Lost and Found

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Welcome to 'Lost and Found' Issue 3, an email publication that explores Melbourne's hidden creative spaces and the myriad of interesting events that keep the city buzzing through October to December. Click through to read
Issue 1 featuring Guest Editor Kate Bezar and
Issue 2 featuring Lisa Gorman.

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Guest Editor, Barbera Messer

Sydney-based Barbara Messer is editor of Australian CREATIVE magazine, a showcase of all sorts of beautiful and clever work, produced across industries from graphic design to film-making. From high above Surry Hills, she keeps in touch with some of the most creative people in the land, and we brought her down to Melbourne to see where her eye for talent would wander.

In her own words...

I’ll deny I ever said it, but after a weekend in Melbourne I have to admit it’s much more sophisticated than Sydney. It’s not just the shops and fashion, or the galleries and museums, or the boutiques hidden in tiny laneways that sell amazing design pieces and accessories. It’s not just that Melbourne hosts so many festivals, from the Fringe to State of Design or Melbourne Design Festival, or the fact that even the graffiti is better. Melbourne is great because its bars and restaurants are so diverse. Unlike Sydney, where most bars, cafes and restaurants look like they’ve been designed by the same architect, Melbourne establishments aren’t afraid to experiment with unique interiors and décor. And the food is delicious. After a weekend of indulgence, I left purring like a cat…

^ Image: Creative Keepsake: A Cultural Map of Melbourne

Pinning It Down

Ever wished someone would itemise Melbourne’s many hidden attractions on an easy-to-use map, marked with colour-coded pins and cute hand-cut buildings? Well, wish no further. Arts Victoria, in association with Tourism Victoria have produced just this. It's called 'A Creative Keepsake - A Cultural Map of Melbourne'. Designed by famed local studio Round, the map folds out to A2 and is packed with information on cultural destinations. Hand-made and then photographed real-size, the map looks like a personal city-exploration plan. The pins signify performing arts venues, public and commercial galleries, museums and heritage destinations, architecture and landscape design features, sculpture and street art, as well as design hot spots, including local jewellery, fashion and interior design shops and studios. While the map features detail-packed summaries of important locations corresponding to numbered pins, it includes unlabelled pins to tempt exploratory urges. And people can add their own categories – simply pick up a copy from one of the venues listed below, stick it on your wall, choose a new pin colour and add notes to the map as you go.

Barbera Messer's Arts/Culture

Arriving at The Butterfly Club is a little surreal – it’s not a bar, it’s a terrace house, and it feels like a very eccentric person might still live there. Interesting-looking people are slouched throughout the house, and every inch of wall is plastered with kitsch ornaments, fairy lights and old Christmas wreaths. It’s like walking into a private party when you haven’t been invited. The barman ushers us to a room at the front of the house, which seats about 50 people. It must be the tiniest theatre in the world. I’m practically sitting in a stranger’s lap and my knees are poking the person in front, but that’s its charm – it creates a sense of intimacy between the performer and the audience that other venues can’t offer. It’s so bizarre, The Butterfly Club is worth a visit regardless of what’s on stage.

Someday My Prints...

Someday Gallery is a haven-like turret on the third floor in Melbourne’s Curtin House. Thus, it seems the perfect venue for an exhibition curated by Australia’s whimsical ‘Princess Tina’ founder and designer
Beci Orpin. We’re only here because I dreamt us up presents the work of Canadians Sonja Ahlers and Genevieve Castree alongside Orpin’s. The artists share a girlish, dreamy sensibility, and each collection has a kind of dark or grim undercurrent. Each artist’s work is unique, but it is their obvious affinity that makes this exhibition really interesting. What is it that unites them? Does this connection go beyond aesthetics to something darker, or more political? In conjunction with the exhibition, a published version of the works will be available at the Someday Store, along with Sonja Ahlers’ beautiful publication Fatal Distraction. But be warned: prepare to leave with more than just a book. An exclusive purveyor of Perks and Mini, the Someday Store is one of Melbourne’s most tempting retail experiences.

^ Image: Sonjy Ahlere

Stats:
Creative Keepsake - A Cultural Map of Melbourne, from Craft Victoria, 31 Flinders Lane, Melbourne. 03 9650 7775.
The NGV, Federation Square, Melbourne.
03 8630 2555.
The Malthouse Theatre,113 Sturt St, Southbank. 03 9685 5100.
The Arts Centre, 100 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne. 03 9281 8000.
ACCA, 111 Sturt St, Southbank. 03 9697 9999. Or call the Tourism Victoria Information Service Hotline on 132 842 and they’ll send you out a copy.
We’re only here because I dreamt us up at Someday Gallery, L3 Curtin House, 252 Swanston St, Melbourne. 03 9654 6458.
The Butterfly Club, 204 Bank Street, South Melbourne. 03 9690 2000.

