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As reported here and there. Evelyn Juers, one half of Giramondo Publishing and independent scholar and author, has been keeping me posted on this absorbing struggle. Having had struggles of my own at granular level here, patiently bashing out a community based program for my son with financial and moral support only, (heck, we take what we can and run with it, don't we?) I neglected to send out her media statement a while back.
She did faithfully send through links on the battle, which I tweeted, including one to a petition which eventually gathered almost 10,000 signatures.
And two some days ago, the exciting news appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald that the wishes of Australian scholars would be respected and their space inside this iconic study room extended and soundproofed, without diminution of the visual and practical support they usually enjoy there.
Service enhancements and improvements to the Mitchell Reading Room include a glass wall, extended study space for scholars and the maintenance of access to special collections, though the future of specialist librarians in these areas remains uncertain. Books previously removed (and even a card catalogue) will be returned to the reading room.
Glass walls. Serious Strong stuff. Sending a powerful message to beancounters in beautiful libraries everywhere - Scholars Matter.
I've already quietly filed away a personal post on the illnesses of other family members this year, in the drafts section, as this has never really been that kind of a blog. However, it is true that people close to me have been very sick this year, and will be for some time. But on top of that, I am going to be having a strange life for the next couple of months.
I threw a tantrum with unexpected rewards attached last week, after hearing my son's behaviour in care had deteriorated to new lows, not previously recorded. As I said to the manager over the phone, "if they haven't told me about this, then what else is going on that I haven't heard about?" Oh. My. Goodness. So bear with me because this site will be on hold for quite some time while I get that all sorted.
In the meantime, some literary people, and an 'early adopting' kind of blogger deserve serious gold stars:
Lisa Dempster, director of the 2013 Melbourne Writers Festival, for an expansive and exciting programme. I thoroughly enjoyed the London Review of Books sessions I attended, as well as taking in a thought provoking session with music writer Simon Reynolds. And I could have gone to plenty more...!!!!
Alexis Wright and Giramondo, for another stellar outing with The Swan Book - I have mentioned this briefly in a post I've written for Readmill, the ebook app. The ABR review carries more information than I can put down right now and you can find it here.
Note also that Eleanor Hogan's Alice Springs, the latest in a series of books on Australian cities published by NewSouth Publishing, will be launched at Readings in Carlton on Monday night.
Eleanor kept the popular blog The View From Elsewhere during her time in Alice and has drawn on her experiences there in writing this account. She also wrote for Sarsaparilla, a space some of you might remember.
Hogan’s uncompromising narrative is based on her experience living in Alice Springs between 2005 and 2010 to work as a policy officer in Aboriginal services. Looming large is a disparate population. Some residents are non-Indigenous expats from capital cities who have relocated to ‘make a difference’ as part of the town’s welfare economy. Others are the Aboriginal recipients of this welfare, many of whom Hogan shows to be living in serious disadvantage born from dispossession, and made even more difficult by seemingly unending cycles of alcohol, violence, poverty, bureaucracy and exploitation.
These depictions are not based on idle impressions, but are supported by a public servant’s eye for statistics and policy documents and a journalist’s skill in interviewing prominent community members. Lives led in this place of extremes are difficult, but are cross-cut with the pleasures of community that exist in regional centres, and the importance of sport, art, friendship, family and culture.
A tough portrait of life in a beautiful but harsh landscape of contradictions, Alice Springs is as much a series of general questions about living ethically as it is Hogan’s memoir of being an outsider looking in.
Olympik Phever is performed by Madeleine Tucker, and was developed by Madeleine Tucker and Danny Cisco:
It's the middle of the Olympics and bespangled entertainer Madeleine Tucker has been given her big chance to shine, filling in as the presenter for a late night Olympics TV special. With interviews, live ads and musical numbers, she’s set to cram in as much high-quality entertainment as she can!
Not one for sports fans, this colourfully kitsch extravaganza will pay surreal homage to the faded world of variety television, with catchy songs and segments galore!
