Great Southern Landscapes: Aug 16

This week on Great Southern Landscapes, Rachel Griffiths embarks on a romp around her own hometown of Melbourne to find the exact spot where Clarice Beckett painted her iconic Luna Park during a global pandemic over a 100 years ago.

In this episode exploring cityscapes, art lover Rachel Griffiths romps around her own hometown of Melbourne to pinpoint the exact spot where Clarice Beckett painted her 1919 pandemic-era picture of Luna Park.

First up, it’s a trip to Brighton’s famous Bathing Boxes, regularly featured in Beckett’s work. Clarice Beckett was a forgotten artist until the 1960s when art curator Rosalind Hollinrake tracked down over 2000 paintings decaying in a cowshed in country Victoria. Many were impossible to rescue but she managed to salvage 369 artworks, one of which was the iconic Luna Park.

A trip to Adelaide and the Art Gallery of South Australia brings Rachel face to face with the original pint-sized painting. Curator Tracey Lock muses with Rachel how this Luna Park scene depicted during a global pandemic 100 years ago holds great resonance for a modern-day audience who have just endured two years of lockdowns and deserted city streets.

Just around the corner from her home, Rachel arrives at St Kilda Pier to hear from Boon Warrung Elder N’arwee’t Aunty Carolyn Briggs, whose ancestors have been faithful custodians of this country for millennia.

Arriving at the smiling face, Rachel has one last person to meet, her mother. Anna Griffiths recalls how she fought to save this amusement park from the hands of developers, so this place could be enjoyed for future generations.

8pm Tuesday on ABC.