Getting out and enjoying the arts again

Finally, arts venues are stepping out again. Here are some offerings to lift the spirits.

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British fashion designer Mary Quant, the “queen of the miniskirt”, personified the spirit

of the Swinging ’60s and took her brand from its small beginnings in London to global success, making fashion more accessible to a new generation.

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Now a major retrospective from London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, drawing on the designer’s own archive as well as the V&A’s fashion collection, looks at the years between 1955 and 1975. It features more than 110 garments, as well as accessories, cosmetics, sketches and photographs. Mary Quant: Fashion Revolutionary, March 20 to July 11, 2021, Bendigo Art Gallery.

White House by Ai WeiWei. Picture: Jesse Hunniford/MONA

Siloam, the new tunnel complex at Hobart’s MONA, takes you from the museum’s underground galleries to the colourful, airy Pharos wing. Along the way is Oliver Beer’s giant ear, Mona Confessional, and Chris Townend’s sound installation, Requiem for Vermin. Up one level are the bones of a Qing dynasty house (White House, by Ai Weiwei). Siloam also hosts The Divine Comedy, by artist Alfredo Jaar, a three-stage journey through the chambers of the afterlife – hell, purgatory and paradise. Siloam is free with museum entry but tickets must be booked for The Divine Comedy ($20).

Dan Spielman and Izabella Yena in MTC’s Sexual Misconduct.

Dan Spielman and Izabella Yena (above) star in the MTC’s production of Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes, by Canadian writer Hannah Moscovitch. In a challenging new take for the #MeToo-era on the perennial reality of student-teacher romances, it explores the

dangers of desire and the difficulties of controlling the narrative

once the affair is over. From March 6, Southbank Theatre.

My Name is Gulpilil looks at the life of David Gulpilil.

My Name is Gulpilil will travel through the life of legendary Australian actor David Gulpilil in a one-night-only screening for the Adelaide Festival. In English and Yolngu Matha. Adelaide Festival Centre, March 12.

Margel Hinder’s work will be on display at the Art Gallery of NSW.

The first retrospective of one of Australia’s most important modernist sculptors, Margel Hinder (1905–95), features sculptures she produced over five decades, along with maquettes, drawings and photographs. Long underrated, Hinder is now seen as a key player in the making of Sydney’s modernism. Art Gallery of NSW, until May 2; Heide Museum of Modern Art, June 30 to October 10.