A visit to see "John Olsen: The You Beaut Country" and "Symphony of Boxes".

I don't often visit the city, but this week I have been able to visit twice in order to catch up with old friends.  I timetabled my first visit so that I was able to also fit in a side-trip to the Ian Potter Centre in the NGV to catch the John Olsen exhibition, "John Olsen: The You Beaut Country".  This exhibition explores his work from 1960 and his travels through Europe then moves on to his focus on Australian identity, and the Australian landscape - especially Lake Eyre.  Unfortunately, circumstances meant that my visit had to be very quick, but I really enjoyed my visit and would encourage other people interested in how the Australian landscape can be interpreted to visit before the exhibition finishes.

I wasn't really very keen on his early work.  It felt a bit messy and lacking in focus, cohesion and control.  However, gradually it began to gain focus and control, while still remaining abstract, as in this piece in oils, "View of the Western World " from 1956.

 

and this one, "The Bicycle Boys Rejoice" from 1955.

 

 

Gradually, his more widely recognised signature style evolved from works like "Spanish Encounter" 1960

 

 

to works like "Where the bee sucks, there suck I" (1984-6) 

 

 

 

with his typical use of  wobbling lines, rich colour and almost cartoonish portrayals. 

 

A lot of his landscapes are reminiscent of maps, like "Childhood by the seaport' 1965

 

 

 or the Australian aboriginal style of taking an overhead view of a landscape and using symbols, like

"River passing through a plain"1982

 

 I became more and more enchanted by the colour, range and development of his work as he got older.  This is "Golden Summer" 1983.

 

 

 And this is "Poet's garden" 2005.

 
This later work to me seems much more fun and much more reflective of Australia.

 

Olsen did not just paint on canvas and composition board.  As well as painting, Olsen also worked in coordination  with tapestry makers to create some rather stunning pieces.  For instance, "Joie de Vivre" (1964-5) was created with Tapecerias Portalegre Workshops,

while "Light playing with evolution"( 1989) was a joint project with the Australian Workshop  artists Andrea May and Peter Churcher

  

 Olsen also worked as a decorator with the potter, Robert Mair,  create a huge tea and coffee setting from 1970 -1
 

 

 I also liked some of his other techniques like this pen and ink and pastel, 1998 "Monkfish"
 

and "Laughing Frog"( 1977), an aquatint print.

 I particularly found his sketching books fascinating and very illuminating.  He wrote in a beautiful italic style and his sketches revealed very clearly his range of techniques and skills and sources of inspiration.

 One of the joys of visiting the Ian Potter centre is discovering what the latest exhibition being shown outside  the entrance is.  This time, it was an exhibition by Mapping Melbourne of the work of 800 young Melbournians called "Symphony of Boxes".  Such fun, bright, imaginative work.

 

Day 6. Kyoto.

Our flat is near a street that specialises in renting out kimonos, but today there were more people than usual emerging from the shops, beautifully adorned in traditional wear.  One of the lovely characteristics of Kyoto is this valuing of tradition in both the young and old, while remaining a very modern city in other ways.

Today, we took the train to Karasuma-Oike station and discovered some cute mural painted stairs and a rather wonderful exhibit of cardboard animals and stuffed animals.  I love the little surprises you get in Kyoto.

Then we emerged onto the Horikawa-Oike street, where we joined the crowds waiting by the side of the road waiting for the Jidai-Matsuri Festival. This festival is annually held on the 22nd October, and stages a costume procession representing the people of each era in the history of Kyoto.  It is a truly amazing spectacle since about 2000 performers  (ranging from old men and women to quite young children) slowly parade from the Imperial Palace to the Heian-Jingu shrine dressed in traditional clothes, which demonstrate the strata of society that they are representing.

 

 

 There are also carriages,

 bullocks,

 horses,

 bands,

 

 performers

 and floats.

 It is quite an awe inspiring procession but terribly tiring unless you manage to bring a seat as it goes on for 2 1/2 hours.  We didn't last till the end because we were starving at about three o'clock, so finally succumbed for the need to eat, leaving the lovely ladies that we had been exchanging cultural notes with to watch the whole show.

