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| The glass waterfall at the entrance of the NGV |
Last Sunday, I finally made it to my first Melbourne museum, The National Gallery of Victoria. They actually have two different buildings, so I started out with the NGV International, which is a piece of art itself. The façade has a glass wall fountain that is fairly impressive and an interior courtyard lets a lot of light come in.
My first stop was in the Asian Art section where pottery looked brand new until you read it was a few thousand years old. One section highlighted the different Chinese dynasties mapping out the evolving frontiers. There was also a wall illustrating their history parallel to that of Europe’s. I took quite a while for gunpowder, printing and silk weaving to make it from one culture to the other.
The exhibit also clearly illustrated the influence of the Persians on places like India, which we can still see in their traditional artwork.
Afterwards, I went to the European galleries taking in a lot of Dutch, Flemish and French portraits. I’m always entertained by the lack of proportion in some of these breastfeeding paintings where the breast is much higher up on the torso than it should be!
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| Le Petit Chapon rouge- Gustave Doré |
I also very much enjoyed this painting of the traditional Red Riding Hood by French illustrator Gustave Doré. c. 1862. depicting our hero moments before she is to be eaten up by the wolf as per Charles Perrault’s original storyline.
There was also a neat exhibit focusing on urban photography. My favourite was of roofs and chimneys by Bill Brandt.
And I also had fun strolling amongst the modern furniture stylings of Mies van de Rohe and Le Corbusier and their peers.
I hadn’t planned on going to the 2nd building, the Ian Potter Centre, but I saw an ad for a current exhibit called Stormy Weather: Contemporary Landscape photography, so I strolled across the bridge to see it.
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| This funky building at Federation Square has different sections, including the Ian Potter Centre |
The Ian Potter Centre has a more modern and futuristic façade to it, and I enjoyed the natural frames it offers towards the outside, as illustrated below. The exhibit was a cool and I also went to check out the Self-Portraits exhibit and other contemporary pieces, such as this one of Darth Vader.
I ran out of time and missed the Indigenous galleries, so I guess I need to go back!
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| A Toast Rack! |
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| View from the NGV Australia - Ian Potter Centre |
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| Funky building |
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| Model for a Sunken Monument - Ricky Swallow |
Trams
When I’m too lazy to cycle, I take the tram into the city. That morning, before heading out, I’d watch a video on the new metro cars that Montreal will get, so I thought I would take pictures of my local transit installations. I most often get one of the old trams, but sometimes I get to hop on one of the modern ones. The accordion link can be quite squeaky at times.
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| Old & New |
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| Old Tram |
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| Old Tram |
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| New Tram |
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| New Tram |
Melbourne also has an extensive train system, but as I currently live between train lines, I don’t take it very often.
