It's not often we get a big art retrospective passing through these isles, so we thought we'd head over to Melbourne for the weekend to see 'Liquid Desire', the Salvador Dali exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria.
And while we're there, why not check out another of the many cultural delights Melbourne has to offer? We decide on 'A Day In Pompeii', an exhibition at the Melbourne Museum chronicling the final hours of Pompeii. I'd never been to Melbourne before so I was also excited to see why it's such a popular destination for New Zealand visitors.
We arrive Thursday evening and check into the magnificent Westin Hotel located on Federation Square, pretty much smack bang in the middle of downtown Melbourne. We go for a quick stroll along the famed muddy Yarra River and take a quick peek at crazy Federation Square with its skewed structures and crooked cobbles.A very sunny Friday morning greets us as we arrive at the National Gallery right at opening time, and there is already a queue forming! After a bit of a wait we enter the exhibition with our trusty audio iPod guides slung jauntily about the neck. The exhibition includes more than 200 works by Dali so if you're planning on going be prepared to spend a bit of time there. Also, make sure you wear your sneakers! You are in for a lot of walking so you'll want to be comfortable. This is a very comprehensive exhibition, covering the very beginning of Dali's artistic career right up until his death in the 80s. We're all familiar with the Dali style of wildly absurd images combined with confronting themes, so you may be surprised (as I was) by pieces that exhibit a sensitivity that you may not always associate with the most famous of the surrealists.
There is a lot to see, and not just paintings and drawings. There is also a selection of amazing and highly wearable jewellery, the infamous lobster telephone sculpture, and a screening of Dali's collaborative effort with surrealist filmmaker Luis Bunuel, 'Un chien andalou (An Andalusian Dog)'. The fifteen-minute feature is a fascinating example of early cinema and you can clearly see the influence it has had on modern filmmaking. A word of warning to the weak-stomached, there is some brief, yet graphic eyeball slicing involved. Shudder.In the gallery store you can buy a myriad of Dali-themed gifts, from lip-shaped brooches to melting watch keyrings and crutch-handled umbrellas. I picked up a Dali head on a stick with which to terrify small children and animals.
After a good few hours in the cocoon of the National Art Gallery we emerge only to be swept away by a gale force wind. Mum was right! There really are four seasons in one day here! Although the same is also true of New Zealand so I don't know why I'm so surprised.
Next we tackle the trams and spend the afternoon riding the rails and walking the waterfront of St Kilda. There's a lot to see but thankfully the trams make it quick and easy to get around. We tick off St Kilda in the guidebook before returning to the central city and exploring Chinatown for a delicious dumpling dinner.
Saturday dawns and although we are weary from the day before and the most exercise we've seen in some time, we hit the trams early and head to the Melbourne Museum. Melbourne is home to a stunning array of Victorian architecture, and the suburb of Carlton where the museum is located does not disappoint in this respect. The amazing Royal Exhibition Hall, a World Heritage site, sits seamlessly alongside the very modern Melbourne Museum, a huge (it's the largest museum in the Southern Hemisphere) and hugely impressive modern structure.
We get there right on opening time but there is still a queue for 'A Day In Pompeii'. Entry is divided up into two-hour sessions, so don't expect to be allowed in as soon as you get your ticket, you have to wait for your session. As soon as we enter the exhibition I realize why this is; the rooms are certainly petite in size and it is indeed a bit of a squish. We squeeze by the hordes examining a replica loaf of carbonated bread and head to the front of the queue for the seven minute long 3-D recreation of that fateful day in ye olde Pompeii. I had to use all my will power to stop myself from dodging the flying rocks and debris that appeared to hurtle out of Mt Vesuvius straight into my face.
There are a ton of artifacts to inspect and absorb, but we are just so worn out from the previous day that we merely shuffle past them to get to the gory stuff. In a screened off room (to preserve the innocence of children and other sensitive souls) are several casts of fossilized bodies entombed in ash. It's a sobering sight and all the more horrific when we realize that one of the victims was a shackled slave who could not even attempt to escape the horror. A surprising number of the Pompeii natives survived the eruption. Earthquakes had been occurring for more than 24 hours and smoke was clearly visible exiting Vesuvius before the final fatal blast, so many people made the wise decision to flee into the hills.
We make a quick dash upstairs to say hi to Phar Lap. It brings a little tear to my eye seeing this native son of the South Island looking as good as I'm sure he did 70-odd years ago. The museum is just too vast to take it all in today, but we vow to return soon and give it the full attention it deserves. As we are leaving I take a quick peek into some of the galleries and am thrilled to see several dinosaurs, and also the massive skeleton of a pygmy blue whale. If that is a pygmy, may I never encounter a standard blue whale. We stumble round the shops of Fitzroy on Brunswick Street for a bit and there is certainly a lot to see but the home comforts of our hotel room and an early morning flight are calling us. So we bid farewell to Melbourne feeling smugly culturally richer and with calves a good deal more toned.
Liquid Desire closes this Sunday, 4th October so I suggest you jump on the web and book your tickets now! Pompeii closes 25th October.
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