Myth-o-logical
We’ve all got personal landmarks about town: where we kissed someone we shouldn’t have, where we saw Patti Newton getting into her car, where we were when we got that phonecall.
Melbourne, and Other Myths at the City Museum conveys three personal histories of the city, by characters who might be real. There’s the heartbroken academic, the chap chasing fame and the woman obsessed with Harry Houdini’s 1910 visit to the city - which really happened. But how much else is true is less certain.
That the show is at a museum rather than a gallery calls into question the construction of histories by museum curators and writers: invariably they rely on their imaginations to interpret events, people and places, not just facts. This show mixes fact and fiction to inspire viewers to use their imaginations, to see the layers of Melbourne’s past, its emotions and spirits.
Until 25 May. $3.
Posted at
8:32 PM |
5 Comments:
There's a spot along the Yarra that whenever I'm near it makes my stomach burble. It's where I saw a regular customer that I quite fancied. And we were nude - both participating in the Spencer Tunick photo shoot. I still secretly hope I'll bump into him again there. Nude or othrwise.
My personal landmark is along Lygon Street, outside the ice cream shop where a man was handing out roses. I declined thinking he was: a) selling them, b) a freak, c)going to ask for a donation. He just shrugged and said: 'bad luck', and continued to hand out free roses to those available enough to make eye contact with a stranger and accept a gift.
I found a piece of a jigsaw puzzle on Degraves Street. I still look for other pieces whenever I'm there. Maybe one day I'll have the full picture.
Funny that this is on at the same time as the Melbourne Museum's 'Melbourne Story' show: Two shows One city...each calling into question the other.
I went yesterday. It's different to anything I've seen before in a museum space - all singsongy and mysterious rather than hard-lined and factual.
Still the fusty-museum aspect of the exhibition can't be ignored; they're now charging for the booklets (supposedly found pieces of writing, which are sublime) - albeit $2 for three - and charged $5 entry. When you consider that most exhibitions are free, City Museum isn't putting itself out there ahead of its competitors.
Post a Comment
<< Home