Seeker’s Sightseeing Tour

Seeker of the Lost Arts has lined up a bumper Australian art and photography sightseeing tour for you today. Enjoy!

Stopover 1: Sydney

At Last – The Seventies

While Sydneysiders have been lapping up the brilliant high-tech Vivid Festival light spectacular this week, if I were visiting old Sydney town I would be making a beeline for this gem of a vintage photography exhibition at Gingko Gallery in Glebe.

This is part of a larger collection of images photographed by Leon Gregory in the inner Sydney area between 1970-1973. These photos have never been previously exhibited and were only recently re-discovered by the artist – in a cupboard!

Precincts covered include Kings Cross, Darlinghurst, Woolloomooloo, The Domain, the City, Glebe and Balmain. From Gingko’s website: “The works graphically illustrate the forty-year transformation of the city and its demography. Shown here are ordinary people going about their daily lives – traditional street documentary subjects. By combining strong composition with familiar narrative themes, Leon Gregory examines the quirky, funny and sometimes touching moments that are woven into the tapestry of people’s everyday lives.”

Details:

At Last – The Seventies

May 23 – June 12, 2014

Ginkgo Gallery 

166 St Johns Road, Forest Lodge, Glebe NSW

Found via Lomography 

 

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Stopover 2: Melbourne

Mid Century Modern – Australian Furniture Design

Grant FEATHERSTON (designer); UNKNOWN (manufacturer) Television BS211H Contour settee (1953) hardwood, plywood, cotton replacement), (other materials) 78.7 x 119.4 x 82.0 cm National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Gift of Grant and Mary Featherston, 1973 D219-1973

Fred LOWEN (designer); THE FLER COMPANY, Richmond, Melbourne (manufacturer) Aluminium shell chair (1954) aluminium, wool (replacement), steel, wood, rubber, (other materials) 93.5 x 94.6 x 81.5 cm National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Gift of Fred Lowen, 2004 2004.585

Grant Featherston Living room setting at Hotel Federal exhibition 1953 type C photograph Featherston Archive, Melbourne

Now this is one exhibition I would love to visit. It opened yesterday at the National Gallery of Victoria and features furniture from the 1950s to the ‘60’s.

Gallery notes:  “From Grant Featherston’s iconic plywood Contour range and Clement Meadmore’s welded steel corded chairs, so distinctive of the 1950s, to Gordon Andrews’ elegant 1960s designs for home and office, mid-century modern furniture design turned its back on the overstuffed and ornate examples of previous decades and in doing so, revolutionised the contemporary interior.

“Innovative furniture design took hold in Australia following World War Two, prompted in part by the availability of new materials (and sometimes the shortages of others), the development of new production techniques and the influx of European immigrants who were skilled in the traditions of fine furniture making. Taking their cue from international trends in furniture, local designers adopted the pared-back language of modernism to create stylish sculptural furniture that was functional and flexible and which found the ideal setting in the modernist architecture of the period.”

 Details

30 May – 19 Oct 2014

The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia at Federation Square

More info: National Gallery of Victoria

 

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Stopover 3: Brisbane

Yirrkala Crayon Drawings

Mundukul Marawili Australia Madarrpa clan, Yirritja moiety c1890-c1950 Fish trap at Baraltja 1947 Lumber crayon on butchers paper Collection Ronald M and Catherine H Berndt

Munggurrawuy Yunupingu Australia Gumatj clan, Yirritja moiety c1907-79 Gumatj miny’tji 1947 Lumber crayon on butchers paper Collection Ronald M and Catherine H Berndt

Bununggu Yunupingu Australia Gumatj clan, Yirritja Moiety c1917-74 Influence from a distant land 1947 Lumber crayon on butchers paper Collection Ronald M and Catherine H Berndt

Bununggu Yunupingu Australia Gumatj clan, Yirritja moiety c1917-74 Gumatj miny’tji 1947 Lumber crayon on butchers paper Collection Ronald M and Catherine H Berndt

Bangaliwuy Marrawungu Australia Djambarrpuyngu clan, Dhuwa moiety c1900-75 Rirratjingu goannas and fish trap 1947 Lumber crayon on butchers paper Collection Ronald M and Catherine H Berndt

I visited this exhibition a couple of weeks ago at the Queensland Art Gallery and it was stunning The drawings are now more than 70 years old, but still so vibrant.  I was blown away by how detailed they were.

The drawings by senior ceremonial leaders from Yirrkala in Arnhem Land were created between 1946–47 when anthropologists Catherine and Ronald Berndt visited the community for research from 1946.

Unable to guarantee the safe travel of the bark paintings they had requested of the community, the Berndts provided a new medium – paper and crayons – to the artists.

‘Yirrkala Drawings’ presents 81 of the 365 drawings that express the intricacies of northern Australian Yolngu culture, clan relationships and connection to country, now held at the Berndt Museum of Anthropology at the University of Western Australia.
“’Not only are these drawings stunning visual accomplishments in their own right, they represent the artists’ mastery of a new medium. The artists seamlessly translated their inherited clan designs from their traditional bark painting to this new, and very different, medium of crayon on paper,” Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) Director Chris Saines said

DETAILS:

Yirrkala Drawings is on at Queensland Art Gallery until July 13, 2014.

More info: Queensland Art Gallery

 

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Stopover 4: Gold Coast

Golden Sans Project

Well, you know I love me a bit of old-school typography and street photography, and this one combines both.

The Golden Sans Project, is a documentation of the Gold Coast’s residential and urban signage by Art Director, Andrew Suggit, and explores the region’s place-making through the lens of typography.

From the Golden Sans website: “Type which has stood the test of time; type which has forged the identity of the Gold Coast, and type which is eternally etched into the memories of anyone who has spent time on the Gold Coast. Environmental elements, such as signage, have helped shape the image of the Gold Coast, to both residents and visitors alike. Hotel, motel and residential signage form the visual representation of The Golden Sans Project, and pay homage to the heritage of this city.”

Details:

Website: http://goldensans.com.au/
Instagram: http://instagram.com/thegoldensansproject
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/thegoldensansproject
Tumblr:  http://thegoldensansproject.tumblr.com/

Found via Island Continent 

 

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Stopover 5: All roads lead to the friendly Seeker society over on Facebook. Do come by for a visit.

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