Sunny Melbourne

Sunny Melbourne (yes, really!)

15th - 20th July, 2008

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Text and photographs © David Powell, except where indicated.

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Day 1:
Around Melbourne

Day 2:
Heritage, Parks
& River Walks

Day 3:
Walkabout
city centre

Day 4:
Art Deco &
Melbourne @ Night

Days 5 & 6:
The Shrine, Rialto Tower, Botanic Gdns

Foyer, National Gallery of Victoria
Image © David Powell, 2008

Day 4. Friday .. finally caught up with my native guide, a former art teacher, who lives in Melbourne and spent the day with him. Along with a friend of his, a fashion designer, and her mother, also an arty sort (I was definitely the odd one out) we went to the National gallery of Victoria to see the Art Deco Exhibition. Not something I know about and having seen the exhibition I suspect it's not something the even experts know all that much about. It's not so much a description of an art style as a name for the time period between the mid 1920's and the late 1930's. If anything, it could be described as the marriage or art and functionality .. where functional items were crafted under the influence of art. So not just did a toaster make toast, but it also looked liked a work of art. Art Deco really encompassed many different forms of art all under one label. Fashion, architecture, art, dance, jewellery, household appliances and much much more .. literally anything from the 1920's and 1930's that looked "arty" was labelled Art Deco. Art Deco is not just architecture that's typified in Batman's Gotham City (at least the TV series) and can be found in 1920's buildings around the world .. and yes, quite a few in Melbourne' city centre. Lots of beautiful stuff in the exhibit. Lots of weird and simply (at least to me) incomprehensible stuff. Some was downright ugly - well beauty is in the eye of the beholder, after all ... especially when you're talking about art. Well it is an art form that has no real definition other than "art in functional items". Still, a lot of the stuff did involve the use of lines and curves. If that helps. The exhibition started off with what inspired Art Deco .. ancient Egyptian and African art and Oriental art .. at least in the view of the organisers of the exhibition. Tho' what the death mask of an Egyptian Pharaoh has to do with Art Deco I dunno .. but it was one of the examples given. Anyway, speaking from a strictly "what appealed to me" sense, I would have to say the one thing that most caught my eye was a clock made by Cartier's from platinum and jade .. it was simply beautiful. The 1930's Mercedes Benz car in the foyer was quite elegant and some of the Art Deco inspired dresses were quite beautiful. And in a deja vu moment ... the fashion designed friend of my "native guide" was caught by one particular Art Deco fashion shoot from the 1920's ... it was almost identical to a photo shoot she'd completed only a few weeks earlier.

After finishing the exhibition we all headed north to Carlton to have lunch at an Italian café on Lygon Street (not far from where we had lunch two nights before). A regular haunt of my host ... who in years past taught the current manager of the café. Tiny and very crammed (it was a real squeeze!) but the food was delicious. Time for some socialising afterwards and then a few hours seeing a different side of Melbourne ... dropped into a local pub and shared a few drinks with my hosts's friends ... most of the Italian. Oh, and ended up with two cuttings of a grape vine. Hope they take once I get them home. Then off to another Italian café, this time in West Brunswick, a nearby suburb, for dinner and several hours of pleasant conversation .. before catching a tram back to the city centre. Cynthia was at her conference's award ceremony until after 11pm, so I grabbed a scarf (the outside temp was not far above freezing and windy) and spent a few hours roaming the city centre taking some night-time photo's of the city. All in all a pretty laid back and quiet day compared to the last few. Always useful to have a quiet day in the middle of a holiday to catch one's breath.

Art Deco Exhibition, National Gallery of Victoria ...