Capital Life: March 21

Where are you? Right in the middle of You Are Here, of course! The program is massive – visit youareherecanberra.com.au for more information – but here's one cool thing you can check out – Portable at East Row Museum. It's a "museum" of curated collections of memory, fiction and truth by 11 individuals or groups of curators. It's the perfect chance to explore different stories and question what museums really do. "Enjoy a complimentary audio tour around the museum, as you view collections presented by more than 17 local artists and curators – from half-remembered mementos of motherhood to objects salvaged from time travel to a forgotten '90s sludge pop band." Portable is on all weekend at the You Are Here Hub in the old Impact Records shop, which non-longtime-Canberrans might otherwise know as the old JB Hi-Fi store, 55 East Row, Civic.

Artist demo at Beaver

It's not often we get the chance to see an artist demonstrate, up-close, the creation process. But if you head over to Beaver Galleries on Sunday afternoon, you might get the chance to see painter Graeme Drendel as he demonstrates the process and techniques he uses to create his intriguing works. Drendel will be speaking at Beaver Galleries, 81 Denison Street, Deakin, from 3pm-4pm on Sunday, March 22. The event is free but RSVP is required: 6282 8146.

Thai jewellery at Bilk

It's a – very pleasant – preoccupation in Canberra at the moment, modern Thai jewellery. Bilk in Manuka has a show opening later this week of work by eight contemporary Thai artists from ATTA Gallery in Bangkok: "Contemporary jewellery is a relatively new concept in Thailand, and as such these artists take credence in their cultural heritage and symbols and incorporate this into their work from new perspectives," says the gallery. "With many of the artists travelling to further their education, the works are fresh and often surprising." I cannot wait to see this one! Anew Negotiation opens on March 27 at Bilk Gallery, Palmerston Lane, Manuka, and runs until April 25.

Seeking humanity in Belconnen

There's a thought provoking new show just opened at Belconnen Arts Centre this month. Archibald Prize-winning artist Wendy Sharpe sat with 39 refugees and asylum seekers and created portraits of each, "capturing their likenesses to express their humanity". "This is not about politics. I want to show our common humanity and that they are people like us, with hopes and dreams just like ours," says Sharpe. "Through these portraits I want to reach out to as many people as possible, especially those who may be confused by the many myths about the issue or feel uncomfortable with what is currently happening." Seeking Humanity, by Wendy Sharpe, is showing at Belconnen Arts Centre, 118 Emu Bank, Belconnen, until April 12.

Also at Belconnen …

The arts centre is calling for applications for the 2016 exhibition program – incidentally its 50th year. "The exhibition program provides artists with the opportunity to connect with a vibrant and diverse audience in an established hub for the arts in the north and west of Canberra…The 2016 program aims to showcase socially engaged, experimental, interactive, new media and digital arts practice. For example artists working in digital media are encouraged to apply to present their work in the Arts Lounge Project Space, an environment especially suited to projection and digital media work. Applications are encouraged from artists with disability, artists from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and Indigenous artists. Visit belconnenartscentre.com.au for more information. Applications are due April 30 and successful applicants will be advised May 31. And just down the road…

Movement

The Belconnen Artists Network has a new show opening at the community centre, focused on movement: "Everything moves. Water moves, clouds move, the wind moves, the sun and moon move and the earth itself moves. Animals move and we move. We see movement as a sign of life itself. Children have an abundant curiosity and enthusiasm that encourages action and exploration. Adults try to subdue the climbing, hopping, jumping, running using the excuse, "You may hurt yourself". Adults are lucky if they keep an active outlook on life as they age. The fit, professional sports person is unusual but respected and admired. Movement is the key to staying young…This exhibition highlights contrasts of stillness versus movement, dynamic changes and minimal differences, ebbs and flows, building and decay, growth and ageing." Movement opens at Belconnen Community Centre, Swanson Crt, Belconnen, on March 24 and runs until April 2.

Quick Fix at CCAS

Canberra arts fixture Danny Wild has a new solo show at CCAS in Manuka – an immersive audio-visual installation that "looks at the effect of toxic materials on the natural environment. Presented is an ever evolving video collage, created in the space using multiple projectors sitting on moving disks. These projections are set against fragments from cheap plastic household items that smear across a large image of a constructed natural landscape. The work fluctuates between the idea of a 'Quick Fix' that these cheap materials suggest, and the long term and irreversible damage that they cause to our delicate landscapes." Quick Fix, by Danny Wild, is showing at Canberra Contemporary Art Space, 19 Furneaux Street, Manuka, until March 29.

Japanese ceramics in Watson

The things that go on in the Canberra suburbs! Japanese artist Hidemi Tokutake has been in town as an artist-in-residence at Watson Arts Centre since mid-January, and is now showing the work she's spent the past two months creating. "Landscape and the environment have deeply inspired my practice," she says. "In Australia, I find the native plantation and fauna most exquisite: the dry textures in stoic organic mass in an unusual range of muted tones give great contrast with the vivid blue sky and the intense orange red soil. These forms and colours have strongly influenced my work." Hidemi Tokutake is showing at Watson Arts Centre, Aspinall Street, Watson, until March 29.

Lecture on Tuckson and Fairweather

Director of the Drill Hall Gallery Terrence Maloon is repeating a lecture he gave recently at the Tarra Warra Museum of Art to celebrate the exhibitions Ian Fairweather: The Drunken Buddha and Tony Tuckson: Paintings and Drawings, on Sunday at the ANU School of Business and Economics. "The lecture examines the post-war context in which these two English migrants reinvented themselves as Australian artists. A particular focus is given to how each of them individually responded to and acted out what the critic Clement Greenberg described in 1948 as the 'crisis of the easel picture'." Maloon will be speaking on Sunday March 22, 3pm at the ANU School of Business and Economics. Tickets, collected at the Drill Hall Gallery, are $10/$5.