Sunday Arts Magazine

13 Dec 2015

Greta Bradman, Wonderment Walk, Arts at Midsumma, NGV’s latest

Arts, Comedy, Design, Fashion & Beauty, Music, Outdoor, Performing Arts, TV & Film, Visual Arts

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Our trio are all in today. Both David and Brendan, independently, saw the Andy Warhol–Ai Weiwei exhibition at the NGV and loved it. They discuss it, its significance, and their favourites. Brendan and Daniel saw a preview of Carol but will review it once it comes out in late January. It has been nominated for many Golden Globes. Brendan also saw another Cate Blanchett film called Truth which has had little publicity. It’s about the reporting of a scandal. 5 stars for Cate & 3.5 for the film. Later Brendan tells us about Ratatat, an instrumental band of 2 guys which he saw in concert the previous Sunday and was blown away. Also, at the end of the show, Daniel tells us a bit more about his new JOY show about film called Out Takes which focuses on queer films. It’s on at 7pm Mondays.

Special guests today are:

11:35 to 33:00 mins—Australian Soprano Greta Bradman tells us about her album My Hero which was released in August and is getting rave reviews and topping album lists in Australia and the UK. Richard Bonynge, who conducted the album, had originally suggested it and had also helped her cull the’ long list’ of arias. Greta talks about her background–how she was always singing, her family’s wonderful support, how she could also play instruments and compose and how she got BOTH a Music Degree and a PhD in Psychology. She has now been singing fulltime for about 5 years, winning many awards and accolades including the Limelight Australian Artist of the Year Award, just last Friday. Greta will be touring with her My Hero album from 23 January to 06 March 2016, so audiences can have a personal connection with her and the album, and she with her fanbase. Greta loves being on stage where she feels she’s ‘home’. She also has been doing ‘Opera Galas’ aimed at non-opera goers to be exposed to fragments of a number of operas. On NYE she’ll be doing a 2 concert Opera Gala at Hamer Hall with other singers and the Australian Philharmonic Orchestra.

33:11 to 49:35mins—Eddie Kutner is the founder of Wonderment Walk which is a plan to enhance walking routes in Melbourne (linking significant places such as unis and art galleries) by introducing outdoor sculptures along the way to excite and inspire people. Initially starting in the city, it will spread to some suburbs and to other places in Victoria. Eddie got the idea for the Walk 4 years ago he saw sculptures at Questacon in Canberra. He sees the Wonderment Walk as a ‘science communication program’. It takes art as the medium and tries to communicate the wonders of science and innovation. Eddie considers there’s a natural intersection between art and science and gives some past examples. In the Walk, art and science intermingle with everyday life. So when people come across it, it arouses their curiosity and they may get a light bulb moment which stimulates them to think a bit further. The latest sculpture to be unveiled on 16 December in the Queen Victoria Gardens (opposite the NGV) is a 2 metre frog by prominent artist John Olsen with the scientific element being that frogs, in their fragility, are a good barometer of environmental health.

51:00 to 1:07:26mins— Tennille Moisel is the Festival Director of Midsumma (17 January to 07 February 2016) and has come in to talk about the Arts section of the festival. There are many art events such as theatre, modern dance, comedy, cabaret. Tennille considers this years’ arts program the best ever and previews some premiere events including—Michael Griffiths doing Cole Porter and also accompanying Carlotta in another event; a play called Elegy out at Gasworks about the queer refugee experience in the Middle East. Gasworks had also put together a process called Playtime to encourage new queer theatre work. People send in anything from a concept to a script and there’s a 10-15 minute reading of each and one is selected to work with the writer and produce the play. This year the winner is the play Gone by Dion Teasdale which is a heap of fun but also covers many issues. David has offered to do the 10 minute readings on air to serve as a platform for new artists! Tennille also talks about the Lesbian Comedy Gala, experimental drag, homages to divas and Kim Leutwyler—the artist who created Midsumma’s cover and poster.

1:07:48 to 1:30:32 mins—Director of NGV Tony Ellwood discusses what’s showing now and in 2016. The Andy Warhol-Ai Weiwei exhibition opened this week at NGV International and is on from 11 December 2015 to 24 April 2016. The impetus for the exhibition was an aspiration to introduce contemporary Asian art in the NGV as an institution. They wanted to pair a prominent Asian artist with a globally known artist. Warhol was the choice, as he’d influenced pop all through Asia in so many ways. Weiwei’s art was influenced by Warhol in a subtle way and there are many shared themes. Weiwei had also lived in New York and attended the Warhol’s studio and the parties, but never met him. In 2016 the program includes a mini show around the painting Whistler’s Mother— 26 March to 19 June 2016— to inform patrons of how it came to be and its influences. The one-off Art-Book Fair that NGV did will now be an expanded annual event with emphasis on certain areas. The Winter Masterpiece is Degas –A New Vision 24 June to 18 September 2016. Logistically it was difficult to put together drawn from 55 lenders and NGV employed a prominent authority on Degas to put it together. At NGV Australia–200 Years of Australian Fashion is on from 05 March to 31 July 2016. This will have a very exuberant design and will be a ‘stunning experience’. In the same building will be a retrospective on Melbourne painter Jan Senbergs from 18 March to June 2016.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:33:36 — 85.7MB)

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