What's on: April

Adelaide * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The Way We Wear Easter vintage fair
Burnside Ballroom, Adelaide
Sat 23 & Sun 24 (10am-4pm), Mon 25 (12-4pm)

Brisbane * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
 
Let there be rock film program (April highlights)
Cinémathèque, Queensland Art Gallery  
Martin Scorsese's film concert of The Band The Last Waltz (1978) (Sat 30 1pm)

David Bowie's final performance as Ziggy in Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1973) (Sat 30 3pm)
The Rolling Stones 1969 tour film Gimme Shelter (1970) (Sat 30 6pm & Fri 6 May)

Suitcase Rummage mini-markets
King George Square, Brisbane
Sat 2 (12-5pm)

 Sydney* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

An Edwardian Summer exhibition
Museum of Sydney, Historic Houses Trust 
(Hurry Closes Tues 26 April!)

 

 Cult Sinema film screenings  
Annandale hotel & nearby Mu-Meson Archives headquarters
(crnr Parramatta Rd & Trafalgar St Annandale) (Every week)
Check out the Easter theme with killer bunnies in Night of the Lepus (1972)!

Sydney Vintage Clothing, Jewellery & Textiles Show
Canterbury Racecourse
Fri 15 (5.30-9pm), Sat 16 (9.30am-5.30pm) & Sun 17 (10am-4pm)
Adults $14, pensioner $10, children 10-16yrs $5, under 10yrs free, family $30

Vanity Fair Vintage Fashion Market 

Paddington Town Hall

Sat 9 April (10am - 3pm) free entry

Melbourne* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Australian Centre for the Moving Image film program April highlights
It came from Kuchar, Fri 15 & 22 (9.30pm) 
The Vampire (El Vampiros) 1957 cult classic, Tue 19 (6.30pm)

ManStyle fashion exhibition
National Gallery Victoria, Fashion & Textile Gallery

11 Mar - 30 Oct

free entry

Vintage Clothes Australian vintage fashion guru Nicole Jenkins talks on ladies fashions 1920s-1960s
Cheltenham branch library, 12 Stanley Avenue, Cheltenham
Thu 7 (2pm)
free with morning tea to boot! (bookings required)



Perth* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Vintage Life Market Held on the last Sunday of the month
Darlington Hall, Owen Rd, Darlington
Last Sunday of the month (10am - 3pm)
$2 admission

Darwin, Hobart * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
please send me your vintage happenings!


Overseas* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Toronto: Get your hair cut into a chic bob while visiting the Bata Shoe Museum's exhibition
Roaring 20s: heels, hemlines & high spirits and watch a film from their 1920s film program 

   

London: admire the The Cult of Beauty: the Aesthetic Movement at the V&A in London

Mission impossible: Melbourne in a day (NGV 'n all that art)

OK, so aside from the fashion and textile exhibitions I also took in some excellent art while visiting the NGV. Luminous Cities: photographs of the built environment provided a photographic entree while Unnerved: the New Zealand project was a delicious mains. I was glad to stumble into Endless Present, the Robert Rooney and conceptual art show, which I hadn't planned on seeing due to limited time, but did, and was mighty glad I did as there were so many incidental humble thrills to be had for a 60s junkie like myself. Last but not least I also checked out Stormy Weather: contemporary landscape photography while over at the Ian Potter Centre but as that show has about much relevance to a vintage blog as a Kmart bra I'll leave it at that.

Unnerved: the New Zealand project

   Above: Unnerved exhibition views featuring Michael Parekowhai's McMurty inflatable 

rabbit, The horn of Africa seal balancing a piano and tool-kit for colonisation.

 

  Yvonne Todd riffs a thwarted and distorted take on 1960s-70s Americana beauty.

Luminous Cities: photographs of the built environment

 Lee Friedlander

Endless Present: Robert Rooney and conceptual art

 

Above: Robert Rooney photographs Fenced-off service station, Hawthorn July 1977 & April 1978 (top) and Holden Park 1 & 2 "bonus" photo version 1970. 

Below: An artist who obviously offered a great deal of inspiration to Rooney, Ed Ruscha. Pictured is the installation of Ruscha's book series which if you ever get a chance to look through offer a wry cruise through L.A.'s visual spectacle of the mundane. I love Ruscha. He the man.

Below: Joe Goode's Los Angeles artists and their cars calendar 1969.

The Man. Ed Ruscha.

Billy Bengston

Peter Alexander

LA artist. Not the pajamas dude.

Larry Bell

 Allan Kaprow's Days Off: a calendar of happenings 1970

"Jazz Man Blows"

That he does.

Allan Kaprow from Assemblage, Environments and Happenings 1966

 Above: Robert Rooney's N.E.W.S. (top & detail) and Meals (bottom, detail).

N.E.W.S. takes its title from the four compass points - the direction the artist's camera faced as it sat on the floor to take these non-news worthy images. I think there's a dry and absurdist humour to conceptual art that art historians for too long have failed to convey to the masses.

 YANG Yongliang
On a different bent Chinese artist YANG Yongliang's DVD Phantom landscape 2010, displayed opposite the upstairs restaurant offered a breathtaking and clever take on traditional Chinese watercolour landscapes. This contemporary version's mountains are subtly constructed from rising skyscrapers as traffic flows below the classic falling waterfall. An aeroplane dwarfs the final scene for good measure. I was particularly excited to see the DVD as I'd first seen the artist's photographic works last year while on holiday in Beijing at Galerie Paris-Beijing and had been really impressed. So it brought back that joy and the holiday vibes.

Mission impossible: Melbourne in a day ('Lace in Fashion' exhibition)

Lace bobbins, almost as beautiful as the lace they make.

Is it wrong to imagine Chantilly lace as a tattoo?

My favourite dress in the show was this Pierre Balmain chemical cotton lace dress, c1966. Worn by Lady Carmen Carnegie (1938-2008) it was purchased from Melbourne fashion boutique Le Louvre.

I normally balk at Edwardian blouses - that bulky overweight turkey bodice look has always been a bit of a turn off for me but when I saw the details on the garment above I thought I might have to reassess. I particular like the loose tiered sleeve so I've pasted the picture here to inspire some future creation (probably another Frankenstein sewing creation which will hide in the pile of unfinished things). PS Please suggest better terminology for this type of sleeve!

And below, the hand that creeps...

It blows my mind that you can make something as beautiful as lace by hand. I tried it once at a country fair where a group of lace makers were doing a demo. The kind lady lace maker told me I was "a natural". Considering I'd only twisted a few of few of the bobbins I assumed she was either desperate for new recruits or just very sweet (probably both). Anyway I hope one day I'll have time to give it another go... I just hope there are people still in the 'Craft!

Lace in Fashion
NGV
Fashion & Textiles Galleries
Curators: Roger Leong, Paola Di Trocchio
23 July 2010 - 23 Jan 2011

Are you a lace-maker? Ever twisted the bobbins? Collect lace bobbins? I'd love to hear about how you got started and anything else you care to share...