As you may or may not know, Australian Book Review is moving from its Richmond premises to a new cultural hub in the revamped J.H. Boyd Girls High School in Southbank, as we speak. An opening junket is planned.
Here is the news:
On Saturday, 7 July – between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., ABR will take part in the City of Melbourne’s official launch of Boyd.
We hope that many Melburnians will come along and visit our office upstairs. We’ll be presenting a series of readings each half hour.
Readers will include Joel Deane, Lisa Gorton, Elisabeth Holdsworth, and Chris Wallace-Crabbe.
It is such a pleasure to see video making its way into reportage from the truly excellent Emerging Writers' Festival - three cheers for director Lisa Dempster who has been packing her video camera every day. Here's Chris Meade from if:book London (who clearly packs a camera as well), interviewing Lisa earlier this week (taken from his blog BookFutures.) Meade has another video at that post, and earlier on the blog has reported on the Bloggers' Brunch and the festival. The very fine discussion at the Brunch on digital publishing and writing futures is still open for latecomers (you will see me promising to come back if you get to the end of it...obviously I didn't quite make it.)
Meade is posting more videos later this week, so clearly the festival made a good impression. Go EWF team.
The Emerging Writers' Festival is kicking off in Melbourne this weekend, with the official opening
tomorrow night at BMW Edge (at time of writing, there were a couple of
tickets left to this.)
The First Word is …
A celebration of writing, writers and the word.
A night of performance, comedy, spoken word and burlesque.
The official opening of the 7th Emerging Writers’ Festival.
The First Word is …
Dance, comedy, readings and…
The Call to Arms – the Emerging Writers’ Festival’s unique
keynote address, this year delivered by romantic fiction writer Toni
Jordan.
The Glory of Love – Craig Schuftan.
Love Vs Angst, what makes a better writer? – top writers
Josh Earl, Kate Mclennan and Michaela McGuire battle for supremacy in
our 2 Sides of the Coin debate.
For a bunch of fascinating events this weekend, scroll down
that page, or click here for the full and burgeoning program of festival events over the next nine days.
If you're struggling to get to everything you want to, check out the EWF Online program to see what you can do via your modem. The festival events are, as usual, very moderately priced - and of course, the online program is completely free.
This will teach me to skip posts saying "I have been busy". Particularly where artists are concerned. Ow, Ow.
red dress floating
My blog friend and fine painter and photographer, Fiona Dobrijevich Edmonds, launches her exhibition, body
of water, tonight in Darlington, Sydney.
It is at Sheffer Gallery at 38 Lander Street until the 22nd of May.
There are more samples of her work on the blog, but I strongly urge you if you are lucky enough to be in Sydney to go and see it for yourselves. I wish I was going, I have left it too late and now have other things on. Damn, damn, damn.
Yes, I was critical of the lack of news feeds on the new Literary Magazines Australia site, because the following is the kind of news I like to pull down in my feeds.
Our motivation for publishing Peace of Wall is to engage a new
audience in their plight, to invite people to consider this tiny and
fragile country wedged – in more ways than one – between the giants of
Indonesia and Australia. I love the idea of a city like Melbourne, so
savvy in its appreciation of street art, learning about East Timor in
this light, and people have responded really enthusiastically.
We’re bringing over three young artists – Etson, Alfeo and Zito –
from Dili this week, to participate in a week-long programme of events
we hope will create enduring links between street artists here and in
East Timor. (Etson’s visa was delayed while he awaited clearance for TB,
which in itself paints a fairly vivid picture of the differences
between these neighbouring nations.) The cultures are so different that
putting them together in one medium is bound to create some fizz. I’m
looking forward to seeing what they make of each other’s work – the
stylised scene in Melbourne compared to the more rudimentary,
descriptive and political-charged art from East Timor.
Events include:
Saturday 8 May at 5pm Painting a wall in Hosier
Lane, followed by the opening of Chris Parkinson’s Exhibition at the
Until Never Gallery.
