Perceptual Cell, National Gallery of Australia

It’s my first post for 2015 and I actually don’t know where to begin. I’m trying to put myself back in the Perceptual Cell Bindu Shards, part of the James Turrell exhibition at National Gallery of Australia. It is an experience that almost defies words. But I’m going to try to drag them out.

For over 50 years, James Turrell has been using light to make art that is psychologically perplexing. Each piece isn’t viewed, but experienced. With his pieces, every sense you use to identify something, to make sense of a situation, is challenged.

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Bald Archy exhibition, Watson Arts Centre

There’s the Archibald Prize… and then there’s the Bald Archy Prize. Both prizes focus on the best portrait, but the Bald Archy lacks the seriousness of the Archibald, with its emphasis on Australians portrayed in satirical form. While it started off as a joke, the Bald Archy has become a popular competition in its own right, and is first exhibited in a town which also doesn’t take itself too seriously…

Brick by Brick, National Capital Exhibition

The Brick by Brick – Build Your Own Capital expo at the National Capital Exhibition grabbed my attention a few weeks ago. Visitors are encouraged to build their own version of what the capital could look like, or replicate our institutions (with handy construction sheets), with lego or duplo. I drag Boyfriend along, ready to build something amazing… but this is quickly quashed when I realise I have no skills with lego at all.

Behind the Lines at Museum of Australian Democracy

Another year is almost over, and that also sounds the end of another political year. In a year where we had three Prime Ministers, the Behind the Lines exhibition at the Museum of Australian Democracy (Old Parliament House) had plenty of political cartoons to choose from in their annual exhibition.

Mapping Our World, National Library*

On Thursday, a group of bloggers and other media attended a ‘behind the scenes’ look at the Mapping Our World exhibition at the National Library. It wasn’t quite Russell Crowe, but the chance to hear from the curators–Martin Woods and Susannah Helman–was a lovely opportunity.

Treasures Gallery and Bookplate

There are so many tourist places I’ve never visited in Canberra, or which I only visited properly once, when I first moved here. When I thought about it recently, it seemed odd: so many of our tourist institutions are living, working places which are always changing – or at least usually have a new exhibition on. It’s this which leads me to make a concerted effort to get to these places over the next few months: and the National Library of Australia is where I start!