was a black-tie affair recently in Paddington, thrown by dealers Dominic Maunsell and Edward "Ted" Wickes, marking another tick in the life of Barry Stern. If this means nix, he was once a player, with an eye for talent, in Sydney's lucrative art world, who retired to Morocco but now prefers Thailand. Stern turned 75. ("We're all rotting," confirmed Queen Street retailer Robert Burton earlier in the week.) Among the 120: painters Mary Pinnock and James Willebrant and composer Peter Sculthorpe. Lady (Mary) Fairfax, 85, sent her best from Fairwater, her harbourside home, by way of the beyond discreet Annalise Thomas.

Yellow fever for bubbles soiree

MUCH is called yellow: peril, press and pages; anyone with Hep A; odd dogs, water taxis, flags, flowers of all descriptions, jerseys; once, even a submarine; a book, a card and the dreaded cake. Slightly more mellow are the crayons dispatched by Veuve Clicquot, signalling Tuesday week's 130th anniversary of the champagne label's creation. Everything will be totally jaune (think yellow) including the Yellowboam, a specially produced jeroboam. And were you aware yesterday was International Day of the Donkey? They knew absolutely at Hunter Valley's Good Samaritan Donkey Sanctuary.

Hendrix experience for Lazarides

JIM Lazarides left school at 16 for Mount Lawley Technical College, serving his apprenticeship with American Optical. A free spirit, he embraced the surfing circuit but saw the sense in surf shops and there scoped the boom potential of Oakley, becoming one of its agents. In 1991, with Greg Arnette, Arnette Sunglasses was established, then later sold to Bausch & Lomb for an undisclosed sum. Next, having - as he laughingly puts it - lost a "shitload" of money (and a great house at Whale Beach), Lazarides cleared his head in Byron and built the global brand Odyssey2020. After a year living in California's Laguna Beach, he's just signed with the Hendrix estate to make the Jimi Hendrix range of sunglasses. Jim Lazarus is more like it.

NOW YOU KNOW

SALIENT points regarding the Sydney Symphony's 75th anniversary fund-raiser on October 25 at the Shangri-La Hotel: Sir Charles Mackerras will star; pudding will be original Sacher torte - famous since 1832 - sped from Hotel Sacher Wien (that's Vienna to you); confirmed include Mrs Ros Packer, Geoff and Vicki Ainsworth (ka-ching!), and Andrew and Renata Kaldor. To book, zap pronto alan.watt@sydneysymphony.com. Who'd resist dinner with a fresh tart enjoying a jubilee?

ON THE RISE

STEVE Lopes shows at the Mall Galleries, London, and has work in the National Gallery of Australia's collection. On Tuesday - and for the first time at Michael Carr Art Dealer, Woollahra - he proffered his latest: Ex Nihilo; paintings vaguely about fifth-century theologian and declared heretic (God love him) Pelagius. Sighted: Dr Robert Hampshire, publisher Susan Horwitz and the loyal Mark Coppleson. FYI: Trade Mark, new stuff from provocative installation artist Jonathan Jones, is at Gallery Barry Keldoulis.

© 2007 Sun Herald

Back to News Index | Back to Home