4 February 2016

Canberra’s top six this weekend (29-31 January 2016)

| Ellen Harvey
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This week, we’ve selected six events that are definitely worth checking out. Head to Ainslie Arts Centre and listen to some organic and experimental music with SoundOut Festival; check out Forrest Tennis Club where they are having an open day and you can get yourself a free membership; or consider seeing Josh Pyke perform at Canberra Theatre Centre to support his new album.

ALL WEEKEND

SoundOut Festival
Where: Ainslie Arts Centre, Elouera St, Braddon; Tickets: available online from $35 (per session, adult), $20 (per session, concession).
Head to SoundOut this weekend: an incredible, bristling, explorative sonic arts event. In its seventh year, founded and directed by clarinet and sax player Richard Johnson, this improvisational jazz and experimental music festival aims to uplift tired ears, explore the unknown and see within the fabric of sound. Artists come from all over the world, providing very organic music that will inspire. It was funded this year not through an ArtsACT grant but via a successful crowdfunding campaign on Pozible that wrapped up this morning.

Encounters Tour
Where
: National Museum of Australia, Lawson Crescent, New Acton; When: daily 11am and 2pm, until 28 March; Tickets: adults $10, children $5, concession $8.
The best way to experience the rare Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander objects from the British Museum on display in the National Museum’s Encounters exhibition is via a guided tour. I took the tour during earlier this month and it was probably the best exhibition tour I’ve ever been to – so this is not to be missed! The guides are highly knowledgeable bringing the objects to life by explaining the history and stories behind them.

Ben & Jerry’s Openair Cinema Canberra
Where: Patrick White Lawns, Parkes Place West (in front of the National Library of Australia), Parkes; When: various dates, from 5:30pm; Tickets: From $19 online and $24 at the gate ($15/$20 concessions)
With music by day and movies by night, you won’t want to miss the Ben & Jerry’s Openair Cinema setting up beside Lake Burley Griffin this summer. Music is performed by local emerging artists and bands, while the blockbusters of 2015 light up the screen from dusk. Best of all, every Sunday is the Sundae Session where everyone scores a free Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Catch Thelma & Louise on its 25th birthday on Friday, Sylvester Stallone in Creed on Saturday or Suffragette on Sunday.

SATURDAY

Forrest Tennis Club Open Day
Where: 31 Dominion Circuit, Forrest; When: from 9.30am
Join the festivities as Forrest Tennis Club celebrates its 90-year anniversary. With activities like cardio tennis for adults and Hotshots for kids starting mid-morning, settle in with a free sausage sizzle to watch the exhibition match between top junior players at midday. Coaching, giveaways and free two-month memberships are also available on the day.

lola

Lola Montes Film Screening
Where: National Portrait Gallery, King Edward Terrace, Parkes; When: 3pm.
Once the most expensive European film ever made, Max Opüls’ retelling of the scandalous and eventful life of celebrated Irish dancer Lola Montes has had a long-lasting cinematic influence. Bookings are not required and nor is there any charge to see this French film with English subtitles which is rated M.

Josh Pyke’s But For All These Shrinking Hearts tour
Where: The Playhouse, London Circuit, Civic Square, Canberra City; When: 8pm; Tickets: door sales at $56.60.
Award winning Sydney singer/songwriter Josh Pyke released his most recent (and arguably best) piece of work in July 2015, achieving an ARIA chart debut at number 2 before topping the Australian charts. Following his collaborations with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, West Australian Symphony Orchestra and Toowoomba Concert Orchestra, Pyke completed a run of sold out Fan First gigs to promote this latest album. Now it’s time for the rest of the country to experience Pyke’s newest works live on stage, along with all his old favourites.

Are you going to something that we haven’t mentioned? Make sure you let us know about it in the comments.

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rubaiyat said :

HenryBG said :

nealg said :

Contrary to what you assert aboriginal people have a lot to show. …. Granted it is painted and etched on rock so they can’t be transported to a museum.

Cave art elsewhere is pretty good:
Peche-Merle blew me away when I saw it:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/photogalleries/cave-handprints-actually-women-missions-pictures/images/primary/090626-01-pech-merle-spotted-horses-mural_big.jpg
Lascaux is even better (although they don’t let people in):
http://witcombe.sbc.edu/sacredplaces/images/lascauxmain.jpg
…but these magnificent paintings have been reproduced for exhibition in various places.
(If you have any Basque ancestry, you might be able to claim this stuff as your own cultural heritage…?)

Here’s something that always amuses me: some of the artifacts displayed in the London Science Museum’s “Exploring Space” gallery are older than most of the exhibits in the NMA.

You do realise that the oldest Aboriginal Art is vastly older than these?

