Ups and Downs

This week I took a trip to Maryborough to visit the Golden Textures exhibition. Since my last visit in 2021 the gallery has had a complete make-over.

The architects have kept the history of the building (a former fire station), while updating and extending the display areas. One welcome addition for those on a road trip is that there are now toilets (no photo, but they were nice). A garden is planned, which will be good to see next time I visit in perhaps another 2 years. I liked this view through a skylight in the reception area:

We have had a bit of wild weather this week, and the wind created a view through the roof of my shade house:

The shadecloth ripped right across and left half the roof uncovered. I was a bit worried about my orchids being unprotected from potential frost, so I moved as many as I could to the greenhouse, especially this one which has a few flower spikes developing:

 I hope it will be happy in there!

Last week at work I was quite disturbed as large machinery was working across the road, demolishing what has been a pedestrian mall:

I was particularly upset at trees being smashed down:

 

It was shocking. 

When I got home I did some searching to find out what was happening. It turns out they are not completely demolishing the mall. There will be one lane of traffic through here, but there will still be a playground, and seating areas. But I couldn't see why they needed to just smash up what was there, particularly the trees! However this week when I went to work I found that lots of the trees are still standing:

It was still noisy, as the digger was pulling up the paving and dumping it into the big skip. I wonder what I will find next week?

I have not managed to do any sewing this week, so here is a tiny fairywren that hopped almost up to me as I stood very still one morning:

And for contrast, a pelican I saw when I popped out of a meeting for some fresh air a couple of days ago:

Wheat Country

Many years ago I worked in an office which had a poster on the wall of an amazing building, the "Stick Shed" at Murtoa. Today I got to go and see it for myself.

The exterior doesn't look too promising:

Although you might get the sense that it goes on for quite a distance. In fact it is 265metres long,

60 metres across, and nearly 20 metres tall in the centre. If dwarfs the humans. 560 trees hold up the roof. It is like a giant rustic cathedral.

It was built during the second world war as an emergency bulk wheat storage shed. When full, it held 3.5 million bushels, or about 92,500 tonnes, of wheat.

You can read more about it at the Stick Shed website. 

We bought lunch from a shop in Murtoa - injecting a little bit of cash into the local economy. On the way back to the car, I got a call from Mum's nursing home, to say that she had a fever and they wanted to send her to hospital. I said I would really prefer them to care for her there if they could. I thought the transfer to hospital, and the hanging around on a trolley for potentially hours waiting to be seen, would do her more harm than good.

To add some variety to the trip, we came home a different way, travelling through three towns with painted silos.

This one is in Rupanyup, a town I've never visited before. I only knew of it from a job I had many many years ago with a wool-buying company. Their silos were painted by a Russian mural artist, Julia Volchkova.

Next stop was St Arnaud,

to see their silos painted by a local artist, Kyle Torney. He has also painted murals on other buildings around the town, which we saw a few of while buying and enjoying icecreams.

The last silo for the day was at Avoca, where the art work is still in progress:

This side depicts a barking owl, and a brush-tailed phascogale is planned for the other side. The artist is Jimmi Buscombe from Warrnambool. When finished, this silo art will also have some glow-in-the-dark features.

While in Avoca we also visited the Chinese Garden:

The garden was a peaceful spot to rest for a while, on what was quite a warm day. Monday and Tuesday both had top temperatures of 10.1C in Lal Lal, so suddenly being in the high 20s was a shock to the system! 

It was a really good day out.

Ararat

Since I discovered earlier this year that Ararat had a gallery that specialises in textiles, I have wanted to visit it. I'm not sure why I had never known that Ararat Gallery TAMA (Textile Art Museum Australia) existed, but perhaps because it has only had that name since 2018. 

With lockdown lifted, but this morning's case numbers so high I expect it to be reimposed at any moment, we grabbed the opportunity to take a drive and check it out.

"Thread of Life" is a display of Japanese textiles, particularly of boro pieces, but also a small selection of other Japanese items from the gallery's collection.

The exhibition that we enjoyed the most was "Obsessed: Compelled to Make", which included works by 15 artists, each accompanied by a video of the artist at work. I was very glad we decided to visit today, as this exhibition closes on Monday.

