Art Smitten - The Podcast

Christian chats to musical theatre performer Nelson Gardner about playing the part of Charley in Watch This’ production of Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along, running from June 29 – July 15 at Southbank Theatre, 140 Southbank Boulevard.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jack and Christian chat to Circus Oz veteran performer Matt Wilson about their new show, Model Citizens, running until July 16 at the Big Top in Birrarung Marr (between Federation Square and Batman Avenue).See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This documentary wasn’t just your normal superstar backstory, this was a story about a woman's journey through self-doubt, a controlling family, addiction and racism. Nick Broomfield’s documentary of Whitney Houston is truly riveting and captivating, unlike any documentary I’ve ever seen. There were a number of never before seen home videos of Whitney starting out singing with her mum, Cissy Houston, in church, Whitney’s early interviews and of her backstage. There were also a number of interviews from people close to her where it was really interesting to hear what they saw and how she spiralled out of control. She paved the way for African Americans. We wouldn’t have people like Beyonce if it wasn’t for Whitney, but back when she was starting out she was hated by her African American community because they thought white Amercia had basically taken her away and moulded her into a white American popstar singing pop as opposed to what African Americans wanted to hear: RNB. S

Maria and Ben chat with Piri Goodman and Maya Tregonning, students at the National Institute of Circus, about their June showcase performance at the National Circus Centre, Circosis: Left Brain, Right Brain.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ellie and Christian chat with Rachael Maza, Artistic Director of the Ilbijerri Theatre Company, currently touring Coranderrk all around Australia until July 18.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jack and Christian are joined by artist and producer Tina Dixson, human rights advocate Renee Dixson and Thomas Feng, from Road to Refuge, to discuss Stories About Hope, an exhibiton celebrating the strength, identity and human dignity of people from refugee backgrounds, on at the No Vacancy Project Space in Federation Square until Sunday June 25.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jack and Christian are joined by artist and producer Tina Dixson, human rights advocate Renee Dixson and Thomas Feng, from Road to Refuge, to discuss Stories About Hope, an exhibiton celebrating the strength, identity and human dignity of people from refugee backgrounds, on at the No Vacancy Project Space in Federation Square until Sunday June 25. Click here for part 2See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Maria and Ben chat to Jodi Newcombe, ​​​Creative Producer​ of ​Empire of Dirt, an environmental work by James Geurts up on Rodda Lane off La Trobe St at RMIT.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Caroline's interview with Sam Yong, Apparition Media 30-year-old artist and designer of the Spider-Man: Homecoming mural at Melbourne Central.   CAROLINE: Congratulations on your big commission! SAM: Thank you. CAROLINE: Can you tell us how you got the gig? SAM: I work part time at Apparition Media, and I’m an artist and a designer there as well. Tyson (Hunter), one of the founders, he pitched me as an artist to do a custom design for the Spider-Man mural. Sony likes my work so they said “we’ll have you do the artwork for us”. CAROLINE: Spider-Man is such an iconic Marvel character. Were you briefed to stay true to the original, or were you allowed to have creative freedom in the design? SAM: They were pretty strict on keeping it to the new Marvel cinematic universe design because they wanted it to be set apart from the classic comic book costumes and also to keep it apart from the past Spider-Man franchises that have been done before. CAROLINE: And how is this reflected in the

Ben, Silvi and Christina chat to producer Olivia Satchell and director Christian Taylor about Tipping Points, their 24-hour play project centring on climate change that will be performed on June 22, 7-9pm at 1000 £ Bend (361 Little Lonsdale Street) as part of the Emerging Writers' Festival.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This weeks Friday Nights included a headline act by Two Steps on the Water, a extravagant chandelier and a reviewer entranced in the art of Van Gogh and Love: Art of Emotion 1400 - 1800. I find that the two components that make or break the Friday Nights experience is the music and the art. This weeks Friday Nights had exhibitions that emphasize emotion and mood. It only made it more suitable that the headliner for this week had so much gumption and feeling in their songs. The three piece punk/heavy folk band, Two Steps on the Water gave such a colourful performance that complimented the often varying tones of Van Gogh's art pieces. Their set also had heaps of humour implanted between songs. In every wolf whistle, lead singer June Jones was there to alert everyone "there are no wolves in the NGV". People filled every room to offer, perhaps to feast their eyes on the amount of art available on display. If you are heading to the Friday Nights in the future don't forget to check out the other exhibitions like lo