Tuesday 11 May at 7.30pm
official launch of
Peace of Wall – Street Art from East Timor
Southpaw Bar, 189 Gertrude St, Fitzroy (with a live painting by the lads
and music by East Timorese musician, Gil Santos)
Thursday 20 May
Restoration of East Timorese
Independence Day.
For more information, drop Affirm Press at line at
info[at]affirmpress.com.au.
Where else, I ask, will you get to hear Shaun Tan give a free keynote address on graphic novels and attend a weekend of graphic storytelling related events?
At the Wheeler Centre on the Anzac Day weekend, that's where.
Saturday sees a bunch of panels led by luminaries of the art such as Bruce Mutard, Nicki Greenberg, Tan, Dylan Horrocks and Oslo Davis, while on Sunday there are some very reasonably priced workshops with practitioners such as Bernard Caleo, of Tango fame.
I'm only providing a couple of links today - I would love the Wheeler Centre to provide 'one link to rule them all, one link to find them' - somewhere in that calendar. I'll just begin at the beginning, and you can scroll down to find the rest.
SOOOO much going on in the City of Books that my head reels. I told my son I wasn't buying any more books, except for him, and it was an awful lie. For just look at these nice new things:
1. Puncher and Wattman's latest anthology of poetry, Out Of The Box, a contemporary collection by gay and lesbian writers edited by Michael Farrell and Jill Jones, is to be launched at Hares and Hyenas on February 2 by Christos Tsiolkas and Kathleen Fallon. Jill has details on her blog, Ruby Street, and links to an interview with Scott Patrick Mitchell at OutinPerth.
The new anthology Out of the Box is the brainchild of Michael
Farrell and Jill Jones, arguably two of our nation’s most exciting
queer voices. Together this poetic duo have brought together an
impressive number of poets, among them the likes of David Malouf and
Dorothy Porter.
‘We wanted a book that presented poetry being written now which is
why, by-and-large, the poets are represented by relatively recent work,
explained Jones of the process behind creating Out of the Box. ‘It is
quite consciously not historical, nor even a survey of the last 20 or
30 years. We hope much of it is fresh, with just a dash of older work.
2. Karen Andrews is busy putting the finishing touches to a fine anthology of blog writing
over at Miscellaneous Press, with a stellar lineup of contributors.
That makes three, not two, books I will soon buy (see no.6). I am indeed a God-awful
liar about my bookbuying.
And there's more, as they say when selling steak knives, though not all of it for sale.
4. Submissions are being accepted for the sixth Sleepers Almanac, until February 12. And it will also be released as an iPhone app.!
5. There is an impressive stream of independent publishing news from the Australian small press cooperative, SPUNC, whose membership is growing steadily. Their RSS feed is a very good thing to be keeping your eye on, you know you want to.
6. The latest Lifted Brow, no. 6, which looks fabulous,
was launched with a themed party last week at the Bella Bar at Trades
Hall. I didn't quite make it there, but I believe it was a hoot.
On top of this, it is nice to know, isn't it, that Tom Keneally thinks it is just as well that the new writers' stamps are self adhesive or else he would be licking David Malouf's and Peter Carey's arses. I feel much wiser now, myself. (Going to buy the stamps too, for sure. The early Carey one has a great retro feel about it.)
All a bit too much for this blogger - I am looking forward to quieter distractions, but more anon.
Strolling in South Melbourne last night, digesting dinner prior to taking in the Christmas instalment of this show, in which a family member got a few shots at the mike, I came across an exhibition in the process of being put together, which I was permitted to inspect briefly: a lovely thing to be able to do on a quiet spring evening.
The exhibition is a group show opening tomorrow night - the people in the gallery were busy attaching large framed glass prints to the roof by chains, so they could hang loose and be backlighted (the production method is being patented by artist Chris Gillard.) I also saw delicate giclee prints of botanical subjects in reds and blacks, some long, narrow landscape oils which whisper of clotted Cezanne, and beautiful fabric and wire sculptures of sea creatures. I can't do justice to one set of oil paintings which were abstract in tone but captured light and water and waving textures - I think this is one of them here, but there were more.
