The Melbourne Review May 2013 by The Melbourne Review

THE MELBOURNE

REVIEW ISSUE 19 MAY 2013

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CRANKED UP With another year of travelling under their belts, Circus Oz are back with a tighter, road-hardened show

EVERY PARENT’S NIGHTMARE

BIG STAR

VIBRANT MATTER

The ongoing drama of Australian Jock Palfreeman’s incarceration in a Bulgarian prison

Phil Kakulas looks back at Alex Chilton’s career ahead of a new documentary at ACMI

Highlights of Australian abstract painting and sculpture at TarraWarra Museum of Art

BAyside’s Arts And CuLture ProGrAms

Art Gallery. The Gallery @ BACC presents high quality exhibitions and public programs, giving the community an opportunity to engage with work by local artists, as well as significant practitioners from around Australia. The Gallery @ Bayside Arts & Cultural Centre cnr Carpenter & Wilson Streets, Brighton, VIC 3186

Bayside Literary Festival. 10 May - 2 June 2013 The theme for this year’s Bayside Literary Festival is “Let Your Creative Juices Flow’ and the program contains something for everyone. Many events will be held throughout Bayside during the Festival and they will feature author talks, workshops, story times, a writing competition, performances and more. Winners of the Bayside Writing Competition will be announced on the final day of the Festival Sunday 2 June at the Brighton Library. There are both free and paid sessions during the Festival and bookings are essential for all events. Bookings can be made by visiting www.bayside.vic.gov.au/literaryfestival The 2013 Bayside Literary Festival will be a wonderful celebration of creativity and it is a great opportunity to get involved with other community members and “Let your creative juices flow.”

Film Festival. The Bayside Film Festival, Palace Brighton Bay, celebrates young filmmakers with a program showcasing the vitality of emerging voices. The Festival’s new Artistic Director, Richard Moore, has collected a light hearted selection of stories that will delight and entertain. Featured will be youth documentaries project, workshops and the Jump Cut competition which includes young filmmakers from Australia and around the world. baysidefilmfestival.com.au

Contact: Caitlin Telford 9599 4444 and artevents@bayside.vic.gov.au

bayside.vic.gov.au/artsandculture

4 The Melbourne Review May 2013

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JUDITH ISHERWOOD

CATEGORY YOU

APP ME UP

Daniella Casamento meets the Arts Centre Melbourne CEO amid a packed year of events

Peter Singline and David Ansett on trends in custom built, highly personalised retailing

Michelle Gallaher looks at the increasing use of apps for medical purposes

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Profile 06 Politics 08 Business 10 BioTech 14 Columnists 16 Books 18 Education 20

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THE MELBOURNE

SHADOWLIFE

CAFÉ DI STASIO

Visual Arts 33

Natalie King co-curates a major exhibition of indigenous art at Bendigo Art Gallery

Understated elegance and whimiscal beauty mark this St. Kilda legend, says Arabella Forge

Food.Wine.Coffee 41

review

Fashion 22 Performing Arts 24

FORM 49

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WELCOME CONTRIBUTORS

CRANKED UP

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Patrick Allington

Andrea Frost

Lou Pardi

David Ansett

Michelle Gallaher

Kate Roffey

Daniella Casamento

Byron George

Christopher Sanders

William Charles

Dave Graney

Margaret Simons

Jennifer Cunich

Phil Kakulas

Peter Singline

Alexander Downer

Natalie King

Anna Snoekstra

Robert Dunstan

Stephen Koukoulas

David Sornig

Anthony Fitzpatrick

Julie Landvogt

Shirley Stott Despoja

Arabella Forge

Tali Lavi

Peter Tregear

Suzanne Fraser

Robert Murray

TABU Selected cinemas from May 16

THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST Selected cinemas from May 23

16TH SPANISH FILM FESTIVAL Selected cinemas from June 12 –26

Circus Oz are back in town with their new show Cranked Up, under the Big Top at Birrarung Marr from June 19.

COMPETITION WITH CINEMA NOVA

Photo: Rob Blackburn See page 28.

Are you a budding film writer? Submit your review of a film you’ve seen at Cinema Nova recently, and you could win a private screening for 20 people, valued at $500.

This publication is printed on 100% Australian made Norstar, containing 20% recycled fibre. All wood fibre used in this paper originates from sustainably managed forest resources or waste resources.

Relive classic films on the big screen on the last Sunday of every month!

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6 The Melbourne Review May 2013

PROFILE The experience of being enveloped in the darkness of the parklands late at night with a view of Melbourne’s city skyline beyond is one of her strongest memories of live performance.”

lead to her seeking work with Arts Victoria during the premierships of Joan Kirner and Jeff Kennett, to better understand the machinations of government funding of the arts across the board. Later, Isherwood became the Director of Performing Arts at the Sydney Opera House before taking the role of Chief Executive of the Wales Millennium Centre.

Judith Isherwood CEO, Arts Centre Melbourne by Daniella Casamento

ife as a jillaroo is the farthest thing from a career in the Arts you could imagine but in her midteens and studying agricultural science at school, this was a career that Judith Isherwood once contemplated. “When you are that age at first it seems great that you are out in the country but as you enter your teenage years, being in the country wasn’t where I wanted to be. I wanted to be a big city girl,” she says. Originally from Melbourne, Isherwood’s family settled in Geelong where her brother still lives. Her sister now lives in Melbourne. A fan of Geelong Football Club, Isherwood says football “is like theatre on a grand scale and the MCG is such a great experience.” She found the football vernacular to be a great asset during her six year stint as Chief Executive of the Wales Millennium Centre in the United Kingdom. However knowing nothing about rugby, Isherwood was very quickly introduced to Cardiff City Stadium. “While it is fun to

watch,” she says, “I still have no idea of what scrums are about.” Appointed Chief Executive of the Arts Centre Melbourne in 2009, Isherwood inherited an expansive office that sits just under the spire skirt and overlooks the Arts Centre forecourt to the National Gallery of Victoria with views to the Queen Victoria Gardens opposite. It is perhaps this view that helps her to maintain an aura of calm amidst a frantic pace of appointments and meetings. As we sit in the plush Truscott Lounge at Hamer Hall and accompanied by Truscott’s two Academy Awards for the film Camelot, the soothing emerald green room and quiet corridors of the empty hall seem to slow down time. Isherwood recalls her childhood wonder at the magic of Carols by Candlelight at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl one Christmas Eve. The experience of being enveloped in the darkness of the parklands late at night with a view of Melbourne’s city skyline beyond is one

of her strongest memories of live performance. “I also have a really strong memory of sitting in a darkened auditorium watching the magic of this great ballet, Coppélia, and women dancing on their toes in these fantastic costumes,” she reflects. A graduate of production management at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in Sydney in 1982, Isherwood expected her career to lead her to work for a major production company. Through her training, she gained an understanding of the breadth of the performing arts and found that she was drawn to stage management and “controlling all the elements of the shows.” She accepted a NIDA placement with The National Theatre Company in Perth and stints working for the WA Ballet Company and the WA Opera Company followed. When the National Theatre Company went into liquidation, the experience proved to be the catalyst for the position that she finds herself in today. “It just really struck me that it doesn’t matter how good the actors are, or the stage technicians in putting great shows onto the stage, that just as important are... the people who are doing the administration, that if that is not right then everything is at risk. That was the moment that I started to develop an interest in the business of theatre.” Back in Melbourne and in her mid thirties, her role at Arts Access Victoria lead to Isherwood’s first senior administrative position as Chief Executive and a position as the General Manager of the Melbourne Fringe Festival followed. Both organisations were heavily dependent on Government funding and which

During her six years in Cardiff, Isherwood and her partner Cheryl had a home just outside the city with an acre of garden that was home to an array of woodpeckers and hedgehogs. Back home in Prahran, Isherwood refers to the Botanic Gardens as an “oasis” and one of her favourite spots in Melbourne where the couple regularly walk their little rescue dog. Here, the sound of bellbirds is something that she finds very soothing. “Having been back in Melbourne for three years now, I’m really enjoying rediscovering the city and rediscovering Australia,” she says. “Whenever I do get the opportunity for a break, even it is a short break, I love to visit Castlemaine or Daylesford or up the coast somewhere or down the Great Ocean Road. I love this great country; it is a really fun place to explore but also the city has changed so much in the time that I was away that I’m actually enjoying rediscovering those bits in the city that I have known in the past.” As the public become accustomed to the refurbished Hamer Hall, Isherwood continues to look ahead and plan for the future of Melbourne’s arts culture. “We think of ourselves as one of that group of international arts centres of the scale and complexity and in the same context as places like the Kennedy Centre in Washington or the Lincoln Centre in New York or the Southbank Centre in London,” she explains. “But equally we are very focused on what happens throughout the whole AsiaPacific area.” With plans to attend a conference in Hong Kong later this month, Isherwood is keen to talk to her former colleague Michael Lynch, now Chief Executive of the West Kowloon Cultural District Development. She regards this as currently one of the most extraordinary arts precincts being developed anywhere in the world and is eager to understand how the “notion of an arts precinct is beginning to form in the context of a city like Hong Kong.”

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PROFILE Showing great self-awareness of the gaps in her learning and a genuine love for developing the arts throughout her career, Isherwood has capitalised on each experience. For now, her aim is to lead the Arts Centre into the next stage of development. Plans are currently on hold until the release of the State Government’s master plan for the whole cultural precinct later this year. The area comprising Sturt Street and the cultural organisations along St Kilda Road including the VCA will form part of the master plan. “We need to look at how you develop the piece of land between the Theatres Building and Hamer Hall, and find some way of connecting it down to Sturt Street which would be the perfect pedestrian access down,” she explains. “That notion of the Arts Centre site being the gateway to the precinct beyond, I think is certainly very much in the forefront of all of our thinking. “I love doing the capital developments and these big arts centres because they are hugely challenging,” she says. “But the challenge is always to make sure that whatever you are creating can actually be run properly and not just in the few years after you open. You’ve got to think decades out.” Keenly aware that the success of arts organisations depends largely on the

management ability of those running them, Isherwood is on the Board of NIDA and is hugely enthusiastic about expanding the range of programs and opportunities for skills development and career paths across the arts spectrum. “I am increasingly thinking about how we can offer more opportunities for people either who currently work here or who work at other organisations to come into some structured training to help expand the skills. Because one of the beauties of an arts centre like this is that we work right across art forms,” she explains, adding, “We also cover the full range of scale from a 10,000 seat event at the Myer Music Bowl to a 2500 seat concert hall to a 400 seat studio right through to the 100 seat Spiegeltent.” It is time for Isherwood’s next appointment and as she leads us out of Hamer Hall and back along St Kilda Road to the Theatres Building, she considers that there is something about stage management as a starting point that provides a good grounding in how one manages all the disparate parts of arts production. “When I started as stage manager, if someone said to me that I would be doing this sort of job I would have thought there is no way that someone as a stage manager could end up in this position.”

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8 The Melbourne Review May 2013

POLITICS Defining a vision for a city is by no means an easy task – but it’s not impossible either. Yes, it does take some courage, conviction and leadership, but there are a growing number of cities that have made the bold move to make a definitive statement regarding their future aspirations.” Even Sydney, in a recently released Draft Metropolitan Plan stated its vision is to be “a strong global city, a liveable local city”. Surely if Sydney has a vision and a plan, Melbourne can, and indeed must, have one too.

Look 50 Years Ahead - Or More It’s time to set a visionary plan for Melbourne by Kate Roffey

eople with a vision can achieve great things, and a strong and enduring vision is a must for any world-leading city.

To get anywhere in this world, you must have a destination, and in order to arrive at your destination, you must have some sort of plan that outlines how you are going to get there. We don’t get in our cars and think: “I know my destination is somewhere to the North, so I will just head that way and hope I get there.” For most of us, we consult a GPS, Melway’s or iPhone to determine a suitable path to our destination before we set out. As an absolute minimum, we at least expect some signposts along the way to let us know we are heading in the right direction. But for something as important as our city, we seem to be content to just allow our final destination to be determined as we go

along, making short-term decisions without the benefit of an aspirational end point for reference; and hope that along the way we don’t make seriously flawed decisions that may hinder our progress in the future. This just doesn’t make sense. No city, not even Melbourne – the “world’s most liveable city” – can afford the luxury of making up its future as it goes along. Vision is a critical component of any city’s future. Even COAG – the Coalition of Australian Governments – believes that although statutory frameworks and provisions (the very lifeblood of government process), can provide some continuity, they “do not replace the foundational importance of a strategic, integrated, long-term vision for the city” for our future. We need to think about what Melbourne could, and should be, and we need to be looking at least 50 years into the future.

We need a vision that encapsulates Melbourne’s character and our aspirations for the future if we are to establish our city as one of the commercial, industrial, intellectual and cultural capitals of the world. If you are thinking that a 50 year horizon is too far or too hard to plan for, take into consideration the fact that the urban train system that serves Melbourne today has in reality changed very little since it was built in the 1880s, some 130 years ago. The roads, bridges, railways, airports, shipping ports, office blocks, houses and shopping malls we build now will still be serving us well into the next century. If you think of it this way, then a 50 year plan is, if anything, not visionary enough. Defining a vision for a city is by no means an easy task – but it’s not impossible either. Yes, it does take some courage, conviction and leadership, but there are a growing number of cities that have made the bold move to make a definitive statement regarding their future aspirations. The London vision is to “excel among global cities – expanding opportunities for all its people and enterprises, achieving the highest environmental standards and quality of life and leading the world in its approach to tackling the urban challenges of the 21st century, particularly that of climate change”. Vancouver, the city that momentarily knocked Melbourne from its perch as the world’s most liveable city has a vision to have “The highest quality of life embracing cultural vitality, economic prosperity, social justice and compassion, all nurtured in and by a beautiful and healthy natural environment. Achieved by an unshakeable commitment to the wellbeing of current and future generations and the health of our planet, in everything we do”.

Our vision should be highly distinctive to Melbourne; it needs to define our role in Australia and the world. It must be for the people, and by the people, so that it has a lifespan beyond changes of government and the uncertain terrain of the political landscape. Our vision must set a direction for the future and express what we would like to achieve. Our vision needs to identify our major infrastructure builds of the future – shipping ports, airports, bridges, hospitals, schools, housing developments, the things that define us spatially. We also need a visionary plan that outlines our future energy and water needs, our health needs, our education needs, and our economic strengths. Our vision needs to be optimistic, affirming and enhance the best of our attributes, past and existing, and aspire to those we hope to have. We must define and shape our city of the future now so that we can set for ourselves a strong direction with which to drive forward, not just make a vague prediction of where we may end up if we meander along unchartered territory, changing direction as we go.

»»Kate Roffey is CEO, Committee for Melbourne. melbourne.org.au

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POLITICS

Letter from Shanghai BY ALEXANDER DOWNER

here are around ten cities in the world you ought to see before you die. One of them is Shanghai. It’s a fascinating monument to wealth creation between the late nineteenth century and today. On the one side of the river which carves its way through the centre of the metropolis is the Bund, an elegant collection of stone clad banking buildings and hotels built predominantly by the British in the first three or so decades of the last century. They are magnificent edifices in the extravagant late colonial style when grandeur and prestige could be bought for a farthing on the back of a coolie’s labour. On the other side of the river is Pudong. If the Bund is redolent of European imperial capitalism, then Pudong is a symbol of the new, aggressive quasi-capitalist China, ambitious to be modern and technologically savvy. Huge skyscrapers spear the air while at ground level Western style coffee shops, restaurants and boutiques line the streetscape.

understand it. We owe it to ourselves to try to learn about this country which is now the world’s second largest economy and our biggest trading partner. To understand diplomacy and international politics you need to understand two things: geography and history. It’s those two things which drive modern societies and help explain their security and economic policies. China isn’t like Burkina Faso: everyone knows where it is and roughly what it looks like. So it’s clear that a defining issue for China is its coastline. That’s its access to the outside world, not land borders. China is hemmed in by deserts and mountains. It’s cheaper and easier to trade by sea.

The whole city – with an estimated population as great as the population of Australis – is, in a word, astonishing.

This is where history and geography come together. When the colonial powers came to China in the nineteenth century they did so to trade. They therefore approached by sea. Even the Russians, with their long common land border with China, seized coastal regions. The great coastal cities of Shanghai, Hong Kong, Canton (now Guangzhou) and others sprang up and generated huge wealth – for the imperialists.

Yet the further you are from China, the less you

So these days, not surprisingly, the wealth of

China is still generated along the Eastern and Southern seaboards. China’s economic miracle over the last three decades has been driven by trade and the coastal cities have flourished. This helps to explain a couple of things about Chinese security and social policy. For one, to prosper, China needs to keep its ports open. That means having the military capacity to defeat any adversary who may wish to blockade its ports or even occupy them. China has built quite an arsenal of missiles including ballistic missiles which it could use to keep the Americans a great distance from China’s shore. And secondly, China needs to balance the natural economic growth of these coastal regions with the grinding poverty of the interior. China’s modern leaders know that above all, Mao’s revolution was bred in the interior, a seething bed of resentment against the plutocracy of the coast. So while on the one hand they’ve decided to deregulate the economy so the coastal regions can thrive, the government is investing heavily in inland cities and regions so that the fruits of the Chinese economic miracle are shared equitably. The regime in Beijing regards this as an existential issue. All this makes pretty good sense if you are Chinese. But for some reason, plenty of outsiders see modern China as a threat. Well, remember the old aphorism: if you call someone your enemy, he

will become your enemy. So before we conclude China is at least a putative enemy, we should ask why we would come to that conclusion. Well, some will say it’s because it is a Communist country. The governing party is indeed the communist party but do we know, in the Chinese context, what this means? Strolling through the streets of highly capitalist Shanghai or driving along the freeways of Shenzhen past miles of private local and international factories it hard to reconcile that with Karl Marx’s gloomy and oppressive ideology. The truth is, China is run by an autocratic party but not a party which is communist in the sense the Soviet Union was during Stalin’s time. Importantly, the Chinese Communist Party, unlike its old Soviet counterpart, is not trying to spread revolution. It isn’t trying to convert any country to its system of government. Some may fear China will soon start invading its neighbours. Well, that’s a huge claim to make. China doesn’t have the history of colonial expansion of Japan and the European powers. It has enough land and enough people to look after without getting into that perilous game. No, China is not a threat. Not if you understand it. So add Shanghai to your bucket list, jump on a plane and have a look. Then you’ll start to realise a lot of half-informed scaremongers are having you on about the “China threat”.

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10 The Melbourne Review May 2013

BUSINESS His vision memorably included ‘the dinner date pack’ with all of the elements required to pull-off a romantic dinner date including: cooking utensils, recipe book, ingredients, candles, and a Barry White CD.” mind (how old I feel, not how old I am), age and wealth, lifestyle, sex, and family dependencies. Picture the 50-60 year olds in your life and you begin to grasp the dramatic differences in the way they walk, talk, dress, and even more importantly, the way they think. Many fifty year olds share a greater affinity (not to mention shopping and technology habits) with those a decade younger than those a decade older.

Category You Online retailers are getting smarter about the way they sell to us, but are they still blinded by outdated paradigms? by David Ansett & Peter Singline

ecently Amazon launched an online store dedicated to the Over 50 market. For the first time a major global retailer has broken ranks and focused on a specific target market, rather than their product line. Chance Wales, Director of Health & Beauty at Amazon says, “We’re excited to offer customers in the 50+ age range a place to easily discover hundreds of thousands of items that promote active and healthy living. This is a destination where a customer can purchase anything from vitamins and blood pressure monitors to skin care items and books on traveling the world”.

