Bored of doom-scrolling? Enjoy these awesome online art outings instead

Archive

Locked into a 24/7 cycle of bad news, as so many of us are these days, it’s easy to forget that the internet has so much more to offer, including a multiplicity of ways to bring art right into your home! Here at Art Guide we’ve selected a range of uplifting, intriguing and edifying online experiences that promise a much needed respite from doom-scrolling, including videos, games for both children and adults, kids’ art making activities and several exhibitions.


Watch Ganbu Gulin: One Mob

Ganbu Gulin is a documentary that delves into the historic decision by Darebin council (in Melbourne’s northern suburbs) to stop celebrating Australia Day out of respect for Indigenous Australians. Screened as part of the FUSE online festival, the film also points out that January 26, known as a “day of mourning” since 1938, is now used by the local traditional owners the Wurundjeri people as an occasion to welcome new citizens on their own terms. Free online until 19 September.

 


Test your memory with NGV KIDS

Children aged two to five years old are invited to travel back to 17-19th century Japan and test their memories Edo style in this online NGV Kids activity. Kai-awaseis a game that used to be played using intricately painted gold lacquered shells.

Stories behind other traditional Japanese games held in the National Gallery of Victoria collection (and on show in Golden Shells and the Gentle Mastery of Japanese Lacquer) will also be told, and children will have the chance to create their own memory game using a supplied activity sheet. FREE but bookings are required. Various times on 16, 21, and 30 September.

Painting flower designs onto the shells with Nihonga pigment.

 


Immerse yourself in the world of printmaking

Megalo Print Studio in Canberra are offering print lovers everywhere two current online exhibitions: Ligature a group show which highlights fruitful collaborations between master printmakers and artists who don’t normally work with the medium, and Intaglio which features the work of 30 international contemporary printmakers. They have also assembled an impressive array of online resources on all things printmaking from around the world including: tutorials, podcasts, libraries, journal articles and more.

Yhonnie Scarce, Weak in colour but strong in blood, 2019. Digital print on paper, 43.5 x 61 cm. Printer: VCA Editions. Photo: VCA Editions.

 

Play Sonata in b minor for unity by Akil Ahamat

 

In Sonata in b minor for unity, Akil Ahamat provides a respite from endless doom scrolling in the form of an ultra-zen game in an otherworldly digital garden. Accompanied by an eerie, yet calming, soundscape ‘players’ in this online world adopt the POV of a tiny dust mote floating through a field of towering daisies. It’s both strangely compelling and deeply relaxing to be so small, with the biggest decision looming a choice of which direction to aimlessly drift. Sonata in b minor for unity is the first Parramatta Artists’ Studios (PAS) digital artwork commission.

Akil Ahamat, Sonata in b minor for unity, 2021. Courtesy the artist.

 


Visit
The Omega Variant Show by Dale Frank 

Dale Frank’s lush paintings may be abstract, but his infamously long titles read like micro-fiction. In his latest solo exhibition, The Omega Variant Show, these tiny stories veer towards the scatological and the sordid, while the paintings themselves provide oozy colourful pools in which to reflect. This online exhibition offers multiple ways to engage with the work, from a video fly-though of the uninhabited physical gallery to a range of still images (including the all-important titles) and written excerpts about the artist from the 1980s. Online at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery until 2 October.

Dale Frank, She grew up in Maitland and hated fried rice but thought the East Maitland Bowling Club had the best restaurant in town, 2021, Interference colour pigment in Easycast, Epoxyglass, on Perspex, 200 x 180 cm.
Feature Words by Tracey Clement