Grass by Chris Gillard, photography in 4-colour separation on glass
Natural Selection is at the greenwood gallery, 1 Hotham Street, South Melbourne, from 3-24 December. It features work by Llewelyn Ash, Patrick Christie, Pip Davey, Chris Gillard, Josef Marzi, Cristina Metelli, Anthony Vanderzweep, Nikai van Garderen, and Dolores Malloni.
The opening is Thursday night, December 3, 6-8 pm, and greenwood gallery is open 11-5
The Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas website is well and truly alive today: from Twitter there is news of the media launch this morning, and some programming is already up on the website, as well as a NAME, "The Wheeler Centre" - which is not as clunky as CBGBWI, I know - news of their opening for the masses in February, and other great things in the associated pipelines, including a Reading The City program next March.
I am hardly surprised to read that such a program is in the waters, as the State Library's Summer Read program has downsized itself for a snugger fit with local libraries (it's going online in early December, so keep an eye on that here.)
On first glance, this is a really nice looking website - I like the site map down the bottom. There will be news posted daily on the site from the "Dailies" section, which has an RSS feed? yes. You can also subscribe to Events from that page. Excuse me now, I've liveblogged a website (not the media event, I hasten to add - there are pics of that on Twitter) and I'm off to play.
Kris Hemensley welcomes all to a reading by US poet Susan Schultz, the editor of Tinfish poetry journal, at Collected Works Bookshop on Wednesday evening this week. (Issue 17 of the journal is available free here from Tinfish Press , and 'centerfold' artworks from the last eight issues may also be viewed online.)
As is usual with the events at the most specialised literary bookshop in this city of books, a gang of other poets will accompany this distinguished visitor, including Michael Farrell. Here are the necessary details. Susan Schultz has a blog on her editing, academic writing and poetry, here.
Looking at the pictures again and reading the post makes me sad, because I can't get to Caren's first solo show myself.
I was going, but the family is kind of combusting quietly and it's best to stay put at present. So, if you can get to Canberra between September 2 and 12, make sure you see this show. I saw some of Caren's work here in the State Library in 2007 and it is simply wonderful, so don't miss out.
As noted by Angela, the launch of Nathan Curnow's Ghost Poetry Project, a work over three years in the making, was held at the Old Melbourne Gaol last last Friday night, and I was suitably spooked by the setting for starters. The sepulchral mood was also enhanced by the presentation of one poem, in as much darkness as the custodians of Ned's bits and pieces would allow, as a call and answer piece, with assistance from Geoff Lemon; and by Nathan's observation that his four little daughters and their mum, Kerryn, were sitting under the gallows where Ned swung. (I can haz Ned and Four Little Girls LOLCAT? Cannot Haz, so the book cover will just have to do.)
Good red wine served by Sean M. Whelan himself doesn't quite cut the chill of a space like the gaol in the half-light - I once visited the chapel which is now used by RMIT students and staff, elsewhere in the building, and that was upsetting enough. (Not so for Simonne Michelle-Wells, who assured me she loves prisons.)
In performing the launch rites, Kevin Brophy told us that Nathan's father was a minister in a remote Mallee town, Pinaroo, and prior to that had been a Tivoli vaudeville artist, from which he drew the engaging conclusion that ministers were performance artists. He had many other good things to say and I was rather distracted by the possibility of taking a photograph, so missed some of them, but take issue with his description of Nathan's work as somehow tidy, careful, his poems wearing 'clean jeans and sneakers.'
This is not the impression I carry of the work in The Ghost Poetry Project, but perhaps I'm old-fashioned. At a quick look, high points are certainly the Monte Cristo section, and the poems 'Ultrasound' and 'Whale Song'. There will be more on this anon as I have lent my copy to a librarian. You can read a poem, 'Denial', from the Richmond Bridge suite online, as well as 'Bed and Breakfast' (in the Old Adelaide Gaol, if you don't mind.)
