NGV Triennial 2020 installation view of Faye Toogood <em>Downtime: Daylight, Candlelight, Moonlight</em> installation 2020, including works from the NGV's Collection. This installation is supported by Gordon Moffatt AM, Cameron Oxley and Bronwyn Ross, Dr Brett Archer and Alex and Brady Scanlon, 2020<br/>
© Faye Toogood. Photo: Tom Ross

Qualities of light and the cycle of day to night inform British artist and designer Faye Toogood’s reimagining of the NGV’s seventeenth-century Flemish, Dutch and British galleries, under the title Downtime: Daylight, Candlelight, Moonlight. Toogood plunges us deep into a period sensibility – which witnessed the birth of capitalism and the Enlightenment – using her designs and artworks in dialogue with a selection of works from the NGV Collection. Toogood has designed three spaces, each alluding to the qualities of light present in the historical artworks. Daylight creates a dialogue between landscape and still-life paintings by artists of the seventeenth century, Toogood’s crystal furniture and her monumental Day tapestry, which features an assemblage of flora and agricultural produce tumbling against a backdrop of land and sky. Candlelight captures the lighting qualities seen in the portraiture by Rembrandt, de Vries and Hanneman. Toogood’s hand-painted wall scenography informs a surreal, salon-style interior, quickly sketched, as if in a dream state. Her Family bust sculptures conceived at the meeting point of abstraction and figuration, occupy centre stage. Moonlight brings Toogood’s Downtime installation to a luminous and reflective close. Dissolving into darkness, Night tapestry acts as a melancholic backdrop to her furniture and lighting designs, alongside seventeenth-century silverware, furniture and prints

NGV Triennial 2020 Playlist

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An interview with Jeff Koons In conversation with NGV Director Mindfulness in Taekwondo Asia Society X NGV Triennial conversations | Dhambit Munuŋgurr In conversation with Myles Russell-Cook Salon et Lumière | A Telstra Creativity and Innovation Series presentation NGV Triennial | JR’s Homily to Country NGV Triennial | Introducing Homily to Country Presented by Ewan McEoin Triennial conversations | JR / Rivers in decline Badger Bates, Gabrielle Chan, Rachel Strachan and Alan Whyte in conversation with Ewan McEoin Triennial conversations | Revising narratives Claire G. Coleman, Frieda Toranzo Jaeger, Timothy Moore and Scotty So in conversation with Pip Wallis Triennial conversations | Resonant nature Refik Anadol and Dr Tessa Laird in conversation with Simone LeAmon Triennial conversations | Nature as collaborator Talin Hazbar, Elliot Bastianon, Geoff Nees and Hannah Presley in conversation with Myf Doughty Triennial conversations | Oceans on the edge Professor Madeleine van Oppen, Pirjo Haikola and Alex Goad in conversation with Ewan McEoin Triennial conversations | Get real estate Jill Garner, Amy Muir and Michael Bleby in conversation with Ewan McEoin Triennial conversations | Future First Nations Megan Cope, Angela Tiatia and Hannah Presley in conversation with Myles Russell-Cook Triennial conversations | A Dark Horizon Dr. Edward Colless and Professor Larissa Hjorthin in conversation with Dr. Simon Maidment Triennial conversations | House Of Heroines Lara Schnitger in conversation with Pip Wallis Triennial conversations | Quantum memories Refik Anadol in conversation with Simone LeAmon Triennial conversations | Downtime Faye Toogood in conversation with Simone LeAmon Triennial conversations | Crystalline Erez Nevi Pana in conversation with Ewan McEoin Triennial profile | Glenda Nicholls Triennial profile | Diamond Stingily Triennial profile | Liam Young Triennial profile | JR Interview with William Badger Bates Triennial profile | Refik Anadol Triennial profile | Tomoaki Suzuki Triennial profile | Faye Toogood Triennial profile | Alicja Kwade Triennial profile | Fred Wilson Triennial profile | Porky Hefer Triennial profile | Kengo Kuma Installing JR’s Homily to Country NGV Triennial 2020 Preparing for NGV Triennial 2020 Celebrating contemporary art, design and architecture Bringing NGV Triennial 2020 to life Celebrating contemporary art, design and architecture