POP IN DIARY. BOOK CAB/FLIGHT. BASK IN ART. NO LAGGING.
Photographs, Monty Coles
Blast. Bendigo Gallery’s frocky sparkler Modern Love is over. Done, dusted and home-bound for Los Angeles. Since Sunday when its last spotlight winked off, Voxfrock has logged half a dozen Blast!s (or similar) from the laggers who typically accumulate as such exhibitions close.
They’re the folks who vowed to go (“Can’t wait…!”), scoffed “there’s plenty of time” and……pfft. Missed it.
Voxfrock suggests that, with a bit of planning and notes-to-self, comparable catastrophes can be averted as the National Gallery of Victoria’s Melbourne Now exhibition draws toward its closing date of March 23. As reported earlier on Voxfrock and a zillion other arty-fashiony-pop-culturally zinesites, Melbourne Now is an extraordinary, once-in-a-life exhibition of about 180 works by more than 300 artists, architects, designers, performers and curators from Guess Which City.
Photograph: Monty Coles
Some are mind-jolts, some utterly incomprehensible, some barely register at the time of viewing then rattle and bump around in your headspace later, flipping your preconceptions about Life The Universe and Everything in General.
We recommend it. With whistles and bells.
We also suggest two, or even three reasonably chunky visits are vital for a full-whack artbrick-in-the-face experience. A raft of worth-their-weight sponsors including Mercedes Benz bankrolled Melbourne Now so generously that multiple visits are possible without even denting your frockbudget. In a word, it’s free.
Photograph, Monty Coles
It’s sprawled across the NGV’s International (on St. Kilda Road) and National (at Federation Square) locations. Our favorite exhibits are too many to mention, but the majority are included in the Federation Square offering which we sensed was curated for a slightly more whimsical experience. The Hotham Street Ladies’ sugar icing house is in the foyer, for example (photograph above); several rooms rendered to the finest detail (crochetted rugs, dirty dishes…) in icing.
Photograph: National Gallery of Victoria
Sculptor-slash-taxidermist-slash- jeweller Julia Deville’s exhibit is also upstairs, a sadlovely juxtaposition of life and death in an opulent Victorian room (photograph, above) that reveals itself, tiny taxidermied creature by tiny taxidermied creature, as you move through it.
There are guides, books, tours and an app to help break Melbourne Now down to its marvellous component parts and sort an itinerary for two or 10 intense cerebral hours in the gallery.
Find them here, no lagging, no excuses, time’s leaking…
Janice Breen Burns, jbb@voxfrock.com.au with Terry Carruthers, intern@voxfrock.com.au