There's something very romantic about going to an art gallery at night time, especially one as grand as the NGV. The high ceilings and wide open spaces are really beautiful. It would be really cute to take someone there on a date and afterwards get a hot chocolate and sit by the river, just a suggestion. Van Gogh and the Seasons was curated by Sjraar van Heugten The exhibition begins with a short 9 min video detailing important points and shifts in Van Gogh's life. I really enjoyed this part of exhibition, it was interesting and easy to understand. Then you walk into the next part of the exhibition, a narrow walk way the kind of zig-zags around, it had big blocks of writing to read on the walls, which made this part of the exhibition very congested and I found it hard to keep my attention on the text. Next was a grey U-shaped room with Van Goghs early works. Then it moves into the main event of his prints and paintings. The dull grey then turns into black and white with scrims in between sections. The artwork

Silvi, Ben and Christina chat to Izzy Roberts-Orr, Artistic Director of the 2017 Emerging Writers' Festival (June 14-23).See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Silvi, Ben and Christina chat to actor Dion Mills about Red Stitch and Little Ones Theatre's production of The Moors, playing at Rear 2 Chapel St, St Kilda East until July 9.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Christian chats with and hears a live performance from Jason Fleming's solo tribute show, James Taylor: Bittersweet and Low, playing at the Caravan Club (95-97 Drummond Street, Oakleigh) on Saturday June 10, 8pm.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Maria chats with Gemma Paintin, one half of the Bristol-based live art duo Action Hero, currently in residency at Arts House in North Melbourne performing a handful of pop-culture-focused works.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jack reviews the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra’s May concert, Unfinished Romance – Rossini & Schubert.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

20th Century Women is the latest film from Mike Mills, whose previous film Beginners came out a full six years ago – but the wait has certainly been worthwhile. He’s managed to follow up what was a rather lovely and tender film with an even lovelier and even more tender one, a film that encompasses a sprawling range of themes and sentiments. It’s set in Southern California in 1979, and centres on Jamie, a fifteen-year-old living with his single middle-aged mother, Dorothea (Annette Bening), in a house she rents out to punk photographer Abby (Greta Gerwig) and hippy handyman William (Billy Crudup). Rounding off the main ensemble is Jamie’s best friend Julie (Elle Fanning), a troubled teen who spends much of her time staying at Jamie’s house. We grow close to these characters as we learn intimate details about their past, present and future and go through their pleasures and pains alongside them. It’s the rare type of film that not only introduces a relatively large core cast

Wild Bore is a new theatre production by three comedians, Zoe Coombs Marr, 
Ursula Martinez 
and Adrienne Truscott. It is a meta theatrical production where the three performers analyse and deconstruct theatre criticisms, drawing material from real reviews they have received and other brutal reviews of other theatre productions. A lot of the themes of the show revolve around their experience of being ‘female comedians/theatre artists’ and the sexism and misunderstandings and backlash they receive. It’s very farcical and crass and is delivered in a very satirical tone. It opens with the three performers bums at a long table reading reviews of the show performing as theatre critics, this image is repeated through the whole show. Then there is an ‘interval’ and the curtains part and there’s a giant long table and the performers are wearing bum hat mask sort of things and continue with the critiquing of theatre critics, it then gets a bit surreal and there’s a big scene w

Christian chats with director Robbie Carmellotti and cast member Jordon Mahar from Chapel off Chapel's production of Spring Awakening: The Musical, running until June 10.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.