NICE METHOD WHEELS BRO...

I just bought a van. His name is Rosco. It’s the most marvellous magic carpet on wheels!! Oh and not just ANY wheels, this one has been accessorised with Method wheels. Yep. It turns heads, and I may not have noticed, except that last week someone was taking photos of it and pulled up right beside the van and called out NICE METHOD WHEELS BRO! He then took photos of it whilst driving, oh and not just that, he uploaded the van snaps into a van lovers cult — ha ha there are some seriously hard core van lovers, basically the Three Birds (you know the renovation queens?) equivalent, except that its rims, wheels, roof racks, inverters, modifications -WYKYK :)

How do I know? My husband is a member of the cult :)

While I was out and about exploring I visited the Heide Museum of Modern Art in Bulleen, just a little over 30 minutes from Melbourne CBD. It is a former dairy farm, and the original home (and artist commune/collective, known as “Heide Circle”) of Sunday and John Reid. The time was 1930’s, and it famously became a collective hub of progressive thinking and modernist ideas. At the time, art and lifestyles were collectively shaped by literature, politics and sociology. Sunday and John were both artists as well as husband and wife. They had a very bohemian existence and shared their “entanglements” openly with others, and Sunday had a famous long term liaison with Sidney Nolan. It is said that he would paint with a brush in one hand and the other arm wrapped around her waist. He is famous for the Ned Kelly paintings which he painted with tins of house paint upon the flat table in dining room of the cottage. He broke her heart by leaving her for her husband’s sister, and that was only because Sunday wouldn’t leave her husband for him.

You with me?

Anyway, they were visionaries. I am now completely and utterly obsessed with their museum house, which is built from Mt Gambier limestone, terrazzo floors and a lot of built in minimal furniture. This incredible “house of light ” was designed to be a functioning gallery to compliment their extensive art collections as well as a private residence. It was designed by young (freshly qualified) architects, David McGlashan and Neil everest, and the modernist building was completed in 1967.

Beauty is everywhere, there are many large bronze and stone sculptures within the expansive grounds, as well as an enormous kitchen garden and an additional gallery - which is the newest structure and the “official gallery” for the Heide Museum of Modern art.

The exhibition I saw was called Hair Pieces. It was an exploration of the cultural and symbolic significance of hair, within contemporary culture. My absolute favourite was like a little hair pet, it was titled “Guardian” by artist Taryn Gill. And the soft, barely audible little eerie growling was superb. I wanted to bring it home with me. That and the huge teeth. I have a thing for prosthetics, Little known fact: I used to put my Nana’s dentures in when she wasn’t wearing them.