In addition to the usual product range, product info, ratings, recommendations and reviews that we’ve come to expect from Amazon, the new online store offers a ‘Resource Centre,’ providing tips on beauty, healthy eating, caregiving, and other topics relevant to these customers and designed to aid shoppers in product discovery. The Over 50 market is the current Holy Grail for companies all over the world from retailers to property developers, finance and insurance companies to pharmaceutical

manufacturers. They’ve been called ‘Senior Citizens’, ‘Wrinklies’, the ‘Grey Market’ and most recently ‘Third Agers’. In most Western markets people aged 55 to 64 have the highest disposable income of any age group, with the 50+ market making up over one third of the population in countries such as the US, the UK and Australia. It’s little wonder retailers are looking for a larger slice of their pie. The change we’re seeing is Amazon evolving further from the traditional retail model towards a customer relationship model, where they’re becoming a highly customised aggregator of products and information. Like the products they sell, the content provided on their site isn’t their own. It’s created by a third party, GrandParents. com, who have market specific expertise and are able to speak with authority, relevance and authenticity to this market on subjects like ‘Boosting Brain Power’ and ‘Losing Weight’. This new mindset is more telling than appears at first glance. Amazon are taking a genuinely customer-centric approach, seeking to stock whatever products are most important to their Over 50 customers, rather than looking to flog the products they have to whoever might want to buy them.

This paradigm shift represents a fascinating direction for retail that’s well suited to online. For years now eCommerce businesses have been collecting data on our shopping habits, but with few exceptions, we’ve yet to see this mountain of ‘big data’ translating into any kind of customer benefit. Years ago, before Amazon was a twinkle in the eye, we worked with a retail entrepreneur who had a vision for an ‘All Male Retail Store’; a department store format where every element from product range to store layout, brand and customer service was crafted to appeal to the way men preferred to shop. His vision memorably included ‘the dinner date pack’ with all of the elements required to pull-off a romantic dinner date including: cooking utensils, recipe book, ingredients, candles, and a Barry White CD. I have to admit, I find the idea of highly personalised retail offerings to be very compelling. But the sting in the tail of this concept is truly understanding who the customer is and getting the offer right. And this is where I believe Amazon has got it wrong. There’s a very good reason why the Over 50 market has proven a handful for brands to master, and that’s because it’s not a single ‘market’ – not even close. The 50+ category is sub-segmented into as many as forty different types, each grouping determined by influences such as state of

For Amazon to group all customers 50 years old and above into a single customer offer undermines the very principle of what they are trying to achieve with their new venture. What we’re seeing from Amazon is a great new approach to retail that is letting itself down in execution by not understanding their target audience nearly well enough. But let’s not throw the Baby Boomer out with the bath water. Amazon has offered us a glimpse of the future. In this futurescape, why wouldn’t I choose to shop at a store (online or otherwise) where every nuance from product range to branding, from recommendations by peers to published content of interest was specifically and carefully crafted to suit slightly ageing (even if in denial), creatively oriented, passionate about travel and good food, time poor fathers of teenagers? The potential exists for these new breed retailers to fine-tune their understanding of my shopping habits and lifestyle. Over time their offer could be targeted to me in a personalised manner that current retailers could only ever dream of. The ultimate endgame is for online retailers to leverage their ‘big data’ to create a segment of one, an online marketplace just for me. It’s a concept I find both enthralling and a little unsettling.

»»Peter Singline and David Ansett are cofounders and directors of Truly Deeply, a Melbourne based brand strategy and design consultancy. trulydeeply.com.au

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BUSINESS / FINANCE

Macroeconomic policy is not about you by Stephen Koukoulas

any individuals and businesses either forget or chose to ignore the fact that macroeconomic policy management is not about them. It is about getting the framework for overall economic growth, job creation, ongoing low inflation, rising productivity and strong national income all heading in the right direction. Most of these things, like solid GDP growth and rising productivity, do not directly show up in your everyday living and therefore your perception of well-being. They do, nonetheless. Without sustained economic growth and favourable macroeconomic settings, it is difficult if not impossible to deliver the microeconomic issues that do impact on us more directly in our day-to-day lives. The real economy continues to grow at an annual rate around 3 percent which is what the economics profession would consider to be the sustainable, non-inflationary rate of expansion.

The proof of the sustainability of the current settings comes from the fact that inflation is currently around 2.5 percent and has been within the Reserve Bank of Australia’s 2 to 3 percent target band for three years. This solid growth with the inflation rate on target has meant that the unemployment rate, which is both a macro and microeconomic indicator, is around 5.5 percent and has been in a broader 4 to 6 percent range for the past decade.

cuts and generous retirement incomes policy, all with the government having trivial level of debt and a budget that remains close to balance. These benefits to society, often overlooked as ugly partisan politics creates the proverbial mountain out of a mole hill on issues such as government debt, result from macroeconomic policy delivered by the RBA and the government. The RBA’s handling of monetary policy has been constructive, adjusting interest rates on 22 occasions both up and down as it tried to set the conditions for sustained growth. It has been successful.

All of this fits with a near perfect performance of the macroeconomy. In terms of the issues that impact on you and me, this sustained economic expansion has seen a range of desirable personal benefits flow through.

The government played a pivotal role in sustaining a decent rate of economic growth with its handling of budget settings. When the global crisis hit, the government ramped up spending, moved the budget to deficit and in the process ensured the economy avoided recession. Now it is on a path of fiscal consolidation which will, in time, see the budget return to surplus and all of this with net government debt remaining below 12 percent of GDP.

Health spending continues to increase which ensures the medical system in Australia is one of the best in the world. Given the solid economy, the government has the ability now to fund disability support, education, income tax

It is from this position of economic strength where those complaining about the current economic position of Australia are misguided. Some individuals and some business are not doing well, despite the near perfect

macroeconomic settings. This will always be the case. Even in the strongest of economic times, some sectors do poorly, just as in the deepest of recessions, some sectors do exceptionally well. The picture remains the same. Without a strong macroeconomic framework, the ability for you to get access to health care would be eroded as would the ability of your children to access education. In weak economies, disability and aged support would be difficult to fund, road building postponed and the number of medicines subsidised by the generous pharmaceutical benefits scheme would be limited. The next time you hear someone complain about the level of government debt or some other ephemeral economic issue, consider how the Greeks or Spanish are faring. These economies, plus many others, are paying the price for poor macroeconomic settings and weak macroeconomic settings. Australia is light years away from that.

»»Stephen Koukoulas is Managing Director of Market Economics. He writes a daily column for Business Spectator. marketeconomics.com.au

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12 The Melbourne Review May 2013

FEATURE

Images: Belinda Hawkins

For a long time he assumes that the activation of legal processes equates to fair and complete examination of evidence, and that Jock’s sentence would reflect that; but he comes to understand that for his son to have even a chance that the available evidence will be fully considered, he must fight.”

Belinda and Jock in his cell.

Every Parent’s Nightmare Belinda Hawkins has been fighting for years to clarify a possible miscarriage of justice in the case of Australian Jock Palfreeman, imprisoned in Bulgaria by Julie Landvogt

o out to dinner and have a few beers. As you walk home, you see a group of youths harassing a member of a minority group; they have been drinking. You intervene on instinct – after all, it is many against a few.

Things go awry; the scuffle turns into something much more complicated, the sequence of events is not clear, and at the end one person is dead, the man at the centre of the original fracas has vanished, and you are under arrest. The story of Jock Palfreeman begins in familiar territory; a bumpy adolescence in Sydney, a time of travel, a decision to settle and make a career that would let him continue living abroad – for Jock, that was with the British Army which actively recruits young people from Commonwealth countries. While he may not always have been easy to live with,

Jock seems a young man of principled instincts; from his early years incidents demonstrate his impulse to side with the underdog, regardless of his own safety or wider consequences. At school he was the one to challenge in class about issues like capital punishment, in the playground when he perceived bullying, in public about the detention of asylum seekers. His parents sent him to elite private schools; at fifteen he joined a Socialist youth organization. But this is not fiction, and it’s not finished; now 26, Jock has been found guilty of unprovoked murder and is serving 20 years in a Bulgarian jail. Belinda Hawkins’ careful discussion of the legal and police processes, and her attempt to unravel the events of that night, make chilling reading. Stop now. Think about Bulgaria, a country emerging from Soviet domination towards democracy. What does that suggest to you?

Empty shops? Poorly tended footpaths? Baffling Cyrillic alphabet? KGB thugs? Or do you think of summer cities on the young traveller’s EasyJet route, party weekends of cheap travel, accommodation and alcohol? Perhaps your image of Bulgaria includes the cities of Serdica (now the capital, Sofia) and Philippopolis (now Plovdiv), key stops on the Via Diagonalis, one of the great roads traversing the Roman Empire. You may have seen the remains of ancient theatres or know that here have been found human remains dating back more than 40,000 years. This is a country that supplied wine to the Trojans. Jock’s experience of Bulgaria spans all these elements, but he was no short-term visitor, passing through for a week; he came, he stayed, he lived in a village and had a job. He had local friends and was beginning to learn the language. He had an understanding of how things worked. The strength of Hawkins’ telling of the events that began with that December night in 2007 is that she never falls into the trap of Bulgaria = Bad, Aussie lad = Good. Truth is rarely so simple. It seems clear that there are valid concerns about the conduct of proceedings – about missing evidence, evidence inadequately explored, seemingly selective witness examination and more. Key Bulgarian figures as well as Australian lawyers question both the fairness of the legal process and the findings. But a young man is dead, and Jock had a knife. Why was Jock carrying a knife? It was a matter of chance, not habit; and Australian readers need to know that carrying a knife of this kind is not illegal in Bulgaria. Yet it was not his knife, and not his custom; he had been

attacked before and knew the need to take care, but his preferred protection was pepper spray, also readily available and legal. On this night, however, there had been no opportunity to buy spray, even if he had anticipated trouble; Jock had returned to Bulgaria only briefly and at the last minute to spend the army Christmas break with friends. On this night, his preference had been to stay in; it had been a long day, it was cold, and home was comfortable. But it was his friend’s send-off, and he agreed to go to the city. A knife his friend had bought on a whim and used around the dilapidated house, lay next to his Army ID on the kitchen table; at the last moment he put it in his pocket along with the ID. Hawkins is an award-winning journalist whose style suits an account needing thorough, disciplined investigation to provoke public discussion. She doesn’t take sides; her role is to examine the facts and piece together a chronology. The story is told slowly, reporting rather than lecturing; occasionally this feels almost like a thriller, where we are warned to pay particular attention because more will unfold about events or characters. But suddenly the voice shifts from narrative to analysis and we remember that this is far from holiday reading. Hawkins’ interest was sparked by her connection, as a mother of children of similar age, with the parents on both sides of this tragedy. “I knew my children would go travelling as soon as they finished school, just as I had done,” she told me when I caught up with her in Melbourne. “Indeed when I was 19 I caused my parents no end of anguish as I disappeared hitch-hiking around the United Kingdom and France, at one point working for some Gypsies who travelled from fair to fair selling confectionary.” Indeed while this is Jock’s story, but it is also Everyman’s. An increasing number of young Australians head off on gap years in search of adventure and experience. Anyone of them could wind up in trouble, due to misfortune or a lack of judgment. It can be a short step from dream journey to traveller’s nightmare, parent’s nightmare.

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FEATURE If adult children are in trouble, what is our role? Is it incumbent on parents to believe from the outset that their child is innocent? Simon Palfreeman, Jock’s father, makes many trips to Sofia to support his son, and finds himself playing an active part in his son’s defence. The role does not come easily; he is a reserved and quiet man, with a pathologist’s forensic attention to detail. For a long time he assumes that the activation of legal processes equates to fair and complete examination of evidence, and that Jock’s sentence would reflect that; but he comes to understand that for his son to have even a chance that the available evidence will be fully considered, he must fight. Hawkins writes carefully of both the tensions and the love as their relationship grows through immense strain from father and son to something much more equal – both able to bear differences, both able to understand strength and weakness. Their growing respect for one another as human beings, their understanding of their different perspectives, is moving. On the other side, Hristo Monov, the dead boy’s father, takes every opportunity on national media to seek a harsher sentence; he uses his reputation as a psychologist with a special interest in youth violence to condemn Jock as a wastrel, a deliberate murderer likely to kill again, and to tell the story of his high achieving son, his only child. His loss is palpable.

Andrei’s mother agreed to meet with me and the experience was an emotionally wrenching one for both of us. She agreed that I could write in her voice about the experience of losing a child. But in that meeting she was more concerned with lambasting the accused and the head of the Bulgarian human rights organization who believed his version of events, than with helping me understand her son.”

The number and range of people whose voices inform this narrative is astonishing. But not everyone wants to speak to journalists, and the book has gaps; we don’t hear much from Jock’s mother, or from the parents of Andrei Monov.

Such absences serve to remind us that many people hold part of this story, and no one holds it all. The Every Parent’s Nightmare Facebook page and website post updates on key individuals as well as on the political climate in Bulgaria; this tale is far from over.

“Together with Bulgarian journalist Boryana Dzhambazova, I contacted most of the witnesses and experts who gave testimony to get their firsthand accounts of the incident and its aftermath,” explained Hawkins who hired Dzhambazova as an interpreter and research assistant. “I also secured interviews with the prosecutor, the police investigator and some of the judges. But Andrei Monov’s father flatly refused to talk to anyone who came, as he said, from a country that produced a ‘monster like Jock Palfreeman’. Near the end of my research,

This book should be read to draw attention to the plight of a young man incarcerated far away, for a crime of which he is perhaps innocent. But that is not the only reason. While Hawkins’ intention is to explore carefully the events and their consequences, in order better to understand what occurred that night and how the legal system came to its decision, her book raises wider questions. If you see a person being beaten by a large group, what is the right action to take? To what extent should one work within an existing legal system, if it appears

Jock at court.

to act in contravention of principles of fair process? How might such systems be most effectively challenged? Inside jail, Jock Palfreeman continues to stand up for what he sees as right. Hawkins’ book challenges us to ask if we should be doing the same. Postscript (Belinda Hawkins): Having lost all rights of appeal in Bulgaria, the Palfreemans now want Jock transferred to an Australian prison where is would serve his sentence closer to family and educational resources. Both Australia and Bulgaria are signatories to the International Transfer of Prisoners Scheme. It is now up to the Federal and NSW government to work with Bulgarian officials to make that happen. To date there have been long delays on all sides. In the meantime Jock has successfully sought court approval to establish the first Bulgarian union for convicted prisoners and is working with a human rights group to take cases of injustice to the European Court of Human Rights. It is likely that this work has placed Jock at greater risk of meeting with ‘misadventure’.

Belinda going through the court file.

»»Every Parent’s Nightmare by Belinda Hawkins is published by Allen and Unwin, RRP $29.99 » Dr Julie Landvogt is an Honorary Fellow in the Faculty of Education at the University of Melbourne, and an independent education consultant. everyparentsnightmare.com

14 The Melbourne Review May 2013

BIOTECH

Download I two apps and text me in the morning

t is possible, even probable, that one day soon your doctor will prescribe an app to manage a healthcare issue rather than a pill.

Health and wellness applications on smartphones are dramatically changing the way we negotiate our personal health challenges and everyday wellness.

Health and wellness are increasingly just an app away by Michelle Gallaher

Wellness and medical apps have come a long way fast. The apps most of us see and use are those available to the public, mostly free of charge helping us to modify our behaviours and improve our health. Thousands of apps are also available to registered medical practitioners, medical students and allied healthcare providers to teach, remind, summarise and capture information. These apps are increasingly sophisticated, registered and regulated by government authorities and vary in price from 99 cents to hundreds of dollars each.

Medical apps are primarily used as teaching tools – simulating surgeries for example – or apps to capture, analyse and share clinical information. Technology in the healthcare environment is without doubt revolutionising the way the system works

and creating extraordinary efficiencies as well as challenges. Widespread adoption of mobile telecommunications devices and the explosion in the smartphone apps market has created an ‘app economy’, heavily impacting on many industries, creating opportunities for many developers and dramatically changing our behaviours. Healthcare is one of these industries. Consumers, rather than doctors, have historically driven the expansion of the app economy, initially by downloading apps such as RunKeeper, to encourage us to exercise more, and MyNetDiary to monitor calorie intake. Generally the uptake of wellness apps is stimulated by us, rather than our doctor, to better manage our wellness. They are all usually free of charge, usually self prescribed and almost always adopted with little or no medical supervision or advice. On the flip side, a growing number of doctors are actively prescribing apps, typically under direct supervision, to monitor and motivate behaviour change with more complex health issues. These days doctors prescribe certain

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BIOTECH

Generally the uptake of wellness apps is stimulated by us, rather than our doctor, to better manage our wellness. They are all usually free of charge, usually self prescribed and almost always adopted with little or no medical supervision or advice.”

apps to monitor blood glucose and blood pressure (with additional appcessories), transmitting continuous data to the doctor’s rooms from your smartphone on a daily basis. So how do we, and health practitioners, know which apps are safe, effective or even based on quality science? The app store is becoming a virtual pharmacy with treatments on the shelf from 99 cents, but where are the checks and balances that should be in place to ensure safety and efficacy? I’ll come back to that a little later on.

The rise of health and wellness apps and tablets (not the swallowing kind) as diagnostics and health management tools is known as “mhealth” or mobile health. This industry phenomenon encompasses a wide range of applications – from simple selfmotivation apps, through texting reminders for the immunisation schedule of newborn babies, up to sophisticated diagnostics apps for STDs with a smartphone kit. Apple’s iOS devices carry the lion’s share of apps and accessories geared to physicians or your personal health, but Android is catching up in terms of available apps. Apps have become so prolific and sophisticated that the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States, the primary global authority for approving new drugs and diagnostics, recently felt the need to craft a review and approval process for medical apps, and it is about to be enforced for the most vital ones out there. On the chopping block first will be those that transform the smartphone or tablet into a medical device, such as glucose meters or blood pressure monitors, and which control existing FDA-approved gear like insulin pumps. Smartphone apps within the healthcare industry fall into two main categories: health

or wellness apps and medical apps. Wellness apps do not require approval in Australia from the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) or the FDA in the United States. These apps relate to the general health and wellbeing of the individual and involve non-invasive monitoring programs such as monitoring calorie intake for example. By contrast, medical apps can be utilised for the purpose of providing diagnostic tools and remote monitoring, and can include sensorbased applications such as blood glucose monitoring. There are far fewer medical apps than there are wellness apps. Medical apps that make certain diagnostic or treatment claims (as opposed to just providing information or bio feedback) may be classified as medical devices, in which case they would require approval from regulatory authorities, proving they are safe and effective and can back up their claims, before they could be marketed and sold. So there is the check and balance. Accelerating the rise of mhealth technologies are a range of market forces, including: an ageing population demanding assisted technologies to help them live independently, personalisation of healthcare and the growing phenomenon where more and more patients are taking control of

their health in accessing online diagnostics, treatments and preventative technologies, combined with the continued downward pressure on government health budgets, needing to provide faster, more effective and cheaper treatments. But the fundamental market force that is driving the rise of the app economy is the average consumer. You and me. We are recasting the relationship with our healthcare providers. Many of us are taking greater control over our own health needs and playing the lead role in managing our wellness. This is a very attractive trend in healthcare and one that will offset some of the financial burden from government to the individual. The more we can motivate our population to invest in preventative health measures, such as overall wellness, along with self-motivated and managed behaviour modification to reduce the impact of disease, the better it is for all of us. A 99 cent app versus a pill? That’s not too hard to swallow.

