Just another week in arts paradise

The Wagga Wagga Art Gallery is currently hosting four exhibitions. I have seen three of them: Fantastic Forms – celebrating the drawings & ceramics of Merric Boyd, Nuanced: 75 years of the Wagga Wagga Art Society, and Mei Zhao: Remapping Erased Landscapes which explores the history of early Chinese migration in the Riverina region.  There is also Lisa Sammut: Radial Sign – three dimensional works which I have yet to see, and an additional two exhibitions at the National Glass Gallery. To say the gallery is showcasing contrasting bodies of work is an understatement.

His naïf coloured pencil drawings of landscape and farm animals were rescued by son Arthur from Merric Boyd’s spiral bound sketch books and framed. Their usual home is Bundanon the property the Boyd family bequeathed to the nation. I was particularly taken by the Munch-like swirls of some tree studies and by various chubby bucolic creatures. They and some forty of his miniature pearlescent glazed ceramic figures comprise a travelling exhibition that is beginning its national tour in Wagga Wagga. These, though less blatantly hedonistic, reminded me of John Perceval’s delinquent angels which I had the joy of encountering back about a dozen careers ago when I was at Craft Australia.

Where Mrs Milk Babies Play, Merric Boyd, 1949 (source: https://www.shoalhaven.com)

Having previously blogged about the vanished Chinese settlement in north Wagga, I was excited to meet Mei Zhao and to view her work. The exhibition, the culmination of two years of field trips throughout the Riverina, is on show in the self-contained Margaret Carnegie gallery space. Mei Zhao’s mixed media canvases evoke the lost market gardens and other remnants of 19th and early 20th century Chinese presence in the region.  Its centerpiece is the vibrant Wish You Luck GongXiFaCai Joss House installation conjuring the textures, structures and artefacts of joss houses once situated in Wagga Wagga, Narrandera, Adelong and Tumut.

Mei Zhao's Wish You Luck GongXiFaCai Joss House installation (my photo) 

Nuanced: 75 years of the Wagga Wagga Art Society, is a different kettle of fish altogether. The society, founded in 1949 by local art lovers, has operated continuously as a space for practice, education and exhibition for local artists. I discovered via a Trove search that in 1954 the society made a donation of £50 toward founding a permanent home for the Wagga Wagga Gallery by holding raffle (see clipping). Some other tidbits I found about the society’s history will keep for another post. While this show celebrates a 75 year anniversary, it is not a retrospective, all works are by current members. There is a wide diversity from Marion Adinsall’s meticulous botanical watercolours to Karen Walsh’s clever mixed media A Place of Many to Cheryl Wheeler's curiously named almost opaque Coming With Clouds – a religious theme one supposes.

The Wagga Art Society was instrumental in fundraising to establish a permanent home for the regional art gallery, clipping from The Daily Advertiser,17 July 1954 (source: Trove, National Library of Australia database)

Visual art has not been my only cultural exposure in the past week; I have also been to a reading by Blue Mountains poet Hugh Crago and a production by of our local amateur theatre group. First to Hugh. His poems are conversational, accessible, peppered with allusions that I ‘got’, wistful, occasionally melancholy and also sometimes very funny. I bought his 118 page collection Wind Age, Wolf Age and am enjoying it.

Hugh Crago's poetry collection (my photo)

Now and Then is a play by US playwright Sean Grennan that was staged by the School of Arts Theatre Company (SOACT) every Sunday throughout February. I have seen and reviewed a number of SOACT productions and must admit my first exposure to the company, Air Swimming back in 2014, mere weeks after my arrival in Wagga, set the bar very high. Subsequent experiences have not always matched that, however, Neighbourhood Watch and now Now and Then have done so. No point in promoting this production specifically as the season has just finished, but a shout out to SOACT for a witty enjoyable choice of play , to the talented cast: Blayke Thomas, Olivia Jones, Fi Ziff and Lucas Forbes and to director Craig Dixon.

We are very lucky here in Wagga to have this calibre of cultural activities on offer. I’ll have cinema, more exhibitions and an upcoming concert to blog about soon and I have a few poem ideas percolating too. Then there’s the Art Society's portrait prize controversy to research and write about! 

Death Café

On 31 January I woke up to the news that Marianne Faithfull had died. I already had Death Café in my diary for later that morning. Mementos mori were proliferating. My own ever present obsession with ‘dead uns’ (that is how my spouse refers to my genealogy research), the inevitable result of ageing i.e. more people you know die, and then the welter of celebrity deaths reported in the news in recent months. We’ve lost Maggie Smith, David Lynch and Shelley Duvall and now Marianne.   There is definitely a spike in road deaths and drownings over the summer holidays. Then the toll of warfare and climate related disaster just grows…

Death is more certain than taxes, eh, Donald?

When it is coming for us is unpredictable although the online mortality calculator Death Clock says I will die at age 73 years, 9 months and 25 days.  Better get a wriggle on with travel plans and memoir writing.  While I am skeptical about the accuracy of this prediction, the message is carpe deim and get my affairs in order…

That is also the message of Death Café, the two hour get together held this week at the Wagga Wagga Library.

Poster advertising the  Death Cafe event

When I saw it advertised, averse as I am to euphemism, I did wonder if it wasn’t a bit of a blunt way to market an end of life planning event. I realise now that the phrase ‘death camp’ may also have been echoing somewhere in the back of my mind. But the phrases on the poster: ‘no agenda’ and ‘discuss things that are on your mind about death and dying’ appealed. I have been procrastinating about finalising my will and power of attorney for too long. Going to this workshop might galvanize me into action.

Numbers weren’t huge. At first I mistook the journo and photographer from The Daily Advertiser for participants. Logic dictated otherwise. They were both in their 30s and male, whereas the bona fide attendees were all women and, with the exception of a social worker and a palliative care worker, in our 60s and 70s.

Jocelyn Mason who convened the café is cheerful, down to earth and perfectly equipped to run such an event having worked in the funeral industry for over 25 years and witnessed a wealth of death and dispatch related issues. She got us to introduce ourselves and say what we were hoping to get out of the two hours. One woman is currently nursing a dying husband and needed practical advice and reassurance. Some of us wanted to check we were doing the right thing re. our wills and to ask about funeral arrangements. There are four funeral directors in Wagga Wagga, it costs $6.5 K to get a burial plot, eco burials are available here. Nearly everyone had a poignant or frustrating experience associated with the loss of a loved one to relate. Dying intestate or with a will that challenges interpretation or implementation were common difficulties relatives had to face.

One person epitomized cognitive dissonance as no matter how strongly or frequently the facts around dying intestate, leaving one’s body to science or qualifying for a pauper’s burial were explained she was adamant in voicing her belief that all three were straightforward available options.

Jocelyn Mason, Jan Pittard and Vicki Bowles immediately after the workshop (source The Daily Advertsiser newspaper)

Most of us though left the café with greater clarity around preparing for the inevitable. One of Jocelyn’s wise tips was to consolidate all information about insurance, superannuation, online passwords, arrangements for pets etc. in a single document that is readily accessible to your executor and family members. She offered a template for preparing this. A similar, related document that contains your funerary wishes such as music and reading choices and any anecdotes you would like shared  is helpful guidance for  relatives and may ensure an uncringeworthy commemoration.

Jocelyn plans to offer further death cafes in the coming months in Wagga Wagga. They are happening elsewhere across the country too. Death can be a subject avoided by many with women more likely to be proactive in planning. I would encourage participation whether it seems immediately relevant to you or not. There is nothing negative about being informed and if death is a great leveler, death talk is a great source of affinity.