Nathan was interviewed on the Book Show by Radio National last August (you will need to download the whole program, and start it about halfway through.) He is currently working on a play with its roots in convict stories and escape myths. You can also catch him at The Toff In Town during MWF for a very special event in homage to one of the larger spirits of the last century.
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It is time to thank poet and writer George Dunford, of Hackpacker, for his great article on litblogs in last week's Big Issue, which I fortunately got into town to buy late in the week while attending to some panel discussion and the launch of Nathan Curnow's Ghost Poetry Project, which was a very moving occasion (photos from Sean M. Whelan there). More of that anon.
Feel bad that others can't see what you are reading when you carry your Kindle/iPhone/iLiad/whatsit around? (Not really an Australian problem yet, is it?) Etsy may have the solution. Via Three Percent.
In Readings in Hawthorn this morning, saw a very attractive display of Faber Firsts - enjoy those retro covers for the modern era if you haven't seen them already. (Let's face it, I saw mine in the shop, so I'm last to the party.) They are rather fine, and for some reason I think I like them better than what I've seen so far of the poetry. A little overdone? I just don't know.
This is the week when you should be looking out in Melbourne for your Big Issue vendor, and purchasing the Fiction Issue, which has a new story by Cate Kennedy, and a bit of adult fiction by successful YA writer Penni Russon. (Regular issues, of course, carry fiction reviews edited by the Readings bookshop newsletter editor, Jo Case, and are worth your five dollars just for those.)
Dena Kahan has an exhibition, Strange Garden, opening on the 17th of June at Red Gallery in North Fitzroy
Another opportunity to report on the work of someone who has gone on to more exciting things since we studied lit together, and a show to visit! - and a beautiful picture for this blog to display (photo by Ian Hall).
'Dena Kahan’s paintings of miniature glass
marine specimensaddress the historical
relationship between art and science.
These most recent
works are based on photographs taken by the artist while visiting
specialist glassware collections in the United Kingdom, and are an
extension of her previous work with the Victoria and Albert museum in
London. Strange Garden reveals the shifts in translation incurred
in the movement between objects and representations, softly prying apart
the paradoxes inherent to taxonomy and systems of museum display.' (www.redgallery.com.au)
Strange Garden will be at: Red Gallery 157 St George's Rd. North Fitzroy 3068 tel: 9482 3550 17 June – 4 July . Opening hours Wednesday – Saturday, 11 – 5.
Artisan Books, one of my favourite stops on the way into the CBD, advises that their annual Beanie Exhibition is open now.
Do click on their other exhibition invites to the right of the homepage to see what other beautiful things are able to be viewed there, apart from a constantly magnificent selection of books on art, textiles, photography, design, gardens and all manner of crafts
The lovely piece on the invitation is the work of Margaret Lanne.
The zine fair that was once the total Festival has truly emerged -
sitting alongside our usual cultural icons in this Marvellous City of Literature and GT Fords.
A very fine ten day festival, and I only got to a tiny bit of it. The wrap at Arts Hub reports director David Ryding expressing delight at a 55 year old writer's ability to get four publishers interested in her work due to contacts made at the festival.
People are, justifiably, making very agreeable noises all over - Estelle has given some great reports on 3000 Books especially - leaving me scratching my head saying, "Who IS David Ryding?" (apart from being the nice man who answered my complaint about the proposed change to the name of the Scrabble event some time last year, after my emerging comedian took part in it.)
Anyway. Early last year enterprising young theatre blogger Chris Summers of Theatargh went head to head with Ryding about what he is hoping to achieve as festival director, and I feel is close to realising after only two years in the seat. It's a fine interview, and captures the feel of EWF in lots of ways - Ryding turns the interview format on its head and asks a few questions of his own, in much the same way his festivals do.
The program advisory committee has also played its part - with people of this calibre on board, a good result's guaranteed.
I enjoyed three sessions on Saturday. (My memory of one session I attended in 2006? or 2007 was that it was sloppy and unfocussed, but one session does not a festival make.)
Ryding and his team seem to have gone all out to engage as many fascinating potential mentors for emerging writers in this state as they possibly could.
