The Venue: The National Gallery, Victoria
The Exhibition: Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion Manifesto
Friday nights at the Art Gallery are a bit of an enigma in Melbourne, well at least it was pre-COVID.
Tonight, armed with a couple of friends, we embarked back into the Art Gallery for a night of music, culture and getting back into it. Sure, we turned up looking like drowned rats, the inclement weather soaking us through as we made our way there, but we all go there at the prescribed time and went into the Great Hall.
It was lovely to be out. As they appear to be keeping numbers capped (and there is, of course, the mask mandates) we got some drinks and snacks and had a chat then went wandering around the Gabrielle Chanel exhibition, which is currently installed until ANZAC Day.
In this COVID ridden world, I've found I'm really no longer good with noise, or people for that matter, but thankfully, it wasn't overly busy.
I really enjoyed the exhibition, which looked at the clothes, origins, luxury items and influence of Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel. It's an immaculately curated exhibition, with many clothes from the twenties and thirties. For somebody who only has a limited interest in clothing, it held my attention. You can appreciate the design and craftsmanship at a level we really don't see that often anymore.
And we also took in the Bark Ladies exhibit on the other side of the hall, again, a fascinating look at some aboriginal art hailing from Yirrkala, 700 kilometres east of Darwin. It was a very different experience to the Chanel, but very engaging.
And after a few hours of eating and people watching and talking, we went home, all of us tired after a long week, and all of us rather discombobulated after spending a night in a noisy, people-filled environment. Still, it's small steps coming out of COVID, and it was just nice to be out with friends.
I'd love to return one night when there are fewer people and less duff-duff music (which was just a little too loud for my liking.) I'd love to see this reflective ceiling again. It was pretty cool.
A successful night, it was, even if this being out and about on a Friday night still feels so very foreign to many of us. We traipsed out into the steamy Melbourne night, feeling like we'd had an adventure.
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