Culture
Wattle Day, a national experience?
Today is Wattle Day.
I was reminded of it as I traversed the Hume Highway from Melbourne to Sydney on Monday.
Driving through previously devastated bush fire areas of Victoria, great swathes of bushland were busy regenerating, but none so fast as the bushes crowned by the fluffy golden bloom, whose showy bracts of flowers were [...]
WHAT IS: Fashion, more than a Frock?
Fashionable costume encompasses all that we wear, including the previously unmentionable undergarments. They have been on show, in the past few decades, on a scale far beyond those who founded the world of fashionable couture could have possibly imagined. From skinny self sacrificing super models to those demanding the use of ‘real people’, costume accommodates a desire to be noticed. It is the look at me, look at me syndrome, which has been in play for thousands of years. Today it collectively reflects a western society in which privacy has been stripped completely bare. But is fashion about more than a frock?
WHAT IS: A Mirror, more than Glass?
The mirror, more than just glass, has occupied a unique place in his imagination as a site of the divine or demonic, of lucidity or madness. It is the ‘matrix of the symbolic’ and accompanies the human quest to know and understand our identity.
WHAT IS: Arts and Crafts
In England, during the second half of the nineteenth century, painter, writer, textile designer and social activist William Morris (1834-1896) became the spiritual leader of a revival in arts and crafts that encompassed all the visual arts, including architecture and interiors.
WHAT IS: Modernism
Modernism is a term the art and design community of the contemporary western world has adopted to describe a diverse range of architectural and interior decorative styles, as well as applied and graphic arts, which were created between 1880 and 1940 on an international scale.
Modernism demands that there is a distinction between interior architecture and [...]
Inspiring Individuals: Society Moving Forward
Australian Election Reflections and Questions
In the past so many have died because they believed in the democratic process, that everyone should have an opportunity to fulfill their potential, and that the deeper purposes of a liberal education go beyond personal advancement or national competitiveness. It is all about being responsible global citizens who champion democracy and human development. We need people capable of exchanging ideas on the basis of respect and understanding with people from all cultures. Where the %#*+ hell are they?
Queensland Musical Talent in Spring
From Brisbane comes the results of the Q Song Music Awards 2010 in a vast variety of musical categories that are proof that musical talent is alive and well, especially in Queensland in Spring.
From Keith Urban to Powderfinger, from Jeffrey Black to Lisa Gasteen, Andre Rieu’s favourite, the lovely Mirusia, and up and comers like [...]
WHAT IS: Art Deco
Art Deco was the perfect expression of the salons at Paris during the 20’s to the 30’s. It embraced every area of design and the decorative arts including architecture, interiors, furniture, jewellery, painting and graphics, bookbinding, costume, glass and ceramics. Art Deco was about integrating contemporary living with art, and turning life into art, against those consciously working for the undoing of art and its purpose was enjoyment.
FAVOURITE BOOKS: The Wilder Shores of Love by Lesley Blanch
The Wilder Shores of Love is a terrific tale about four women who were summoned by the eastern star. It is the exotic true-life stories of some of the key women in history Isabel Burton, Aimee Dubucq de Rivery, Jane Digby, and Isabelle Eberhardt. They all took great risks, whether their choice or not, and ended up either pursuing their passion for romance, or making the best of it.
WHAT IS: Le Corbusier
Swiss born Charles-Edouard Jeanneret (1887-1965) was 29 when he went to Paris. Soon after his arrival he adopted his maternal grandfather’s name, Le Corbusier, as a pseudonym. He changed his persona from Jeanneret the small-town architect to Le Corbusier the world’s next visionary artist. He expressed a view that architecture had lost its way. He was convinced the bold new industrial age dawning required an audacious style of architecture. Who better to design it than himself. “We must start again from zero,” he proclaimed.
