Travelled to Melbourne for a much-needed fix of exhibitions last week. Managed to visit four in twenty-four hours. All at the National Gallery of Victoria. My favourite was an exhibition of contemporary New Zealand art called Unnerved and, of the pieces in this exhibition, I was gob-smacked by Michael Parekowhai's sculpture The Horn of Africa, which depicted a life-size seal balancing a grand piano on its nose.
Also enjoyed The Naked Face ("how self-portraits have shaped our perceptions of art and the artist’s life") and the photographic collection Luminous Cities. (There was another exhibition I visited, but that left me cold so I won't go into that.) Left the city feeling enervated, stimulated, satiated... well, just generally 'ated'. Arrived back in western Victoria to find the highway cut off by floodwater at Panmure and it being sand-bagged against the rising Hopkins at Allansford. Quite a trip. Well worth it.
