Art Fair After Party

Posted by Natalie Thomas on August 19, 2014 in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

There was so much art to take in at the Art Fair that I got art blur. That’s when you can’t remember what you like (or not) anymore, nor why. You need a vacation, some down time to work through it. It’s as confusing as surfing the Internet too long in one sitting without a ciggie break. After a while the brain switches off, then it’s all: “wow look at the pretty colours”.

The best joke to play on an art dealer is to tell them (solemnly) that painting is dead. Over. No demand. The rumour gets going every couple of years and we all stand round behind clasped hands, enjoying the look of panic spreading from just behind the eyes.

Then everyone goes home to their studio sheds and churns out a couple more colourful forays into nothingness (that jump off the walls like hot cakes). The punters understand paint.

The Melbourne Art Fair is not however all about paintings and what hangs well in a minimalist mansion. It’s also about the commission. This year Mikayla Dwyer got the gig and produced a mobile that included the 4^th dimension, the audience. We could stand and gaze at ourselves in one reflective Perspex hangy bit.

Mikayla’s career has really taken off since she persuaded a dance troupe to dress up in sheer shiny organza, sit in a circle and take a dump at ACCA. The chatterazzi on the social media went off, and now her door is getting knocked down with the offers.

The Carlton Club was the after party. Music and dancing inside; chitty chatty on the outside balcony. I tried to talk my way into a new corporate partnership, becoming the new media partner of a smallish museum. The deal is yet to be finalized. I like the way all those logo’s look though, lined up (like soldiers marching off to war) at the bottom of whatever you do. It adds a certain gravitas to a situation if people can identify who is with Team Nattysolo.

I must confess though that there’s an increasing element that loiter round me, looking gorgeous, buying me drinks, just waiting for me to click off another prize winning social portrait that reveals the true, authentic self. Social Photography. It’s exhausting.

melbourneartfair.com.au