Unseen Spaces

 The Exhibition: A Miracle Constantly Repeating - Patricia Piccanini

Where: Flinders Street Station Ballroom

As a part of: The Rising Festival

Tickets: $40 including booking fee. 

Until June 2022

In mentioning that I went to this exhibition on the weekend, there have been two main responses. "Who?" and "Oh?" appear to be the main ones. 

I've had a fascination with Patricia Piccinini's work for years, not that many know of her. Liking the fact she works to highlight human and animal forms, often blending the two in surreal representation, I had to see this. Initially, I was bpoked in last year in Winter.18 months later, I got my wish. 

And it was SO worth it. 

Piccinini's bizarre and thought provoking art works aside, a large part of this charm of this exhibition is its location, three floors up in the Flinders Street station ballroom. 

A ballroom at Flinders Street Station? Yep. The location hasn't been in use since 1983, and it looks like it. In the unrenovate space, you get an idea of the original grandeur of the buildind. It's structurally sound, and the gallery area has been shored up, but the rest of it has been left as it was found forty years ago. The found objects are fascinating. Old desks, phones and other technical paraphernalia deserted where it was left. And this too makes the exhibition even better. 

There is so much to take in at this exhibition. From the chimeras, her model, a strange blend of humans, animals and other items. It's hard to describe, but I love how I find Piccinini confronting and thought-provoking in equal measure. What is also great about this exhibition is the audio guide, obtained for free through a QR Code, which goes into detail about the inception of the pieces. 

My favourite rooms were the bedroom scene, circa 1985, complete with the milkcrate bed and the blanket curtains, and everythig I remember a 1980's bedroom post university to be. The found objects in this room were nostalgia at their best. 

There were many highlights to this exhibition - and the strange mix of art in an abandoned space made it even better. 

To be honest, it's worth the ticket price just to be inside this iconic building, wandering around in a piece of unseen Melbourne history. 

Today's Song: