It’s been a busy week for getting out and about with work, starting with the launch of the book about Slim Dusty. Essentially, it’s a photographic book, but with some reminisences, too. It was put together by photo-journalist, John Elliott, who has been travelling on the road with Slim for many years. There was quite an array of country music glitterati in attendance, including Kasey Chambers (and her very spunky husband and brother), Lee Kernaghan, Gina Jefffreys etc. Out of “Tamworth Mode”, they were just fairly ordinary people, I thought, with Slim Dusty really being the only one with a strong presence. Oh, I tell a lie, Ten’s showbiz reporter, Angela Bishop was there.

On Wednesday night, I went to the opening of the 2002 Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship, a $40,000 art prize for emerging artists. Given my new found interest in collecting art, I was both professionally and personally interested in going. In my view, there was nothing spectacular, but there were some interesting works:

“Filter Feeder” by Alex Davies: You enter a room with an audio soundtrack playing “atmospheric” music and are surrounded by abstract video projections. Right in the middle of the room there was a goldfish bowl, with the lighting such that the gold fish became part of the video projection.

“Watching Falling Down” by Lisa Andrew: The work was based on a photograph of a woman’s reaction to watching the twin towers falling on September 11. The image, which Lisa says is a “drawing” has been remade from layers of fabric, delicately pinned to the wall.

“Between Iran, Peter Hore and Australia” by Alex Kershaw: A video projection and installation about Peter Hore, the so-called “serial pest” who ripped the net during Australia’s crucial World Cup soccer qualifier against Iran in Melbourne, and Alex Kershaw’s attempts to track him down, writing to just about every P. Hore in Australia, and including those envelopes in the exhibition. Peter Hore, also, for the record, interrupted the funeral of rock singer Michael Hutchence, invaded the floor in the South Australian parliament and charged supermodel Sarah O’Hare on stage during a lingerie launch at Brisbane.

“Five Photographs That Destroyed My Life” by Maria Kontis: I liked the title more than the photographs.