Does it really matter?

The ideas factory, more commonly known as the Nicholas Building, is set to be protected by a deal brokered by a CBD-based investment company.

According to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald on July 3, Forza Capital has paid around $80 million on a social enterprise model.

The deal has not been confirmed by agents Allard Shelton who are selling the building on behalf of a consortium.

There has been much huffing and puffing about the sale, with the Greens urging the state government to step in to buy the building.

Tenants were cautiously optimistic about the future when CBD News visited.

There are now 10 art galleries open on a Friday, the greatest concentration of galleries outside Collingwood.

“These are not commercial galleries,” said one tenant. “They may not survive retail forces.”

On the seventh floor is 99%, a gallery that seeks to appeal to the mob with its disdain for the “elitist” art world.

Its director Chelsea Hopper has commissioned a poet to make a piece for every day of July that responds to a famous artist. Some are on display.

“It’s all about populism,” she said. She wants to break down the division between people and the elite. “The ideas come first then you try and express that.”

She said there was a wider audience at the Nicholas Building than the typical art world mentality. Visitors are encouraged to go from gallery to gallery stealing ideas.

She said that one artist had gone about cutting off samples of people’s clothing in the street then stitched them all together.

99% is one of three galleries on the seventh floor. Hyacinth, a new Instragram gallery, has opened up next to the art lending library with a close-up video of a person scaling a fish.

In early July Stephen McLaughlin Gallery held an exhibition by Joseph Gleeson who runs a secondhand bookshop in the building, selling classics.

The exhibition Breakfast Scenes had an old-world aesthetic with enigmatic line portraits and expressive works on old wardrobe doors.

Text Tile, an exhibition of samplers by textile artists at Caves finished held on July 19 and World Food Books has a good supply of imports, including On The Heights of Despair by E M Cioran.

Some of his ideas include the one that insomnia is a vital part of human existence, irony can be a hip attitude, or one truly pursued and that the negative emotions can be amusing.

The book is published by the University of Chicago, and some might experience a negative emotion at the price tag of $65.

If you squander too much time in these pursuits of thinking and collecting ideas, you might be late for your next appointment. But does it really matter? •

Caption: Ideas for free at the Nicholas Building.