Welcome Back to a Summer of Art

This December, our exclusive Australian staging of Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto is not to be missed with more than 230 garments, accessories and jewellery pieces on display in a celebration of renowned French couturière Gabrielle Chanel. Chanel’s noteworthy contribution to twentieth century fashion is undeniable, having defined a new way of dress for women that preferenced comfort without compromising on style. One of her most significant design legacies is the little black dress, and this work dates to spring–summer 1925. In Chanel’s hands, black became equated with elegance and understatement. She employed it in a variety of fabrics and forms throughout her career, playing with texture, sheen and line. The lace in this example highlights the straight tubular silhouette of the 1920s, and the associated youthfulness of bare shoulders. Visitors will also see floral motifs throughout the exhibition, referencing Chanel’s love of flowers, as seen here in the detail of a yellow flower perched on the shoulder for decoration.

Later in December, visitors to NGV International will be greeted with an expansive, breathtaking floor display in Federation Court that features the work of Naminapu Maymuru-White and introduces Bark Ladies: Eleven Artists from Yirrkala. The exhibition is filled with colourful and daring bark paintings and larrakitj (painted hollow poles) by women artists working out of the Yolngu-run art centre, Buku Larrngay Mulka Centre (Buku), situated in Northeast Arnhem Land. One such work is Barrupu Yunupiŋu’s Gurtha (Ancestral fire) which represents the Gumatj miny’tji (sacred designs) that embody gurtha (fire). The Gumatj language, Dhuwalandja, is itself known as the tongue of flame, and is believed to incinerate dishonesty. Horizontal and vertical lines represent the different intensities of flame, smoke and ash as Yunupiŋu shows the fire in a macro view, close up and intense, stressing its importance to the Gumatj people.

Coinciding with this is The Gecko and the Mermaid: Djerrkŋu Yunupiŋu and her sister, an exhibition for all ages which highlights the work of two artists and sisters, Ms N. Yunupiŋu and Eunice Djerrkŋu Yunupiŋu and Yolŋu culture in an interactive space with hands-on and multimedia activities.

Ms N. Yunupiŋu Munhaŋaniŋ  2007.  National Gallery of Victoria. Purchased, NGV Supporters of Indigenous Art, 2021

Coinciding with this is The Gecko and the Mermaid: Djerrkŋu Yunupiŋu and her sister, an exhibition for all ages which highlights the work of two artists and sisters, Ms N. Yunupiŋu and Eunice Djerrkŋu Yunupiŋu and Yolŋu culture in an interactive space with hands-on and multimedia activities.

Ms N. Yunupiŋu Munhaŋaniŋ  2007.  National Gallery of Victoria. Purchased, NGV Supporters of Indigenous Art, 2021

Venture outside and ignite your senses as a pink pond fills the Grollo Equiset Garden. This year’s Architecture Commission introduces pond[er], a design brought to life by a Melbourne-based team comprising architecture firm Taylor Knights in collaboration with artist James Carey. The colour of the pond is immediately reminiscent of Australia’s inland salt lakes and brings to our attention important environmental issues surrounding the scarcity of our natural resources. The beauty, precariousness and temporality of natural ecology are further highlighted by the surrounding Australian flora that has been purposefully planted to bloom at different times throughout the installation. We look forward to seeing visitors wade through the pool and reflect on their relationship with the environment.

Render of the NGV Architecture Commission 2021 pond[er] by Taylor Knights and James Carey. Render courtesy Taylor Knights and James Carey

Venture outside and ignite your senses as a pink pond fills the Grollo Equiset Garden. This year’s Architecture Commission introduces pond[er], a design brought to life by a Melbourne-based team comprising architecture firm Taylor Knights in collaboration with artist James Carey. The colour of the pond is immediately reminiscent of Australia’s inland salt lakes and brings to our attention important environmental issues surrounding the scarcity of our natural resources. The beauty, precariousness and temporality of natural ecology are further highlighted by the surrounding Australian flora that has been purposefully planted to bloom at different times throughout the installation. We look forward to seeing visitors wade through the pool and reflect on their relationship with the environment.

Render of the NGV Architecture Commission 2021 pond[er] by Taylor Knights and James Carey. Render courtesy Taylor Knights and James Carey

The only known, complete example of kai-awase, a historical Japanese ‘shell matching’ game, will be housed at the NGV in Golden Shells and the Gentle Mastery of Japanese Lacquer. 720 gilded clam-shaped shells, each beautifully hand painted with Japanese and Australian flowers, are laid out in a spectacular and rare display. Traditionally, the inside of these shells were painted with matching scenes from classical Japanese literature. This contemporary edition of the game was produced by master lacquer artist Kitamura ‘Unryuan’ Tatsuo, who coordinated a team of more than forty artists and artisans from Wajima, Kyoto and other regions of Japan. The project has been a decade-long undertaking, during which a dedicated team have come together to honour, study, relearn and preserve traditional production techniques for future generations. We sincerely thank exhibition patron Dr Pauline Gandel AC for commissioning this work.

