The National Gallery of Victoria has opened the doors to its much-anticipated Triennial exhibition, which features 86 projects from more than 100 artists, designers and collectives from more than 30 countries.
The exhibition includes more than 30 new major commissions by Australian and international artists, architects, designers.
French artist JR unveiled a new work in the GV Grollo Equiset Garden which draws attention to the ecological decline of the Darling River resulting from irrigation practices, climate change and drought. The installation includes a film that combines portrait photography and documentary footage and an “open-air chapel” with large-scale stained glass windows depicting the Darling River’s dying river red gums.
Installation view of Glenda Nicholls’s work Miwi Milloo (Good spirit of the Murray River) 2020 on display in NGV Triennial 2020 from 19 December 2020 – 18 April 2021 at NGV International, Melbourne © Glenda Nicholls.
Image: Tom Ross
Los Angeles-based Australian architect Liam Young contributed a 15-minute animated film that speculates on the radical reversal of city sprawl – the creation of a single, super-dense future city – as an antidote to the accelerating climate crisis.
Other works include a large-scale weaving by Waddi Waddi, Ngarrindjeri and Yorta Yorta artist Glenda Nicholls that emphasizes the importance of Aboriginal women in maintaining cultural practices and highlights the plight of the Murray River system; a sensory “botanical pavilion” by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma with Melbourne artist Geoffrey Nees built from trees that died during the Millennium drought at Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens; and a display by RMIT University researcher and designer Pirjo Haikola that explores how the shells of invasive sea urchins might be repurposed and harnessed in coral restoration.
Installation view of Liam Young’s film Planet City 2020 on display in NGV Triennial 2020 from 19 December 2020 – 18 April 2021 at NGV International, Melbourne. © Liam Young
Image: Tom Ross
Los Angeles-based collective Fallen Fruit created an immersive installation that uses photographs of Australian flora and selected artworks from the NGV’s permanent collection to critique the shaping of history and the environment. “By drawing from the NGV Collection, the artwork also becomes a story about the formation of colonial Australia itself, and how people and plants from other places have naturalised within the Indigenous landscape,” they said in a joint statement.
The mammoth Triennial exhibition is framed around four themes: illumination, reflection, conservation, and speculation. The artworks – some of which have been several years in the making and others created during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns – explore some of the most pressing issues of today, including isolation, conservation and climate change.
Installation view of Fallen Fruit’s work Natural History 2020 on display in NGV Triennial 2020 from 19 December 2020 – 18 April 2021 at NGV International, Melbourne © Fallen Fruit.
Image: Sean Fennessy
The exhibition runs from 19 December 2020 until 18 April 2021 and entry is free.
“There couldn’t be a better way to welcome Victorians back to the NGV – the people’s gallery – than with the spectacular second NGV Triennial,” said Victorian premier Daniel Andrews. Andrews has also announced a $20 million donation from the Ian Potter Foundation towards the development of the proposed NGV Contemporary.