»»Michelle Gallaher is CEO, BioMelbourne Network. biomelbourne.org

16 The Melbourne Review May 2013

COLUMNISTS Six Square Metres Nature green in tooth and claw BY Margaret Simons

am not a fan of the notion that on our deathbeds we will regret spending so much time at the office. I know I think too much and am generally far too serious, but surely this attitude underestimates the importance of work in most of our lives? There is a dignity to labour, including the labour of ideas and administration that keeps most of us deskbound. Having said that, I suspect that on my deathbed I will regret the time I took away from squashing caterpillars. This has been a more than usually frantic month at my work, which means that my morning “walking the grounds” has become more of a flypast and a quick and guilty glance out of the window than the slow and considered vermin eradication, weed pulling and harvesting that usually begins my day. There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens, says the Bible, and autumn is the time for brassicas and caterpillar squashing. Anything one plants during the downswing of the year will go to seed in spring. Therefore the vegetables to cultivate through winter are those of which we eat the immature flowers and seed heads. That means brassicas – broccoli, cabbage and brussel sprouts. No creature is more rapacious and efficient than the cabbage white. On a sunny day in autumn the weather is still warm enough for the garden to be full of fluttering white butterflies. Within hours, the underside of brassica leaves are speckled with the tiny green ovoids of their eggs. If left unattended the eggs hatch very quickly. It can be hard to spot the tiny green caterpillars at first. They are no thicker than a cotton thread, and align themselves with the veins on the leaves - an effective form of camouflage. Leave them for a day, and your broccoli leaf resembles a worn out pair of underpants, with thin places and tiny holes. It looks innocuous

at first. Leave it another day, and the caterpillars are long and fat and plentiful, now arrogant enough to loll on the upper side of the remainder of the leaf, and the plant is all but doomed. Normally at this time of year I spend some time each morning on prevention. Still in my dressing gown, I examine the underneath of the leaves on the half dozen broccoli plants that nestle behind the geraniums at the front of the house. I lift each leaf and brush the eggs off, and squish the baby caterpillars. I return to my morning coffee and paper with caterpillar blood under my nails. Some still get away from me, even when I am vigilant. This last week my normal ritual has been abandoned in favour of rushing to the office. As a result the leaves in the front yard have come to resemble lace doilies. There are meant to be alternatives to squishing the caterpillars. I read somewhere that if you sprinkle broken white eggshells between the brassicas, the cabbage whites think they see compatriots, conclude that their population is already too high, and desist from egg-laying, or go elsewhere. I tried it. Perhaps it slowed the ravishing of the broccoli, but it did not halt it. There are no shortcuts. So this morning I decided the email inbox could overflow a few minutes longer, and the world of journalism and academia could do without my attentions for a few more minutes. I hunkered down behind the geraniums and squished and shook and brushed those brassica leaves. Nature green in tooth and claw. The office is so civilised. Only a few things at work reach crisis point as quickly as unattended caterpillars on broccoli. @margaretsimons

Longneck New kid on the block BY Patrick Allington

he new Pope tweeted me the other day. I felt the Breath of God, once removed, arcing across known and unknown worlds, blowing in my ear, comforting me, propping me up, delivering me from evil. I fancy that my feet lifted off the ground, just for an instant. I certainly raised my eyebrows. In truth, I was more of a bemused bystander. What His Holiness actually did was tweet his millions of ‘followers’ (in a rare apt use of that creepy twitter term), and the more ardent of them set to work re-tweeting his message. So far, this particular missive has inspired 7989 re-tweets … and counting … in English alone. That hardly matches Justin Bieber’s numbers – a recent observation by The Bieb that read ‘love music’ has, last time I checked, been retweeted 116,273 times. Still, it’s not bad for an old bloke. Or for the new kid on the block. ‘My thoughts turn to all who are unemployed, often as a result of a self-centred mindset bent on profit at any cost,’ he tweeted. What a work of genius, using just 115 characters (including spaces). Sure, it’s preachy, but that’s something Popes can generally get away with. It’s a provocatively political cry on behalf of the downtrodden – just like Jesus – but it’s vague enough to allow all sorts of possibilities as to who owns the self-centred mindset: multinationals, politicians, the UN Security Council, bosses, unions, the Salvos, all varieties of heathens, the unemployed themselves? Even the phrasing – ‘my thoughts turn to’ – has a lovely lilt. After the tourists shuffle out of the Sistine Chapel, off to scour Rome for authentic pizza Margherita, I imagine Francis kicking back, sipping a Peroni, staring at the ceiling and murmuring to himself ‘My thoughts turn to the Essendon peptide scandal, despite the God-given onfield artistry and courage of James Hird, champion footballer and bloke.’ (135 characters).

Twitter creates the illusion – occasionally the reality – of direct connections. Having taken Pope Francis’s tweet as a message that he’d dreamed up for me and only me, I was tempted to reply. Twitter, after all, is supposed to be a conversation. But there turned out to be no point because other people – so many other people – had gotten in first. And what a magnificent sight it was, this heaving groaning salivating mass of humanity: so much ranting and so little listening, so many crashing waves and so little ocean. It was ugly. It was beautiful. It was banal then dynamic then banal. It was petulant. It was tangential. It was faux-offensive and try-hard gratuitous. Most of the time it was beside the point but occasionally it was surprising. Once or twice, it bordered on profound. That’s why I’m now following Pope Francis: not for the actual content of his tweets but so that I can keep track of the arguments, the faithfulness, the mixed messages and, yes, the abuse that his tweets provoke. Twitter has many moods. Sometimes it’s a love-in. Sometimes it’s deep. Sometimes it’s a painful reminder that the 21st century is about collecting words but rarely reading them. And at its best and worst, twitter generates an extreme volume of viciousness, in defiance of Jesus’s grand tweet: ‘do to others what you would have them do to you’ (Matthew 7:12, 47 characters). I hope that the Pope reads every single reply to his tweets. I hope that he contemplates what they tell him about humankind. I hope he prints out the most memorable ones and sticks them to his fridge. What I’d love most is for him to reply to the replies: bestowing individual electronic blessings upon his supporters, engaging in jovial banter with his less aggressive detractors, and making a show of blocking (but forgiving) the worst of the worst. But right now, his twitter feed is a sort of ‘thought for the day’ plus avatar, the equivalent of dropping leaflets from a plane and then getting the hell out of there. Sure, it’s fun for the rest of us to put our spin on his spin, but it’d be thrilling if he hung out with us. And told us the errors of our ways. @PatrAllington

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COLUMNISTS

Third Age When Canberra and I were very young BY Shirley Stott Despoja

anberra and I didn’t grow old together – and in many ways I am sorry about that. I would like to enjoy Canberra’s centenary this year as a resident, my memories going back to the 50s. I was there again in the 70s, with a family, some of the time looking over the city from a grazed-out hill in NSW. I returned to Adelaide permanently at the end of the 70s, but kept an eye on the bush capital. My best friend lives there and, believe it or not, we snail mail each other three or four times a week, sustaining Australia Post and keeping me up with Canberra’s growth towards maturity. In the 50s Canberra was like a flash boarding school. In a population of 44,000, there were hordes of young people living away from home in hostels of varying quality. Fresh from Sydney I started off in a timber hut in the heart of Civic, grandly called the YWCA hostel, moved for a while into a hostel with an interesting intake of young migrants, and on to Havelock House, then the hostel of choice for those waiting for a nice, new government flat. In the Havelock of my day, there were public servants at the beginning of their (in many cases) starry careers, academics, field scientists, a few people from the armed services, a few in the building industry or removalist businesses, a press photographer and one C grade reporter, yours truly, on The Canberra Times, owned by the Shakespeare family. It was a fairly representative mix of the Canberra at that time. I fell in love with Canberra in the 50s because it lacked menace. Sydney had come up with too many scary situations for a young woman using public transport in the out- of-ordinary working hours of journalism. I did not feel entirely safe at work, and I could not see a future. Canberra’s pretty, wide streets and gardens gave me the space I needed to work out why

I could not see my future as plainly as young men did. Canberra was to help bring about my social and political awakening. I thought of it as a place of cathedrals in paddocks, strange and beautiful. Golden poplars along the bridges before the Lake was there thrilled me. Reporting functions at night before I could drive meant I was dependant on strangers for a lift back to the office, yet I felt safe under those huge starlit skies. We had theatre, music, and a world of big ideas. I covered the opening of the Australian Academy of Science dome in 1959, and believed that architecture in Canberra would only become more and more exciting. Flying in a Tiger Moth I watched the consecration of All Saints, Ainslie (some of its stone building from a Sydney mortuary train station). Eventful, exciting, always something to do, the High Country close for skiing or bushwalking, a rackety DC 3 to get to Melbourne or Sydney for a weekend…

it was a young persons’ city full of life and promise. For a young female reporter it was experience that I could not easily get in Sydney: courts, police rounds, but also writing about ideas, covering the regular lectures in the Canberra University College and St Mark’s Library, meeting almost every important stranger who arrived at the Nissan-hut airport. A 50s Soviet delegation, Alfred Hitchcock, Kingsley Martin, embassy people… but I didn’t cover politics, or the National Capital Development Commission. They were for the men. Of course I pushed my luck, and was told, with some savagery, that I was encroaching on boys’ territory. So I packed my bags for Adelaide. But I kept 50s Canberra in my heart. Whenever I see cotoneasters I think with sharp pleasure of the starlit walk home alone around midnight from the ratty old newspaper building in Mort Street, Braddon, picking sprays of the berries

for my copper jug; the feeling of small town safety along with the stimulating, ever moving congregation of young people I lived among and who got each other’s jokes; and the high hopes that come with being part of something new and developing. Alas, the architecture did not become more exciting after the science dome, not much of it, anyway. Canberra may not be as safe as it once was, but it is a place still safe for ideas. Paul Daley, being younger, has had a different experience of Canberra. He has written a small, neat book* about it. His story of its earliest days filled gaps in my knowledge. He is diverted too often by what the rest of Australia (or its media) thinks about Canberra. You don’t capture a city’s essence by repeating what heedless people say about it – and a great deal of rubbish is written about Canberra. But it took me back and made me wish I was there – and young – again. *Canberra, by Paul Daley. NewSouth Press, Sydney.

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02/04/2013 15:56

18 The Melbourne Review May 2013

BOOKS

Burial Rites Hannah Kent / Picador

BY Tali Lavi

Amidst an agrarian existence of bleak deprivation, the stories, whether Biblical or other, that characters tell themselves in Burial Rites are the meat they feed off; small but compelling pleasures they allow themselves. The Sagas, a Medieval Icelandic body of literature that were both read and told, bleed into and inform Hannah Kent’s debut novel, a book concerned with different ways of telling, of revealing a story and all its mutability. Whilst Agnes Magnúsdóttir, the last person to be executed in Iceland, is its subject, early nineteenth century rural living is expertly delineated. People are at the whim of nature and it rears itself up as majestic, cruel and at times anthropomorphised: the `light had arrived like a hunted thing, all wide-eyed and trembling’. A reimagining of the months leading up to Agnes’s death when she was sent to live with a reluctant farming family, it is also

an unravelling of her life’s narrative. Multistranded in its form of narration, readers have an uneasy sense of being unable to precisely situate the truth, echoing the experience of the sometime listeners inside the story. Infamous in Icelandic folklore for being convicted of a double murder, Agnes was traditionally depicted as a scheming monster. Kent writes against this, not canonising her but allowing a complex being, a workmaid and poet, one dissatisfied with her lack of agency, to talk back to the forces that attempt to reduce her to her crime, including the historical documents which interrupt her story. Agnes is knowing and yet unknowable. Much has been made in the world of print and social media of the international bidding war for this book. Kent, a young Australian writer, has astutely reminded people that `it is a first book . . . and this is very much my apprenticeship as a writer’. Her control over language does falter at points, such as during a late confrontation between Agnes and Natan and the retelling of the murders. Although a sympathetic character, Reverend Tóti - Agnes’s chosen spiritual guide who hopes to save his charge - is less realised than Agnes or Magrét, the mistress of the farm. She is more nuanced; her bitterness at her family’s position does not preclude her from recognising Agnes as a fellow being and later identifying with her. But Burial Rites moves beyond this. It is also an elegy for freedoms extending from the most fundamental - the freedom to live - to living free from attendant oppressions of poverty, powerlessness and misogyny. As such, the prose that connects to this sense of the book, Agnes’s inner voice, is richly steeped in poeticism. Here is Agnes a few days before her end: `you are gone silence will claim you, suck your life down . . . and churn out stars that might remember you, but if they do they will not say, they will not say, and if no one will say your name you are forgotten I am forgotten.’ Kent’s motivation is thus revealed. She has undoubtedly succeeded in working against this spirit of Agnes’s oblivion, and more.

Americanah

Deception

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie / Fourth Estate

Edward Lucas / Bloomsbury

BY Tali Lavi

BY William Charles

A few years ago Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom was all but salivated over by some of the most distinguished literary critics around. It was well executed but soulless and consequently left me cold. Americanah is what it could have been; a book that integrated ideas and heart. But then it needed Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Nigerian writer, part-time resident of America and firm proponent of love in its many forms, to write it. It is more deserving of debate in the blogosphere, literary pages and book groups than Freedom ever was, for what it has to say about race and colour blindness, a new class of refugee, the politics of Black hair and love. It is a tale of many cities and ostensibly a fictional travelogue with two young Nigerians as its commentators; Ifemelu writes a satirical blog on race in America whilst Obinze fails to gain a foothold in a largely hostile England. Identities are chipped away, reconstructed and reclaimed at home and away, where difference oftentimes imposes the degradation of invisibility. Joyful and provocative; an intoxicating literary mix.

This 2012 book, now re-issued, is a troubling account of how much more desperate and clever the Russian state has been, and continues to be, in its parallel, covert struggle with the West for information and geopolitical influence. Lucas, a former bureau chief with The Economist in Moscow and a long-time critic of the corrupt Putin regime, outlines a counterintelligence modus operandi that comes in a direct historical line from the KGB and Lenin’s NKVD. From the ‘redhead under the bed’ Anna Chapman in the US, to the brutal murder in prison of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, to sleeper cells, cyber war on Baltic States, pay-offs, bought judges, lawyers and police, money laundering through London and countless tax havens; through all this a grindingly slow and venal state apparatus continues the grand Russian tradition of robbing its people blind while battling the West. In the end, it seems, the Russians play harder. They want it more. Meanwhile a self-satisfied West pats itself on the back, still basking in the glow of having “won” the Cold War even while our own systems of governance creak under financial and moral mismanagement. Don’t say we weren’t warned.

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THE MELBOURNE REVIEW MAY 2013 19

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BOOKS

THIS ISN’T THE SORT OF THING THAT HAPPENS TO SOMEONE LIKE YOU Jon McGregor / Bloomsbury BY DAVID SORNIG

Diego Marani / Text Publishing

Like the well-received New Finnish Grammar, this book continues Diego Marani’s focus on the intimate connection between language and identity in an idiosyncratically Finnish setting. The Last of the Vostyachs plays out a dramatisation, both comic and cruel, of an academic dispute. When Ivan, the last speaker of the language of the shamanic Vostyachs, emerges from the abandoned Siberian Gulag to prove to the Russian linguist Olga that the language of the Finns has a common root with that of the native North Americans, the truth doesn’t sit well with the Finnish nationalist Professor Aurtova, and he plots mercilessly to bury it. While the novel’s often unlikely – but entertaining – twists and turns rely on satire and allegory to get them across the line, there remains in it a gaping hole, that allows Ivan, characterised as he is as ‘primitive’, to escape his responsibility for an act of sexual violence to which Aurtova is also connected. In a work whose politics are attached very firmly to plurality over the chauvinistic singularity of nationalism, it is surprising to see this kind of dangerous romanticism at work.

Richard Wa Verdi we gner and Gi and the re both born useppe in ir dominat operas contin 1813 ue e They we the world’s sta to re born ges Europe at a tim . wa Napoleo s convulsed e when by the nic wars nation states of and when the Italy did Germany no and t yet exist. played im Bo developm portant roles th in consciou ent of nation the al a maste sness and eac artistic h r forms. of musical-dra was They tra matic way mu nsform ed sic was the the compo the atr sed extend e, and their infl for ed This new well beyond uence the work is study of their stage. richly illu live colour strated s and wit from op h art works in full drawn era house and pri s, museu vat includes e collections. ms location superb photo It gra s great com associated wit phs of h posers and the these ir works .

Wagne r their own editorial deletions, expressions of Ve& r d i the unconscious of a relationship faced with

crisis, a style that escapes into the ‘main’ story itself: ‘They’ve never had children, and this has They’ve never talked about it and yet ’ It’s a technically complex and highly satisfying piece, especially when it’s coupled with the important intervention of the recurring motif of a flood, to which this low-lying fenland, crisscrossed as it is with drainage canals, is prone. Diluvian motifs – rain, ﬂooding, and the fear of drowning – appear in more than one story. In ‘If It Keeps on Raining’ (Susworth) a ﬂood-paranoid loner prepares for the deluge he believes to be coming by building a treehouse for the shelter of his two children. ‘We Wave and Call’ sees fully-realised the oceanic terror of the deluge that cannot be kept at bay. While McGregor does not play it out consistently, there is a narrative thread here that’s more than just a little reminiscent of Steven Amsterdam’s foray into the unfolding of apocalypse in Things We Didn’t See Coming. It suggests, in a way that’s typical of the glancing and formally playful character of the contemporary short form, that whether in love or politics or environment, whether impending, long past, or sometimes deep into our own future, catastrophe is always certain.

Peter B assett

BY DAVID SORNIG

Peter Ba sse gave his tt is a write r and spe firs and Il tro t illustrated ake operatic r on opera wh school vatore) at the talks (on o stu age Aida Ring, A dents. His bo of fourteen to fellow oks inc Ring for lud Parsifal the – the Jou Millennium, e The Nibelun Tristan g’s rney of Wagne un a librettos d Isolde, and Soul, Richar r’s d tra . many op He has compil nslations of Wagner’s several ed or con French era programm tribute and con es temporar in the Italian d to regular , contrib utor to y repertoire andGerman, internati He was onal jou is a Dramatu rnals. lecturer rg, Artist and the 2004 coordinator ic Administra tor with the Adelaide Rin of ancillary eve , g and wa nts for premiere 1998 Adelaide s closel y involv Ring productio ed n of Pa and 2001 Au Peter ser rsifal. stralian ved Diploma for twenty years in in East tic Service in the Austr Au and He was, West Europ stralia and in alian embassie e, Asia for a fur and two So s ther dec the Pac uth Projects Australian Go ade, chief of sta ific. in Arts South Au vernors and Di ff to rector of stralia. Since 20 01 tours in , Peter has led Europe, more He live s in Mo the Americas than twenty op , ntville, QueenslaAsia and Austr era alia. nd. www.p eterbasse tt.com.au

Wagner

1 8 1 3 W agner & Verdi

THE LAST OF THE VOSTYACHS

While Jon McGregor’s fourth book, This Isn’t The Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You, is obviously not singular enough in intention to be called a novel, it uses devices that suggest, tantalisingly, the promise of something more coherent. The most obvious of these is the geographical link between each of the stories as they play out the flow and silt of lives that are lived in, or are connected with the English county of Lincolnshire. Each story is badged with a subtitle that bears the name of the village or town to which it belongs. In ‘Which Reminded Her, Later’, which takes place in Grantham (Margaret Thatcher’s hometown, incidentally, though there is no mention of her in the stories) Catherine ‘The Vicar’s Wife’ takes umbrage when her husband takes into the vicarage an American woman with an uncertain medical condition who claims the need for charity and an indefinite stay. The tensions in the couple’s relationship that the visit exposes is unexpectedly resolved in a later story. In ‘New York’ the doubling of the Lincolnshire place names New York and Boston, with their more famous counterparts, is played to comic effect in the voice of a rough-tongued free-form Beckettian film pitch involving two eastern European migrant workers (‘Fucken I don’t know. Wiktor and Andrej. Whatever. Right.’) The stories are strongest when their connection with place is more than nominal. ‘In Winter The Sky’ (Upwell) sees a farmer tell his wife the secret of his having buried in a neighbouring field a man he killed in a car accident many years before. Counterpointed with this, on alternating pages, are drafts of the wife’s landscape poetry that expose

813 Wagn1 er & Ve rdi

Verdi Peter B assett

Wagner &Verdi This beautiful book has been published to celebrate the bicentenary of the births of Richard Wagner and Giuseppe Verdi. Peter Bassett’s new study is richly illustrated in full colour with artworks drawn from opera houses, museums and private collections. 232 pages in large format. RRP $88. Postage free in Australia. Order online at:

www.peterbassett.com.au

Tickets are selling fast. Visit emergingwritersfestival.org.au to book now.

Cover im ages ABOV E: Simon Plácido Domi Bo ng den Lin ccanegra at the o in the title den rol Rittersha , 2009. Photo Berlin Staatsop e in er Un us. copyrigh t Monik ter a BELOW: Lis a Gasteen Götterdäm as Adelaide merung at the Brünnhilde in , 2004. Photo copFestival Theat The 20 yright Su re, 04 produ e Adler. by the ctio n of Sta Director te Opera of So Der Ring des Ni Symph Stephen Philli uth Australia belungen (G on ps), wit h the Ad eneral Ring by y Orchestra, wa an ela team com Australian pro s the first com ide plete and De prising Direc duction and des sig tor Schliep ners Michael Elke Neidhard ign er and Sco t tt-Mitch Steph Director and Co en Curtis. Th ell, Nick nductor e was Ash Musical er Fisch.

20 The Melbourne Review May 2013

FEATURE

Strathcona Using the city as a key learning resource

of its State architectural and historical significance. Constructed in 1893, it was designed in the Elizabethan style by architect Robert Guyon Whittlessey Purchas. The first owner was forced to sell before the house was completed. He sold to newlyweds Mr and Mrs Spencer in 1893. The Spencer family crest is above the fireplace in the front hall. The house later belonged to an order of the Catholic Church and was purchased by Strathcona in 1969.

The location â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a heritage-listed 19th century mansion on the banks of the Yarra with its own rich artistic history â&#x20AC;&#x201C; offers students a fascinating historical and geographical perspective from which to view their city and venture out to use it for learning. Tay Cregganâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s proximity to the river and public transport makes it an ideal base for excursions to museums, galleries and theatres.

The city plays an important part in Strathconaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new program for teaching and learning designed specifically for Year 9 girls. The new â&#x20AC;&#x153;I-Learningâ&#x20AC;? program links to the core curriculum but also goes beyond it. It is structured around four â&#x20AC;&#x153;channelsâ&#x20AC;?: History; Science; The Arts; and Sustainability. In each term of Year 9, lessons are devoted to these â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;channelsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. For History, for example, students explore historic Melbourne sites and produce a guided working tour on iPads with stills, video, voiceover and music.

Tay Creggan has been included in the Victorian Heritage Register in recognition

Â Â Â?Â? Â? Â? Â ÂÂ&#x20AC; Â? Â&#x201A; Â&#x201A;Â? Â Â&#x201A; Â&#x192;

trathcona Baptist Girls Grammar was among the first schools in Australia to establish a separate campus for Year 9 students. Since the Tay Creggan campus opened its doors for lessons in Hawthorn in 1970 several schools have followed suit, often choosing rural sites. At Tay Creggan, by contrast, students are encouraged to engage with city life and to use the campus as a launch pad to explore Melbourneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s arts and multicultural precincts.

Tay Creggan remains Melbourneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s only girlsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; campus of its kind that is based in the city. The location allows students to learn in a specialised Year 9 environment but when the school day ends they are able to return to their families, take part in activities such as sporting commitments and engage with the broader community. It is just a few kilometres from Strathconaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s main campus in Canterbury, meaning girls can continue to participate in

extra-curricular activities held at the main campus. Offering a separate school campus within reach of studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; homes provides an important balance for 14- and 15-year-old girls, who are undergoing a period of intellectual, social and emotional maturing coupled with a shift towards greater independence and a growing understanding of personal identity.

The Melbourne Review May 2013 21

melbournereview.com.au

EDUCATION

Le Cordon Bleu Meeting our tourism demands

he Australian tourism sector is about to be put to the test, with Prime Minister Julia Gillard predicting that Australia will welcome up to 400 million Chinese tourists over the next five years, in addition to existing international visitor numbers.

The decision to open a separate Year 9 campus was radical for its time, taken after indepth consultation with the Australian Council for Educational Research. Innovation has been a hallmark of Year 9 education at Strathcona ever since. Tay Creggan’s architectural heritage has been preserved but the campus has also been regularly updated. A ‘Learning Lounge’ at Tay Creggan is an example of how Strathcona uses physical spaces to promote effective learning and contemporary teaching practice. An open, bright, flexible space, it is designed for interaction, collaboration and reflection. It is furnished with chairs, sofas, stools and beanbags with books and journals nearby for reference, as well as laptops and iPads for immediate wireless internet access.

»»For further information please contact Joanne Wilson at Strathcona on 8779 7500 or registrar@strathcona.vic.edu.au

This has prompted concerns that the Australian tourism industry may not be ready for them. With the rising value of the Australian dollar, and correspondingly high expectations from international visitors, the standard expected from all Australian tourism operators has been raised, and our gastronomic industry is likely to be under the most pressure. According to the latest research by the Australian Tourism Commission, Australian food and wine is viewed as the number one attraction by 53 percent of all international visitors surveyed, after visiting Australia. This has prompted ATC to make food and wine the emphasis of their upcoming marketing efforts. On the ground, this push will put additional pressure on regional businesses that may not be ready for the magnitude of this tourism influx. Though the grassroots work by food and wine tourism pioneers across the country, over many years, has been substantial, gastronomic tourism is an industry dominated by small producers and agricultural businesses who have little training in tourism, and could struggle under the expected demand.

This is precisely what concerns food tourism expert Dr Roger Haden from hospitality education provider Le Cordon Bleu Australia: “With positive predictions and growth forecasts, tourism in Australia is routinely talked up by State and Federal Governments as a key to driving Australia’s future success in the global economy, but what in reality is being done to support this growth? Where is the investment in regional communities and small producers who must ultimately provide the experiences, knowledge and skills, as well as goods and services that all tourists now demand? Most importantly, where are the education and training programs with the same tourism-friendly vision for the future of regional Australia? Programs that cater for the talented and inspired people who want to help make those experiences truly memorable.” It is for this reason that Dr Haden has put his support behind a leading edge, online master’s degree in gastronomic tourism that specifically aims to educate food and wine tourism businesses, and the communities that support them. Delivered in conjunction with Southern Cross University, the Le Cordon Bleu Master of Gastronomic Tourism has also received support from some of Australia’s food tourism pioneers, such as Maggie Beer and Belinda Jeffrey, who both know the potential for this industry, but at the same time understand the need for training to support it.

With the first intake of students only last year, many graduates are already beginning to reap the benefits of the knowledge they have gained, including Sascha Stone from Perth, who works as a Tourism Marketing Officer for the City of Swan: “The Masters of Gastronomic Tourism degree has given me the opportunity to build on previous qualifications and further my knowledge in the specific field of food and wine tourism. The course material directly relates to my current employment and in a way validated a lot of the work I have done in the past. It has given me greater clarity of thought on the subject, introduced me to new ideas and has provided stimulation for personal growth in the future.” And for a limited time, Australian food and wine tourism business operators, or those with a passion for gastronomy, have an opportunity to qualify for one of two $5000 tuition scholarships for the Le Cordon Bleu Master of Gastronomic Tourism.

» Explore the world of Le Cordon Bleu lecordonbleu.com.au facebook.com/LCB.GastronomicTourism

tay creggan is unforgettable her unique campus... her unique learning experience in year 9 We invite you to visit Strathcona’s Tay Creggan to experience its uniqueness. Main Campus: Senior/Middle School & ELC, 34 Scott St, Canterbury Year 9 Campus: Tay Creggan, 30 Yarra St, Hawthorn Junior Campus: Mellor House – Prep to Yr 6, 173 Prospect Hill Rd, Canterbury Tel: 8779 7500 E: registrar@strathcona.vic.edu.au

www.strathcona.vic.edu.au

bring out her best.

22 The Melbourne Review May 2013

FASHION part of that too. My interest and research in historic buildings and sites led me to think about not only the structural requirements necessary in order to preserve a site, but also how these places might have smelt in key historical moments?” Huber also studied perfumery, and began to draw all the different strands of his experience together. The result is the new label Arquiste, recently launched in Australia, which sees a line of seven fragrances all reflecting elements of his diverse interests – among them history, colonial inheritance, hybridisation, childhood, innocence and beauty. The idea explored here is that the architecture and shape of any given historical moment carries within it not just personal, political or artistic significance, but also its own scent. Huber has worked with master perfumers Rodrigo Flores-Roux and Yann Vasnier. Carlos Huber

The Preservationist

Architect, conservator and perfumer Carlos Huber releases Arquiste, a line of fragrances that re-create moments in European and South American history by William Charles

isiting Ibiza in his early twenties, Mexican-born Carlos Huber was struck by the glorious perfumes that emanate from the hillside walks the island offers. A million miles from the clichéd Ibiza of nightclubbing is the ancient island flora thick with pine trees, rosemary, and lavender. What Huber had walked into was just a few of the rich scents that have characterised the Mediterranean landscape for centuries, such as wild herbs, citrus, pine, myrtle and dates. These are scents that have meaning beyond their own aesthetic beauty, triggering memories and deep associations. These scents – indeed all scents – can be, effectively, doors into other worlds, of time, place and memory.

Another fragrance that has marked him deeply is the orange blossom. For Huber the orange blossom is redolent of his native Mexico; so too are limes, both citrus fruits that have great cultural and symbolic meaning.

Ibiza he found to be an “incredibly fragrant” island, with the distinct advantage that the tourist nightclub trade is so concentrated into a small area that the rest of this marvellous, rustic, aromatic and history-drenched island is comparatively free for the enjoyment of hikers such as himself and his friends. The strong fragrances of the island had set him thinking, and wondering.

The orange blossom also serves as the simple, pure base for the cologne that Spanish and Mexican mothers still use to splash onto their children. “When I was a child, after the bath or shower my mother would always splash me with the orange blossom cologne, and even today, every time I visit Mexico I bring some back for myself and friends. Every morning I still splash it on my face, or in the evening. It’s not about masking anything – it’s just the comfort in that smell. When you live outside your country of origin there are things that you miss, and you hold onto these little things that have that deep emotional association.”

As he moved on through his career, Huber deepened his curiosity for the past. He was fascinated by the idea of not just exploring signature moments in colonial and European history for their social, cultural, architectural or artistic significance, but of seeking to recreate the fragrances of those moments: the scents that blended with the people, that wafted through the buildings, that accompanied lovers, cooks, judges and poets, princes, dandies, sailors, explorers, peasants and aristocrats.

“I was struck,” he comments when speaking to The Melbourne Review from his New York office, “by the idea of the orange coming from the Middle East, arriving in Spain via the Moors, and then on to the Americas, finding the place it really thrives in the Gulf of Mexico. The orange tree comes to represent that cultural hybridisation. It represents the roots of Spanish culture in Mexico and yet, paradoxically, it is not even a Spanish tree.”

This idea of the intangible stayed with Huber as he developed his work in the fields of luxury retail, interior design and then involvement with architecture, historic preservation and art installation, seeking to understand the role of non-visual clues in the interpretation of historic sites. History can be a double-edged sword, full

of rich reward and unpleasant discovery. Many of us are accustomed to the idea that in the past, all smells were overbearingly bad: we think of unwashed wigs, unbathed bodies and chamber pots emptied into city streets, of unrefrigerated food and untreated body wounds. This, Huber suggested, is only part of the story, and ignores the fact that traditions of bodily cleanliness are millennia old – the bathhouses by which many Europeans kept themselves clean (and which are still so much a part of Japanese society, for example) were only discouraged later by the institution of the church who saw such fleshly sites as encouraging all manner of sins. The idea of a stench-filled past can be exaggerated; it plays easily into our ideas of continual hygienic progress. However, the case may sometimes be, Huber suggests, that no-one was quite so modern as the ancients. For Huber, olfactory memories operate as strongly as music or the emotions of the heart in the way aromas evoke places, times, and physical space. He is fascinated by the connection between architecture, space and smell, or as he puts it, “the symbiotic relationship between scent, space and time. Smells can sometimes tell you more about a space than your eyes. For example, when you experience going into a church, or a forest clearing, or an old house, or indeed a new house, or new car – the way you experience the feeling of these spaces is not only the physical aspect, but the characteristic smell of the elements. “Architecture is not only about the walls. It is about the light, the ventilation and how you experience the space, and the smell is a strong

We start with L’Etrog, placing us in 12th century Calabria, immersing us in citron, myrtle and date. Then Flor y Canto transports us to Tenochtitlan, Mexico, 1400, on the festive day flowers are offered on the Aztec altars, a fragrance strongly defined by tuberose and magnolia from the local gardens created when the city (now Mexico City) was built. Next come a companion pair: Fleur de Luis and Infanta en Flor both situate us in the Basque Country, 1660, on the Isle of Pheasants in the middle of the Bidasoa River at Hendaye, marking the French-Spanish border; here Louis XIV awaits his new bride, the Infanta Maria Teresa, an occasion steeped in orange water scents and jasmine with hints of rose. The collection continues with the startlingly original Anima Dulcis; we are once again in Mexico City, 1695, now under Spanish rule. Cocoa, vanilla, cinnamon and a dash of chilli suggest a baroque brew concocted by nuns at the Royal Convent of Jesus Maria, and reflects elements of an old recipe Huber came across in his research. With heart notes including clove and cumin the fragrance is, quite simply, unlike anything you might be accustomed to. Aleksandr takes us to St. Petersburg, 1837 – the world, both dashing and tragic, of Pushkin and his equally remarkable compatriot Lermontov. Neroli, violet leaf and fir, iced vodka and leather all combine for another remarkable fragrance. Finally, Boutonnière No 7 drops us into the foyer of the Opéra-Comique in 1899 Paris, where Huber creates a gardenia perfume for men, blended with lavender, bergamot and mandarin. The suggestion is of a green and heady scent that attracts beautiful young women to equally elegant men. This is a fragrance of which Huber is rightly proud and which has been gathering awards much as one might gather the flowers of Grasse.

»»All perfumes in the Arquiste range are available exclusively at Peony Haute Parfumerie, 107 Auburn Road, Hawthorn. arquiste.com peonymelbourne.com.au

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24 The Melbourne Review May 2013

PERFORMING ARTS

NEON Festival by Nina Bertok

Sheehy says that the MTC hoped to encourage activities for the public and independent theatre makers – such as forums, workshops, networking events and mentoring opportunities – which ultimately resulted in the festival’s additional element, NEON Extra. Bringing together industry commentators, journalists and leading creative figures such as Anouk Van Dijk, Ralph Myers, Emily Sexton, Andrew Upton and more, NEON Extra will also run over a 10 week period. “Like all great festivals, NEON includes a raft of activities designed to flesh out the experience of the performances, as well as provide a platform for dialogue between the theatre makers of our city,” Sheehy explains. “At the moment, this is all a learning curve but we are definitely hoping to find the resources again to repeat it next year. We’ll have a debrief session and see what could work better next

“I’ve been involved in festivals for 17 years so I know how critical it is for artists to be able to bounce ideas off each other and for audiences to interact with artists. That concentration of artistic activity tends to result in things that are much greater than the sum of the parts. At this point, we’ve been able to turn it into a 10 week celebration along with NEON Extra – it would be a terrible shame if it happened once and never again.” The Rabble’s artistic director and co-creator, Kate Davis, agrees with Sheehy, describing the event as an exciting opportunity for likeminded companies and colleagues to get together and conduct a dialogue for the first time. “MTC have just gone for it with this festival, which is really exciting for all of us in the industry,” she says. “We’re all working together for the first time. We’re all able to talk about how everyone is going with their own shows; there is a real community feel about it. It’s important for independent theatre, full-stop. Things like the panels and discussions allow us all to be supportive of each other rather than be separated and I think an event like this will increase everybody’s audiences overall. Our company formed in 2006 and a lot of what we do is based on improvisation, so with that in mind, our work [‘The Story Of O’] is hard to describe because it’s based on that method. Basically, we’re doing our version of the book, which is a controversial one written in the 50s. It’s a pretty erotic novel and quite intense so it’s been challenging to interpret that but that’s also been the reason we decided to do it.” Ash Flanders of ‘drag-theatre’ troupe, Sisters Grimm, says his company’s production of ‘The Sovereign Wife’ takes a similar approach by re-interpreting a classic Australian novel and completely dissecting established national frontiers. Independent theatre and experimentation tend to go hand-in-hand, according to Flanders. “The way our company works is that we do our own take on the themes that interest us. Previously we’ve investigated the ‘evil child’ genre and now we’re doing the ‘great Australian frontier epic’. We wanted it to run for nine hours but we’re not allowed to, so we’ll probably stick with two and a half hours. ‘The Sovereign Wife’ is a story of struggle against

Theresa Harrison

“When I came to Melbourne in 2009, as someone who’d worked in festivals around the country beforehand, I noticed how incredibly vibrant and talented the independent theatre sector was. I hadn’t experienced it in any other cities I’d ever worked in. I also noticed how separate the independent sector was from everything else, so when I joined MTC, I wanted to bridge that gap. I felt that there was a perception of MTC as a flagship company separate from this other activity going on, so I chatted to the artists who have ended up in this year’s program, and that’s when the seed was planted – for MTC to be an umbrella in assisting the celebration of the independent sector. I also wanted these artists to have absolutely no artistic interference from MTC at all, for us just to curate them so that what ended up on the stage was what they would do normally.”

time. Whatever we at MTC can help with, we’ll make it happen.

Sisters Grimm.

the land and trying to understand the mystical, magical land of Australia.” Sheehy describes the festival’s concept as based on a “two-way” street which is guaranteed to benefit not only the theatre industry but Melbourne at large. “Already, I feel the benefits because we’ve built this fantastic relationship with dozens of young Melbourne artists who we’ve previously had no relationship with. It’s a great thing for the independent theatre landscape and it’s amazing for the cultural sector in both Melbourne and the rest of Australia.”

»»MTC’s NEON Festival runs until July 21 at Southbank Theatre, The Sumner. The Melbourne Review is a proud supporter of NEON Festival. mtc.com.au

Pia Johnson

ive of Melbourne’s top independent companies will stage a range of original works as part of Melbourne Theatre Company’s inaugural NEON Festival from now until July 21. A collaboration between MTC’s Artistic Director, Brett Sheehy, and a group of key players in Melbourne’s independent theatre sector, the diverse program is set to celebrate the city’s inspiring and unique arts community, promising to be a showcase of talent like no other. Featuring productions from the Daniel Schlusser Ensemble, Fraught Outfit, the Hayloft Project, the Rabble and Sisters Grimm, Sheehy claims there is no reason to doubt that NEON will become an annual event in years to come.

Fraught Outfit . On the Bodily Education of Young Girls.

