Food, Art, and Dance

Friday March 15 was another beautiful day in Melbourne.  Sunny with a high of 23C.  There is no humidity, the nights cool off and one needs a light jacket.

Alain made a short trip (he took the free trams) to the Queen Victoria Market to buy some fish and vegetables for dinner.  I worked on the last post to the blog.   We headed to Cumulus on Flinders Lane for lunch.  It had been highly recommended by a number of people both in Toronto and in Melbourne.  We shared a very good charred corn and barley salad and some prosciutto.

Outside of Cumulus on Flinders Lane

Buzzy lunchtime crowd

Alain at the bar

Lots of communal tables

Just down the street was a small coffee shop we hadn't seen before--Tom Thumb--- clearly a popular spot.

Yet another coffee shop

We walked by Hosier Lane and saw another street artist at work.   There seems to be a process for updating and repainting the laneways.  Always a big crowd on Hosier.

Street art on Hosier Lane

We walked back on Flinders Lane and noticed a sign for e.g.etal, an Australian Contemporary Jewellery store.  It was located in an office building and had quite a large space in a lower level.  Beautiful jewellery - but quite pricey.  A superb selection.  They were having an opening later that evening.  The gallery was established in 1998 and represents 60 Australian and New Zealand jewellery artists and designers.

Signage for store

We then saw a sign for an Alpha60 concept store on the second level of a building.  The Australian label has been around since 2005 and is the product of a brother and sister team, Alex and Georgie Cleary.  They have a store on the street level and, in 2016, opened a concept store and exhibition space on the upper level in Chapter House, an elegant and lofty hall adjacent to St. Paul's Cathedral.  It was a beautiful space.

Beautiful space for Alpha60

Pollon-a flower store on Flinders Lane

Our next stop was a return to the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) International to visit the Melbourne Art Book Fair.  It is in its 5th year and features a three-day program of ideas, discussions and book launches at the NGV.  The Great Hall on the ground level of the NGV had a number of stalls selling art books.

Signage

I have gone to the Toronto Art Book Fair, but this was larger.

Great displays-and lots of interesting books

Lots of folks at the book fair

Signage for each booth

There is also Melbourne Design Week happening while we are here.   The design store at MGV was featuring a jewellery artist as part of the very large program.   Melbourne is a never ending city of arts, culture and festivals.

Happening all over town including the NGV

I did buy a pair of earrings from this artist commissioned by the NGV

Someone had recommended that we check out the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) located a short walk from the NGV.  

Southbank Theatre-- another incredible building in the Arts Precinct

The ACCA was established in Melbourne in 1983 and is now situated in an iconic award-winning building in the Southbank arts precinct.  The building was completed in 2002, designed by local architects Wood Marsh.   It is a large shell for the display of contemporary art with four gallery spaces of varying sizes, which open out from a distinctive foyer space.

Outside of ACCA

Another view with poster for show The Theatre is Lying

There were 5 works displayed.  The most captivating one was a video by Daniel Jenatsch entitled: The Sheraton Hotel Incident, a satirical recreation of a historical event.  In 1983, a group of Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) agents undertook a training exercise at the then Sheraton Hotel in Melbourne, involving the simulated rescue of a hostage from fictional foreign agents.  This was done without the knowledge of the hotel, and was totally bungled.  A Royal Commission followed which led to the revocation of ASIS powers which were not reinstated until 2004.   It was a fascinating recreation based on news reports, interviews and the Royal Commission report.

Daniel Jenatsch, b. 1985 Sydney, lives and works in Melbourne

Sol Calero b 1982, Caracas lives and works in Berlin La Puerto 2018 -references to archways of Spanish colonial architecture.

Consuelo Cavaniglia (lives and works in Sydney) present distant 2018-- 7 panels and theatrical lighting- illusions and perceptions.

Chunky Move, a dance company, also has studios in the ACCA building.

Chunky Move -- the company was founded in 1995 as Victoria's flagship contemporary dance company.  It also offers a range of public classes in contemporary dance.

We did a small detour to take a picture of Habitat Filter, which we had seen from our tour bus the other day.  It opened in November 2016 and was the result of a $20,000 public design competition launched in 2015 by Transurban to "pretty up" the Power Street Loop Site.

Winning Designers Matt Drysdale, Matt Myers and Tim Dow- describe it as  a "working sculpture within a landscape."  Shape complements the ACCA building

We walked back to the Malthouse Theatre (adjacent to the ACCA) and saw posters for a dance festival called Dance Massive which is happening in Melbourne from March 12-24.  It is the sixth interation of the festival, which takes place every two years.  It features 30 Australian productions. We saw that some of the performances were taking place at the Malthouse Theatre.  We got tickets to a performance of Common Ground for March 15 at 7:30 p.m.

The piece was created by Anouk van Dijk, the former Artistic Director of Chunky Move (she was Artistic Director from 2012- 2018) for and with two very accomplished Australian dancers, Richard Cilli and Tara Jade Samaya.  The piece was first performed in 2018 at the Chunky Move Studios and has been remounted for Dance Massive 2019.

Posters for dance festival and Common Ground outside of the Malthouse Theatre.

The Malthouse Theatre is located in a fabulous building that was a historic beer-making malthouse built in 1892.  The building was gifted to the Victorian State Government in 1986.  It was converted into a theatre complex with a 500 seat theatre and a 180 seat theatre.

Café and bar pre-performance

Bar at the Malthouse Theatre-- we shared a Coopers Ale outside before the performance

I was able to take a photo of the theatre and stage as it was filling up.  The floor of the stage was lit and the design was reminiscent of a boxing ring.  Common Ground was described in the program as a ritualistic battleground for two dance greats and as a choreographic game of chess.  The Choreographer's notes said that she was inspired by the alliances and feuds between political leaders on the national and international stage and that Common Ground explores the dynamics of power.

Theatre and stage before the performance -- it was almost sold out (500 seats)

It was a wonderful performance.  The two dancers were superb.  While at first looking like the dancers were negotiating for common ground, the struggle for dominance predominated.   The performance was an hour in length.  Afterwards, we headed back to the apartment for a fish dinner. I later read a review of the performance in the Sydney Morning Herald that gave it 5 stars saying that Common Ground is "a mature work by a choreographer at the height of her powers, performed by dancers at the height of theirs.  It deserves to tour the world".  We would definitely agree.

Melbourne is an incredible city for art and culture.  Saturday March 16 will be our last full day in Melbourne.  We head to Hobart, Tasmania on Sunday.

We are also incredibly saddened by the horrible news of the mosque shootings in Christchurch.  We were there only a few weeks ago and our Airbnb was in the Linwood area about a 20 minute walk from the city centre.  We didn't see the mosque on Linwood Road, but it was not too far away.  There is definitely an anti-immigrant sentiment in both New Zealand and Australia.  So much hatred in the world.