Unryuan Tatsuo Kitamura (studio) Shell matching game, Kai-awase 2015 (installation view). Collection of Dr Pauline Gandel, Melbourne. © Video stills courtesy of Ivan Kovac

The only known, complete example of kai-awase, a historical Japanese ‘shell matching’ game, will be housed at the NGV in Golden Shells and the Gentle Mastery of Japanese Lacquer. 720 gilded clam-shaped shells, each beautifully hand painted with Japanese and Australian flowers, are laid out in a spectacular and rare display. Traditionally, the inside of these shells were painted with matching scenes from classical Japanese literature. This contemporary edition of the game was produced by master lacquer artist Kitamura ‘Unryuan’ Tatsuo, who coordinated a team of more than forty artists and artisans from Wajima, Kyoto and other regions of Japan. The project has been a decade-long undertaking, during which a dedicated team have come together to honour, study, relearn and preserve traditional production techniques for future generations. We sincerely thank exhibition patron Dr Pauline Gandel AC for commissioning this work.

Unryuan Tatsuo Kitamura (studio) Shell matching game, Kai-awase 2015 (installation view). Collection of Dr Pauline Gandel, Melbourne. © Video stills courtesy of Ivan Kovac

We are thrilled to have extended Camille Henrot: Is Today Tomorrow which is an Australian-first survey of works by the French-born, New York City-based contemporary artist who takes a playful and inventive approach to addressing life’s big questions. The Pale Fox is an immersive, mind-bending installation filling an entire gallery space, and is a companion piece to Henrot’s film Grosse Fatigue, for which she won the Silver Lion at the 55th Venice Biennale. Grosse Fatigue attempts to tell the story of the universe whereas The Pale Fox is a meditation on our shared desire to understand the world intimately through the objects that surround us. Characterised by what Henrot has called a ‘cataloguing psychosis’, this vast installation features more than 500 objects encompassing photographs, sculptures, books and drawings, including objects made by the artist as well as collected via eBay. Her work is thoughtful, stimulating and completely inventive. It challenges us to question what we see and helps us to make sense of the peculiarities of daily life.

Installation view of Camille Henrot: Is Today Tomorrow at NGV International.
Photo: Tom Ross

We are thrilled to have extended Camille Henrot: Is Today Tomorrow which is an Australian-first survey of works by the French-born, New York City-based contemporary artist who takes a playful and inventive approach to addressing life’s big questions. The Pale Fox is an immersive, mind-bending installation filling an entire gallery space, and is a companion piece to Henrot’s film Grosse Fatigue, for which she won the Silver Lion at the 55th Venice Biennale. Grosse Fatigue attempts to tell the story of the universe whereas The Pale Fox is a meditation on our shared desire to understand the world intimately through the objects that surround us. Characterised by what Henrot has called a ‘cataloguing psychosis’, this vast installation features more than 500 objects encompassing photographs, sculptures, books and drawings, including objects made by the artist as well as collected via eBay. Her work is thoughtful, stimulating and completely inventive. It challenges us to question what we see and helps us to make sense of the peculiarities of daily life.

Installation view of Camille Henrot: Is Today Tomorrow at NGV International.
Photo: Tom Ross

Artists, designers and practitioners are often seen challenging the here and now. History in the Making looks at some of the pivotal moments, and materials, that have changed the way we live. If we think about the invention of synthetic materials as substitutes to expensive animal products, or today’s invention of biodegradable plastics in response to ecological decline, we can see the influence of both commercial and cultural systems on the materials that we use. This eye-catching Jacket by Di$count Univer$e boasts the fashion house’s trademark use of colour, graphics and slogans. The leather jacket is now deemed a staple item in a contemporary wardrobe. Yet, it has a history dating back to the Palaeolithic people living through the Ice Age who first tanned animal skins for clothing using animal fat and plant oil to create leather. The jacket design we are familiar with today was first worn in the early twentieth century for warmth by air-force personnel at altitude. By the 1950s, these jackets had been popularised by Hollywood, worn by filmic adventurers, rebels and bikers, and later transcended the screen into popular culture as a fashion garment symbolising resistance to social norms.

Materiality is at the centre of Found and Gathered: Rosalie Gascoigne | Lorraine Connelly-Northey opening this week at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Federation Square. Transforming the found and discarded into the surprising and beautiful is a craft mastered by both artists in fascinatingly different ways. Since 1990, Connelly-Northey’s strong desire to undertake traditional Aboriginal weaving resulted in a rediscovery of her childhood bush environments of the Mallee and along the Murray River. Here she learnt more about a customary Aboriginal lifestyle and throughout the years has produced a number of contemporary sculptures based on traditional possum skin cloaks, including this one. The barbed wire within this cloak signifies the desecration of Aboriginal skeletal remains, occasioned by the construction of an unsealed road near Swan Hill. The circular forms suggest different modes of transport using this road. The fringe of the cloak is made up of hands and cultural artefacts, representing the hunters and gatherers whose remains have been upturned by settler Australian societies.

