Every time we think about going to Danks Street, we imagine, “What a good idea, we can check out a whole lot of galleries at once, see everything that’s going on. It’s like the Supacenta of art!”
The reality of Danks Street, however, is a bit too much like the Supacenta after all –once you’ve been to Freedom and Ikea and looked in Harvey Norman, there’s very little to do except eat a $1.50 Wendy’s hotdog (with mustard) while riding the escalators and listening to the Muzak.
Danks Street has its coffee shop and its long hallway with doors to galleries to either side, and the depression sets in quickly once you realise that there are only a couple of galleries worth looking at. Doors are locked and galleries are closed even if the sign on the door says they should be open. We’re always too guilty to go into Utopia Gallery and the hire space that interstate commercial galleries use to have shows feels wrong – we don’t know why – it’s just an emotional thing we can’t explain. It’s a shame that Danks Street isn’t bigger – perhaps another storey with more commercial galleries, artist run spaces, a few restaurants, a bookshop, perhaps some discount DVDs and rugs, a room where children can play among multicoloured balls… That would make us happy, we just know it.
The good thing about the Danks Street complex, as some call it, is that for a reviewer you can build up an entire week’s material in one hit and still be home in time for brunch. It’s a soft option, we know, but we’re soft and uncritical when it comes to passive spoon feeding type experiences and besides, it’s a whole lot of art in one place.