Well – reading your comment a bit laterally – I am sure there was plenty of art all over the world that occurred a long time earlier than any art we are currently aware of, however when discussing this, we really need to stick with the facts, which is the art that exists right now, and for which we have scientifically-determined dates.

The oldest known cave art is a bunch of pigment hand-stencils in a spanish cave and is over 40,000 years old.

Here is a 32,000-year-old cave painting from Spain that is so good they have actually created replicas to show in museums:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chauvet_Cave#/media/File:Paintings_from_the_Chauvet_cave_%28museum_replica%29.jpg

The oldest aboriginal art to have been dated is a charcoal drawing from about 28000 years ago. And the NMA doesn’t bother exhibiting any replica of it. Maybe they should?

HenryBG said :

nealg said :

Contrary to what you assert aboriginal people have a lot to show. …. Granted it is painted and etched on rock so they can’t be transported to a museum.

Cave art elsewhere is pretty good:
Peche-Merle blew me away when I saw it:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/photogalleries/cave-handprints-actually-women-missions-pictures/images/primary/090626-01-pech-merle-spotted-horses-mural_big.jpg
Lascaux is even better (although they don’t let people in):
http://witcombe.sbc.edu/sacredplaces/images/lascauxmain.jpg
…but these magnificent paintings have been reproduced for exhibition in various places.
(If you have any Basque ancestry, you might be able to claim this stuff as your own cultural heritage…?)

Ellen Harvey said :

When I took the guided tour, that question did come up, and the guide explained that many of the items were used in day-to-day life, so they wore out.

Here’s something that always amuses me: some of the artifacts displayed in the London Science Museum’s “Exploring Space” gallery are older than most of the exhibits in the NMA.

You do realise that the oldest Aboriginal Art is vastly older than these?

wildturkeycanoe said :

Saw some of the Aboriginal display at the NMA on Tuesday and the items on display prompted one thought. For all the 40,000 years of occupying this land, there is little to show of their culture before the last 200 years of British rule. Exhibits were often dated to last century wheras I was expecting to see more ancient artifacts. A bit disappointing that the aboriginal people have little to show off, whilst the histories of more advanced civilizations are full of memorabilia dating back to ancient times.

Bit hard to move the landscape indoors just so you can have convenient parking.

nealg said :

Contrary to what you assert aboriginal people have a lot to show. …. Granted it is painted and etched on rock so they can’t be transported to a museum.

Cave art elsewhere is pretty good:
Peche-Merle blew me away when I saw it:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/photogalleries/cave-handprints-actually-women-missions-pictures/images/primary/090626-01-pech-merle-spotted-horses-mural_big.jpg
Lascaux is even better (although they don’t let people in):
http://witcombe.sbc.edu/sacredplaces/images/lascauxmain.jpg
…but these magnificent paintings have been reproduced for exhibition in various places.
(If you have any Basque ancestry, you might be able to claim this stuff as your own cultural heritage…?)

Ellen Harvey said :

When I took the guided tour, that question did come up, and the guide explained that many of the items were used in day-to-day life, so they wore out.

Here’s something that always amuses me: some of the artifacts displayed in the London Science Museum’s “Exploring Space” gallery are older than most of the exhibits in the NMA.

Ellen Harvey9:08 am 29 Jan 16

wildturkeycanoe said :

Saw some of the Aboriginal display at the NMA on Tuesday and the items on display prompted one thought. For all the 40,000 years of occupying this land, there is little to show of their culture before the last 200 years of British rule. Exhibits were often dated to last century wheras I was expecting to see more ancient artifacts. A bit disappointing that the aboriginal people have little to show off, whilst the histories of more advanced civilizations are full of memorabilia dating back to ancient times.

When I took the guided tour, that question did come up, and the guide explained that many of the items were used in day-to-day life, so they wore out. When they wore out, new ones were created. The reason we have the ones we do is because they were either taken by or gifted to collectors.

Contrary to what you assert aboriginal people have a lot to show. Maybe you need to travel a little more and visit places locally like Namadgi NP or the Kimberly area in WA. There you will see aboriginal art dating from many 10s of thousands of years ago. Granted it is painted and etched on rock so they can’t be transported to a museum.

wildturkeycanoe2:19 pm 28 Jan 16

Saw some of the Aboriginal display at the NMA on Tuesday and the items on display prompted one thought. For all the 40,000 years of occupying this land, there is little to show of their culture before the last 200 years of British rule. Exhibits were often dated to last century wheras I was expecting to see more ancient artifacts. A bit disappointing that the aboriginal people have little to show off, whilst the histories of more advanced civilizations are full of memorabilia dating back to ancient times.

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