Getting a bit of culture

On the weekend I went to the National Gallery to see the exhibition Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to now, which I very much enjoyed. I hadn't realised they were doing it in two parts - I missed part one so just went and saw part two. I'm not sure how they divided up the parts - it might be that this was the latter half of the century, although to be honest I doubt it was done by anything so literal. It was probably thematic :)

However they picked the works, they were great - some very strange, some very beautiful and a wonderful mix of traditional painting, fibre work, ceramics, installations, drawings and sculpture. I thought it was fabulous and there was hardly anyone around midday on Sunday.

I loved this. Those figures are life size, to give you a sense of scale. It is made from sisal and hemp and appears to be knitted, or knotted, or woven in parts. It was made in 1972 and the artist said she uses these materials because it is 'more human than marble or wood. To me it looks more like flesh.' Good point, slightly crazy artist lady (Ewa Pachucka, jesus wept you'd think in an exhibition actually called 'Know My Name' I would call the artist by her NAME and not refer to her as slightly crazy artist lady). It was both intriguing and disturbing and I wanted to know how she did it but had to put my hands behind my back and not touch.

And in more culture we went to number two's performance of Pride and Prejudice. It was a cracker - great adaptation with lots of movement and some really good performances from the cast. Here he is as Mr Collins attempting to propose to Lizzie Bennett. Having them all so young made it different - very plausible but his Mr Collins was a different type of obnoxious to the usual. Still hideous, but you hoped that he would grow out of it...