^ Image: courtesy of Genki

Baby Brights

In a city so often obsessed with black, it’s comforting to know that there are still shops keeping up the fashion fight for brights. Stocking more colour than the Sydney mardigras, Lenko's sugar-sweet streetwear includes hand-painted and screen-print T-shirts, hoodies and sassy dresses. The label even manages to make 'LeiderShorts' cute. Speaking of cute, Genki’s graphic T-shirts will melt even the snootiest of fashion fiends. Who could resist a tee that loves shopping as much as you do? And an online colour chart helps plan your spree before you even get to the city. The store also houses a huge range of fleeces, and designers like Deborah Sweeney, Rittenhouse and Lover.

^ Image: courtesy of Genki

High Class Lookers

There are few stores that will clothe a person from head to toe without resorting to straight catwalk rip-offs, but Cactus Jam can. With three stores (Cactus Jam Women, Men and International) in the city and personal stylists on hand, this is the place to come for renowned labels assembled with flair. The stock of over 90 local and 30 international brands extends from day: Paper Denim Cloth jeans and Ginger & Smart, into night: Cacharel and Kirrily Johnston. Cactus jam is also an essential fashion pit-stop before black tie affairs, but only if you're on your best behaviour: this stock is too good to douse with champagne.

If Karl Lagerfeld has taught us anything, it’s that high fashion can still be street worthy. At Figure 8, prices don’t come cheap but labels come hand-picked from around Australia and Europe. On the racks are individual and hard-to-find labels like C.Neeon and Gail Sorronda. Matched with accessories from Pokit and you have an outfit that travels straight from street to soiree.

^ Image: courtesy of Cactus Jam

Stats:
Lenko, Shop 308 L3 Melbourne Central, Melbourne. 0412 885 178.
Genki, Shop 5 Cathedral Arcade, 37 Swanston St, Melbourne. 03 9650 6366.
Cactus Jam, QV, Albert Coates Lane, Melbourne. 03 9654 0798.
Figure 8, Shop 2-3, 234 Flinders Lane, Melbourne. 03 9650 0234.

Airbrushing History

For weeks now, Melburnians have been admiring the hundreds of neon-style Nick Cave portraits plastered to walls and appearing at tram-stops around town. These beautiful posters are not works of street art, they're advertisements for the Howard Arkley retrospective exhibition at NGV Australia Launching on November 17, the retrospective will explore the evolution of Arkley's work from the early 1970s on. An Australian artist, influential teacher and mentor, Arkley(1951-1999) is famous for his airbrushed representations of suburbia. The exhibition features these signature pieces alongside the artist's early abstract work. Equally fascinating is the focus on Arkely's influences and inspiration, from punk music and the club scenes of the 1970s and 1980s to fashion and feminism.

^ Image: Howard Arkley; Australia 1951-1999; Nick Cave 1999; synthetic polymer paint on canvas; 175.0 x 135.0 cm; National Portrait Gallery, Canberra; Commissioned with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG, 1999 (c) The Estate of Howard Arkley. Licensed by Kalli Rolfe Contemporary Art.

Now you See it

A favourite destination for Melbourne’s square-eyed monsters, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) is dedicated to exploring our obsession with screens. But a new exhibition, launching in ACMI's screen gallery on November 2, takes visitors back in time to discover moving image experiments that pre-date cinema. This is not just your average shadow-puppet show. For one thing, it's scarier. Eyes, Lies and Illusions presents a huge collection of rare optical devices, manuscripts, prints, magic lanterns, games and toys that reveal an early fascination with the mysterious moving image. Developed from an exhibition at London's Heyward Gallery, Eyes, Lies and Illusions features artifacts dating back to the Renaissance. Watch out for 'spectacular new illusions' as well as works by international and Australian contemporary artists who have been inspired by optical trickery. Ever admired the spinning vortex on reruns of 'The Time Machine'? This is way more exciting than that. Watch and be dazzled. Plus, keep your ticket - it lets you book a place at a range of talks and workshops until February 11.

^ Image: courtesy of ACMI

Stats:
Howard Arkley, at the Ian Potter Centre, Federation Square, Melbourne. 03 8630 2555. From November 17 2006 - February 25 2007.
Eyes, Lies and Illusions, at ACMI, Federation Square, Melbourne. 03 8663 2200. From November 2 2006 - February 11 2007.