From repurposing the old to creating the new, Sampling the Future features the work of boundary-breakers and future-makers. See a selection of new projects by some of Australia’s leading experimental and speculative designers focused on the problems of today including how we save our coral reefs and analysing the physical impact of the virtual cloud. A standout work is this Polylactic acid chain by Kyoko Hashimoto, Guy Keulemans and Matt Harkness. PLA (polylactic acid) is the most popular form of plastic used in 3D printers. These machines eat and excrete tonnes of PLA daily in thousands of maker-spaces around the world. Manufactured within a mix of petrochemical and biochemical supply chains, it is both recyclable and biodegradable in theory, but rarely done so in practice. These necklaces present recycled PLA sourced from maker-spaces in the form of uniquely patterned beads captured in 3D-printed collars. Practically, the work demonstrates new uses for waste PLA. Each bead in the necklace is shaped like a sphere, envisaged by the designer as a fundamental shape representing the universe.

Maree Clarke: Ancestral Memories celebrates thirty years of work by Yorta Yorta/Wamba Wamba/Mutti Mutti/Boonwurrung woman Maree Clarke, a pivotal figure in the reclamation of south-east Australian Aboriginal art and cultural practice. Two suspended glass works, Ancestral memory I and II, are more recent works by Clarke and reference the migratory paths that short-finned eels take within sewers and underground waterways across and underneath Melbourne. During their journey from the tropics to Victorian waterways, the eels metamorphose into clear and tubular animals, before taking on their final pigmented form. Aboriginal people from the south-east have traditionally observed and interacted with eels as signs of seasonal change as well as sources of food. Clarke’s use of glass both literally and metaphorically draws attention to the fragility of south-eastern Aboriginal stories and the wildlife ecologies of these sacred and special animals and pushes audiences to think about how Indigenous knowledge can shape the future.

Installation view of Maree Clarke: Ancestral Memories at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia. Photo: Tom Ross

Maree Clarke: Ancestral Memories celebrates thirty years of work by Yorta Yorta/Wamba Wamba/Mutti Mutti/Boonwurrung woman Maree Clarke, a pivotal figure in the reclamation of south-east Australian Aboriginal art and cultural practice. Two suspended glass works, Ancestral memory I and II, are more recent works by Clarke and reference the migratory paths that short-finned eels take within sewers and underground waterways across and underneath Melbourne. During their journey from the tropics to Victorian waterways, the eels metamorphose into clear and tubular animals, before taking on their final pigmented form. Aboriginal people from the south-east have traditionally observed and interacted with eels as signs of seasonal change as well as sources of food. Clarke’s use of glass both literally and metaphorically draws attention to the fragility of south-eastern Aboriginal stories and the wildlife ecologies of these sacred and special animals and pushes audiences to think about how Indigenous knowledge can shape the future.

Installation view of Maree Clarke: Ancestral Memories at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia. Photo: Tom Ross

Many of you will be familiar with Alexandra Kehayoglou’s NGV Triennial 2017 work Santa Cruz River, which at more than seven meters in length, commands the opening gallery space in We Change the World. In this work, Kehayoglou takes a contemporary approach to the historical practice of rug making to create a work that documents and draws attention to landscapes under threat from development. Santa Cruz River depicts a section of Argentina’s last free-flowing glacial river, which has much Indigenous cultural significance and is home to many unique and endangered plant and animal species. The work responds to the Argentine government’s controversial decision to approve the construction of two Chinese state funded megahydroelectric dams along the river, which will severely impact its ecosystems.

Finally, Big Weather features many important works from the NGV’s Indigenous Art Collection and highlights the vital role these artists play in sharing intimate cultural knowledge about the Australian landscape. Anmatyerr woman and artist Emily Kam Kngwarray was born and grew up on her father’s and grandfather’s Country, Alhalker. In 1926, the borders of the Utopia pastoral lease were drawn across Anmatyerr and Alyawarr lands, and Kngwarray worked on many pastoral stations. During 1988–89, she began painting on canvas, which sparked her meteoric rise to prominence. After rain is among Kngwarray’s earlier works and depicts lines and dots which converge in a dense field of irregular textured marks. The painting represents a common motif in her work, the flowering plant and tuberous subterranean roots of her Dreaming, anwerlarr, known in English as the pencil yam.

On behalf of the entire NGV team, we thank you all for your unwavering support.

What a summer to look forward to, we can’t wait to see you soon.

Tony Ellwood AM
Director, National Gallery of Victoria

On behalf of the entire NGV team, we thank you all for your unwavering support.

What a summer to look forward to, we can’t wait to see you soon.

Tony Ellwood AM
Director, National Gallery of Victoria