Snapshot, Carlton.

Photos of a slightly damp Carlton Gardens. It is closed off now for the STUPID Flower and Garden Show, which is so commercial and all about selling boring patios and watering cans. I really don't see why most of the exhibits couldn't be set up inside in the Exhibition Centre, or the Exhibition Buildings. It is basically a trade fair. There is a good piece here from The Greens about it back in 2008 and the same points still stand. I ranted about it last year. It mainly makes me cross because it damages the gardens so much. A lot of the grass still hadn't recovered from last year and it is now being covered in bricks and pavilions. Plus it is a public space, so many people walk in those gardens every day, or sit and eat lunch. for people in the inner city these are our green spaces, we don't necessarily have backyards. The gardens are closed off from Wednesday 17th March till Wednesday 31st. I might work up a longer post about it later, or I might write about Chaumont, which is a proper garden festival rather than just a glorified gardening shop. Actually the fact that it is such a rubbish event annoys me too. Other festivals like the Food and Wine festival encourage creativity and celebrate really interesting chefs and whatnot, but the garden festival doesn't do that, it celebrates very mediocre mass market gardens.

Telstra building in a puddle.

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.

Snapshot, Carlton

Sunshine on a wintery day.

Friday Fog Snapshots

I enjoyed my walk through the fog this morning. Seems proper wintery now.

A snapshot, a gallery, a lecture

I have been a bit slack with the ole bloggy blog this past fortnight. I have been scrambling to finish the drafts of three chapters and start editing another. Plus a lot of reading for another project. But I don't wish to let my virtual Bosco languish from lack of cultivation so here are some bits and bobs that have taken my notice...

A Melbourne snapshot. The back of the Windsor Hotel in late afternoon Autumnal sunshine,from Lt Collins St. I just liked the patterns and textures.


A Gallery Re-opening. Uplands Gallery in Prahran has moved round the corner into High St. Re-opens tonight with a group show.

Image Uplands Gallery Website.

An upcoming lecture by Heide Museum of Modern Art director Jason Smith on the artist Francis Bacon.

Jason Smith -Director, Heide Museum of Modern Art

Dark Thoughts and Erotic Intensities: some thoughts on the works of Bacon,
Henson, Booth and Boynes

6.30 pm Tuesday 26 May 2009

Elisabeth Murdoch Theatre, University of Melbourne
Presented by the Fine Arts Network in collaboration with the Art History Discipline, School

of Culture and Communication, The University of Melbourne

All Welcome

FAN Members Drinks from 6.00 pm in foyer

The Bloody Flower and Garden Show.

I suppose as a garden enthusiast and being pretty keen on flowers I should be all for a show in their honour. But I'm not, well not this type of show anyway. I last went with mum about three years ago and we both left feeling underwhelmed. She is a keen home gardener and not an historian in any way so clearly it wasn't just me being a snob either. So what don't I like?

It annoys me that the close the gardens off for two weeks, my favourite and quickest route to work through the gardens from the corner of Victoria St and Nicholson St toward the Museum. But that area is a no go zone. Must be annoying for all the people who head there for their lunch and general daily relaxation. Plus they in fact monopolise the garden space for much longer as the exhibits are constructed and dismantled. It irks me that a public space can be shut off to the public for such a long time and that locals and visitors are charged for access. In addition some research I have done indicates that the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show essentially uses the space rent free. As an inner city resident I rely on these garden spaces to enjoy recreation and some downtime away from the built environment.

Another reason is the damage they do to the park. The grass has only just recovered from the drought and is looking luscious and green and they go and cover it in plastic and boulders and dig up the ground to plant yukkas or flax or whatever the latest trendy plant is. To add insult to injury the garden are on the World Heritage list, which is meant to give the site global recognition and legal protection!
Residents and other groups have lobbied the government and council to have the show moved elsewhere. But so far with little success. You can read a report here.

Clearly the irony of ruining a World heritage Garden in order to supposedly celebrate gardens is lost on the MIFGS and the Government who approves its use.

And that is the final annoyance, it isn't really about gardens in any meaningful way, just about consuming gardens as a commodity. Buy the latest super dooper SVU wheel barrow. Use these gloves with their amazing grip and self-cleaning ability. Subscribe to a magazine. Look at a water tank. It is all just about money. I guess on one hand this is what shows are these days. I was thinking about the Art Fair and why I quite enjoy it when it too is really about consuming art, but it also gives non-buyers the opportunity to look at masses of interesting (and boring and pretentious) art. If the art fair was run like the garden show it would have stalls selling pastels and paint brushes. I'm sure maybe 10 years ago the show used to have a lot more interesting design, it was still so designers could advertise to clients, but they also took up the challenge of presenting an interesting space. Now so much of the design follows after those ghastly backyard blitz shows with dull and uninspired and highly derivative and repetitive designs. Or nobs basically claiming they invented the idea of 'the garden room' when it has existed in garden design as far back as we have decent records. I guess the flower section is more creative in some ways, but I am too annoyed by the rest of it to go or to give them any monetary support.

/rant

There are some wonderful garden shows elsewhere but I haven't had the chance to go. Will post about them in a few days.

Rain rain rain

I didn't actually get stuck in the rain yesterday so I felt all happy and took some photos of buildings in puddles before stamping in said puddles in excitement.
I got stuck in it today and felt less charitable.
The damp and dripping garden is one we don't see much of lately in Melbourne.

A return to the parterre

It was my great pleasure whilst wandering through the Carlton Gardens last week to discover that they are re-creating the original nineteenth-century parterres.

The Carlton Gardens has suffered from various interventions, as many public gardens do, but perhaps more than others having been given the privilege of being the chosen site of the quite rubbish Melbourne Flower and Garden Show.

But back to the parterres. They have not yet been planted, but the shapes have been laid out. We shall see what appears in the spring.