finding myself in the gallery in canberra

a few weeks back i spent a lovely few hours roaming the national gallery in canberra

there were some tremendous things to see

i had my usual religious experience before the abstract expressionists, especially clyfford still's 1952 No 2

1952-no.2 [Gray painting] 1952
oil on canvas
299.0 (h) x 268.5 (w) cm
not signed, not dated

such a beautiful & intense shimmering of colour - in the gallery the grey had a more indigo inky depth and the red burned to a greater orange, or so it seemed to me.
i really loved the Robert Motherwell, too

Elegy to the Spanish Republic 1958
synthetic polymer paint on canvas
175.3 (h) x 248.9 (w) cm
frame 1788 (h) x 2525 (w) x 55 (d) cm

and there was a lovely voluminous sculpture that looked like a jelly fish, by timothy horn. it was part of reinventions: sculpture + assemblage and it was hung at the top of a ramp against a black background - very dramatic.
one of the lovely surprises of the gallery was fiona hall's erotic sardine cans.
i'm not sure why i was surprised - i'd seen them before in the gallery of queensland years ago. they've also been reproduced in magazines, although you often see the more "coy" tins like nelumbo nucifera.

i love the naughtiness of the pieces. i love the audience reaction to the pieces.
art-lovers, usually so well-behaved, getting up close for a good ole look, and sharing a nudge-nudge wink-wink guffaw even while they're taking in the beauty of the objects. it must be similar to seeing some of duchamp's contributions (L.H.O.O.Q.)
when i was there a kid, maybe 10 or 11 years old came up close to look. when he realised what he was looking at he gave a self-conscious recoil and quickly went round the corner. it reminded me of watching movies with my parents, and the horrible feeling i would get if a sex scene came on. i wanted to watch and get into it, but i felt i had to play it cool and be incredibly disinterested.

why did i think i wasn't human?
anyway, fiona hall's works are wonderfully human.