We have discovered in Kyoto that often the best shops and restaurants are to be found hidden upstairs, unobtrusively, in some building.  We saw a food sign at the front door of the Duce Mix building, and had a lovely lunch in a little restaurant called the Collobo. We had noticed , when climbing the stairs, that the stairwells were painted with quite witty little drawings and paintings.

We discovered that the whole building was inhabited by shops displaying art and handcrafts and clothing by various artisans.  Our favourites were Atelier Turr, which had amazing jewellery , hats, ceramics and gifts, Phooka, which stocked Scandinavian gifts and Idola, which stocked buttons, beads, fancy pins etc. We would like to explore some of the others, like the knitting shop Yau, on another trip.

We next visited the Museum of Kyoto gift shops and discovered that the main one had an extensive range of handmade and commercial papers.

 

  I have never seen such a vast collection.  It had lovely souvenirs as well,  but I was fixated on the papers.  I need to come back with an empty suitcase.  Attached to the museum are other shops displaying works of various local artists, and more souvenirs, but the most outstanding work was in the Arton art gallery, where the lovely Makiko Takashahi was displaying her humorous and very original glass works.

As usual, we got home very late, but we were very grateful for our last minute experiences.

Unfortunately, this is the end of our Japanese adventure.  tomorrow, we travel all day to our airport hotel, then it is back home to reality.  We fully intend to return again though.  Japan is addictive!

Day 5 Kyoto

Today we caught the train to Kyoto, and then walked to the Toji Temple, which holds a market on the 21st of the month.  On the way, we bumped into three ladies studying English at a local college as a hobby, and chatted with them, exchanging cultural insights.

The market is vast and varied and has everything from fortune tellers to food stalls,

 plant stalls

 

 to clothing stores,

antiques to hand made articles, fabrics to ceramics.  It is the place to go if you love food, arts and crafts,

 

exploring a different culture, gardening and more.  What is lovely about it is that the locals adore the place as much as the tourists do.  And, it continues operating as a centre for worship in the midst of the madness and mayhem.

  I spent a lot of time getting ideas for my art work and buying souvenirs, stopping now and then for a delicious snack from one of the food stalls, and people watching.  My friend enthused about the clothes, bought souvenirs, raved at the plant stalls and  fell in love with the pottery.

We next took the side streets to the local shopping mall.  While enjoying green tea and a local parfait dessert, we suddenly felt dizzy and disorientated.  After a few seconds, we suddenly realised that the room was swaying and that we were experiencing a 6.2 earthquake, luckily centred quite far away in Tottori.  It was interesting watching the reactions of the locals.  The older women looked worried and focussed on the hanging ceiling lights, then got up and left.  The younger ones dived under the table.  Most just looked stunned and stayed where they were.  My phone registered an emergency.  The waitresses came round and checked we were all ok afterwards.  I have installed an app on my phone, Omotenashi Guide, which translates any future warnings into English.  There had been a siren and an announcement earlier, but we just assumed it was a practice fire drill.  Now we will know.

We then tried to find the handicraft store in the basement of the Kyoto tower, Yodhikawa, but it turned out the floor was under repair and the store no longer existed, so we headed over to the Sacra building, to check out the yarn in Avril.  It turned out that they had closed down, but instead, downstairs,  we discovered the magnificent Doll Studio Tomo ( Koubou Tomo), which has an amazing collection of exquisite Japanese child dolls, dressed in antique, one-off kimonos. Upstairs, we discovered Wisteria, a very good wool and craft shop, and Idola- a shop split into two rooms, selling, beads, buttons, fancy pins, trims, etcetera.

Wandering into the street, we strolled along until we found ourselves back in the arcade area.  We checked out a few shops, then visited another Namura Tailor House.  It turns out these fabric and craft shops each have slightly different contents, so my friend was forced to buy more fabric.  I think she needs to catch a boat rather than a plane home!