Back in Melbourne, when friends ask How’s your French? I say that I sit down to my French class each week, and I can get through my chores.
I can check for my allergens on packaging. I can read menus at a bistro and signs on the metro. At the beach, I understand children speaking to their parents about poisson in la mer. I understood the drunk man on a bike telling me about the bon chien across the road. Though, I can’t converse back or listen to much, I tell them. Everything’s scrambled together at speed, and I can’t untangle it.
Or, I say, I’m fluent and laugh.
They look unimpressed at the former and confused at the latter. Why is she laughing? Shouldn’t she have picked it up by now?
Let's stay in touch (intellectually).
selection of articles, interviews, blogs et al.
For years, Vipoo Srivilasa has created blue and white ceramics, only to veer away from the palette during lockdown. Now, for an exhibition at Bunjil Place Gallery titled Generation Clay: Reimagining Asian Heritage, he embraces the aesthetic once again, with other artists in tow.
Reflecting on Art Basel Paris and Paris Art Week (16th–20th October), I’ve been returning to the idea of set and setting. It’s a term used for psychedelic drug use – set being one’s mindset and setting being the physical environment – but fitting for perceiving art, too. If set and setting are off, the experience can be jarring; if right, it’s conducive to an enriching encounter.
For some reason, Art-o-Rama – an art fair in the southern French city of Marseille – has three Google reviews, including a one-star labelling it for “pseudo fashion intellectuals” and those “armed with easy money”.