Following on from Marcus’s incisive expedition to Canberra,…… I felt like Rem or even Kahn had laid my city bare and unfortunately as I was out of town, I arrived home only to find the refuse (New years days style) marking the event. I had an equally enjoyable experience in Melbourne, although instead of photographing the Land Axis mine was the experience of existing within Newtown esque streets under a spider web ceiling supporting the battleship grey trams.

Melbourne as the arty and fashion hub of cultural Australia delivered. From the Purple Black linen Kenzo suit on Little Collins Street that cost half a years rent to the quaint feeling of sucking down purple frappes in a cafe cum fruitshop to the AFL that even in spite of the random and underhand violence had me asleep by the final quarter and then there was the ART….

The exhibition by sculptress, Kate Hendry, was a solo exhibition at the Red Gallery in North Fitzroy. The objects, a series of 9 approximately 1800mm long sculptures composed of two elements, Tasmanian oak shaft and an upholstered four face catenary plane volume. The sketch above alludes to these elements but does not hint at the colour or the scale of the work.

Upon entering the gallery the works are laid out precisely on the floor, with the sharp scoop end pointing towards the viewer.
Through observing these works it struck me how important human scale and function is to sculpture as we always expect that it is to architecture. These being objects that were uncomfortable and aggressive mainly as they were human size, denied function and were an unfamiliar form. Not that unfamiliar forms in architecture are always resisted but they sometimes are, take Sydney architects, they are not always encouraging Melbourne architects in their endevours .

These objects denied function, emotional access and comfort and unlike modern sculpture there was no sterility or essentiality within these works that made them understandable, pristine, elite. The artist actually defeated these ideas through working with fabrics evocative of French and English parlours, complete with upholstery tacks, bringing other connotations to the work, womens tools, objects with a function shielded from male eyes, feminist art and domesticity

Having sated my urban cultural needs I quickly hurried home to where I can regard Blue Poles without interruptions and consider contemporary Australian art betwixt the Melbourne and Sydney scenes