My only criticism of what I've seen is that with panellists of the quality I saw on Saturday at the Town Hall, they can afford to allocate more time to sessions or create more space.
The excellent State of the Divide panel started late and should have run at least another half-hour longer - it was a pity to bring these people from all over the country and only allow them about eight minutes each to speak (less for some, regrettably.) Simonne Michelle-Wells' presentation in particular was remarkable and I am waiting to link to her post summarising it, so watch this spot.
Estelle captured how this festival approaches the matter of assisting writers to emerge in a nutshell here:
'...it is easier to relate to the dilemmas and processes of people just embarking on their writing careers than it is to relate to, say, Helen Garner. Andrew Hutchinson: very funnily, head in hands, 'What if my publisher finds out that I can't write?'
The events I saw were sprinkled with these kinds of refreshing and sometimes fruity admissions, often beautifully put - David Mence, speaking at Honesty and Truth in Writing, heard 'historians' feet drumming down corridors' (or something like that) when he commenced researching his play on the founding of Portland at the State Library of Victoria.
It was good to hear from some imports from vital sources like Newcastle's amazing TINA festival (this old blogger might get up there one day, to see some 'colour and movement', as Dame Edna might say) - Scott Patrick Mitchell asked enticing questions around the topic while discussing his poetic street art project The Trickster's Bible.
Rachel Hills has posted some pointers from an earlier session I did not get to, and is a dynamo I am ashamed to admit I had not encountered. (Who don't you know, Ange?)
It was also great to meet Tom Cho, who came out and matched his face yet again to his new book at the Page Parlour, as the zine fair is now known, and to buy Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison's work, to buy the latest Blue Dog at the APC table, to visit Karen Andrews, and to see a constant crowd around Arlene TextaQueen's table (damn, I forgot to try to photograph that), to buy Mandy Ord's book from the author herself, and pick up a back copy of Tango.... yep, book budget blown again.
So keep the finance coming - this wheel's on fire, rolling down the road. (And affordable, too.)
And this as well - I've read three of them, for once, and loved The Pages and Breath as well as this. Might just pick up Ice anyway, because 'I'm worth it'.
(If you'd like a chance to win them all, enter the Readings competition.)
(Google alerts for A Lot Of Bread are to be avoided, by the way. A Lot Of People write about Bread on their blogs.
Hats and ducks, on the other hand bring up all sorts of rural posts with quite a bit of character.)
Also the Breadsters won themselves a Trades Hall competition with a kooky video last night, about fax machines that play the Fireman Sam theme. There's still time to catch them with two weeks of shows left, Wednesdays to Saturdays, 9.30pm at Trades Hall.
And here's last year's Age review from the Fringe anyway. Because I Can.
Intelligentsia, a retrospective exhibition of Louis Kahan's celebrated portrait series for Meanjin, has opened at one of my favourite art spaces, the quietly shiny Potter gallery at Melbourne University. A goodly crowd turned out in searing heat last Wednesday to hear guest curator Vivien Gaston and writerly/academic representative and poet Chris Wallace-Crabbe speak on the singular experience of standing in a room full of 'faces with thoughts inside' as Wallace-Crabbe so succinctly put it.
Kahan's portrait of Patrick White,which garnered the Archibald Prize in 1962, is on display, as well as many fine ink drawings of top writers and thinkers published in Meanjin from 1955 to 1974, including a couple of people I used to know and barely recognised, as of course they were MUCH younger then. Also on display is a video of writers included in the portrait series talking about Meanjin - I did glimpse Dame Mary Gilmore, but will return to watch it in a quieter moment as I could not hear very much of what was said.
Of the process of sitting for Kahan, historian Geoffrey Blainey is quoted as saying, "When I left, I had a slight feeling that I had been x-rayed." Poet Fay Zwicky is quoted in Gaston's notes, which can be found on the Potter site:
'it seemed an easy thing to do, to sit
and let the master work his miracle,
humming away over black pots and nibs,
the sunny room, the light, the harmless ease of it.'
