Steve Melissa Grantham

The modern art gallery is about a compromise between space and content, and the Annandale gallery does this pretty well. Although the fifty skies exhibition took up too much space and these small, intimate works would have been better suited to a small, intimate space IMHO..Given the Annandale Gallery is a commercial space the works would be more likely to sell if their titles were displayed or if, at the very least, numbered for easy reference to the handy guide. The neon works, populist as they may be, were the highlight. Commended for curatorial presence.

It's a deli, and a coffee shop all in one. The coffee section is great but they could do with some indulgent cakes in a small display cabinet. You know, banana bread, croissants, friands... Did I put my hipster tastes to the test or what that day? Coffee was actually pretty good but I don't think they caught on when I asked for the very continental "hot cappuccino". The soy flat white and caramel latte they got right though, which was nice. Coffee tasted good and wasn't the disappointment I half expected from a suburban locale. Big space. Maybe needs a little more light inside?

What is this enormous corruption of metal doing on the side of this building? It's an incomprehensible conniption of copper and steel melted down and reassembled in what can only be described as a peculiar and unusually large stick insect. Is it saying something about the complexity of money markets as it's outside the Reserve Bank building? Or maybe the sheer size of it is a reflection of our great economy? Either way it's wonderfully ugly and best of all it doesn't have a name. (See name plaque) Perhaps they could call it "Well what did you expect?" Especially interesting in an hour or so's morning light.

This life size statue is a welcome reminder of the old adage 'from little things big things come.' Here James Martin is portrayed as a young boy, barely 10 years old, striding out into his new life in the colony of NSW. I don't imagine he would ever have imagined becoming the leader of that colony. If you read about this fellow you'll find he lived at Parramatta but made the 20 mile trip into school each day walking or more likely hitch hiking in a carriage gone to market. I seem to remember doing something similar but my ride in was a bit easier. Where he had a dusty track and horse and carriage I had a red coloured train and 20 minutes from Redfern station. The more things change, the more they remain the same.

This is the front office of Sydney Living Museums and the site of what was once the burgeoning colonies first Grog shop.... Hospital. And then the mint, where coins were made until 1920 something and lastly but not leastly as offices for the proletariat - erm.. New South Wales government. There's a cafe upstairs where you can while away the time having a long lunch while everyone else works. A keen reminder of days gone by, with immaculate exhibitions of coinage. There's an underused research facility in here too - the Caroline Simpson library. Staff here are friendly - although having a research area exposed to the SLM workplace is somewhat distracting. Come here to see what's been said and written, drawn and photographed of the many Sydney suburbs and their stories. No WiFi.