Four
Books
Saladin Ahmed Throne of the Crescent Moon
This book is brilliant and delightful and good. It's compelling. I had to force myself to read the ending slowly enough to take it all in. It is pretty straightforwardly written, which gives the relative 'foreign-ness' of the setting (fantasy Fertile Crescent) an everydayness that is refreshing. It also suits all the characters, who are nevertheless different from each other. Each character has their own journey and they bring their own expectations and past to their point view which illuminates them and the others and the world. The story is great. It pretty much stands alone. This is book one, so I am looking forward to what is next, although it is not obvious what it's going to be. I love the way religion works, too. It is rare to find a fantasy world, especially one with explicit magic, where the character's religiosity and relationship to God is real-world familiar. And, like all secondary world fantasy where everything is in English, everything is in English, even phrases that I'm used to expecting to hear in Arabic.
Also, all of Harry Potter, about which I have many thoughts!
Exhibitions
I've been an art tour the last week. I fly home from Brisbane tomorrow. I have to write up the Asia Pacific Triennial, which is on here, but everything else below the cut:
Abstract Expressionists at NGA, Canberra
This was mostly made up of the collection of the gallery, with a few other pieces. I was mostly interested in the Helen Frankenthaler, which was great. None of the rest was very new to me, although it was interesting to see stuff having studied it more intensely since last time I saw it. Blue Poles is not so lovely as I remembered. I definitely prefer Spring.
Toulouse Lautrec at NGA Canberra
This is a fantastic exhibition. Broad range of Lautrec's paintings, prints and posters. Good commentary on the cards, too, except that I don't really agree with their interpretation of Manet's Olympia as creating an idol out of a prostitute. Part of the point of painting Olympia as a Venus in pose is that she is looking out at the viewer in a direct way uncharacteristic of Renaissance art, and the viewers would have known who (and what) she was.
The prints particularly interested me, of course. Quite a range of styles in his lithography, not even taking the poster work into account; that is magnificent all on its own.
Aboriginal Art Collection at NGA Canberra
NGA has a major collection of the 1970s Western Desert art. And a great collection of contemporary Aboriginal art, and Torres Straight Islander art, which I think Victoria has less of. Also, absolutely fantastic Aboriginal print makers, including linoprint, which is not as common as lithography or etching.
Anish Kapoor, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Brilliant. Again a range of Kapoor's work, from early stuff to recent stuff. I went on the volunteer tour, which was excellent, took us right through the exhibition. Fascinating work, compelling in a quiet, contemplative way. Draws you in rather than reaching out for you. Our guide talked about the strange self-effacing nature of Kapoor's art, the lack of ego in what is nevertheless monumental sculpture. And this is true. It lets you come to it. And it keeps its secrets.
Francis Bacon, Art Gallery of New South Wales
I have only been incidentally aware of Bacon's work. A painting of his will appear in any collection of post war British art, but to see so much of it together is eye opening. The exhibition is arranged by decade, and also includes some of the source images Bacon kept in his studio, a clip from Battleship Potemkin and interviews with the curators and designers of the exhibition. There are distinct stages of Bacon's work, for all the continuing themes of cages, isolation, distortion. Bacon said that he believed in deeply ordered chaos. And also that from birth to death with give this purposeless existence meaning though our desires.
National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
I pretty much just wandered through the collection, here. Some of the contemporary portraits were fantastic, including a video piece of Cate Blanchett. Most of it was unsurprising. But they did have a good collection of various images of Aboriginal people, which did seem to be treated respectfully. The commentary on the images of Trukanini made the point that although she was publicly mourned in Tasmania, her remains were displayed in a museum. That card let that stand, because the point doesn't need to be explained, but notes also said that was only laid to rest with proper ceremony in 1972, described the title of "Queen" as bogus and twice made reference to the fact that she was not the last of the Tasmanian Aborigines. Most of this information was incidental to the display, which made it more powerful. I was definitely pleased with the tone that the display cards took.
Go, Figure at National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
This was an exhibition of contemporary Chinese portraiture. Very interested, not least because it discussed portraiture as a means of political engagement in Chinese art. There was a Mao Marilyn - Mao in the style of Andy Warhol, who use of mass imagery was apparently influential in China. There was a piece which was a recording of Mao's introduction as leader playing from a 40s microphone.
Taboo, MCA, Sydney
This was a noisy, busy exhibition. Kind of creepy, in part, and disturbing in others. Some excellent political commentary, especially around race. I did not spent a lot of time here because I was already running late to get back for the train.
Dobell Prize for Drawing, AGNSW, Sydney
I thought I'd just step in to see what this was. It was excellent. Such a range of styles, materials and subject matter. I massive black and white charcoal of Ben Boyd National park, a piece that was coloured pen and highlights stripes across a page, oil pastel on board. Drawing is something that I don't often have the patience to do - I have to remind myself that most of my art training is in Japanese Ink Brush painting, which is so immediate. Seeing all these works made me feel at once better and worse about my drawing. I am no where near that good, but drawing also takes time and effort and work such that I have rarely put into it, so I could produce work much better than I have to date.