The Melbourne Review May 2013 25

melbournereview.com.au

PERFORMING ARTS

Orchestrating Success

HIGH ENERGY … EXUBERANT CLOWNING … POUNDING ROCK SCORE – NEW YORK POST

The MSO’s new General Manager by Peter Tregear

here are significant signs that the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is heading towards a period of renewed artistic and administrative stability. Alongside the accession of Sir Andrew Davis to the longvacant post of Chief Conductor, there has also been the recent appointment of a new Managing Director, Canadian André Gremillet. Gremillet came to the position after a successful tenure as the President and CEO of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. A native of Québec, he was quick to recognise the strengths and opportunities that cities and countries of complex cultural origins, of the like to be found in Canada and Australia, share. While the particular cultural and funding circumstances he finds in Melbourne differ markedly from that of New Jersey, there are also challenges that both, indeed, all orchestras in the Western world, also share. These include the ageing of audiences, the decline in subscriber numbers, and the challenge of connecting with young people. Above all, there has been a marked decline in both the funding base for classical music and the political will once that supported it. Indeed, it is equally, and lamentably, rare to see a prominent political leader at a symphony concert whether one is in Australia, America, or the United Kingdom. In conversation, Gremillet shows no sign of being daunted by these challenges; rather for him they truly represent exciting (albeit also pressing) opportunities. Chief among them he notes is the need to expand the size and scale of the MSO’s philanthropic base which, in comparison with similar orchestras in the United States, is low. This, he believes, is not just about the need to raise money per se. A successful philanthropic campaign is also a sure marker that an arts organisation is successfully connecting with its local community writ large. Ensuring that the orchestra remains competitive with the best

in the world means ensuring that the orchestra remains connected to the city it calls home first and foremost. Securing this ongoing sense of community ownership of the MSO, he sees as his most important goal. For someone who only arrived in November last year, there is no doubting his own sense of ownership. While he is quick to credit his programming team, as well as the work of his immediate predecessor, for the strength of the MSO’s current season, Gremillet nevertheless speaks with true proprietorial enthusiasm about the orchestra’s current offering; particular highlights for him include the return of wunderkind Diego Matheuz to Melbourne as newly appointed Principal Guest Conductor, and the forthcoming Stravinsky Festival (to mark the one hundredth anniversary of the first performance of The Rite of Spring). Gremillet is also keen to stress the significant broader economic and cultural benefits that accrue to the city when the orchestra is flourishing. The MSO is a powerful public symbol of, and promotional vehicle for, Melbourne as a world-class city, a city with global ambition and influence. Music is in this respect as powerful a marketing tool as sport. And given Melbournians are at least as passionate about their arts and their sport, we should – he believes – be promoting this aspect of our city at least as hard on the international stage as we do our love for cricket and football.

»»The Rite Stuff: The MSO’s Stravinsky Festival is on August 7, 10 and 13 at 8:00pm. Featuring all three of Stravinsky’s great ballet scores, plus works by other composers inspired by, or who inspired, Stravinsky. Diego Matheuz, conductor mso.com.au

19 JUNE-14 JULY

UNDER THE HEATED BIG TOP, BIRRARUNG MARR

TICKETS FROM $24 BOOK NOW Lucas Dawson

TICKETMASTER.COM.AU OR 136 100 Andre Gremillet

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26 The Melbourne Review May 2013

PERFORMING ARTS

On Song

Songs for everybody New work from Australia’s leading contemporary playwright Joanna Murray-Smith will be staged across the country this year, as the novelist and playwright prepares for a year bricked with wall-to-wall productions.

‘Lieder’ reveal a deeper language by Robert Murray

by David Knight

efore records and radio, CDs and Spotify we had to make our own music at home. In the nineteenth century, middle class parlours would have boasted a piano, and at least a few family members to play it, or accompany the singer or instrumentalist. If you were rich and connected, you might have been able to convince a virtuoso like Frederic Chopin to appear in your salon.

ith two productions of original new work (True Minds and Fury, staged in Melbourne and Sydney respectively), an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler for the State Theatre Company of SA, as well as an opera, overseas productions of older work and more, MurraySmith has a busy 2013 ahead. But The Songs for Nobodies and Honour writer, who was in Los Angeles for a production of The Gift earlier in the year, says she didn’t set herself up to have a frantic year.

A music publishing industry was established to cater to this domestic market, and one of the beneficiaries of this was the young Viennese, Franz Schubert. He composed songs of miraculous psychological acuity and (more commercially) tunefulness in great quantity and sold them for a pittance. The piano parts are not ‘technically’ difficult to play, and there are no pyrotechnics in the singer’s line, which often have the simplicity and artlessness of folksong. Compared with later Romantic music, the music looks skeletally bare, pared back to the absolute minimum number of notes. Interpreting these songs is another thing entirely.

Schubert’s later songs are more virtuosic, pointing to their future as the purview of professional musicians or very talented amateurs. The essential intimacy of this form was retained by later composers, even if they were writing with concert performance in mind. The art song may have been perfected in Vienna (which is why we named the genre after the German word for ‘songs’ - lieder), but it’s a genre

Anne-Marie Le

What makes these songs so great is what is not written on the page, but what happens in the spaces between and behind the notes. Yet, surely part of what made these songs hits is that their emotional essence is within the grasp of even a parlour musician. It’s as if just by reading Hamlet’s soliloquy aloud we could become Laurence Olivier for a moment. Schubert is a master of characterisation, sketching a situation or personality with utmost economy: the piano in his famous ‘The Trout’ is somehow simultaneously a burbling brook and a portrait of the cocky angler and doomed fish.

“I spent a month in LA over summer with that production,” she begins. “There’s a line in it that artists spend their lives at the mercy of other people’s tastes. And that line just keeps reverberating in my head because you know you’re not really in charge of what happens in terms of whether the plays are picked up or not. Last year I had virtually nothing on and this year I’ve got wall-to-wall productions, so you don’t set yourself up for anything. You throw things out there and hope that some of them are going to land on a stage. If you’re lucky people are interested in what you’re doing and it will work out.

Susan Bullock.

that transcends national boundaries, as at home in France as it is in England and Scandinavia. Lieder remains at the heart of the singer’s art. In August the British Wagnerian soprano Susan Bullock (and star of the 2013 Melbourne Ring Cycle) will demonstrate its breadth when she sings Robert Schumann, the ultimate Romantic composer, the perfumed Mélodies of Claude Debussy and the songs of Benjamin Britten, among others. Britten, like many prolific composers of vocal music, was in a relationship with a singer, the tenor Peter Pears, who received songs in French, English, Italian and German. While Britten’s

unmistakable compositional voice is always present, he perfectly assumes the accent of any language he composed in. Without being parodies or pastiche, the German songs have more than a hint of Schubert and Schumann in them, suggesting that language has a deeper music which can be liberated by a few wellplaced chords.

»»Susan Bullock performs at Melbourne Recital Centre on August 29. melbournerecital.com.au

“Also, the artistic directors, it is not even whether they like or don’t like your work, it’s whether it works in the season they have planned, you know, things like: do they have too many comedies or dramas or enough Australian work and so on. There’s a little bit of alchemy involved I think.” The LA production of The Gift received standing ovations but divided the critics. Murray-Smith says the Maria Aitken-directed play, which was first staged in Melbourne in 2011, was much better by the time it got to California. “The audiences were incredible – they came in droves and gave a standing ovation at most performances. They argued about it and we had brilliant post show feedback with people staying back and talking about it because it is a very difficult, controversial play. It divided the critics as it always does – The LA Times hated it, Variety adored it, so that’s pretty

The Melbourne Review May 2013 27

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PERFORMING ARTS standard for my work now – my plays always get mixed reviews. I’ve very rarely had a play where everyone has said ‘we love it’ or even where everyone has said ‘we hate it’ – I don’t know what it is about me but that’s the way it is.” The exception to this is Songs for Nobodies, which has received universal acclaim. Written to show off Bernadette Robinson’s amazing voice and range, the musical has been performed all over the country with Broadway interested. “We did a showcase over there, and there are all these jaded, cynical Broadway guys who have to be dragged to the theatre kicking and screaming to see her [Bernadette Robinson] because in New York terms both she and I are unknown. I’ve had a few things on in New York but Bernadette has not performed in New York at all... but everyone came. She had a standing ovation at the end of it and all of these diehard New York theatre people said they had never seen a standing ovation given for a showcase before and there was a huge amount of excitement about it.” The one thing stopping Songs for Nobodies getting the Broadway green light is the lack of star power. But Murray-Smith says the show will not happen without Robinson.

“She is the show. What most people in New York said is we can’t think of anyone in America who can do this play. She is extraordinary. She’s not just extraordinary in Australian terms, she’s extraordinary in international terms.” Currently Murray-Smith is writing an opera called The Divorce for Opera Australia as well as two American commissions. Murray-Smith describes True Minds (currently being staged by the Melbourne Theatre Company) as an “out and out comedy”. “It’s modelled a little on the kind of Preston Sturges-type romantic comedies that we’ve seen on film. It’s about someone who thinks they are in love with one person but they’re really in love with someone else. We, the audience, know it and we know they are going to find out the truth and we know they’re going to end up with the right person but we don’t know how it’s going to happen and how is she going to realise that. “It’s a very, very simple story about a young woman who has written this sociological kind of bestseller, an unexpected bestseller, about how a man will never commit to a woman his mother doesn’t approve of and this holds true now as much as it ever has. The play takes place on the night when she’s about to meet her potential mother-in-law and everything

I’ve very rarely had a play where everyone has said ‘we love it’ or even where everyone has said ‘we hate it’ – I don’t know what it is about me but that’s the way it is.”

that can go wrong does go wrong, including the arrival on the doorstep during this massive storm that’s happening throughout the entire play, of her ex-boyfriend Mitch (who has just stopped off on his way out of rehab and is a very, very naughty boy) and she’s got to get rid of him before the motherin-law arrives.”

»»True Minds continues at the Southbank Theatre until June 8. mtc.com.au

Joanna Murray-Smith

Johannes Moser “One of the finest among the astonishing gallery of young virtuoso cellists”. Gramophone Magazine

After an electric ANAM residency in 2010, German-Canadian cellist Johannes Moser returns to present modern chamber classics with ANAM musicians and lead the orchestra in Lutosławski’s uncompromising Cello Concerto.

Friday 24 May, 7PM Shostakovich Cello Sonata Lutosławski Cello Concerto Schoenberg Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) Johannes Moser cello/director ANAM Orchestra

Australian National Academy of Music South Melbourne Town Hall

BOOK NOW

Phone (03) 9645 7911 anam.com.au

Photo: Manfred Esser-Haenssler

28 THE MELBOURNE REVIEW MAY 2013

PERFORMING ARTS With another year of travelling under their belts, Circus Oz are back with a tighter, road-hardened show

Audience reaction also determines how one of our shows is going to develop and which direction it will take. If something is obviously not working and getting a reaction, we take it out or try and redevelop it.”

BY ROBERT DUNSTAN

ircus Oz spent a year touring From The Ground Up internationally and will now premiere a revamped version as Cranked Up under their big top tent at Birrarung Marr in Melbourne from mid-June.

Circus Oz, a troupe that uses a live band and only human animals, celebrating its 35th anniversary in 2013, premiered From The Ground Up in 2012. The show has now reemerged as Cranked Up after travelling the world and becoming honed and road-hardened. “That’s the way Circus Oz have always worked,” the company’s artist director Mike Finch, says. “We basically create shows that have a two-year cycle, so we fashioned From The Ground Up with the intention that it would evolve into something else. Our shows have a creative period followed by rehearsals and a big tour and then we go into another creative phase where we tighten it up.

among its cast and crew and has Blackrobatics and Blakﬂip as part of its training programs.

CRANKED UP

“We’ve just returned from ﬁve weeks in New York and a tour along the west coast of the US with From The Ground Up so we are now at that stage, after it’s been seen by thousands of people, where we can have another look at it and revamp it as Cranked Up. It’s a very organic process and we have a director who goes on tour and watches every show and makes notes. So a Circus Oz show is liked a wine that’s slowly ageing.”

“And a Murri fella has just joined the company and will be in Cranked Up,” Finch reveals. “Mark Sheppard is a clown and a new ingredient in the Circus Oz soup and we’ve developed two or three new acts in the show based around him. And that’s how Circus Oz is different to some companies who lock everything in so it becomes like a factory production line. “A big part of a Circus Oz show is that it’s a team of artists working together and continually coming up with new ideas,” he then adds. “Audience reaction also determines how one of our shows is going to develop and which direction it will take. If something is obviously not working and getting a reaction, we take it out or try and redevelop it. And we are open to ideas coming from any direction because it’s not like we sit down and write a script. Ideas might come from the lighting operator or stage manager.” Using an array of physical acrobatic skills that includes death-defying stunts alongside their own brand of cheeky, irreverent humour, Circus Oz have now performed in almost 30 countries and are equally at home in theatres, concert venues or under their big top tent such as will be the case at the Melbourne premiere of Cranked Up. It’s also a show for any age.

Robert Blackburn

From its very beginnings in 1977 in Melbourne, Circus Oz has been seen as a very organic company and also one that has also supported social issues such as women’s rights, environmental concerns, land rights and asylum seekers. The company is also proud that it includes a number of indigenous people

“You’ll see kids laughing and they’ll be loving it and then the adults will be laughing at a political joke we’ve dropped in,” Finch concludes. “And adults love it when they see the really little kids screaming with delight. Everyone has a great time and at the end of the performance everyone is uniﬁed by a shared experience.”

» Circus Oz’s Cranked Up runs under the big top at Birrarung Marr Marr, between Federation Square and Batman Ave, from June 19 to July 14, at various times. Tickets are available via ticketmaster.com.au circusoz.com

“A TOUR DE FORCE BY AN AMAZING COMPANY OF DANCERS”

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PERFORMING ARTS

Spanish Film Festival BY CHRISTOPHER SANDERS

“

Variation is the beauty of the program this year,” says Festival Director Genevieve Kelly. “Not only variation of genre, but also of origin. While films from Spain dominate the selection, we could not deny the quality of film that is coming out of Latin America and Mexico. Overall, audiences are spoiled for choice with a selection of outrageous comedies, stylish dramas, gripping thrillers and enthralling documentaries.” Two films set in South America, Clandestine Childhood and Operation E, are standout films of this year’s program. “The quality of films that are coming out of South America is undeniable. Along with Clandestine Childhood and Operation E (which, although set in Colombia, is actually a Spanish/French production), the films

making up the South American representation include the Peruvian film Dark Heaven, an Argentinean film with a gorgeous cast called Don’t Fall in Love with Me, the sensitive drama Gone Fishing, and the fun road-trip film The Farewell. Films from this part of the world are an essential addition to the festival, and will surely be for years to come.” Other films that are worth mentioning include Cesc Gay’s opening night film A Gun in Each Hand starring Ricardo Darin (The Secret in Their Eyes, Chinese Take-Away), the documentary The Girl from the South, Fernando Trueba’s The Artist and the Model and the closing night classic Tristana. This year’s special guest is Mexican director Natalia Beristain. “[Her] debut feature is She Doesn’t Want to Sleep Alone, a wonderfully crafted film about a young woman with a problem: if she is alone, she cannot sleep. Natalia will be conducting Q&A events in Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra, and be present at the opening night events in Sydney and Melbourne.”

» The Spanish Film Festival runs from June 12 to June 26 at Palace Cinemas. spanishfilmfestival.com

THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST BY CHRISTOPHER SANDERS

Based on Mohsin Hamid’s book, The Reluctant Fundamentalist thrusts 9/11 back into the spotlight. A kidnapping of an American academic in Lahore leads journalist and author Bobby Lincoln (Liev Schreiber) to interview Changez (Riz Ahmed), a hothead professor who may be more radical and dangerous than he ﬁrst appears. Before answering Bobby’s questions, Changez wants the journalist to hear his story, which takes us back to pre 9/11, where Changez is a Princeton student who falls in love with the land of Starbucks and McDonalds. The blue-blood son of a poet secures a job as an analyst on Wall St (you can’t get more capitalist than that!) and is mentored by his hard boiled boss Jim Cross (Kiefer Sutherland) who

admires Changez’ intelligence and merciless drive. Changez’ appreciation for the West deepens when he falls for photographer Erica (Kate Hudson). Then 9/11 happens and the Pakistani’s view of his adopted country changes after experiencing his civil rights horrendously abused after the collapse of the Twin Towers. Back in Lahore, the now-lecturer has attracted the attention of the CIA. This ﬁlm unfortunately fails to reach the heights of its premise. Helmed by director Mira Nair, The Reluctant Fundamentalist is weakened by generic plot and character developments, and focuses too much on the relationship between Changez and Erica. Given the subject matter, it’s too nice a ﬁlm, which lacks some nastiness and shades of grey.

» Rated M. Opens on May 23.

THE MELBOURNE REVIEW MAY 2013 31

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PERFORMING ARTS/CINEMA TABU BY ANNA SNOEKSTRA

After watching the brief prologue of a melancholy explorer who commits suicide via crocodile, we are confronted with the mirror image of ourselves. A cinema, empty except for a middle-aged woman, who stares blankly back at us through the screen. This device reveals just what we are in for. Yes, this is a film about film. However, it is an engrossing showcase about just how extraordinary cinema can be. Miguel Gomes’ Tabu takes its name and structure from F. W. Murnau’s 1931 silent film. It inverts the two sections depicted by Marnau, named `Paradise’ and `Paradise Lost’. First, Gomes presents us with `Paradise Lost’, which is set in modern day Lisbon and shot in beautiful black and white 35mm. It focuses on two older women who live next door to one another in an apartment complex: Do-gooder Pila, the woman from the cinema, and selfish and paranoid elderly Aurora who is convinced that her African carer, Santa, is practicing voodoo on her. This section depicts the mundanely beautiful everyday life of these women as Aurora’s mental and physical health deteriorates.

Aurora’s dying wish is to see a man named Ventura, who tells the story of his adulterous love affair with Aurora in colonised Mozambique. Thus begins the second section of the film, `Paradise’. This section remains in black and white but switches to 16mm. That is not the only change. Gomes plays with genre again here, seeking to give the sensation of silent film. He uses Ventura’s voiceover to tell the story, withholding the real voices of the characters. Although we cannot hear the dialogue, we can see Aurora and Ventura fall in love with their loaded glances and furtive smiles. This is in stark opposition to the first section, which is heavy with hand-wringing dialogue. We are allowed to hear the sounds of the surroundings, the wind in the leaves and footsteps in the grass. Mixed with the change in film stock, this device highlights that this is only a memory; these are people and places that no longer exist as they once were. And what better way to do that then with a style of cinema that has all but disappeared. Taking great risks with old methods, this film is breathtaking and exciting in the most slow burn of ways.

» Rated MA15+. Opens on May 16.

Xanadu Wines at St. Kilda Film Festival Xanadu Wines is thrilled to be bringing their ‘pop-up’ bar to this year’s St Kilda Film Festival. Bringing together the brand’s affinity and love of film, arts and culture, this space will be an opportunity to talk films over a glass of wine with friends at the renowned Astor Theatre. Xanadu Wines has created exciting alliances with some of Melbourne’s most cutting edge film festivals. As a newfound supporter of film, they are devoted to supporting the growth of this talented industry. This year St Kilda Film Festival is celebrating “Thirty Short Years” of film and its role in fostering the talent of emerging Australian filmmakers. Xanadu Wines also supports the Human Rights & Arts Film Festival – and not forgetting their offbeat partnership with Perth’s eclectic Rooftop Movies, in their home state. On Friday May 24, Xanadu Wines presents Comedy Night at The Astor, one of the highlights of the festival. Make sure you get there early and head straight to the Xanadu Wine Bar to share a laugh. xanaduwines.com

7.5pt Univers 57 Condensed

melbourne review_Layout 1 13/05/13 12:42 PM Page 1

32 The Melbourne Review May 2013

PERFORMING ARTS / WORDS&MUSIC

Take Care

Chilton’s was a career in reverse. A pop star at age 16 with Memphis blueeyed soul group The Box Tops, he then worked his way back to obscure cult artist.”