One of my favourites was a group of small ceramic creatures by Vipoo Srivilasa:

Accompanying video here: https://vimeo.com/254599375

Another was a life-sized sculpture of a woman and companion animals by Tjunkaya Tapaya:

It reminded me a bit of my dogs climbing all over me when I sit down. The accompanying video is here: https://vimeo.com/254596745

We then took a walk around the town. Outside the RSL is this unusual sculpture, "Ghost of Gallipoli":

My photo doesn't quite capture how horrified he looks in real life.

The Alexandra Gardens were a nice place to walk around, with lots of waterbirds on the lake.

Volcanic-looking mountain, Mt Langi Ghiran, to the east of Ararat:

It was nice to have an outing to somewhere I've never been before. I've driven through Ararat, but I think this is the first time I've ever stopped there.

Triennial

At the beginning of last year, I decided it would be a year when I didn't miss any major exhibitions or the like because I just didn't get round to going until it was too late. Ha ha!

So, now it is this year. And today I went to Melbourne to the National Gallery of Victoria Triennial 2020, which obviously didn't happen in 2020. As an added bonus, on the way to the station I heard on the radio that this week people with Seniors Cards could travel on public transport for free! I thought that might mean that the train would be packed, but fortunately that wasn't the case, and I had no-one beside me for my journeys into and out of town.

These animated birds are scattered along the road in front of the gallery. Of course a still photo doesn't show that they are moving, and I got two doing exactly the same thing so they aren't very exciting. But you can see that it is autumn and the trees in front of the gallery are starting to lose their leaves.

I started at the top of the gallery and worked my way down. I thought I had seen everything but in fact I missed a few of the exhibits. There is just too much to take in on one day!

This constantly moving display is quite amazing. As you can tell from the people, it is huge. The three-dimensional effect is an illusion. It is actually a flat screen, and even the white "frame" is not really there:

Quantum Memories by Refik Anadol

Some exuberant fashion:

Richard Quinn

Tomo Koizumi

There's over 200m of fabric in that outfit!

This tunnel structure is amazing:

Botanical Pavilion 2020 by Kengo Kuma and Geoff Nees

It is constructed using traditional Japanese methods of interlocking pieces held in place by tension and gravity. The timbers on the inside are from trees from the Melbourne botanic gardens, that didn't survive the drought between 1996 and 2010. They are arranged by colour rather than species, although my photo doesn't show that. It was wonderful to walk through.

I stood waiting for this piece to do something for a while then after I walked away it turned itself on and did its thing:

An Ode to the Airbag by Jonathan Ben-Tovim

The bags gradually inflate and deflate. Did it make me think of the Takata airbag recall? No. Even though my car was involved in that recall. It looks impressive, though.

I found a couple of quilts, although neither of them are actually part of the Triennial.

Joseph's Coat, c 1910, Lancaster County Pennsylvania

In this case it is actually the light in front of the quilt that is part of the Triennial. It is Chandelier 85 Lamps, designed by Rodi Graumans. 

U - Lick the Watermelon (Rush Job) by Seulgi Lee

My photo isn't great, but I loved the bold shape and colours and the fine matchstick quilting. To "lick the skin of the watermelon" is apparently a Korean idiom meaning something like the English "only scratching the surface", but can also refer to something done without proper care, in a rush. Which is not how this quilt was made.

This was amazing:

Phantom Landscape by Yang Yongliang

At first glance it is a traditional Chinese mountain painting, and it was displayed with that type of work. But the landscape is composed of urban scenes such as skyscrapers, traffic and construction, and as it is a video things move and there is a soundtrack. It was quite mesmerising.

 

There are so many amazing parts to the exhibition which can't be captured in a photograph because they are videos, or are too big, or too dark, or beyond my or my phone's photographic ability! I took lots of blurry useless photos. If you really want to know what the exhibition is like, go there if you can (until 18th April), or spend a while exploring the Triennial website (link again: Triennial 2020)

Golden Textures

It was a lovely day for a road trip to Maryborough to visit the 6th biennial Golden Textures contemporary art quilt exhibition at the Central Goldfields Art Gallery. Here are a few shots of some of the interesting pieces.

 I have to include this one, because it is the winning piece, and was also made by a member of Ballaarat Quilters:

Crown of Thorns by Suzanne Lyle (detail)

 

This next piece was free-motion quilted on a long-arm, but the stitching is incredibly fine and there is no sign of needle holes. I wonder if she uses a very thin needle, or washes the work after finishing the quilting, or ... ? Just how does she manage this:

As the Sun Sets by Robyn Cuthbertson (detail)

 

This is a tiny part of a work showing canola fields glowing at various times of the day:

Snapshots - Triptych by Beth and Trevor Reid (detail)

My photo doesn't really capture the glowingness!