There are some beautiful photographs of Kahan at work in his studio too.
This is quite a show, and I am assuming that some of these were among portraits by Kahan collected in a volume by Melbourne University Press in 1981, Australian Writers: the Face of Literature. The mind boggles at the thought of the cost of similar commissions for such a journal today. Many thoughts, many voices, indeed, and Kahan's inimitable style, fluid and emotionally intelligent, unites them all.
My favourites at first viewing I think are the captivating, surprisingly angular Patrick White portrait, the Miles Franklin, Francis Webb, Marjorie Barnard, Alan Marshall and the series of dinner sketches capturing Clem Christesen, Stephen Murray-Smith and a bunch of others at Meanjin's 21st anniversary dinner. There's a sense of listening in over their faces, rather than their shoulders, that's quite arresting. (So nice of Ms Gaston to pop all the notes on the website like this. Made to blog, and I hope they stay there.)
Louis Kahan was born in Vienna in 1905, and had a rich and fascinating creative life in Europe, North Africa and the US before coming to Australia in 1950. He was qualified as a master tailor, like his father, but used his father's customers as his first artistic models before taking on portraiture in the Army in the Second World War, where he felt his true artistic apprenticeship was served:
From 1943-5 Kahan began his personal contribution to the war effort, drawing
thousands of portraits of wounded allied soldiers, mostly Americans, signing
them modestly "by a guy from Paris". Copies of these portraits on 'Victory
Mail' were sent to loved ones back home and many of the original drawings
are held in War Museums in Australia and the United Kingdom.
In 2005 several
hundred of these were presented to the Red Cross Museum in Washington by
his family. Through these portraits, Kahan honed his skills and his ability
to capture the essence of his subject with economy and speed. These qualities
proved useful on his return to Paris after the war, when Kahan was employed
as a staff artist by Le Figaro to cover the war trials of Pétain and other
collaborators and they remained the hallmarks of his work.
(http://louiskahan.com)
He designed sets and costumes for the National Ballet and Sadler's in the UK as well as for Australian theatre and opera productions, and on his 90th birthday his peers awarded him the Australian Painters and Sculptors Medal, an honour given only to a handful of artists. More about his remarkable life and work, here; I hope to borrow Lou Klepac's 1990 bio soon from a public library near me.
Kahan drew painters and musicians in Australia as well as writers, and clearly had developed the art of capturing the face of creativity, if that's not too hackneyed a way to come at it. My thanks to Dena Kahan for inviting me to the opening, a truly moving and momentous occasion in Melbourne life and letters.
The exhibition will be at the gallery on Swanston Street (near the corner of Elgin Street) until April 22nd.
Another week, a new blog to read - what fun. Linh Dinh describes her travels around the States in a recent tour, here on Harriet, the Poetry Foundation blog.
Antipodean SF#126 is now available, link via HorrorScope. TEN fabulous original science-fiction, fantasy, or horror mini-stories of about 500 words each that will entertain, yet won't take hours to read.
To coincide with his tour, Text Publishing will release two Leonard Cohen novels here.(And I say Hallelujah because Google Reader helped me pull a feed off their new website.)
And according to Bud Parr, there's some Pynchon-lite on the horizon.
She's a famous librarian who writes like a dream, she was here very recently (I could not really justify the outrageous price of the seminar without a current job), and she loved the joint. Of Melbourne, K.G. Schneider, the Free Range Librarian, says:
'Melbourne is a lovely city about as old as San Francisco, with similar Gold Rush origins. It’s the first city I’ve been in for a long time that felt truly sui generis.
Some old cities feel like a set piece, some have had their souls rebuilt into chilly commercial canyons, but Melbourne has kept a lot of character (not without proactive help from its citizens). From the Vic Market to the funky little cafes in alleys, Melbourne resists being bottled. Sydney is beautiful and tidier, but Melbourne has broader shoulders and a way of tossing its hair that says, “I’ve been through a lot.”' (And yes, I've cut the links to her photos there, but you can see them from her site.)
