Photography of M-HB by Tana Kaleya

Garden roses at Milly, and a few stories at Michi:

Of recent times ... Camille Bidault Waddington; Gintare Akstinavičiūtė; and She Hunter, who you can listen to here. I believe She creates her own artwork, too.

Also, a note on an old Michi piece... wherein I convinced myself, at least, that Marie-Hélène Breillat wears the outfit described (as above) in Last Tango in Paris. In actual fact, she does not. There is a Focus on Bertolucci screening at acmi at the moment, and I have finally seen the film in full ... I waited for the boater and it never appeared! Great film, much more eccentric than I expected, which reminded me of John Cassavetes and things like Minnie and Moskowitz.

P. S. If I titled these posts, I would absolutely have to call this one Missing The Boater. This is an example of why I don't title them.

Beautiful bows by jeweller Anna Varendorff

Pictures from the official opening of Kristy B's lovely Kuwaii store in Brunswick.

We enjoyed innocent-looking punch at something like 11 in the morning - no wonder I was so overwhelmed by the banksias.

And here is the pink beauty. I ended up back in Brunswick a few days later (visiting my favourite shoe repairs place) and she got me again.

Abundance.

I see it's been a fortnight since I last posted. This comes down to little more than ebb and flow perhaps. Also, I'm disorganised. Also, I've been trying to draw and design.

Also, about ten nights back, I spent some hours browsing beyond my customary blog/web route. I went further than intended and became quite lost in the myriad gorgeous mini-worlds that the internet sustains. I remember, a decade or more ago, when online content was generally ugly; now there is so much that is genuinely beautiful - I wasn't overwhelmed so much by quantity as by quality.

The experience was akin to shopping but even though I was naturally selective I didn't exactly choose or buy anything, and was thoroughly sated. It's not new to recognise that the image is the commodity (rather than the object) - but more and more I sense that the image replaces the object, and that contemporary marketing/product presentation (and proliferation) has the potential to defeat itself, when objects/products are so cleverly and potently contextualized that they can be absorbed and possessed and experienced thoroughly in this alternate realm, such that their tangible existence in RL is (perversely) less vivid and becomes obsolete. An argument, anyway.

And although my average pictures of some very abundant banksias, encountered on the one street in Brunswick yesterday, would seem to suggest that the opposite will always be true - ie. that the image cannot possibly replace the thing and the real experience of being brought to a halt by bright laden trees is more than the camera can capture (and it was, and there was a particularly lovely tree with pink flowers that first made me take note, which I wish I'd had the wits to photograph) - I could also argue that being presented with such a picture allows you to build freely upon the image and imagine a kind of sublimeness and infinity that can be difficult to grasp or feel in the present/presence.

This week for Michi: Isabelle Eberhardt

Nero Infinito by Stefano Curto

More from MONA. The above piece was not a favourite, I just like my photograph! 

I did admire this:

Formations of Silence: Freudian Flowers by Juz Kitson

and loved these ...

Loop Section Quintet by Conrad Shawcross

Tracing Time by Claire Morgan

from Artifact by Gregory Barsamian

Untitled by Balint Zsako

There was/is a better (fantastic) suite of small gouache pieces by Balint Zsako (above), which are indicative of the more modest and 'light' works that counterbalance the many big, bold, bizarre and dark works in the gallery. I'm afraid I just can't begin to name the pieces I liked but didn't photograph, as there are too many in the exceptional space.

Instead a quick Hobart dish:

MONA aside, and Mount Wellington aside - I really did love an afternoon traipsing around the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens (lunching on the beautiful balcony of the somewhat dated café, eating roast vegetables, and a buttery potato and pear soup) ... A very good morning is to be had, choosing a loaf of bread and exclaiming over the cleanest and prettiest purple carrots, silverbeets, radishes and such in the world at Salamanca Market, and coming across the little Hobart Book Shop inside Salamanca Square ... The one cute clothing and accessories store I saw in Hobart (and I wasn't looking) was also in the square, called Maro (I'm pretty sure that's it) ... From Salamanca, you'll naturally find yourself walking a loop up the hill to Battery Point and Hampden Road, where there are a couple of other second-hand book and bric-a-brac shops - as well as some highly recommended cafés (inc Jackman & McRoss), and bars ... 

Lark Distillery (near the waterfront) is an early evening treat (leading to an early night in) ... I wish I could nod to the best fish n chips joint in town but we didn't find it! I also wish I could recommend the Museum and Art Gallery on Argyle Street, but I'm afraid it's a sad old place. Even exhibits that are surely very valuable (such as the significant collection of preserved indigenous birds, bugs and mammals) are terrifically outmoded - thank goodness, it's about to undergo substantial renovation and, oh, I just read that all of the creatures from the Zoology gallery have been recently removed and 'gently' prepared for storage! ... In the area, Franklin Square held some strange charm for me ... Elizabeth Street is a central thoroughfare that boasts the underwhelming Mall (with a convenience store that opens lateish); follow it to North Hobart to find a good strip of restaurants and pubs, and the State Cinema. Sadly we didn't go, but my friend Jo loved Ethos café on Elizabeth, and Jo also suggested that the nearby Sunday morning farmers' market might just be the best thing ever. Oh dear, we also didn't go to Pigeon Hole café out west, favoured by my friend Nicole ...

...  merci/x x Pen & Emina, who visit Hobart relatively regularly and pointed in these and other directions, + bon voyage/x x Lana & Jill, who venture there soon...

I could be quite wrong but I think the highest peak in this photograph, taken on the ferry to MONA, is Mount Wellington. If you click on it you might be able to discern the dark snow-free face that I think is Wellington's 'Organ Pipes' - wonderful 'columnar' dolerite rock formations that 'happened' in the Jurassic period, when 'Tasmania' split from Antarctica. !!!

Some days later, two of us would be tiny dots surmounting that peak. !!! Having just this weekend given life back to the boots that almost didn't but did get me there, I decided it was time to post some pictures of the Hobart adventure.

I didn't take zillions of photographs of the artwork inside MONA - only bits and pieces, including the foyer ceiling, the fishies inside the curious wunderkammer, some artifacts, and 'Bit.Fall' by Julius Popp.

One of the other best things we did was spend an afternoon at the Botanical Gardens.

Last week for Michi: Rickie Lee Jones, and a jacket from a great little vintage shop in Clifton Hill called Bruce (there must be a story there, too).