Galleries and Exhibitions in Melbourne September 2012

Outside NGV International. 15/09/2012. Photo: Julie Clarke

I wasn't the only person waiting outside the NGV International this morning for its 10 am opening. Photo above is just some of the people sitting on the Napoleon sign in the forecourt. Since it appeared to take ages getting into the NGV, I thought that this image was appropriate.

Man outside NGV International 15/09/2012. Photograph by Julie Clarke

One man made good use of his time by checking messages on his iphone. But it was his dress that interested me because he stood out from the crowd with his black attire that appeared to be from another time. I spoke with him briefly and discovered that he's a store man who draws in his spare time. I was also wearing a black hat and noted that I must also have been of some interest because I caught a young girl taking my photo. I'd gone to the NGV to see Meiro Koizumi's film, part of Experimenta's Speak to Me program, which was showing on the screen on level one. (Still from the 16 minute video below).

The film is quite poignant and is basically about a young man telephoning his mother on his mobile phone. There is a moral imperative since it speaks to those things not yet said, missed opportunities and regret. I must admit that I cried whilst watching it.

I headed from the NGV over to ACCA to see the Pat Brassington exhibition, which didn't disappoint. It was absolutely amazing - erotic images that engage with horror. Exquisite and sometimes disturbing and menacing, Brassington's photographs fill about five rooms that form a kind of internal maze. I took half a dozen photographs of her work, but here are a few of my favorites.

Photograph by Pat Brassington, rephotographed by Julie Clarke 2012

Collage of photographs by Pat Brassington, rephotographed by Julie Clarke 2012

Photograph by Pat Brassington, rephotographed by Julie Clarke 2012

In the other space at ACCA was a sculpture exhibition, but I have to admit that the only work I appreciated was this rather Louise Bourgeois inspired, soft, curvaceous body work from the British artist Sarah Lucas.

Sarah Lucas - Sculptural Matter, ACCA. Photograph by Julie Clarke 2012

After having a well-earned cup of coffee outside the Malthouse theatre,  I went to see Radio Alice at the Margaret Lawrence Gallery, VCA. The exhibition addresses aspects of Radio Alice, a broadcasting venture that began in Bologna, Italy in the Spring of 1976. It was eventually outlawed when the state police stormed 'the radio station and put an end to its transmission' (Nik Pappas, from the catalogue). It  was good to see the video work of a past friend Sue Dodd, just one of the works shown in this exhibition filled with image and text.

Still frame from Sue Dodd White Rabbit. Photograph by Julie Clarke 2012

I noticed this conglomeration of leaflets on a wall outside VCA and couldn't resist photographing it. I love the torn edges and the word autolumiscent placed vertically over one man's image.

I headed back to the NGV to pick up the 50th Anniversary issue of Artforum International that I'd put on hold earlier in the morning and not taken with me because its almost 500 pages made it quite heavy to carry.  I had an interesting conversation with the young women serving at the NGV bookshop. We talked about Stelarc and Orlan and it turned out that she is a designer with the upcoming Malthouse production of Orlando. Small world. 

With the issue firmly in both hands I took a tram up Swanston Street to the RMIT Gallery to see Telenoid, which was not at all what I expected. I thought that it was going to be a robot similar to Feminoid X, but it was instead a baby sized, humanoid looking machine that was remote controlled from somewhere within the RMIT Gallery. I did hold it briefly and speak to it. It said 'I like your hat' and when I asked the assistant whether it was the person operating the remote control that made the comment, she said that the robot could see! I assume that it had a camera somewhere within its eye sockets. I'm still a little unsure of these kinds of inventions. I thought that the most interesting aspect of it was that it had abbreviated limbs and no bodily hair and as such engages with (though I'm sure that was not the inventors intention) the notion of disability.

Telenoid. RMIT Gallery. Photo by Julie Clarke 2012

Tired. I headed home. After doing this post I'm going to spend some time reading some of the great articles in Artforum, or just have a big rest!