^ Image: Claystone Pottery courtesy of Handmade In Melbourne

Barbera Messer's Design

You only have to look at brands like Apple, Mini and Nokia to realize design is a booming market, which is why the Victorian government is cleverly positioning Melbourne as the design capital of Australia. Melbourne is now a designer’s paradise. The city hosts the annual Melbourne Design and biennial State of Design festivals, as well as the student conference AGIdeas, plus you’ll find dozens of boutique design shops and galleries (including The National Design Centre Federation Square) tucked in alleyways across the city. But you don’t need to visit galleries to appreciate the city’s design – many of the top bars, restaurants and shops are beautifully designed, from their interiors, décor and wallpaper, to their menus, bathrooms and matchboxes. The newly released ‘Creative Keepsake’ is a beautiful fold-out map of Melbourne with a whole category dedicated to points of design interest around the city, from architectural landmarks to individual design studios and stockists.

^ Image: Poppies for Grace courtesy of Handmade In Melbourne

^ Image: Katarzynkha courtesy of Handmade In Melbourne

Handmade Talent

We might live in an electronic age, but there’s no denying the emotional pull of something made by hand. In terms of design, it doesn’t get more hands-on than the work of Melbourne’s independent creatives, who churn away in studios from Fitzroy to St Kilda. New book Handmade In Melbourne profiles a collection of the city’s artistic folk, who add a human touch to the tangible forms that we buy, wear, or simply admire.

It takes a certain kind of person to turn adversity into an opportunity, but it seems Chris Plumridge is a rare character. His ceramics label, Claystone Pottery, grew from the urgency that accompanies life-threatening illness, but 20 years on Chris shows no sign of ceasing his liquid-porcelain pottery. When he’s not spending time at T2 or Craft Victoria the ceramicist can be found slip-casting bowls, teapots and cups in a smattering of gelato glazes from his factory space in South Melbourne.

Alana Waterson and Sara Dickens might have to burn a lot of fuel to reach their Warrandyte studio, but it's the rustic suburb's natural environment that fuels their stationery label Poppies for Grace. Hand-sketched sparrows, twigs and flowers adorn PFG's notepaper and cards, providing an organic alternative to the Hallmarked glossies on newsagent shelves. Closer to the city, the girls cite Spacecraft at the GPO and Husk as their special points of inspiration.

If a design future wasn’t in Kate Tucker’s stars, it was definitely in her blood. With a sewing-proud grandmother, a mother with a vintage fabric obsession, an artist aunt and photographer father, it’s no surprise that Kate fell into the creative realm. From the Fitzroy studio that she shares with sister and lingerie designer Jessie, Kate has been hand-stitching Katarzynkha handbags for the past two years. Recognised as wearable art rather than just wearable, she was awarded the Flinders Quarter Emerging Designer Award in 2005 and continues to sketch, screen-print and sew each individual piece herself.

Stats:
Chris Plumridge, Claystone Pottery at Craft Victoria, 31 Flinders Lane, Melbourne.
03 9650 7775.
Sarah Dickins and Alana Waterson, Poppies for Grace at Husk, 176 Collins St, Melbourne.
03 9663 0655.
Kate Tucker, Katarzynkha at Gorman, Shop G12 Melbourne's GPO. Corner Bourke and Elizabeth St, Melbourne. 03 9654 8488.
The National Design Centre, cnr Russell and Flinders St, Melbourne. 03 9654 6335.
Creative Keepsake, from Craft Victoria, 31 Flinders Lane, Melbourne. 03 9650 7775.
The NGV, Federation Square, Melbourne.
03 8630 2555.
The Malthouse Theatre,113 Sturt St, Southbank. 03 9685 5100.
The Arts Centre, 100 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne. 03 9281 8000.
ACCA, 111 Sturt St, Southbank. 03 9697 9999. Or call the Tourism Victoria Information Service Hotline on 132 842 and they’ll send you out a copy.

^ Image: courtesy of Verge

Barbera Messer’s Cafes/Restaurants

True to its name, when you step through the doors of The European you’d think you were in France. It looks exactly as you’d imagine a Parisian bistro in the 1920s, and the food tastes home-cooked, using fresh ingredients in simple combinations. My eggs are poached to perfection and the mushrooms and tomatoes taste like they’ve been plucked from an organic farm. Some people think heaven is a land above the clouds, but after dining at SOS I know the truth: heaven is a dish of softly seared scallops followed by pumpkin ravioli and meringue ice cream for dessert. Situated on the third floor of Melbourne Central shopping centre, I was a little dubious upon approach, but was wrong to doubt. On the balcony sipping cocktails while waiting for our ‘veg-aquarian’ meals, this kind of food that makes you smile and coo after every bite. Verge is a restaurant that isn’t afraid to experiment with textures, flavours and ingredients. A fusion of Japanese and modern Euro food, chef Dallas Cuddy’s concoctions come out looking like miniature works of art. The menu includes tasty morsels such as gyoza dumplings stuffed with scallop and quail, but I recommend the shared canapé Zensai plate. Go with an empty stomach, or with lots of people, so you can sample as much as possible.

