Adding to my capital-cities-of-Australia-in-one-year-tally, a week after my sojourn in the Victorian high country, I was lucky enough to be going to Perth, where I hadn't been since travelling there in the Indian Pacific, when I was about 5-ish.
I was excited about experiencing the city as a grown-up, but more excited about our reason for going there.
Back when I was in New York I was introduced to Sonny's friend, Miguel Villalobos. A gorgeous and talented (just check out his pics of Nick Cave, amongst many others, on his website) tour guide, he turned out to be, escorting me around the Union Square Farmers Market, then inviting me back to his place for a duck egg omelet – which sadly I had to decline as I was there in NY for fashion week (ahem) slavery, I mean work-experience, and had photo processing to do. But that omelet that I didn't have, incidentally, was the impetus for me getting ducks of my own.
Anyway, back to Perth.
I was going to Perth because Miguel and his equally gorgeous partner, Graham Tabor, had been invited there by Liza Blakiston – owner of flexible, creative, Fashion/art/design space, Portal + Zekka – to present their Hic et Nunc resin and cardboard skeletal creations, along with their 1-100 jewellery collection.
The skeleton figures really appealed to me. Organic in form, but with the masking tape, the shine of the resin, and the 'friendly' looking faces, I saw a tounge-in-cheek whimsy about them, though I don't beleive frivolity was the intention of the artists, they made me smile.
The Baleen Whale is a huge piece, previously shown in Paris, which the boys re-constructed at Portal + Zekka. I loved it, and wish I had the space for it!
Timed in conjunction with the exhibition, Diane Pernet (famous around the world for her Shaded View on Fashion, but famous to me for having the coolest voice in the world) had also journeyed to Perth for the Australian premier of her travelling short film festival – A Shaded View on Fashion Film.
She poses, here, amongst the exhibition, to be photographed by the local press…
Following the film festival presentation at PICA was an after party at the home of Liza Blakiston and her husband, Michael. Lovely people, beautiful food, and stunning surroundings – starting with the roses over the entrance door…
Let's be honest. Perth is not high on the list when you think of fashion, or art hubs. But as it turns out, Perth manages very well to overcome it's tyranny of distance, and in fact, is a pretty cool place.
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