Melbourne National Gallery of Victoria (NGV)

Not every day is a learning day. Occasionally I'll treat my mind to expanding experiences such reading an educative book on the universe, organising myself beyond tedium and frustration (the 2017 Yearly Planner is now up and running!) and even going to the local gallery. Most of the exhibits gallery cost money, naturally, but there are a great deal that are free to the world i.e. paid for by the taxpayer or public donations. Exhibits on Picasso, Andy Warhol, Ai Weiwei and Salvador Dali were all superb by the way, but since I'm not such a fan of David Hockney, my attention was lured to the other parts of this fantastic gallery. 

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Art and Social Responsibility

Before jumpingt to the highlights, one of the artistic pieces I didn't enjoy was some crude paintings by an artist I cannot remember, yet the words on the canvas have sparked some interesting dialogue. It read 'in this studio the artist has no social responsibility, but when the artist displays his work the situation changes.' An enjoyable sentence to ruminate on ... as with every artist, whether Hollywood Actor, Footballer or Songstress, nay almost every celebrity, the public and media are very eager to quickly put them on a pedestal for examination, pouring over every detail in search of substance, or substance abuse preferably, as that'll make more interesting headlines. When said beau celebre doesn't match the images wanted by the newspapers they are discarded with the same irrelevance as print media. Social Responsibility . . . will have to think about this some more. Social responsibility perhaps to depict truth however it may seem? That may bore more truth to a journalist perhaps. If a responsibility to society, then I think that's where I'd probably disagree with the artist: painters and sculptures can probably get away with far less social responsibility and just claim its art if it frustrates the masses. Tracey Emin's messy bed, the Turner Prize winning elephant manure....not sure what social responsibility either of them were curtailing to. 

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Bulgari Exhibition

​I also learnt that Bulgari wasn't Italian but Greek, that Elizabeth Taylor seemed to wear half their collection at one point or another, and that a Serpenti is an extremely fancy yet expensive way to tell the time. As an example, it may be able to tell you the exact hour you were plummeted into debt. 

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Gallery Top Choices

• Untitled by Apostolos Georgiou, which to me should be 'The Multitasking of Man'
• 'Nest' by Patricia Piccinini, where two scooters become mother and child in this cool anthropomorphism sculpture
• Hula hoop Chanel Bag by Karl Lagerfeld (lots of history on Chanel Bags...apparently...according to my partner anyway)
• 'Salt' by Murray Fredericks, a wonderful blue hue taken from the artists passionate engagement with Lake Eyre in South Australia
• 'Cape Raoul Chair' by Guy Hawkes made of driftwood and wood
• 'Hi Ho Rocking Horse' by Jarrod Lim which is more of a Rocking Sheep
• 'The Horror of Life' by Toby Pola, picturing some fantastic skull sculptures perfect for the coffee table or scaring the crap out of the kids with
• My favourite of the afternoon was the combination of three artists: Issey Miyako Dress; Khei Nawa PixCell-Red Deer which is a taxidermists actual red deer; and the paintings by Khei Nawa (called Directions #92)