Fitzroy Snapshot

I spotted this picturesque, ivy-covered brick chimney in Fitzroy. It rises up in the middle of the block bordered by Cremorne St and John St, between Bell and Moor St. I have done a quick search of the Victorian Heritage database and google but can't find any further information on it. I imagine it is an old factory chimney. Anyone know anything further?

Art and Architecture related events this week.

A heads up about a couple of art and architecture related events on this week. I am hoping to get to both.

Amelia Douglas
Recipient of 2009 Chancellor’s Prize for Excellence in the PhD, University of Melbourne

Pierre Huyghe and the Association of Freed Time

Pierre Huyghe is one of the most significant artists of the 21st century. His work – encompassing film, architecture, situations, installations and events – has been shown at the TATE Modern, Centre Pompidou, the Guggenheim Museum, the Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image and recently at the Biennale of Sydney (2008), where Huyghe transformed the Opera House into a tropical rainforest. This lecture focuses on a few of Huyghe’s major works, including A Journey That Wasn’t (2005) and Streamside Day Follies (2003) and will include clips from several of Huyghe’s works not previously exhibited in Australia, courtesy of Marian Goodman Gallery, New York and Paris.

What is at stake in the making and recording of history, and what does it mean for a contemporary artist to work as an historiographer? The contemporary French artist Pierre Huyghe is well-known for his multi-faceted works that operate in the gaps between history and story. In this lecture, Huyghe’s practice is shown to facilitate a new model of contemporary history. History as a discursive concept is pliable; its meaning shifts depending on contexts. In presenting an historiographic reading of Huyghe’s practice, this lecture reflects upon how the coalescence of story and history may be a key factor in pulling together the diverse strands of Australian and international art histories.

6.00 pm Tuesday 17 November (drinks from 5.30)
Prince Philip Theatre, Architecture Building, University of Melbourne
All Welcome

More details here http://fineartsnetwork.wordpress.com

AND

The Secret Life of the Shrine

Presenters: Prof. Bruce Scates and guests
Venue: BMW Edge Federation Square

Wednesday 18 November 5:30pm

Bruce Scates, author of A place to remember: a history of the Shrine of Remembrance, will be joined by a panel of leading historians to reveal some of the stories from the Shrine’s rich history. Guests will discuss many of the remarkable events that have taken place at the Shrine of Remembrance and reflect on the Shrine’s changing role in the community.

Bookings essential, click here for more detail.

Snapshot Thornbury - View from a Tram

A shaft of early evening sunlight is all it takes to illuminate a pedestrian suburban scene and make it beautiful.

Cloister Garden and Interior of San Lorenzo, Rome

I am busy scrabbling around trying to finish up a chapter on something I originally worked on in early 2006. I have been flicking through files from that time and thought I should put up some pictures I took in Rome in February, just before a conference where I gave a paper on the topic I am currently writing on. Possibly I should have been in the library instead of wandering around old churches (just like I should now be writing instead of blogging!), but the offer was there to go with a few experts on late Roman and Early Christian antiquity, so I could hardly resist.

A few facts. The church was founded on the burial place of St Lawrence, or San Lorenzo, who was famously 'grilled' to death. A topic favoured by Baroque painters who loved nothing more than a good ole grisly martyrdom. Here is in a painting by Valentin de Boulogne (1621-2, now in the Prado, Madrid). He makes it look easy.

Via Web Gallery of Art.

There has been a church on the site since Constantine founded one there in the fourth century. The church was entirely rebuilt by Pope Honorius III in the 13th century to make it more suitable as a site for future coronations of eastern emperors (though shortly after Constantinople was retaken and there was no more of that!) It was restored in the 17th century by Pope Innocent X. It is one of the seven basilicas you would visit if you were to do a pilgrimage to Rome.

The nave. You can see the old granite columns that were salvaged from classical buildings are use as supports along the nave. Very common practice in Rome where so many churches, and other buildings, have bits and pieces of architecture from a huge range of eras. Something I always think of when I hear people spouting off in discussion over retaining 20th century architecture that if you can't keep a whole building there is no historical/cultural value in keeping anything any of the building. Clearly places like this demonstrate the ridiculousness of such theories. They also demonstrate that so many historical buildings struggle to 'fit' a specific historical era.

The throne, the decoration of inlaid stone and gold leaf is known as 'cosmati'. The throne would date to the 12th century, the columns seen behind would be from an ancient Roman building.

The pulpit.


The cloister garden, most large basilicas have these spaces, always worth seeking out.


Fragments of ancient inscriptions, columns and stonework set into the walls.


More columns, notice how the one closest and slightly cut out of the picture has a completely different base, a sign that the columns have been mostly salvaged from older buildings.
The garden, simple yet effective. Generally these gardens were (and are) used to grow vegetables and herbs that are used by the monks.

Snapshots - Greeves St, Fitzroy

Signs of spring and other things...

Snapshot, Carlton.

A pretty façade I noticed yesterday in Carlton. Reminds me of applied stucco grotteschi type decorations from places like Hadrian's villa.

Stucco ceilings from the Ninfeo Fede at Hadrian's Villa. Image from www.villa-adriana.net.

Busy busy.

Sorry for the blogging hiatus, am a busy bee. Hopefully be back soon with pictures and thoughts and whatnot. Still have a pile of Sydney photos to share, plus other ideas rattling round in my head.

Artists in Prison and weekend reading

A reminder about the lecture next week by Sophie Matthieson (curator of International Art at the NGV).

Captive Markets: Artists in Prison in the French Revolution

Hundreds of artists found themselves in prison during the French Revolution. While confined surprising numbers resumed painting, sculpting, drawing and even engraving. Few prisons were without some level or artistic production and exchange. Based on unpublished research of French prison archives and prison-made works of art, this lecture addresses some basic questions.

Who were the artists, and why were they imprisoned? What did they make and for whom? Using select case studies, this talk will propose some basic categories and functions of the prison-made object and present a model for its interpretation. It will also consider some of the wider implications of this curious and little-known area of cultural production for our understanding of the political prison in France in the period 1793-5.

Sophie Matthiesson is Curator of International Art at the National Gallery of Victoria. She has taught art history at the universities of Sussex, Manchester and Leeds. Her most recent publications are in the field of British Modernism, Surrealism, and cubism. The topic of the 2009 Margaret Manion lecture is drawn from her doctoral research on the artist in prison in the French Revolution.

6.30pm Tuesday 13 October 2009
Elisabeth Murdoch Theatre
The University of Melbourne

Weekend Reading

Some articles and blogs on art, architecture and gardens that have caught my eye over the past week. To be enjoyed with a cup of tea and possibly some kind of delicious cake.

Tom Turner "Rescue garden archaeology before the Olympic equestrian event in Greenwich" via Gardenvisit.com

Martin Bailey "Secret scandal of British Museum director’s masterpiece" via The Art Newspaper.

Three recent blog entries from Plinius at Some Landscape on Chinese landscapes and poetry:
The landscape of the bland
The Peach Blossom Spring
On a Tower Beside the Lake

Snapshot, Sydney

A mysterious Romanesque meets Moorish (?) building I had no time to investigate more fully, in Chippendale on Lee St (I think). Sydneysiders may know more, you can see the back of it as you come into Central on the train.

Snapshot, Sydney

A building on Abercrombie St in Chippendale, Sydney.