The colours in this piece are also not at all accurate, but the piecing is amazing:

Microcorrossion by Katherine Jones (detail)

I know from the artist's statement that she used foundation paper piecing to create the shapes, but how she designed it is a mystery. I expect a computer graphics program of some sort was involved. I've shown some of her work before, including the amazing "Bling", which also featured incredible piecing.

Lastly, a fun piece "celebrating" Melbourne's lockdown life in 2020:

Staring at the Wallpaper by Noelle Lyon

I didn't get a shot of the whole thing. She also has very fluffy slippers on her feet, for attending Zoom business meetings.

You can see more of the works on Instagram: #goldentextures2021

Seasonal Changes

Piinpi is an Indigenous word used in parts of far north Queensland to refer to the changes of seasons. Piinpi: Contemporary Indigenous Fashion is an exhibition at the Bendigo Art Gallery (for another week or so). A friend asked if I would like to go and see it with her, and I jumped at the chance. 

When I left home this morning it was 10 degrees, drizzly and overcast. Our weather station tells me our top was 16.6; not quite summer temperatures. (I'm not complaining, I'd rather have a cool summer than bushfires.) Somewhere on the road to Bendigo we crossed into another climatic zone, where summer has already arrived. In that northern part of the state the land is dry, the sun is strong, and the temperature was nice today (top of 23.4) but will be far too hot in a few days.

 

This beautiful silk gown designed by Lyn-Al Young is called Towera (Fire). My phone picture doesn't capture the fire colours of it well.

There is a nice report of the exhibition with better photos than mine here: https://viva70.com/piinpi-contemporary-indigenous-fashion/

This linen dress and accompanying fascinator feature one of my less favourite creatures:

Ithitha (Bullant) designed by Suzanne Atkinson and Eva Ponting. (The label didn't make it clear if they each designed one piece, or if they designed the whole outfit together.)

There are several other interesting exhibitions on at present, including the Paul Guest Contemporary Drawing prize. This entry, COVID Dis-Comforter by Nicole O'Loughlin, caught my eye:

You need to enlarge that photo to see some of the details of her observations of covid life, or you can read all about and see some good close-up photos of it on Nicole's website here: https://www.nicoleoloughlin.com/covid-dis-comforter

This little section echoed my experience of last year!

Sewing and Sewing

Six months ago (although it feels much longer now!) we visited Hahndorf, where this print was purchased:

"Sewing (the artist's wife)" by Hans Heysen.

Over the last few days the lovely frame was made, glass was obtained, and today the print is hanging in my sewing room.


My 100-day quilt is now 5% done:

This is the Laundry Basket Quilts mystery quilt from a few weeks ago. Part 1 (4 blocks) on the left, and the first block for part 2 on the right.

Eastward Ho!

After a couple of friends visited an attraction in Yarra Junction last summer, we made an arrangement for the three of us to go there together this summer. This is the week we settled on. Unfortunately one of us had to cancel, and my own participation was in doubt until yesterday, due to uncertainty about my mother's situation. My first step was to travel 150km east, to spend the night at the home of skippingstitches, ready to travel the last 40km tomorrow.

After visiting my mother (who has been moved to a quieter room, but this one has even less view than the previous one. In the new one, the bottom section of the windows has been painted over.) I took a train to Melbourne, then a suburban train to the eastern suburbs. I arrived early enough for us to take a trip this afternoon to the TarraWarra Museum of Art.

Avenues of poplar trees lining the driveways:

Netted grapevines above the carpark:

And in the foreground of a view very different to the basalt plains of the western side of Melbourne:

The exhibition we had come to see is Assembled: The Art of Robert Klippel. My flashless phone photos can not do the pieces any justice, so click that link if you would like to get a better idea of his work.

The sculptural pieces were fascinating, and made for interesting shadows,

but I liked a lot of his two-dimensional works as well, such as this lithograph with gouache and collage, (Untitled),

In the grounds of the museum is this installation; Valhalla by Callum Morton.

Callum Morton was the creator of the somewhat creepy large head I visited last month. As this explanatory sign says,

this work is also disturbing. There was no simulated smoke or silent attendant today, but the sounds experienced inside the work were unsettling.

I enjoyed this visit to a place I didn't know existed before today, and am looking forward to tomorrow's adventure.