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.

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.

Street Art

Currently in Ballarat:

A large piece of street art.

Enough room inside it for several people to take a seat, if they were so inclined:

But it was vacant today.

Monument #32 Helter Shelter by Callum Morton.

I found it a bit creepy, but I probably would have had the same reaction no matter whose giant head it was.

Visiting Tony

In the Ballarat Botanic Gardens an avenue of busts commemorate almost all of Australia's Prime Ministers. I say "almost" because we've been churning through Prime Ministers so frequently lately that it has been hard to keep up. Another bust was installed last Monday, and today we went to check it out:

Jack sniffed Tony's ear, but then lost interest.

Dot seems to agree with me that Tony is a bit creepy.

But this photo from the Ballarat Courier of someone else's reaction to the bust made us all laugh:

Elsewhere in the gardens there are much nicer things to look at:

The Crafts Council of Ballarat have an exhibition in the Conservatory until the 18th June.

Happy

Last November I saw this in an open garden:

And wondered where I might get some old harrow disks to create something similar.

Tonight when I arrived home, I was presented with this:

Happy birthday! Thirty-two harrow disks! (And bonus harrow). Another early present because this one was a bit too big to hide, or even wrap.

A couple of things to notice in the background: the electric fence which is giving the roses a chance to recover, and the crepe myrtle behind that which is colouring up nicely:

This tree looked very sad and droopy through summer, and we decided we would move it during winter. But now it seems to have perked up, just in time to lose its leaves.

Queen Victoria is Not Amused

She doesn't look very happy, does she?

Statue of the "Queen of Earthly Queens", erected by the citizens of Bendigo.

But she doesn't seem impressed with her new neighbour:

This queen of the screen is currently getting more attention than Victoria. And I'm not sure Her Majesty would approve of people taking selfies looking up Marilyn's skirt. (Also not sure that statue looks much like Ms Munroe.)

Giant Worms?

Emergent, by Marynes Avila

This is a sculpture on display as part of MoreArt 2013, the Moreland City Council Public Art Show. I'm not being rude thinking it looks like giant worms. The artist's statement says that, "The work creates a unique narrative by echoing the 'latent' underground activity of earthworms."

Golden Bees

I didn't know until today that Napoleon adopted the bee as a symbol. But his coronation robe was covered in them, as are many items in the exhibition "Napoleon: Revolution to Empire" at the National Gallery of Victoria that I visited today. Here's the bee on the water-window at the gallery:

Not far from the gallery, at the base of the Eureka Tower, is this sculpture:

"The Queen Bee" by Richard Stringer. Yesterday was the first time I had ever seen it, but the internet tells me that it has been there since 2007!

In other bee news this week, one of the hives swarmed on Tuesday. That wasn't meant to happen; there are enough bee hives around here! Our first warm spring day, and they took off. We could have just let them go, but they settled in a neighbour's lemon tree. After work I helped collect them, but although I had my camera in a pocket of my bee suit I got caught up in the action and forgot to take any pictures. I hope none of the other hives decide to do the same.

Patchwork Elephant

This is the first of the "Mali in the City" elephants I've seen since they were installed last week:

She is "Patch" by Amy Robinson, and she is at Victoria Market. An appropriate one to see first!
I wish they had an Android app for the location of the 50 Malis, not just an iPhone one. I think I'll probably try and visit them all, anyway.

Quilters At The Showgrounds

But not many of them.

The walk from the tramstop was long, and the showgrounds seemed deserted.

I kept going past the Pie In The Sky sculpture, and eventually found the Mad Quilters' Gathering. Unfortunately for the people who had stands there, very few people actually attended today. There were lots of different businesses, many of whom I haven't seen at the larger shows. I wandered around and looked at everything, but didn't buy much. I spent some of my time doing a workshop to make a 3D mariner's compass, which was done using a pattern and tool designed by Cheryl Phillips.

During the workshop we only made half of the compass. The problem with that was that it was very difficult to get exactly the same seam allowance on my machine at home, so my two halves were not exactly the same. The full compass might look OK:

But believe me, it is far from flat! I bought the pattern so I can make it again. Reading the pattern at home afterwards showed me that there was a point early in the construction when I should have fixed one of the issues that lead to this not sitting flat. Even with that knowledge, I think I'll probably need to make it a couple of times before I try it with precious fabric!

In Melbourne Today

Went into the city to meet up with some quilting friends. But first I walked past this landmark, which is closing tomorrow after 60 years:

I glanced inside, but the dark, mouldering heaps of fabric are far from inviting. It is hard to imagine that there is anything still worth buying inside.

For a colourful contrast, a rainbow of umbrellas decorate the Australia on Collins Arcade:

And the Myer windows have a preview of Mali in the City, a herd of 50 elephants, decorated by artists, which will be installed around the city in August.

This particular elephant was decorated by Mali herself! I'm looking forward to seeing them all around town.

Bendigo

Last time I photographed this sculpture, the trees were white with blossom.

Today, they have their autumn colours, and instead of visiting an exhibition of 300 years of wedding dresses (the link in my previous post no longer works), I was there to see Grace Kelly: Style Icon.

The exhibition was interesting, but far more crowded than I would have liked. The lighting level seems extremely low, or perhaps it was just because I couldn't get close enough that I had trouble reading the labels. There are large-print booklets of the labels available, but they were all in use when I was there. Fortunately you can wander anywhere once you get in, so I jumped ahead to the later rooms where the crowds were a little thinner, then came back to the beginning later. But I didn't enjoy the experience as much as I enjoyed the wedding dresses last year. Perhaps the trick would have been to go in the first week; many sessions are completely booked out now.

White

Trip north to see some white dresses.

What a perfect time of year for this sculpture! Folly (Themeda triandra syn. T.australis) by Sebastian Di Mauro.


Added later:
I've been told that this post is a little confusing. To clarify, the green structure in the middle is the sculpture. Here's its label:

It's not topiary.

The part of its name in brackets refers to kangaroo grass, which doesn't look at all like turf, artificial or otherwise.

Garden Show

A lovely day out at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show. It was a bit of a grey day, but early in the day it was easy to get around and look at things.

The Exhibition Building seen from a "coastal garden" across the lake:

Some of the sculpture:

One of the display gardens:

It is nice to see the fountain working again.

By about 1:00pm the crowds had built up, and it was becoming quite difficult to get around. Tomorrow is the last day, so if you want to go, I'd advise getting there as early as possible.

Merlion

Received a postcard from Singapore today - but is this plain white merlion as impressive as the multi-coloured one someone threw out in May?

Around Hobart Town

Do some shopping at Salamanca market, look at Mt Wellington in the distance.


Follow the sculpture trail around Battery Point.

This is called "Gift from the Earth", by Keizo Ushio of Japan. In fact it is not one of the sculptures which make up the trail. The trail is more informative than artistic.

Check out an antique shop or two.


Finish the day with chips from one of Hobart's floating fish'n'chip shops.