Stuff, no nonsense

Fuck, it's already the 13th of January and I still haven't blogged about some of the great art and performances I saw in late December! Where does the time go? (Answer: while you're sprawled on the couch watching DVDs, Watts - or have you forgotten you watched all 13 episodes of Underbelly on your week off from work?)

Allow me to be concise for once. Or, to put it another way (and to channel my seven year old self): Things What I Did - both on my holidays, and more recently.

How cool is the new National Portrait Gallery in Canberra? Answer: cool as fuck! Our latest national institution had only been open for a couple of weeks when I visited it with my mum the day before Christmas, but crowds have been flocking to the place, and I can see why. It's a superb collection that's manages to do a pretty good job of representing Australia's diverse history, highlighting the famous, the infamous and the everyday citizen simultaneously. From contemporary video portraits of unheralded heroes and the Nick Cave portrait by Howard Arkley shown above, to busts of boring Prime Ministers and photographs of unknown cabinet-makers, this place has it all, and will definitely warrant a return visit some stage down the track...

Over the road from the Portrait Gallery is the National Gallery, currently hosting an exhibition of works by Degas. The exhibition spans his early portraits through to late-career sculptures, with numerous sketches and studies to illustrate the way Degas developed his often-remarkable sense of composition. Not the greatest exhibition I've ever seen - certainly it felt somewhat modest in size and depth compared to some of the NGV's winter blockbusters - but solidly presented, if a little overly reverential in its approach.

Once I was back in Melbourne, and when I wasn't relaxing on the couch watching DVDs, I went along to the opening night of Billy Elliot the Musical at Her Majesty's Theatre on New Year's Eve. Given how bored I was by Wicked, and how little I enjoyed Priscilla, Queen of the Desert - The Musical and Spamalot, I went into this show with low expectations, and walking out grinning from ear to ear. It was fantastic! Literally a show where I laughed, cried, and was swept up by both the stagecraft and the story (by original screenplay writer Lee Hall and director Stephen Daldry, with songs by Elton John).

The production has managed to keep both the politics and personal drama of the original 2000 film, even beefing them up on some occasions (as in the second act opening after interval, which features a giant malevolent Maggie Thatcher menacing the cast); and boasts some wonderful sequences, such as a scene where Billy and his young mate Michael dance accompanied by giant, garish frocks while singing about the importance of being an individual; a startling and effective merging of riot and dance training; and a scene where Billy imagines dancing with his adult self that had me wiping away tears.

I'm not a big musical queen, but I loved this show. Hopefully you will too.

Most recently, on Sunday I went to the NGV at Fed Square to (finally!) check out the Rennie Ellis photographic exhibition No Standing, Only Dancing - inspired, but I could have happily viewed an exhibition that was twice the size - and then strolled on to ACCA, where I was enraptured and enthralled by the current exhibition The Water Hole by Swiss artists Gerda Steiner and Jorg Lenzlinger. A site-specific fantasia of found objects that create an entirely artificial garden in the main gallery at ACCA, the exhibition also features immersive video art and the most sublime mobiles I've ever seen - one of which is a meteorite. Check it out!