Triennial 2024 (3)

This is my third and final post about this year’s Triennial at the NGV – my first and second are here and here. The exhibition is well worth a visit before it closes on the 7th of April 2024. We first visited in December 2023 and focussed on the ground floor exhibits which are described here. All the quotes below come from the notes accompanying the exhibits.

I was keen to see the robots that were publicised as a feature of this Triennial. So were the lots and lots of children visiting when we were there – much excitement amongst the young set from toddlers to teenagers! The exhibit is called Heterobota by Agnieszka Pilat, a Polish born artist living in America. She’s currently a guest artist at SpaceX and Agility Robotics. The exhibit is meant to test our threshold for machines to exist outside of servitude and develop their own creative pursuits … [audiences are invited] to observe and interact with them as they go about their daily routines. I found it quite fascinating.

The robots have names – Basia Spot, Omuzana Spot and Bunny Spot. You can read what the artist has to say about each one here. They are amazing to watch as they play, rest and paint. And as you can see here there were plenty of people doing that.

They clatter about and after a while you start thinking they are dogs! It looks as though they are performing for the audience as they move backwards and forwards towards the viewing areas.

When their batteries run down they pop over and attach themselves to one of the charging stations on the wall.

One of them has been programmed (I nearly wrote ‘taught’) to paint and we saw it do so. All of the drawing on the blue panel has been done by this robot. While futuristic for our current time, the artwork produced by the robots represents a basic stage of machine-made painting. It’s described as semi-autonomous. The note asks the audience to consider: could it be possible that a future race of sentient robots look back at these paintings as the ‘neolithic artefacts’ of their distant forebears? Sort of scary especially as we read about Ai now. But fascinating; I could have watched them for ages.

I liked these monumental paintings by the Czech Republic born Vojtêch Kovarík. Called The three Fates: Clotho, Lahesis, Atropos 2021, synthetic polymer paint and sand on canvas. It took me to Google to be reminded of who did what. They’re like the Norns in The Ring. This is Clotho who spins the thread of human fate.

This is Lachesis who dispenses it.

And this is Atropos who cuts the thread (determining an individual’s moment of death). They’ve been purchased by the gallery. I liked everything about them – size, colour, characterisation.

Nowhere to go by American, Paris based artist Sheila Hicks has been on a lot of the publicity for the Triennial. It’s meant to change the experience of space and communicate the artist’s attention to abstraction, colour theory and painterly gesture. I wasn’t convinced – big and nice colours but so what? That’s me in front – to demonstrate scale!

The NGV has purchased this work by Betty Muffler, Pitjantjatjara / Yankunyjatjara born; Ngangkari Ngura (Healing Country) 2022, synthetic polymer paint on canvas. Her paintings are representations of Country, aligned with her birthplace, Yalungu ...[S.A.] which is associated with emu tjukurpa (ancestral creation story) and informed by the Walawuru (eagle) tjukurpa, which she inherited from her father. This is a conceptual map painted from a bird’s-eye perspective … with its many sacred waterholes and waterways.

I liked these three works that were nearby and associated with the same Indigenous story. Walawuru ngunytju kukaku ananyi (mother eagles going hunting) 2023, ink and synthetic polymer paint on canvas. By Pijantjatjara born Iluwanti Ken. She is well-known for her graphic depictions of mother eagles hunting.

There were three of these ink drawings. They’re very large and clearly depict the mother eagle and her chicks as she delivers food. The NGV commissioned these works – it’s interesting going through the Triennial seeing how much has been specially commissioned by the gallery.

These highly detailed drawings express her tjukurpa. Illuwanti Ken says, ‘I paint the stories of my father’s country Walawuru tjukerpa – the story of the eagles.

There is usually an exhibit showcasing an aspect of high fashion at the Triennial. This year the focus was on Schiaparelli. Given the publicity people might expect a much bigger array of items but there were only a few on display in a small darkened room. After you got used to the dark it worked quite well to display the exotic creations. It was described as work that is both imaginative and illusive: a challenge to all of couture’s clichés while simultaneously showcasing the artistry at the heart of the discipline.

Daniel Roseberry has been artistic director of the couture house since July 2019. Since then he’s been at the forefront of contemporary fashion culture, … redefining the design codes and legacy of innovation left by founder Elsa Schiaparelli.

This presentation evokes a magical cosmos in which explorations of technique, form and decoration collide. It contains works from several recent collections.

The creations on display certainly were both imaginative and illusive as promised.

And the dark space showed them off well. There was a whole wall of bright gold jewellry – much of it lewd which I wasn’t keen on. To big and brassy – straight out of the television show White Lotus.

Another of my very favourite exhibits was Block flowers 2023, by Azuma Makoto. He’s the owner of the haute-couture floral shop JARDINS des fleurs in Manami-Aoyama, Tokyo. Worth going to Japan just to visit! There were two exhibits in the room; both from A Chaotic Garden project. These beautiful resin cast flowers were part of Block flowers.

Also in the room was an exhibit called Drop time, part of the same project. This was a video which was screened on the floor of a dark room which presented the lifecycle of flowers in hyper speed, time-lapsed and shown in both forward motion and reverse. Set against a discordant soundscape. As you can imagine a kaleidoscope of colour which was impossible to photograph. The resin cast flowers were displayed on the four surrounding walls.

They are exquisite. There are one hundred and thirty in the whole project – I’m not sure if they were all on display at the Triennial. In any event there were lots. I was always going to go back for a second look and perhaps to take better pictures but I didn’t get there – still a possibility.

As it says in the note, the plants are held in an ambiguous state between life and death.

The artist has paused the life cycle of the flowers at the peak of their visual splendour.

Allowing us to appreciate the beauty of each species

and contemplate the competing values of immortality and temporality.

Whether you take that instruction to heart you can certainly appreciate the beauty.

The artist has included varieties of flowers native to Australia.

And I’m very pleased to see the gallery has purchased this week thanks to a large number of benefactors who are named in the note. I’ll be able to check it out on what I hope with be lots of visits to the NGV this year – one of my New Year resolutions is to visit once a month.

That is it from me for the Triennial this year. It’s a great idea, delivered well. I look forward to the next one. In the meantime enjoy this dramatic scenario which confronts you as you leave – the Exhibition Building gardens fountain full of fire against the gallery’s water wall.