Big Star by Phil Kakulas

search of more expressive ways of playing. For Chilton, it was a revelation. Concerned in the past with the ‘careful layering of guitars and voices and harmonies’, Dickinson had shown him ‘how to go into the studio and just create a wild mess and make it sound really crazy and anarchic.’

hese days it’s hard to appreciate just how unnerving Big Star’s Third/Sister Lovers album must have sounded to the few who heard it in 1974. Back then, its shambolic, shattered beauty would have been completely at odds with a world still listening to glam and prog rock. Recorded shortly before the group disbanded, the album was rejected by the major labels and lay dormant until a small independent release four years later. Post punk, it became a cult classic, cherished for the stark anguish of songs like Holocaust, Kangaroo and the album’s closing track, Take Care. Written by singer/songwriter Alex Chilton, Take Care is a bruised ballad, ripe with irony; an intoxicated tale that warns of the dangers of excess. The song opens with the trill of violins

In lesser hands that ‘wild mess’ probably would have been the end of story, as there is far more artistry involved than Chilton would lead us to believe. To create an original and compelling ‘mess’ still requires a skilful balance of both the careful and the careless. Take Care falls in and out of time and tune, while artfully contrasting the formality of a string ensemble against the ramshackle playing of the band. The resulting tension fuels the song’s main instrumental passage, wherein the violins soar skyward as Chilton hangs on for dear life, straining for the high notes before floating down to earth again.

Alex Chilton

16 MAy – 21 juLy 2013

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The song teeters on the edge of collapse, the fractured nature of the music mirroring the creator’s state of mind, like some kind of musical onomatopoeia. By the second verse Chilton is even struggling with the syntax.

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DANIEL ScHLuSSER ENSEMbLE FRAugHT OuTFIT THE HAyLOFT PROjEcT THE RAbbLE SISTERS gRIMM

Chilton’s was a career in reverse. A pop star at age 16 with Memphis blue-eyed soul group The Box Tops, he then worked his way back to obscure cult artist. His early experiences left him wary of the music industry and determined to put his own music ahead of other considerations. When Big Star formed in 1971 they believed they could do it on their own terms. Yet after two critically acclaimed albums failed to sell and the third couldn’t even get a release, a disillusioned Chilton called it quits for the band.

N O

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Take care not to hurt yourself Beware of the need for help You might need too much And people are such Take care, please, take care

X TI

FESTIVAL OF INDEPENDENT THEATRE

This challenge to what ‘good music’ should sound like would prove hugely influential. First through Chilton’s own production work for The Cramps and Panther Burns and later as a sonic template for artists like The Flaming Lips, Sonic Youth and The Bad Seeds.

5 $2

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and an acoustic guitar. Chilton, sounding like he’s been up all night, slurs the words across the melody, while the drums, sounding almost as weary, stumble against the baroque string arrangement and haphazard slide guitar lines to heartrending effect.

Some people read idea books And some people have pretty looks But if your eyes are wide And all words aside Take care, please, take care By all accounts, the sessions for Take Care were drug-addled and chaotic – an atmosphere encouraged by maverick producer Jim Dickinson, who later said that he was ‘nailed’ for indulging Chilton but had done so because he felt it important; ‘What I did for Alex was literally remove the yoke of oppressive production that he had been under since the first time he ever uttered a word into a microphone, for good or ill.’ Dickinson encouraged the group to leave conventional notions of music craft aside in

Alex Chilton closes Take Care with a gentle, bleary farewell – a farewell to Big Star, a farewell to a lover and a farewell to us. Take care, he sings, softly to himself, take care. This sounds a bit like goodbye In a way it is I guess As I leave your side I’ve taken the air Take care, please, take care Take care, please, take care

»»Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me screens at ACMI, Federation Square, from May 26 to June 13.

The Melbourne Review May 2013 33

melbournereview.com.au

VISUAL ARTS Vibrant Matter by Anthony Fitzpatrick

s both a pioneering abstract artist and a humble tradesman, Ralph Balson’s life was absorbed in the substance of paint.

Having left school at twelve years of age to begin work, his professional life as a housepainter over the ensuing decades involved the daily transformation of the interiors and exteriors of buildings in and around Sydney where he had emigrated from England in his early 20s. However, outside his working hours, this everyday, utilitarian application of paint was subsumed by a strong creative drive to experiment with this medium in an evolving series of paintings which sought to express through abstract compositions, his conception of the nature of the universe.

John Coburn. Death and Transfiguration 1979.

Poised on the cusp between the geometric assemblages of his Constructive Paintings and the painterly experiments in formlessness of his Non-Objective Paintings, in April 1955, just four months prior to his retirement at age 65, this by all accounts self-effacing and unassuming artist wrote the first of several ambitious pronouncements about how he perceived the role of abstract painting in contemporary life:

and attests to the myriad ways in which artists have sought to generate and instil meaning and feeling in their work through the wide variety of processes and handling of materials involved in their construction. Paradoxically, in foregrounding the materiality and the ‘facture’ of the artwork – its line, composition, tone, colour, texture and scale – abstraction induces contemplation of, and invites speculation on, the immaterial.

“It seems to me that today painting must dig deeper into the mystery and rhythm of the spectrum and that means existence of life itself. Not the age old form but the forces beyond the structure. Abstract, yes. Abstract from the surface, but more truly real with life.” (See Bruce Adams, Ralph Balson: A Retrospective, Melbourne: Heide Park and Art Gallery, 1989)

Through formal invention and experiments in process, inert matter, whether it be paint, bronze, steel or wood, is imbued by each artist with a sense of energy or presence, whereby the artwork comes to possess a vital materiality which transcends the physical, the exterior, and the visible world, to conjure the intangible, the interior and the invisible realms of metaphysical forces; hidden correspondences and rhythms; numinous experiences; and psychological transformation.

In this compelling statement, Balson distils what for many artists has been the allure of abstraction since its inception in the early 20th century. Liberated from the constraints of representation, of referencing the visible, objective world, abstract or ‘non-objective’ art has given artists a tremendous freedom to expand the possibilities of painting and sculpture to suggest, evoke, illuminate, and articulate whole new realms of experience and understanding that are inaccessible for figurative, mimetic art. Drawing predominantly from the TarraWarra Museum of Art collection with selected loans, Vibrant Matter features paintings and sculptures from the past six decades by 35 Australian artists. The exhibition highlights the richness and diversity of abstraction during this period

In this pursuit of the ineffable, non-objective art requires the abandonment of the precepts involved in comprehending representational art and, by initially sidestepping the deliberations and discernments of the conscious mind, directly engages our senses, our imagination and our emotions whereby, in the words of French philosopher Gaston Bachelard: “… the image has touched the depths before it stirs the surface”.

»»Vibrant Matter shows at TarraWarra Museum of Art until June 16. twma.com.au

Tony Tuckson. Untitled c.1962-65.

34 THE MELBOURNE REVIEW MAY 2013

VISUAL ARTS

Well Said, Sir!

identified, stylised, appropriated, mocked and trashed by all sorts of artistic hustlers. It is pretty identifiable. I said flat out that I didn’t like most of the 80s. It was a time when there was a definite divide between the mainstream and the underground and the latter is where I spent that time. I did lay out my credentials as having been a musician who rehearsed and played at the Seaview Ballroom in St Kilda, at the Danceteria in New York and the Hacienda in Manchester, as well as many venues in London that had blazing marquees during those years.

Mix Tape 1980s: Appropriation, Subculture, Critical Style

I didn’t like the mainstream music of that time and the fashions were even worse. In my experience it was still a world where you had to ﬁnd your clothes anywhere but on the racks of the clothes shops of the day.

was asked to be a part of a talk at the opening of this exhibition, and had the privilege of walking through the displayed art, ephemera and other exhibits with two of the curators, Max Delany and Emily Siddons. The only prejudice I brought to the room was a personal experience of living through the 1980s. It was a bit of a shock having to collect my thoughts about that decade. I realised it may be one of the last periods which can be

Joan Collins was a symbol of sexual power and glamour and Reagan and Thatcher were setting the stage for the neo-con disaster we are still living through. And their reputations, in this soft age we are living in, are still inﬂated and held in ridiculously high regards! There was also the beginning of that awfully clammy American nostalgia for the 60s by the generation who had been young then.

Leigh Bowery Estate

BY DAVE GRANEY

Musicians in the 80s had to contend with great advances in technology such as sampling Leigh Bowery. Australian 1961–1994, worked in England 1981–94.

and polyphonic synths and drum machines. The budgets were big and the obsessions were to record every strum, pick and drum hit in the most isolated way possible and then to re-assemble it all. The drums were pushed louder and louder. Young people nowadays reach for this sound and I like it myself (more than I did back then) for its weird, synthy, big-shouldered camp.

1 May - 16 June 2013 Contemporary sculpture in shop windows and sidewalks of Toorak Road, Toorak Village All exhibits are for sale This is a free event Director: Tony Fialides 0419 005 052

y Warn

BBIT Jud MANRA

www.toorakvillage.com.au Proudly supported by

By the end of the talk I had to admit I loved that sound when it was taken to its ultimate with Grace Jones 80s album such as Nightclubbing which she made in Nassau with Alex Sadkin and the accompanying stage and album designs she made with Jean Paul Goude. There was also the emergence of hard-core gangsta rap with Schooly D in Philadelphia and the inﬂuence of new drugs such as ecstasy on the UK music scene. It was also a bit of a golden age of indie American cinema and crime writing. So I had changed my tune. The exhibition itself is much more locally focussed with visual art, displays of clothing and video as well as ephemera such as magazines and posters of the period. I don’t want to criticise the exhibition for what’s NOT there. Still, I have to say, the clothes were dreadful. Culture Club. Hayzee Fantayzee. The Thompson Twins. I rest my case. This is from the curator: “The 1980s was a period in which artists took up a diverse range of aesthetic positions not merely as

stylistic options but as trenchantly argued ethical choices. Debates raged between those who saw a return to ﬁgurative painting and expressionism as an antidote to the cool cerebral conceptualism of the 1970s, and those who embraced postmodern and postcolonial theory as a challenge to existing formalist positions and nationalist narratives.” Well said, Sir! That is quality stuff. It was simpler when he talked me through it. They stopped doing landscapes in the 80s. I never knew that! During the talk, I raised the name of Ken Done with fashion designer Linda Jackson, who was also hired as an expert on the decade. I heard her talk very positively of him as an artist and an encouraging presence in taking Australian art to the world. I had never heard talk like that before. I learned a lot that day. Just remember, when looking at this world on display, high above it all, hovered an enormous spaceship which was commandeered by two brave star travellers named Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones.

» Mix Tape 1980s: Appropriation, Subculture, Critical Style shows at NGV Australia, Federation Square, until September 1. ngv.vic.gov.au

THE MELBOURNE REVIEW MAY 2013 35

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VISUAL ARTS

Brenda Croft. Man about town

Bindi Cole. Warre Beal Yallock.

Shadowlife

Bendigo Art Gallery including moving image projections by Daniel Boyd, Jennifer Deger & Susan Marrawakumirr, and Nicole Foreshew.

BY NATALIE KING

n contemporary art practice it’s important to see the dark matter surrounding cultural objects from Australia or the Pacific, the cultural context of the object, now it’s been removed to a western art gallery and context. It’s a mistake to focus on, to see the light; the object, and its complete cultural aesthetic. Daniel Boyd, 2011. Wungguli, an Arnhem Land Djambarrpuyngu word, means spirit and shadow and came to describe the photographic image. Dreaming tells us that the shadow is your soul. A person can never desert its shadow and a shadow cannot leave its human cast. An object has no shadow at midday when the sun is directly overhead. A new shadow then begins to grow and take form. The exhibition Shadowlife embraces moving image and photography with all its directness, theatricality and immediacy by confronting stereotypes and acting out scenarios. Cocurated with Djon Mundine (Bundjalung people of northern New South Wales), Shadowlife addresses these moments of intensity through the work of Aboriginal artists (and one nonIndigenous collaborator). Each artist is a storyteller, taking us into their personal world of role-playing, self-representation and affirmation. Fiona Foley reinterprets the hidden history of enforced opium addiction within the Queensland Aboriginal community in the 1850s in a poetic video of swaying poppies called Bliss, that belies their sinister usage. A short film by Ivan Sen, Dust, narrates a dust storm and the tense, emotional aftermath on a group of teenagers. Collaborative duo, Destiny Deacon and Virginia Fraser, cast their dishevelled golliwogs, photographs and projection in harsh, yellow light in the installation Colour Blinded.

Michael Riley’s series They call me nigarr was reprinted especially for Shadowlife, depicting David Prosser wearing an expensive Armani suit with derogatory slogans across his portrait. Male beauty is portrayed in Gary Lee’s intimate portraits of young men on the cusp of adulthood whereas Brenda Croft reinterprets found photographs of her father in a tender lament in the photographic series Man about town. Bindi Cole’s video projection, Seventy times seven, is filmed at close range with members of the Aboriginal community declaring with searing emotion “I forgive you” as a release from the burden of anger and pain. When Shadowlife began as a project in 2009, a number of these artists were just emerging and were still evolving their practices. Our curatorial methodology is an ongoing conversation and evolving narrative. Interested in agile curatorial platforms and exhibitions that are adaptive, we deliberately added four moving image works to Shadowlife as a way to refresh and update the exhibition especially for Bendigo Art Gallery following on from the successful tour throughout Asia. Another iteration of Shadowlife was presented as a screening program at Federation Square and ACMI as part of the inaugural Melbourne Indigenous Arts Festival and in the Video Lounge at the India Art Fair in 2011. An Asialink and Bendigo Art Gallery touring exhibition, Shadowlife travelled to Bangkok Art & Cultural Centre, Thailand, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan and Nanyang Academy of Fine Art, Singapore in 2012. For each venue, the exhibition was configured in response to the particularities of the galleries from the light-filled curved walls in Bangkok to vast spaces in Taiwan. Moreover, newer works have been added to the final presentation at

Daniel Boyd presents an immersive galaxy of shadows in his video work Middle. When the British came to what is now Sydney they saw light dance across the physical landscape but failed to see the dark matter – the cultural, social, and spiritual Aboriginal space. Nicole Foreshew deploys dancing members of her family performing with a large piece of fabric stained with natural plant dyes. These women twirl, rotate and perform in a hypnotic ritual. The fabric was dyed and painted by Foreshew using local vegetable plant and dyes. She establishes a ‘whole of life cycle’ of artistic practice of great depth and emotion. Personal and poignant, Jennifer Deger & Susan Marawakumirr’s video is a tribute to the loss of Deger’s brother and Susan’s husband told through song and family photos from Christmas celebrations. At former Christian missions, missionaries would organise a holiday around Christmas Day with games and festivities. The Methodist Church set up a mission in Galiwin’ku on Elcho Island in the 1950s. Many Yolngu now call themselves Christian but also participate in a traditional spiritual practice. Gapuweyak (sweet but slightly salty water), where Susan lives, was named after two missionary wife’s names – Eve and Ella. Christian Christmas just happens to coincide with the coming of the monsoon rains – a time of change and renewal, and a time of intense Aboriginal ritual life.

ENTER A PRIZED LANDSCAPE. THE FLEURIEU ART PRIZE 20I3 OCTOBER 26 - NOVEMBER 25

THE WORLD�S RICHEST LANDSCAPE PAINTING PRIZE IS NOW CALLING FOR ARTIST�S SUBMISSIONS. THIS SINGLE, NON-ACQUISITIVE PRIZE OFFERS A REWARD OF $60,000 PRIZE MONEY. ENTER AT ARTPRIZE.COM.AU LEAD JUDGE NIGEL HURST, DIRECTOR AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE, SAATCHI GALLERY, LONDON.

» Natalie King is a curator and writer as well as the inaugural Director of Utopia@Asialink, a pan-Asian incubator and the co-curator, with Djon Mundine, of Shadowlife. » Shadowlife is an Asialink/Bendigo Art Gallery exhibition, showing at Bendigo Art Gallery until July 28. asialink.unimelb.edu.au

kwp!FAP10029

36 The Melbourne Review May 2013

VISUAL ARTS 4

RMIT Gallery

Peter Corrigan Cities of Hope Until June 8 Storey Hall, Swanston St, Melbourne rmit.edu.au/rmitgallery

Eleven40 Gallery

Ralf Kempken Stencils to Screens May 18 – June 8 635 Burwood Road, Hawthorn East hawthornstudiogallery.com.au

Liam Lynch Animus Until May 30 1140 Malvern Road Malvern eleven40.com.au

Hawthorn Studio & Gallery

Monash Gallery of Art

Bruce Postle: image maker Until June 30 860 Ferntree Gully Rd, Wheelers Hill mga.org.au

McClelland Gallery + Sculpture Park

Geelong Gallery

Impressions of Geelong – a portrait of the city and its region May 18 – August 25 Little Malop St, Geelong geelonggallery.org.au

McClelland Sculpture Survey & Award 2012 Until July 14 Momentum Until June 9 Made in China, Australia Until June 9 360 - 390 McClelland Drive, Langwarrin mcclellandgallery.com

EXHIBITION DATES 9th may - 30th may

phoTogRaphy EXhiBiTion 1140 malvern Road, malvern, ViC 3144 info@eleven40.com.au T 03 8823 1140 mon / Fri 9 - 6 | sat 11 - 4

eleven40 Com au

liam lynch animus

James Makin Gallery

Kristin McIver Status Quo Until June 8 67 Cambridge St, Collingwood jamesmakingallery.com

Bayside Arts & Cultural Centre

Joanna Collyvas Temenos... Traversing Shadow And Light May 11 – June 9 cnr Carpenter & Wilson Sts, Brighton bayside.vic.gov.au

Melbourne Art Rooms Joanne Mott Fungivorous, 2013 Jacqueline Mitelman On Cockatoo Island Until June 2 418 Bay St, Port Melbourne marsgallery.com.au

Heide Museum of Modern Art Fiona Hall Big Game Hunting Until July 21 Siri Hayes Back to Nature Scene Until July 28 7 Templestowe Road, Bulleen heide.com.au

TarraWarra Museum of Art

Vibrant Matter Until June 16 311 Healesville-Yarra Glen Road Healesville twma.com.au

Without Pier Gallery William (Bill) Linford May 19 – June 2 320 Bay Road, Cheltenham withoutpier.com.au

The Melbourne Review May 2013 37

melbournereview.com.au

GELLERY LISTINGS 9

Jewish Museum of Australia

Anna Pappas Gallery

61st Blake Prize: Exploring the Religious and Spiritual in Art Until July 28 26 Alma Rd, St. Kilda jewishmuseum.com.au

Sam Grigorian Nackt (Naked) Until June 1 2-4 Carlton Street, Prahran annapappasgallery.com

National Gallery of Victoria Mix Tape 1980s Until September 1 Monet’s Garden Until September 8 NGV International 180 St Kilda Rd NGV Australia Federation Square ngv.vic.gov.au

Edmund Pearce Gallery

Konrad Winkler Moments Of My Life Jan Parker No Matter How Clean and Quiet

Bendigo Art Gallery

Shadowlife Until July 28 42 View St, Bendigo bendigoartgallery.com.au

Catherine Asquith Gallery Mathew Lynn Mise-en-Scène May 21 – June 8 48 Oxford St, Collingwood catherineasquithgallery.com

Beverly Southcott Havens Sensibility and Durability

Until June 1 Level 2 Nicholas Building 37 Swanston St, Melbourne edmundpearce.com.au

Counihan Gallery in Brunswick

Ghost Citizens: Witnessing the Intervention Until June 16 233 Sydney Road, Brunswick moreland.vic.gov.au/gallery

Direct Democracy Until July 6 Building F, Monash University, Caulfield monash.edu.au/muma

MUMA

Scott Livesey Galleries Big and Small, Paintings by Melbourne Artists Until June 1 909A High St, Armadale scottliveseygalleries.com

Flinders Lane Gallery

Margaret Ackland Vestiges Rebecca Hastings Disquiet May 28 – June 15 137 Flinders Lane, Melbourne flg.com.au

Gallerysmith Mike Chavez Apocalypse Wow Kristin Tennyson Best in Show Until June 15 170 – 174 Abbotsford St North Melbourne gallerysmith.com.au

38 The Melbourne Review May 2013

VISUAL ARTS the judging process has been a very difficult one considering the subjective nature of art.

