I just got back from a trip to Melbourne yesterday, the main purpose of which was to see the Picasso exhibition at the NGV. I know lots of folk didn't like it. I personally found it pretty good, because I am usually more interested in the history that runs behind and alongside works of art than the art itself, and the exhibition seemed very much geared towards this type of person.
The real highlight was not Picasso for me, but Hiraki Sawa, a video artist/sculptor with a show called 'Six Good Reasoons To Stay At Home' or something similar, up on the third floor. There were six short films in total (I think), all of which were based in Sawa's apartment, depicting activities that supposedly take place when he is not there...tiny little people and animals trudging slowly in lines across the edge of the bathtub, a herd of rocking horses ploughing through a white shagpile rug that was transformed into a snowy field, a river in the bathroom sink through which swam a herd of miniature giraffes..all of which seemed to have been plucked from my own imagination, as I have always been fascinated with tiny little things as those who know me will be well aware. The highlight for me was probably 'Dwelling', in which his empty apartment was transformed into an airport, traversed by many tiny model jumbo jets. I loved it so much, I almost cried. Anyway, go see it, please, if you live in Melbourne.
Interestingly, the soundtrack that Sawa chose to the main piece of the exhibition (can't remember the name of it but it had three screens and was in colour, and was not set in his apartment-this was the rocking horse one) was music-box like tinkly music. I have a current obsession with music boxes-for some reason they make me really sad. I had one that played the Love Story theme when I was a child, which always made me a little teary. Two main reasons I think-firstly because the music is finite, and I would dread its winding down and stretching out of time and shape and key for some reason, winding it as tightly as possible to delay this for as long as I could. Secondly, because of the Love Story theme itself, or the version thereof that my music box played- it kind of didn't end. The melody would finish on the fifth degree of the tonic scale, then plunge back into another rendition (which starts on the third degree-a funny place to start), never ever resolving. (I didn't realise til some time later that this was why it seemed wistful and sad, however.)