Bendigo

Last week, Nathan and I made a trip to the country to see the Marimekko exhibition at the Bendigo Art Gallery.

Marimekko is an iconic Finnish textile and fashion brand. Having lived and worked in Finland, I quickly became a fan of some of their printed designs, which are often bold, bright and gaudy. These qualities seem to contrast with the quiet, calm and introspective qualities I tend to associate with the Finnish people. And yet the Finns absolutely love Marimekko. I saw their psychedelic textiles—many are reissues of designs from the 1960s—hanging as curtains in my friend's apartments and I see them worn by little old Finnish ladies in the streets of Helsinki.

A Marimekko exhibition in rural Victoria seems a little odd but I think it reflects a resurgence in the popularity of the brand here in Australia in the last few years, with several stores opening in Sydney and Melbourne.

I particularly enjoyed seeing the actual paintings that eventually were made into the printed textiles.