Toorak Village Sculpture Exhibition has been another surprising and innovative one.

“Believe me, the judges absolutely agonise over it, they really take their time to think about it,” he says. “When it comes to art, the word ‘winner’ is a tough one because the sculptures are so subjective. It’s not just about three prizes or three winners – every artist has a chance of selling their work over a period of six weeks so, actually, everybody has a good opportunity to get exhibit their work and sell it. It’s just terrific.

“This year the selection process was a difficult one due to, first, the volume of entries and, secondly, the high quality presented by the artists. Ninety artists and their sculptures have been selected. Visiting many artists in their studios is exciting and brings great pleasure to myself in being privileged to see the artist in their space, to see works in the process of being made and to spend time talking to them. It continually amazes me how some artists manage to work in such confined spaces with some of the most basic equipment and produce such high quality work.

“Originally this event was spawned to promote the Village but now it’s two-way because it also promotes the artists. As any artist would know, it can be so hard to get an opportunity to show your work until you get established, though we have also helped established artists, too. Every year we hope to raise enough money to buy a piece of art, which is another plus for the artist, because if you’re exhibiting on the street there is a good chance Toorak Village traders may ask to buy your piece from you.” Taking on the difficult task of judging the sculptures this year was artist, designer and arts educator, Carlo Pagoda. Timothea Jewell won the City of Stonnington and Bank of Melbourne Award for her sculpture, ‘Clasp’, while Brigit Heller won the Toorak Village Traders Award for her work, ‘Adrift’, with Jason Christopher winning the Leonard Joel Award for his piece, ‘Colonial Bunyip’. According to exhibition curator Malcolm Thomson (of the Australian Academy of Design), this year’s

Timothea Jewell. Clasp

Toorak Village Sculpture Exhibition by Nina Bertok

he most innovative and important annual event to take place in Toorak Village – The Toorak Village Sculpture Exhibition – has been linking the arts with business and forming a unique cultural experience for the last 12 years. With contemporary sculptural works decorating the shop windows and sidewalks of Toorak Road during the entire month of May

and first two weeks of June, the event sees over 90 Australia-wide artists displaying their artworks, complementing the four alreadypermanent sculptures purchased by the Toorak Village businesses from previous shows. While three winners were presented with their official awards at the Opening Event last month, exhibition director Tony Fialides claims

Ivan Lovatt. Sir Edmund Hillary.

“It is always difficult to single out individual artists in an exhibition in which so many are exhibited. In 2013 Toorak Village Sculpture Exhibition once again brings new surprises, materials, concepts and ideas to the public. Its popularity and its acceptance by both traders and artists is good reason to be satisfied with future developments and the opportunities it brings to new and established sculptors.”

»»Toorak Village is between Wallace Ave and Grange Road, just east of Williams Road, simply catch the No 8 Tram from Federation Square, along Toorak Road to stop no 35. toorakvillage.com.au

The Melbourne Review May 2013 39

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VISUAL ARTS

Image courtesy of the artist and Milani Gallery, Brisbane

Direct Democracy at MUMA by Suzanne Fraser

ver the next four months, we can expect to encounter at close quarters the many and varied inconveniences of democracy. Not the least of these inconveniences is the wave of disinterest and disappointment that invariably sweeps through our collective psyche every four years, making us feel simultaneously solemn and ridiculous as participants in a political system overburdened with deficiency. And yet in the current group exhibition Direct Democracy at Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA), the visitor is reminded of an implicit qualification to the promise of our political model: democracy can only take us so far. The deficiencies we experience in our representative political systems merely serve to represent those in the societies we each create. Through the works of nineteen contemporary artists and artist collectives from Australia and overseas, MUMA’s latest exhibition asks us to reconsider our understanding of the democratic model, bureaucracies and all.

In Natalie Bookchin’s 18-channel video installation Now he’s out in public and everyone can see (2012), the viewer stands at the centre of an assembly of citizens discussing the position of African American men in the news. Here we witness several of the basic tenets of democracy in action, including the freedom to speak one’s mind without fear of

Raquel Ormella. Poetic possibility 2012.

reprisal from the state. The Los Angeles artist created this remarkable installation using clips taken from video blogs (or ‘vlogs’), in which men and women of various races and social circumstances reduce the actions and achievements of four contemporary American public figures to what they interpret to be the combined capacity of their race and sex. Statements such as “I don’t think I’m a racist at all, but...” ricochet around the darkened room, leaving the viewer with an enlivened sense of what it feels like to stand amongst a band of voluble voters. According to curator Geraldine Barlow, this work also leads us to consider “the pressures of leadership”. And the withering stares of the public eye. In a series of works entitled Combat (2008) by Sydney-born artist Jemima Wyman, this sense of a united yet miscellaneous crowd of citizens gives way to the image of a homogenised militia. In the context of the current exhibition, Wyman’s

series leads the visitor to reflect on the fragility of democratic order and method when faced with the passions of human nature and pack mentality. This work is one of several references in Direct Democracy to the persuasive role of protest and dissent in our political systems. In Combat 02 – a large scale painting created using poured acrylic on canvas – Wyman presents a group of balaclava-clad figures whose identities have been surrendered in order to advance the mission of their collective. This dialogue between individual agency and group participation is a running theme in the current exhibition. Such confronting political statements as those presented in the works of Bookchin and Wyman – as well as works by Destiny Deacon, John Miller and Alex Monteith – are tempered in the exhibition through visual examinations of the broader concept of a democratic existence: the potential that can be realised through the processes of collaboration

and contest. For curator Geraldine Barlow, the concept of “productive disagreement” – whereby two or more entities foster positive outcomes through moderated conflict – is a key motif in the exhibition. New Zealand artist Alicia Frankovich embraces this tension in Bisons (2010), a three-minute video in which a succession of two figures engage with each other in a physical action inspired by the shoulder lock of a rugby scrum. Pushing against each other in order to maintain their positions, these figures must work together in order to gain the upper hand over each other; although the players in Frankonvich’s routine emerge without apparent victory or loss. In the diverse selection of works exhibited as part of Direct Democracy, Monash Museum of Art offers a deliberately unfixed narrative of the democratic model. With several surprisingly thought-provoking allusions to the Australian flag amongst the displays (in the works of Will French and Raquel Ormella), the story told by Geraldine Barlow and her assembly of artists has a distinctly Australian flavour, in keeping with the current political ballyhoo of election season. Yet the international works in this exhibition also speak to the social and political climate of our settled nation, displaying the multidimensional heritage of Western democracy in Australia. With political scholars increasingly querying how to define and measure the quality of democracy (particularly with the emergence of hybrid regimes), such creative and interrogatory displays as the current exhibition stand as evidence of good democracy in action.

»»Direct Democracy shows at the Monash University Museum of Art until July 6. monash.edu.au/muma TWMA logotype can appear in 2 ways. 1. Black only (shown below) 2. matched to PMS 7505 (swatch attached)

Vibrant Matter Until 16 June 2013 A selection of Australian abstract paintings and sculptures from the past six decades which resonate with a vital materiality.

311 Healesville-Yarra Glen Rd Healesville, Victoria, Australia OPEN 11am - 5pm Tuesday to Sunday PH (03) 5957 3100 ADMISSION $5.00

PUBLIC PROGRAM Sunday 2 June, 4 - 6 pm Join us for a lively conversation with exhibition artists: Yvonne Audette, Jon Cattapan and Robert Owen. Tickets: $20 adults / $15 students Includes refreshments and museum entry Bookings essential - visit www.twma.com.au

(pensioners & students free) PRINCIPAL SPONSOR

TWMA MAJOR PARTNER

TWMA MAJOR SPONSOR

Yvonne Audette Concerto for Flute & Violins (detail) 1968, oil on plywood, 128 x 100 cm Image courtesy of the artist and Mossgreen Gallery, Melbourne

TMR - TWMA May.indd 1

5/10/2013 11:19:09 AM

40 The Melbourne Review May 2013

VISUAL ARTS

Fleurieu Art Prize by Nina Bertok

Since opening for entries last February, Fleurieu Art Prize general manager, Karen Paris, said works have been pouring in from all around the country, with some notable pieces from Melbourne. “Given the $60,000 main prize sum – the most for a landscape painting prize anywhere in the world – plus the fact that judging will be led by Nigel Hurst from London’s Saatchi gallery, we knew there would be some strong competition from artists this year,” Paris said. “Artists can enter a work of any substance applied to any surface, as long as it has a relationship to ‘landscape’ in the mind of its creator. While we embrace and honour traditional concepts and mediums, we also welcome artists that challenge the more traditional arts and bring new concepts, unique interpretations and contemporary media to the prize.” Melbourne emerging artist, Jack Rowland, described his entry ‘Smoke’ as a work inspired by a visit to rural Castlemaine in the summertime which he claims was an eye-opener as to his

Ackland-MelbReviewQrtPge-for print.indd 1

While we embrace and honour traditional concepts and mediums, we also welcome artists that challenge the more traditional arts and bring new concepts, unique interpretations and contemporary media to the prize.” perception of smoke and colour. “The background to the imagery of ‘Smoke’ came during a visit to Castlemaine early one summer. A huge amount of smoke began to appear a few kilometres away from me in the middle of the bush. My first instinct was that it was the beginning of a house fire or maybe even a bushfire. I drove towards it to investigate, taking photos along the way, only to find that it was controlled burning for the pre-bushfire season. It must have been my city nature to assume it was a disaster, as everyone else carried on as though it was a normal occurrence. I thought this unexpected change of perception towards the cause of smoke tied in with my interests in altered perception, so I turned an image of potential disaster into a celebration of colour. With the variety of warm and cool tones in the smoke on the clear blue sky background, I instantly knew it would be a

Michel Brouet

rtist entries for the world’s richest landscape prize, The Fleurieu Art Prize, are still open until July 26, with an increased main prize of $60,000. Judged by Nigel Hurst from London’s Saatchi gallery, artists from all over Australia are encouraged to enter the competition, which will be held from October 26 until November 25 in various galleries, cellar doors and exhibition spaces throughout McLaren Vale and the Fleurieu Peninsula.

Julie Harris Pagodas at Newnes. Oil on canvas 180 x 164cm (2011 winner).

good image to manipulate with my psychedelic colour schemes.” Paris adds that the judging panel will also see artist Michael Zavros and director of the Samstag Museum of Art, Erica Green, picking this year’s winner alongside Nigel Hurst. Says Hurst, “South Australia is clearly embracing contemporary art and I’m delighted to help judge such a unique and important prize.”

(2000), Joe Furlonger (2002), Ken Whisson (2006), Tim Burns (2008) and Julie Harris (2011).

»»The Fleurieu Art Prize Festival will be held from October 26 until November 25. » Entries are open until July 26.

Past winners of the Fleurieu Art Prize include Robert Hannaford (1998), Elisabeth Cummings

rtprize.com.au

15/05/2013 4:05:24 PM

THE MELB OUR NE R EVIEW MAY 2013

Food.Wine.Coﬀee F I N E D I N I N G • S U S TA I N A B L E F O O D • C O F F E E • W I N E

CAFÉ DI STASIO

Understated elegance and whimsical beauty are impossible to imitate. REVIEW BY ARABELLA FORGE / PHOTOS BY MATTHEW WREN

VIET ROSE

THAT SOMETHING EXTRA

DECONSTRUCTION

Simple but addictive – Lou Pardi goes back to a favourite across the generations

Some wines, says Andrea Frost, are a whole lot more than the sum of their parts

The new Brunetti in Lygon Court is the result of years of planning and experience

42 The Melbourne Review May 2013

FOOD.WINE.COFFEE

Viet Rose

The ‘favourite restaurant’ of fiveyear-olds, fifty-year-olds and plenty in between, Viet Rose is simple but addictive by Lou Pardi

mongst the coming and goings of eateries on Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, there are a few which have stood their ground over the years. There’s the classic Mario’s, the huge Vegie Bar, and the unassuming Viet Rose. Whilst in recent years this restaurant has gathered new neighbours with swanky fit-outs and trendy menus, it hasn’t changed much at all. I once met a five-year-old whose favourite restaurant was Viet Rose. I wasn’t sure what I thought about five-year-olds having favourite restaurants, but kudos to her on an excellent choice nonetheless. Its tiled floor and simple interior mean it’s perhaps not the best choice for date night (you probably won’t be able to hear each other above the din) but it is great for a quick bite, or, according to several tables each Friday and Saturday night – a group get-together. During the week you’ll find plenty of locals in for lunch and if you’re particularly strapped for time you can even order delivery. It is cheap, and with an extensive menu, you’re not likely to get bored even if you visit Viet Rose each week – which many do. Purists might say it’s not authentic Vietnamese – and like most western restaurants, it isn’t. But it is fast, cheap, and addictive. The spring rolls are a stand out – served with Thai basil, dipping sauce and lettuce leaves to

wrap the whole package. The San Choi Bao is also good if you’re dining amongst friends. (Somehow I always manage to have sauce run down my arms. It’s a gift.) Viet Rose is a favourite restaurant to many people. And amongst those who frequent it, many have a favourite dish. Start a conversation with locals and you’ll find Viet Rose makes up part of their weekly diet – and these creatures of habit will order the same dish every visit. The diced beef cubes with garlic and tomato rice was the favourite of the five-year-old. Many swear by the prawn and pork coleslaw salad and still others the grilled pork bun. The chicken and cashew nut is passable, but for real comfort one of the laksas is an excellent choice. You may end up wearing half of it but that’s part of the experience. Otherwise, take your pick from the extensive, laminated menu. Peking, satay or Mongolian beef? Sweet and sour or plum pork? Duck in Szechuan or Cantonese sauce, or perhaps prawns in tamarind sauce? Scallops, squid and fish are all splashed with garlic and ginger, sweet and sour, Szechuan, peking, pepper, X.O., salt and pepper or ginger sauces. That’s before you get to seven types of rice noodle soups and ten fried rice noodles. There’s rice vermicelli with everything from grilled sliced pork to spring rolls or sugar cane prawn rolls. The collection of rice dishes are just the thing to stave off a hangover – try the famed steamed broken rice with pork spare rib and a fried egg. This may not be fine dining, but there’s a reason Viet Rose has survived the years, and welcomes everyone from families to executives through its doors. Check it out.

»»VIET ROSE 363 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy 9417 7415 Lunch and Dinner: Monday – Sunday vietrose.com.au

Café Di Stasio

Understated elegance and whimsical beauty are impossible to imitate by Arabella Forge

he sun is shining along the welltrodden strip of at the upper end of Fitzroy Street, there are locals roaming along the foreshore, and a tipsy set of folks walking out from a long night at the Prince Hotel. But in amongst this familiar chatter of dog walkers, pub-goers and bohemian backpackers, there is a well-known Melbourne dining location, right at the top of the strip - Café Di Stasio. Teeming with Melbourne history and culture, and frequented by the über-plush, white-jacketed red-lipstick crowd, it also draws the usual array of St Kilda locals. It’s a world of its own. Opened in 1988 by well-known Melbourne personality Rinaldo (or Ronnie) Di Stasio, Café Di Stasio is just as much a dining experience as it is a place to go to eat. Take for instance the hand-crafted sculpture of Di Stasio’s own hands, designed as door handles to the entry way, or the protruding plaster head figurines which sit aglow as light fittings on the side walls. There is a sense of traditional European decorum - crisp white napkins and table cloths, as well as well-mannered, tight-lipped wait staff - but there is also an understated elegance and

whimsical beauty that is difficult to articulate and, no doubt, imitate. The food is Italian. It’s classic, non-regional specific, and based on the overused but (dare, I say) undervalued term of seasonality. Take the mushroom bruschetta made with a wildlyforaged collection of ribbon-thin mushroom strips; small, roughly-cut flecks of flavourful goodness foraged and cooked up with specks of garlic and chilli before being plonked atop crispy bruschetta. Or freshly-caught calamari with sweet golden peppers, caramelised onions and spinach, with the familiar subtle afterkick of chilli, garlic and olive oil which is so distinctive in Italian cooking. Old favourites don’t go unnoticed; the minute steak is bullseye tender and comes well matched with a sharp-tasting rocket salad; the spaghetti with fish is a decadent swirl of garlic, olive oil and fresh parsley specks. The danger at Di Stasio’s is that lunch or dinner can last that little bit longer than expected. That said, do not overlook the traditional Tiramisu - an oldie, but a goodie - made here with mascarpone and Strega liqueured sponge biscuits, it will make you see the crime in any version made with lessthan-perfect ingredients.

THE MELBOURNE REVIEW MAY 2013 43

MELBOURNEREVIEW.COM.AU

RESTAURANT REVIEWS Similarly, the Zabaglione - the timeless combination of rich egg yolks, liquor and cream - is a seductive foray into a pool of sweet, creamy goodness served with plump, ripe strawberries and sweet sugar dusting. Prices are in the upper ranks of Melbourne dining, with entrees ranging from $26 - $30, and mains from $37 - $43. But the winning deal is the daily slow food seasonal lunch. Priced at $35 per person it includes two courses, a glass of wine, and a coffee. Restaurants come and go in Melbourne, as do food trends, celebrity chefs and expensively flash fit-outs. It’s refreshing to find a place that doesn’t seek refuge in any of these things, and has weathered the test of time, still keeping its unique Melbournian charm and stamp of individuality.

» CAFÉ DI STASIO 31 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda Phone: 9525 3999 Open: daily, lunch: 12-3pm, dinner: 6-11pm Bookings recommended distasio.com.au

Hanabishi Venture up to King Street and you just might find some of Melbourne’s best Japanese food.

BY LOU PARDI

wner and Chef Akio Soga opened Hanabishi about 25 years ago, having previously worked as an official chef for the Japanese Government and in Atlanta, New Orleans and Sydney. Head into Hanabishi any lunch or dinnertime and you’ll often find it full to capacity. At lunchtime it’s a sea of suits efficiently doing business over lunch sets and wine, whilst at dinner you’ll find a more leisurely, elegant crowd stalking sashimi and just as likely sipping from sake cups as wine glasses. The key to Hanabishi’s success isn’t complicated though, says Akio. “Quality ingredients. For example: there are millions of restaurants, but best quality fishes are limited. The best of best fish is only one in thousands. Who do fishermen want to bring their best to? It should be someone who

truly understands the quality.” This sourcing of the best of the best is evident in Hanabishi’s sashimi - utterly delicious morsels, a delight on their own or dabbed in a dish of soy and wasabi. It would be remiss of us to talk about Hanabishi without mentioning Masahiko Iga, its GM and sommelier. A more humble, learned and elegant sommelier you shall not meet. Masahiko joined Hanabishi in 2007 and curates the impressive sake and wine list, together with working the ﬂoor and managing the restaurant. Masahiko is more than happy to advise on sake matches for food, and occasionally pull out some revered, beautifully wrapped sake or wine, and share its story with guests. One of Masahiko’s ﬁrst initiatives when he joined the restaurant in 2007 was to add a Signature Course menu to the dinner menu. Choose from the Hanabishi Course menu ($120 per person) or the Miyabi Course menu ($98 per person). “You can ask me to match sakes to each course. But it is also nice to have Dassai 50 throughout the meal. This sake will be good company for all kinds of food. It has a beautiful fragrance and umami taste, which is enhanced by coupling it with food.”

beef course, whilst the Miyabi alternatives are the incredible Suga-Ita Yaki (Patagonian Tooth Fish in cedar wood); and Kawa-Yaki duck.

Each menu shows off appetisers and sashimi, one dish selected by the chef, two other dishes and desserts. The Hanabishi shows off the Barramundi Shiogama - a whole Barramundi; and a Wagyu

» HANABISHI 187 King Street, Melbourne 9670 1167 Lunch and Dinner: Monday - Friday

King Street may not spring to mind when you’re thinking of a quality spot for lunch or dinner, but Hanabishi is well worth a visit.

