Travelsmartplanet

Along the sculpture walk at the Zealong Tea Estate in NZ, you learn that the world imbibes at least a billion cups of tea a day. It’s the world’s favorite drink (after water of course).

In 1984 an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC was an International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture. Of the 165 important paintings and sculptures mentioned, only 15 were created by women. The furor of this inequity started the Guerilla Girls movement to end gender and racial discrimination in museums everywhere . They created defiant and humorous pamphlets, videos, books and posters shown around the world. This call to action was to erase the double standard.

Founded in New York City in 1985, the Guerilla Girls movement has been challenging feminine bias in art, politics, film, and pop culture since then. The catalyst was a 1984 exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC which was an International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture. Of the 165 important paintings and sculptures mentioned, only 15 were created by women. The furor of this inequity started the Guerilla Girls movement of defiant and humorous pamphlets, videos, books posters, posted around the world. They had had enough of gender and racial discrimination in museums everywhere. This call to action was to erase the double standard. It took the US film industry’s  Academy Awards community until 2018 to get to the same place.

In the stately columned Auckland War Museum, you can discover the world’s largest collection of Maori and Polynesian artifacts. Sitting impressively in the center is a large ornately carved Hotunui meetinghouse from 1878 and a Waka (war canoe), Te Toki-a-Tapiri from 1836. They’re heart and soul of the museum, yet there’s lots more.

Look closely and you can see a live Weta which lives at the Arataki Visitor Centre in Waitakere NZ. Wetas are so old that they have outlived the dinosaurs. They’ve hardly changed in 100 million years. They are nocturnal and are among the heaviest insects in the world. There are about 100 different varieties of Weta in New Zealand.

About a dozen Hammering Man statues can be found around the world. This is the one we found in Seattle, WA. Jonathan Borofsky designed these huge kinetic sculptures as a silhouette a man who has a motorized arm and hammer. In each city they are different sizes but always painted black; They symbolize and celebrate workers all over the world.

The fantastical sheet metal walls of MoPop were designed by Frank Gehry. It is often quoted as looking like a smashed electric guitar. Gehry himself had made the comparison, “We started collecting pictures of Stratocasters, bringing in guitar bodies, drawing on those shapes in developing our ideas.”

Despite some critical reviews of the structure, the building has been called “a fitting backdrop for the world’s largest collection of Jimi Hendrix memorabilia.” The outside of the building which features a fusion of textures and colors, including gold, silver, deep red, blue and a “shimmering purple haze,” has been declared “an apt representation of the American rock experience.

Cranford University has helped the Gates Foundation by inventing a toilet which does not require water, sewer or electricity. Their goal is to contain, remove, treat and dispose of waste safely. This is a godsend for the remote communities which they are helping.

Meet the Nano Membrane Toilet which does not require water, sewer or electricity, to safely treat human waste. Not only that – but IT generates both electricity and water. Approximately 2.3 billion people in the world do not have access to toilets. This leads to soil contamination and the spread of diseases. This toilet contains, removes, treats and disposes of waste.

We got to “meet Bill Gates” at the Gates Foundation in Seattle, WA. Through talking screens, we learned about him and the problems he and his wife are trying to solve around the world. Fascinating.