Melbourne Now - a child friendly exhibition hooray!

If I ever meet Tony Elwood (the new director of NGV) I'll totally give him a hug to say thank you, thank you, thank you for curating Melbourne Now with so many child friendly elements!  Trying to go to exhibitions with kids is a challenge for sure, you whizz by the works and a lot of galleries aren't particularly receptive to having loud kids running around.  Once I even got a talking to by a young whippersnapper volunteer who told me that children can't touch the art...

NGV International

water wall, rainbow reflections, trugo, disco, music, birds, ping pong, elevator music, necklace making - but be warned that it's near a crazy loud exhibit...

NGV Australia (Fed Square)

drawing, shoe making, liquid watching, music playing, reading corner, paper basketball

We first visited Melbourne Now soon after it opened and the boys and I had THE best time, super duper fun.  I was so excited I bought a catalogue and we've been a few times, I still need to go another couple of times on my own to see the not so child friendly works.  Aaaaaand I meant to write this post just after we first went in December to spread the word but then the school holidays happened....

Melbourne Now

National Gallery of Victoria

St Kilda Road (closed Tuesday's) and Federation Square (closed Monday's)

exhibition runs until March 23rd

hey little world.

 

abandon.

 

dispensation.

 

missing appearances.

 

totality.

 

tilt.

 

afloat.

 

screenshot of dissolve

 

falter.

 

inhabitation.

The hey little world. series was created at Federation Square, Melbourne, during my time at Visible Studios, a short term Artist in Residence program curated by Sayraphim Lothian.

Federation Square looks quite industrial with all the exposed steel beams so I wanted to bring human and nature elements into each performance, while still keeping the imagery quite dark and cold looking.  Before I started shooting I spent a day in the space working out where I'd be able to climb and cram myself into, and what movements I could perform in response to the environment I was in.  I also did some filming for each location so stay tuned for a short film.... shortly!

Visible Studios was an amazing and awesomely fun experience.  I love the freedom of creating to create, not for a deadline.

Ps. you can check lots of behind the scenes pics here.

Visible Studios - behind the scenes

I've just finished the Visible Studios residency at Federation Square and it was awesome!!

When Sayraphim Lothian first invited me to come and create work in full view of the public it made me feel extremely nauseous as normally it's just me and my camera running around the bush having adventures.  I've never been comfortable with people watching me so the idea of working in the busiest part of Melbourne was freakin. scary.  So of course I had to say yes!  It didn't end up being as petrifying as I thought it would be, I think because we were contained in the glass it allowed me to seperate myself from the onlookers and focus on what I was doing.  Plus I didn't want to fall (you'll see why in the following pics).

The residency was from 19-26 May and my time went like this;

Sunday 19th
Started the residency with burgers and fries (thinking food) and I set up a couple of text based installations for a bit of fun.

Tuesday 21st
Started the day with doughnuts (think there's a theme here).  Thanks to my mum for traveling from Bendigo to babysit so I could grab a couple of hours thinking time at the studio.  I took some reference pics, worked out where I'd be able to climb, bit more pondering, and hatched some plans with Jason Lau (my photog buddy since Uni).

Friday 24th
Friday was my big working day and I have to say a huge thanks Erika Gofton, Yeok, and my sis for helping me photograph and film myself.  I definitely couldn't have done it without them!!

Sunday 26th
The last day of Visible Studios and I brought an assistant along to help.  Little did I realise that Markit @ Fed Square was on and the place was PACKED.  On the upside my friends at write to me were randomly in the stall next to me so I got to hang out with them for a bit.  I had a bright idea the night before to bring in a bunch of branches to hang into, that morning I chopped up one of my trees that wasn't happy, but the idea didn't seem so bright after all when I was trying to navigate that crowd with sharp pointy things.

A massive thank you to everyone that came and visited, to Erika, Yeok and Sayraphim for pressing buttons for me, and the biggest thank you to Sayraphim for inviting me to be a part of Visible Studios.

I can't wait to get to work on the film and photographs, for now here's a little peek...

behind the scenes photo credits to Sayraphim Lothian, Erika Gofton, Yeok, Belinda Suzette, and J my 5yo

Visible Studios

I am ridiculously excited to be a part of Visible Studios!!  It's a short term curated Artist in Residence program for the Atrium in Federation Square, Melbourne.

Between 19 – 26 May, artists have moved their studios inside the Atrium, creating work in full view of visitors to Federation Square.  I will be there this Friday from 10 - 1 photographing and filming myself amongst the structures, come say hi!

Keep your eye on my FB page and instagram @myfavouriteshoesarenone to check out when I'm in the studio and what I'm up to...  And all the Visible Studios info is here.

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