Please come to the dreamwidth post of this entry! There are
comments
Saladin Ahmed Throne of the Crescent Moon
This book is brilliant and delightful and good. It's compelling. I had to force myself to read the ending slowly enough to take it all in. It is pretty straightforwardly written, which gives the relative 'foreign-ness' of the setting (fantasy Fertile Crescent) an everydayness that is refreshing. It also suits all the characters, who are nevertheless different from each other. Each character has their own journey and they bring their own expectations and past to their point view which illuminates them and the others and the world. The story is great. It pretty much stands alone. This is book one, so I am looking forward to what is next, although it is not obvious what it's going to be. I love the way religion works, too. It is rare to find a fantasy world, especially one with explicit magic, where the character's religiosity and relationship to God is real-world familiar. And, like all secondary world fantasy where everything is in English, everything is in English, even phrases that I'm used to expecting to hear in Arabic.
Also, all of Harry Potter, about which I have many thoughts!
Exhibitions
I've been an art tour the last week. I fly home from Brisbane tomorrow. I have to write up the Asia Pacific Triennial, which is on here, but everything else below the cut:
Abstract Expressionists at NGA, Canberra
This was mostly made up of the collection of the gallery, with a few other pieces. I was mostly interested in the Helen Frankenthaler, which was great. None of the rest was very new to me, although it was interesting to see stuff having studied it more intensely since last time I saw it. Blue Poles is not so lovely as I remembered. I definitely prefer Spring.
Toulouse Lautrec at NGA Canberra
This is a fantastic exhibition. Broad range of Lautrec's paintings, prints and posters. Good commentary on the cards, too, except that I don't really agree with their interpretation of Manet's Olympia as creating an idol out of a prostitute. Part of the point of painting Olympia as a Venus in pose is that she is looking out at the viewer in a direct way uncharacteristic of Renaissance art, and the viewers would have known who (and what) she was.
The prints particularly interested me, of course. Quite a range of styles in his lithography, not even taking the poster work into account; that is magnificent all on its own.
Aboriginal Art Collection at NGA Canberra
NGA has a major collection of the 1970s Western Desert art. And a great collection of contemporary Aboriginal art, and Torres Straight Islander art, which I think Victoria has less of. Also, absolutely fantastic Aboriginal print makers, including linoprint, which is not as common as lithography or etching.
Anish Kapoor, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Brilliant. Again a range of Kapoor's work, from early stuff to recent stuff. I went on the volunteer tour, which was excellent, took us right through the exhibition. Fascinating work, compelling in a quiet, contemplative way. Draws you in rather than reaching out for you. Our guide talked about the strange self-effacing nature of Kapoor's art, the lack of ego in what is nevertheless monumental sculpture. And this is true. It lets you come to it. And it keeps its secrets.
Francis Bacon, Art Gallery of New South Wales
I have only been incidentally aware of Bacon's work. A painting of his will appear in any collection of post war British art, but to see so much of it together is eye opening. The exhibition is arranged by decade, and also includes some of the source images Bacon kept in his studio, a clip from Battleship Potemkin and interviews with the curators and designers of the exhibition. There are distinct stages of Bacon's work, for all the continuing themes of cages, isolation, distortion. Bacon said that he believed in deeply ordered chaos. And also that from birth to death with give this purposeless existence meaning though our desires.
National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
I pretty much just wandered through the collection, here. Some of the contemporary portraits were fantastic, including a video piece of Cate Blanchett. Most of it was unsurprising. But they did have a good collection of various images of Aboriginal people, which did seem to be treated respectfully. The commentary on the images of Trukanini made the point that although she was publicly mourned in Tasmania, her remains were displayed in a museum. That card let that stand, because the point doesn't need to be explained, but notes also said that was only laid to rest with proper ceremony in 1972, described the title of "Queen" as bogus and twice made reference to the fact that she was not the last of the Tasmanian Aborigines. Most of this information was incidental to the display, which made it more powerful. I was definitely pleased with the tone that the display cards took.
Go, Figure at National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
This was an exhibition of contemporary Chinese portraiture. Very interested, not least because it discussed portraiture as a means of political engagement in Chinese art. There was a Mao Marilyn - Mao in the style of Andy Warhol, who use of mass imagery was apparently influential in China. There was a piece which was a recording of Mao's introduction as leader playing from a 40s microphone.
Taboo, MCA, Sydney
This was a noisy, busy exhibition. Kind of creepy, in part, and disturbing in others. Some excellent political commentary, especially around race. I did not spent a lot of time here because I was already running late to get back for the train.
Dobell Prize for Drawing, AGNSW, Sydney
I thought I'd just step in to see what this was. It was excellent. Such a range of styles, materials and subject matter. I massive black and white charcoal of Ben Boyd National park, a piece that was coloured pen and highlights stripes across a page, oil pastel on board. Drawing is something that I don't often have the patience to do - I have to remind myself that most of my art training is in Japanese Ink Brush painting, which is so immediate. Seeing all these works made me feel at once better and worse about my drawing. I am no where near that good, but drawing also takes time and effort and work such that I have rarely put into it, so I could produce work much better than I have to date.
Please come to the dreamwidth post of this entry! There are
comments