The Gang’s in Melbs looking after Granny, who’s finally had the moon boot off – and after a month of immurement we’re breaking out with the help of some judicious art therapy. First stop the NGV…

 

 

…where MelbourneNOW is currently showing…well, 40% of it (we’ll do the Federation Square component next week.) The visit kicked off to a warm’n fuzzy start courtesy of the lovely Jules, who we ran into in the foyer…

 

 

…bringing the added bonus of gl-oss and catch-up (hey Nige, hear we missed you by a coupla days, bummer!)

Anyhoo, we had a very pleasant day. We don’t think it has anywhere near the punch of…say, Optimism (the champagne chatter opines that Tony Ellwood’s endeavouring to bring a touch of GoMA to the NGV), but there was certainly enough to entertain us nonetheless (and perhaps Fed Square holds the key.)

Daniel Crooks’ video piece, An embroidery of voids, was really quite something…

 

 

John Campbell did a terrific line in t-towels…

 

 

…and the inimitable Charlie Sofo brought classic Charlie Sofo with his 33 objects that I can fit through the hole in my pocket…

 

 

Very sweet. (That’s what we like about Charlie’s work – it’s always so harmless, and charming. And always makes us smile and think of Trish.)

The big noise of the exhibition is Marco Fusinato’s Aetheric Plexus (Broken X)…

 

 

A seemingly inert, slick, industrial construct of theatrical lights and sound equipment, the piece is fitted with sensors which trigger an explosion of light and sound that totally scares the crap out of viewers once they have ventured, unsuspecting, further into the space…

 

 

It certainly blasted us out of the gallery and impelled us down the lift to the Persimmon for lunch – there to assuage our battered senses with a laid back lunch before tackling the rest of the show…

 

 

Purty.

Highlights here.