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44 The Melbourne Review May 2013

WINE

That Something Extra by Andrea Frost

ometimes, things are far greater than the sum of their parts. A friend of mine who is a well travelled food, wine and fashion type was trying to explain why a dinner she experienced recently was one of the very best, “It just made me smile the whole way home.” As with many expressions of greatness,

it was hard to identify precisely what made it so wonderful. As we all know, you can eat perfectly good food but still have an ordinary night, have outstanding service yet little-to-no atmosphere or you can note that everything was perfect but nothing quite right. Such alchemy in food and wine matching is sometimes known as the elusive

‘third flavour’. For others, the only way to explain it is to say that it makes you smile. I shared these wines with food and friends and they had the very same effect. Similarly, they are all made from great component pieces but with all of them, there just seemed to be that little something extra.

Gaelic Cemetery Riesling 2012

Domaine Bellegarde Jurançon Sec “La Pierre Blanche” 2009

S.C. Pannell Tempranillo Touriga 2011

Tapanappa Whalebone Vineyard Merlot Cabernet Franc 2008

Jurançon, France RRP $36 domainebellegarde-jurancon.com

McLaren Vale RRP $26 pannell.com.au

Wrattonbully RRP $80 tapanappawines.com.au

I enjoyed this wine on one of those lovely autumn afternoons when the temperature was still warm and the trees dripping with golden leaves. Jurançon Sec is a dry white wine style from South West France that sits somewhere between the excited shrill of a Sauvignon Blanc and the luscious complexity of a worked Chardonnay. This La Pierre Blanche is a lovely wine with a complex nose of honey, wet stone, chalk and stonefruit continuing on the palate. Excellent acidity gives the wine pace and race all the way down. It made me smile, but so the lore and legend goes, not nearly as much as this style of wine made the French poet Colette smile. A fan of the white wine varieties of Manseng she was once quoted as saying, “I was a girl when I met this prince; aroused, impervious, treacherous as all great seducers are.” Don’t take my word there’s something else going on here; lift the lid and take a turn with the Prince yourself.

Tempranillo: the Spanish grape variety famed for making the great red wines of Rioja, and Australia; the sometimes droughtaffected, winegrowing country in the Southern Hemisphere, have quite a thing going on right now. Tempranillo is one of those varieties able to endure warm dry conditions, making it well suited to some of Australia’s top wine regions. Steve Pannell of S.C. Pannell Wines is all about finding these ideal regional and varietal pairings. “I try to create wines that suit our climate and way of life – wines to drink with the food we grow, make and eat in Australia.” A bright and lifted bouquet of dark berries and spice, the ride continues on the palate with spice, berries and an earthy richness. It’s a luscious and lovely savoury wine. Oh and that something else? That’s the dollop of Touriga, the red variety from Portugal that also does well in Australia, added to this wine to give the wine a little bit of well, something extra.

There are many reasons this wine could add something to your meal. Tapanappa is winemaker Brian Croser’s venture in which he aims to make very special wines by matching all the component parts exceptionally well – climate, soil, geology, varieties with impeccable winemaking and viticulture. The Whalebone vineyard was planted in 1974 and is so named because of the whale skeleton found in a limestone cave on the property, a reminder of the scale and age of Australia’s geological history. After three decades of struggling on the site, the vines have finally penetrated the deeper limestone layers to extract the nutrients and moisture that help to make such a significant wine. It’s a rich, heady, complex wine brimming with aromas of blackcurrant, spice, violets, earth and minerality, all woven together with acidity and freshness.

Clare Valley RRP $35 gaelic-cemeterywines.com There are many reasons this wine is so brilliant. In essence it is a mix of winemaking pedigree, outstanding site, minimal winemaking and a region rightly lauded for its ability to produce world class Riesling. Made by Neil Pike of Pikes Wines, the brief was to craft “small volumes of a super premium, single vineyard, single varietal Clare Valley wine that best reflects the vintage, varietal and uniqueness of place.” The wine has aromas of talc, citrus, flint and blossom with an enlivening crisp, dry palate with citrus, minerality and excellent length. At a recent dinner, a glass of this did what a glass of Champagne would normally do – give a kick and announce the night as something special. One sip and it was though every single point of taste, flavour and sensation were being brushed with fine gold braid. Like sipping a wine with a minute current that shimmered all the way down. If that’s not enough to make you smile and make you wonder what else is involved, I’m not sure I can help.

THE MELBOURNE REVIEW MAY 2013 45

MELBOURNEREVIEW.COM.AU

CAFÉS

Patricia P

atricia has simplified the coffee experience – no need to sit down, mess around and confuse your palate with breakfast stuffs. This charming little lady, down a back ally in the city, was once a lawyer’s ofﬁce and is now a standing-room-only café of sorts. You can choose your beans from a selection of Melbourne’s best – including Seven Seeds, Market Lane, 5 Senses and Small Batch. This stand up success is surprisingly comfy – feeling a little like a coffee apothecary where some skilled baristas mix up a potion to cure what ails you (ok, ‘ya’). Named after a couple of grandmas called Patricia, it’s a fantastic place for a solo caffeine ﬁx, or a great place for those meetings you just don’t want to go for too long. Go on in and take a stand near the window, or if you’re more of a DIY type, grab some beans for home.

Mr Close BY LOU PARDI

ucked under an office building in the city, and opening onto an arcade, Mr Close is easy to miss, but well worth seeking out.

The menu changes daily and is available eat-in or take away. There is also catering if you simply can’t stand the idea of being away from your colleagues and office view. The café is named after the owners’ geography teacher and reﬂects the menu’s around-the-globe inspiration. Each day a range of sandwiches, soups, salads and hot stuff are artfully arranged on bread boards (so very now) and served up to starving ofﬁce workers.

The gents at the helm are ex-suits themselves so they’re well aware of the need for fast nourishment. If you need to expedite things even faster, put your lunch order in before 11:30am and it will be ready for your assistant to collect at lunchtime.

» PATRICIA Corner of Little Bourke & Little William Streets, Melbourne Coffee: Monday – Friday, 7am-4pm

If you’re more of a slow starter breakfast is served up until 11am weekdays, and 3pm Saturday.

» MR CLOSE Midtown Plaza, 246 Bourke St, Melbourne 9654 7778 Breakfast and lunch: Monday - Saturday

MORNINGTON PENINSULA

WINTER WINE WEEKEND 8 - 10 June 2013

Visit around 50 wineries & 8 restaurants

Winter Wine Fest Saturday 8 June (11am-4pm) at the Red Hill Showgrounds. Plus visit Cellar Doors during the long Queen’s Birthday weekend. $55 pre booked, $60 at the door (Sat 8 June event only) Address - Arthurs Seat Road, Red Hill. Melway Ref: 190 J3 Bookings & Enquiries: call: (03) 5989 2377

fine wine • fine food • music

visit: www.mpva.com.au

46 The Melbourne Review May 2013

DECONSTRUCTION

Brunetti Years of research into service, design and authenticity of experience bear fruit in Carlton

The extensive design and planning of the vast kitchen and front of house area represents a culmination of what they have learnt over many years in the business. Three years of planning and trips to Italy, France and Germany to seek out the best examples of cafés of a similar scale were to ensure an authenticity of product, service and design. Angelé explains that this authenticity, and of course the coffee and cakes, are central to the success of Brunetti.

Patrons can enter Brunetti via the spacious entry from Lygon Court or from the forecourt on Lygon Street. Traditional Brunetti celebration cakes are on display in custom made refrigerators which line the shopfront and both sides of the forecourt entry. One side of the café is dining and retail with the other side dedicated to the display of small cakes, biscuits, pastries, savouries, panini and pizza. With such a long tenancy to consider, the plan is composed of three large circular spaces and two smaller dining areas. A high-tech pizza oven with rotating interior is the focal point of the Pizzeria. Adjacent to this is the colourful gelati bar dispensing homemade gelati and already a hit with the locals.

“It is important for customers to see the complex process of making products on site,” he says. A chef will make fresh pasta in full

Curved walls and clever merchandising throughout Brunetti and at custom designed display units give the restaurant a sense of

by Daniella Casamento

s the launch of the new Brunetti in Carlton approached, owner Yuri Angelé averaged a whopping 12 cups of coffee a day. Such was his anticipation to meet the April 3 deadline of this most ambitious incarnation of the family business. He need not have worried. Locals have embraced the new Brunetti in Lygon Court and the expanded range of dining options it now offers. In partnership with his brother Fabio and designed by their architect brother Joe, this is the largest of their four Melbourne cafés and is located at the site of the first Brunetti which opened in 1974.

view of patrons when the restaurant and retail area eventually extend into the remaining 800m2 above Drummond Street. Currently, the restaurant has a view to the preparation area of Executive Chef Giuseppe Santoro.

intimacy from the more active café. Each seating area has a different appeal to the next. Layers of detail include custom designed dining tables and chairs and feature ceilings which indicate a thoroughly considered three dimensional response to the interior. Elements such as custom designed clusters of pendant lights, amusing chef hat wall lights and heat lamp shades help to define each zone. “The heart of the business is the coffee bar where the baristas are on show,” Angelé explains. “The central station is elevated and it’s designed to be seen from almost anywhere in the café.” While a streamlined ordering system and other operational improvements have improved waiting times for coffee, the oversized copper light shade above the baristas is inspired by a low-tech traditional approach to making coffee. The base of a Bialetti stovetop espresso coffee percolator is the inspiration for this recurring motif which also forms the base of the round communal table. Certain details remain consistent across all the Brunetti cafés. Custom made terrazzo floor tiles, floral patterned Bisazza mosaic tiles, dark stained timber veneer, large black and white photographs of 1940s Rome and white Carrara marble are signature finishes of the Brunetti brand. Angelé is especially pleased with the feature mosaic marble floor patterns designed in Italy and arranged and installed by TTI Stone.

»»Brunetti Lygon Court 380 Lygon Street, Carlton Phone: 9347 2801 brunetticaffe.com

THE MELB OUR NE R EVIEW MAY 2013

FORM D E S I G N • P L A N N I N G • I N N OVAT I O N

RYAN & LEVESON Warehouse and light industry structures are undergoing a period of restoration in North Melbourne

48 THE MELBOURNE REVIEW MAY 2013

FORM

THE RISE OF THE REGIONS BY BYRON GEORGE

had a weekend recently in a place where I spent many school holidays as a kid. My father moved back to his native Mildura some time in my pre-teens and lived there throughout my high school until doing what I thought at the time was the sensible thing in moving back to Melbourne. As a kid there was plenty to do, particularly as my dad had a property growing oranges and sultanas that happened to back onto the river. Mildura still has the same smell, the same red brick paving, and that unbelievably lush grass that grows like shag pile. Its locals also still sport a particularly strange collection of hair dos, ranging from the Governess on “Prisoner” to an extra on “Mars Attacks”. What was different was the street activity, with hundreds of people enjoying a warm evening having a late dinner on Langtree Avenue. The reason we were there, of course, was for Stefano’s, the little slice of culinary excellence in the basement of the Grand Hotel. Stefano Di Pieri has built a great empire of businesses in Mildura, showcasing local produce, with food that would be the envy of most Melbourne restaurants. This situation is mirrored in towns and cities across the state. There are great restaurants in towns as diverse as Dunkeld, Bendigo, Daylesford and Kyneton, as chefs and restaurateurs get closer to the source of their produce and rents that allow

a little more experimentation. These restaurants are becoming destinations in their own right, bringing hoards of diners who stay and spend money in the region. There is a broader thing at work here. I think we’re in the middle of a regional renaissance, driven by a number of factors from cost of living pressures and congestion in Melbourne to the abundance of good cheap land close to centres of activity. Probably the most influential factor is the quality of roads and availability of rapid and frequent transport between regional centres and Melbourne. Strong regional connections are vital for the economic wellbeing of this state. They turn a city of four million into a diverse economic area with over 5.5 million people. The important thing here is the ease of accessibility and flexibility of movement of people and goods across the state. In the case of Mildura, it’s a one hour flight away. Bendigo is two hours by freeway or train, Daylesford and Kyneton closer still. Ballarat is an hour away. These connections are vital for a number of reasons. They allow regional centres to grow and thrive, while being connected to the diversity of everything that a large metropolis has to offer. On the flip side, they take the pressure off Melbourne’s struggling infrastructure.

We’re in the middle of a regional renaissance, driven by a number of factors from cost of living pressures and congestion in Melbourne to the abundance of good cheap land close to centres of activity.” It’s no longer enough to treat regions and centres in isolation. We really need to start looking at Victoria as a whole, rather than Melbourne as an autonomous part of the state. Thinking in silos, whether about urban development or anything else, is really not acceptable anymore. And so it is for transport. Why limit the conversation to road and rail? Surely we should be looking at the movement of information as a key transport strategy. We are still planning our state like it’s the 1960s. Our roads are fundamentally built to deal with commuter traffic from dormitory suburbs to the city centre. Our rail system is far better at dealing with this kind of movement but is chronically underfunded while the state government plans to spend billions on new inner-city freeways. Regional cities are treated as places to go visit for a weekend away. Debate on the movement of information and the NBN usually consists of a discussion about download speeds for movies. Apart from a complete lack of vision in policy, what are all of these things telling us? No one is looking at the big picture. What do people actually want and need? What goods need to go

Perry Sandhills at Wentworth, NSW.

where? And more to the point, why are people doing what they are doing? Is the infrastructure used in the way it was planned? Ironically, it may be that the problems caused by successive government inaction in Melbourne are pushing more people into a rural existence. The internet, good road and fast rail links to the city mean that it is possible to do business in rural areas while still connecting with the general Melbourne markets and beyond. Add to that low levels of congestion,

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FORM

PPPs Another Way to Fund The Future Developing transport infrastructure will be crucial if we wish to secure our growth and prosperity in the years to come.

BY JENNIFER CUNICH

rojections by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) show that in the years until 2030, demand for urban public transport in Australia’s capital cities is likely to grow by 30 percent at current levels.As the current leader of the nation’s population growth, Melbourne will be no exception.

cheaper real estate, a touch of community and some good restaurants, and regional areas seem like a viable alternative to living in the city. My Dad recently bought another house in Mildura, with the idea of moving back there from suburban Melbourne. This time, I think he might have the right idea.

» Byron George and partner Ryan Russell are directors of Russell & George, a design and architecture practice with offices in Melbourne and Rome. russellandgeorge.com

In some ways, the ballooning cost of financing big transport projects is proving to be the elephant in the room. Around the world, government revenues have seen a considerable decline as a result of the ongoing impacts of the global financial crisis. Whilst Victoria remains relatively secure in its budget position, we are nevertheless operating within a capital constrained environment. The time has come to shift the conversation away from questioning who pays for transport infrastructure. Rather, we must ask how the Victorian Government can boost the value of its capital investment program and increase and maintain the quality and efficiency of its transport services, all the while lowering the overall cost to the state. One of the best ways to accomplish this is through the use of PPPs. Public-Private Partnerships, in which there is shared responsibility for building assets and service

delivery, is an alternative funding model that has the potential to beneﬁt all stakeholders.As a highly efﬁcient funding solution for physical infrastructure, PPPs typically make private sector parties financially responsible for its construction and performance during the asset’s lifetime. For this reason, PPPs can help to increase the provision of community infrastructure without adding to government taxes or debt. PPPs also promote the creation of private sector jobs and business opportunities that would enhance our local competiveness. They help promote more efficient modes of operation by motivating the private sector to be more creative, innovative and efficient. Moreover, by allowing collaboration through large scale projects, businesses are able to perform beyond their traditional capabilities. This is the path that Victoria must take if it wishes to compete with some of the world’s strongest economies. Importantly, PPPs also have a strong track record overseas and locally, however careful planning and management of risk must be carried out in order to achieve the desired objective.Well drafted and managed contracts will always have a higher chance of avoiding problems downstream. As with any project

involving investments, PPP contracts will require risk identification, due diligence and careful negotiation between stakeholders. This is admittedly more difficult in practice than conventional procurement methods, but if done right, the outcomes are often much more rewarding. Growing capital constraints and a greater pressure to drive value means governments must seek innovative solutions to deliver public infrastructure.Tapping into the private sector is one way to ensure that we keep ahead of global best practice in public service provision. Through PPPs we can achieve value for money, service improvements, a better chance of delivering projects on time and more investment dollars committed to infrastructure. Achieving our infrastructure wish-list will take many new ways of thinking about how we fund our future. PPPs are deﬁnitely one of the solutions we have been looking for.

» Jennifer Cunich is Victorian Executive Director, Property Council of Australia. propertyoz.com.au/vic

50 The Melbourne Review May 2013

FORM

A cut above the rest PDG’s North Melbourne residences Ryan & Leveson are inspired by the eclectic environment and rich culture of North Melbourne

rom the prosperous heights of the gold rush to the lows of economic depression and through the energetic resurgence in light industry, the very fabric of today’s North Melbourne is a reflection of these significant historical periods. Warehouse and light industry structures are undergoing a period of restoration, with many being converted into stylish residences befitting its convenient city-edge location. Original row houses are also in the throes of gentrification and the cobblestone laneways boast a growing mix of boutique retail including artisan coffee roasters, thrift shops, patisseries and a vibrant market place. The Melbourne City Council has developed an exciting plan for the City North precinct, which encapsulates parts of North Melbourne, Carlton and Melbourne City. It recognises the importance of this area, which has

developed into a truly world class knowledge precinct containing internationally renowned universities and hospitals. Ryan & Leveson is located on the corner of Leveson Street and Ryans Lane in North Melbourne, a leisurely 10-minute stroll from the Melbourne CBD. An address of this prestige warrants a residential building that is, put simply, a cut above the rest. PDG have held a permit to develop the site for two years but have been painstakingly designing and redesigning to ensure that the end result provides residents with a fantastic home and the opportunity to be well placed to benefit from the improvements being made in the City North precinct. The architectural design of Ryan & Leveson aims to capture a sense of place and specifically a feeling of ‘North Melbourne-ness’ by taking inspiration from its eclectic environment and the suburb’s rich cultural history. A palette of materials has been carefully selected to reflect and pay homage to its semi-industrial past. Lush, trans-seasonal landscaping is at the heart of the design intent on creating serene private spaces and leafy outlooks that will continually change and evolve throughout the seasons, as PDG Design Manager CJ Koay explains. “As a former resident of North Melbourne I have had the luxury of first-hand experience as a local, and possess a good understanding of its social fabric. I have drawn inspiration from the inherently ‘local’ characteristics of the neighbourhood, the rawness of its industrial past, as well as the lushness of the matured trees that line its wide streets, a trait that is unique to a suburb immediately next to the CBD. “Whilst it is our vision to breathe a contemporary architectural identity into the development, we are cognisant of the importance of crafting a built form that nestles in the streetscape and locality without dominating it.

This is achieved by articulating the fenestration through creative injection of sculptural projections, juxtaposed by the use of materials, traditionally of industrial origin, in a contemporary light. “The use of ribbed concrete walls, custom bronze perforated metal screens and rough bluestone in delicately crafted detailing is a sympathetic throwback and celebration of the industrial past of Leveson Street and North Melbourne beyond, whilst embracing the best contemporary living has to offer. “Consistent with the established vegetation in the streets of North Melbourne, we seek to extend that lushness to within the development by designing it around a central courtyard creating an urban oasis and respite for the occupants. “The roof garden, which constitutes a landscaped terrace, BBQ and herb garden, is integral and conducive to creating a strong sense of community living amongst the occupants. It will have an outlook to the North Melbourne Town Hall tower as well as the CBD skyline beyond.”

» Visit the Ryan & Leveson display suite at 122-124 Errol Street, North Melbourne for a selection of 1, 1+ study, 2 and 3 bedroom residences priced from $425,000. » Open daily between 12pm – 4pm » Phone 03 9662 1888 ryanandleveson.com.au