^ Image: courtesy of The Red Emperor

Yum Cha City

Melbourne has embraced the Yum Cha tradition with such gusto that you'd think dumplings were invented by the banks of the Yarra. Come Sunday afternoon, no dumpling is left unturned, as every Chinese restaurant from the city to the sticks serves out more bamboo-steamed bites than Confucius has sayings.

The original dumpling pearl of Melbourne, Shark Fin Inn is a first choice when it comes to specialist Yum Cha Hong Kong-style. While it's a little pricier than the surrounding trolley houses, the $28 banquet and lashings of prawn rice noodle will leave you stuffed tighter than a spring roll. Of the same genus but closer to Swanston, Shark Fin House is number one for dim sum. We're not sure how they manage over 200 varieties, but when pork, prawn and chive, and mushroom taste this good we don't care. The Red Emperor at Southgate mixes serious degustation with a river view. For an upmarket experience, linen-draped tables and never ending trolleys burst with fresh seafood, spring rolls and of course dim sum. On a Yum Cha road less travelled...David's in Prahran has been consistently voted one of the best in the state. Extra spice and a menu that extends to drunken chicken and fragrant vegetarian dumplings with ginger makes this one worth the journey. Ignore the name, at AY Oriental Tea House it's all about the dumpling. Swapping trolleys for clean minimalist furniture and printed wallpaper, the little café/restaurant combines a tea and homewares shop with a dumpling kitchen out the back. Mouth-watering basket choices of vegetarian and meat selections start at just $6.

Stats:
Red Emperor, 3, Southgate Avenue, Southbank. 03 9699 4170.
Shark Fin Inn, 50 Lt Bourke St, Melbourne. 03 9662 2681.
Shark Fin House, 131 Little Bourke St, Melbourne. 03 9663 1555.
David’s, 4 Cecil Place, Prahran. 03 9529 5199.
AY Oriental Tea House, 2/318- 322 Little Collins St. 03 9654 8399.
SOS, Melbourne Central, Level 3, 211 La Trobe St, Melbourne. 03 9654 0808.
The European, 161 Spring St, Melbourne. 03 96540811,
Verge, 1 Flinders Lane, Melbourne. 03 9639 9500.

^ Image: courtesy of M.O.O

Before It's a general nightlife rule that before the dance comes the drink. And let's face it, no one except Michael Jackson should moonwalk in public without liquid-inspired confidence. Enter M.O.O, underground, hard to find, doesn't do dairy, but knows its wine. Former site of the Money Order Office, the regal bar feels like a gentleman's club of old, and has over 600 wines on offer (soon to hit 1400 when the new wine department opens). Appetites are covered too, with a seasonal fine dining menu from Tuesday to Saturday and bar grazing options like mini chicken burgers and spice encrusted paradise prawns. Up the other end of town next to the regal Grossi Florentino, the Cellar Bar's underground tag isn't indicative of its cuisine. Open early to very late, the comfortable Italian bistro, is a pre (or post)-club stop for Cucina-Antica style fare of the same calibre as its fine-dining counterpart, but for literally half of the price. The rich ragu Bolognese at $12 or Tortellini di Zucca for $16, seem to taste more authentic swilling a glass of red on a raw wood bench than white table cloth.


^ Image: courtesy of Ding Dong Lounge

After Amps are always turned to 9 at the well-trodden live music institution that is Cherry. Like Melbourne's best, it runs off the cobbled stones of a non-descript lane named ACDC. But you'd be more likely to hear 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' blaring from the windows than 'Thunderstruck'. From New York to Melbourne, Ding Dong Lounge is the local haunt of upcoming alternative, indie and rock acts. Pegged for November are international and local bands such as Ratatat, Dances With Voices and Children Collide. Early morning mischief is a mainstay at Pony, where all night music and a 7am close make it the number one place for after-club burn-outs. Site of the monthly '60s throwback parties 'Blow Up', the bar also hosts a range of local unsigned live rock/indie bands. For electro beats, Eurotrash delivers the bling. Travel through the Harem Lounge, Russian Bar, Gunlounge and French Brasserie, where regular DJs play electro-rock and house. And if the bass or beer gets too much, the Szechuan noodle kitchen next door is on call until late with chilli-beef noodles.

Stats: M.O.O, Basement 318 Lt Bourke St, Melbourne. 03 9639 3020. Cellar Bar, 80 Bourke St, Melbourne. 03 9662 1811. Cherry, 103 Flinders Lane, Melbourne. 03 9639 8122. Ding Dong Lounge, L1 18 Market lane, Melbourne. 03 9662 1020. Pony, 68 Lt Collins St, Melbourne. 03 9662 1026. Eurotrash, 18 Corrs Lane, Melbourne. 03 9654 4411.

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Lost and Found Issue #1

Lost and Found Issue #2