Yesterday, the colonnade at the National Gallery, 11am. Much of the scaffolding and all of the canvas that had been installed here last year has been removed. A finely detailed plywood hoarding remains on the north wall.
The visit yesterday was a brief survey of temporary shows. The photos here are shown in the order taken, and can be viewed at a larger scale by clicking or double-clicking on them.
As part of an exhibition for the 2018 Sobey Art Award short list, the contemporary galleries present works by Indigenous artists including Joi T Arcand, Janeen Frei Njootli and Jordan Bennett. The image above shows a work by Arcand on the end wall. An ice fishing shack that is part of the installation by Jordan Bennett is on the right.
The contemporary galleries also feature a group show titled ‘Anthropocene’. This exhibit highlights environmental issues. The artists here are Edward Burtynsky, Jennifer Baichwal and Nicolas De Pencier. The three images below are from this show.
Anthropocene has several hi-tech interpretive components which are referred to in promotional literature as ‘augmented reality (AR) installations’. For a number of these, visitors borrow ipads that are enabled so that a a simple physical ‘stand-in’ representative element in the gallery appears as something else on the ipad. In one case, a medium sized box in the middle of a room has muted photographs of a pile of elephant tusks printed on it – on the ipad, what is viewed live, is a large pile of tusks in high definition and full colour. Basically on the ipad, you view and walk around something in real time that is not there.
A detail from a photo by Edward Burtynsky that is part of the Anthropocene Exhibit.
The three images above, and the series below are part of the Sobey Art Award exhibit. For Jeneen Frei Njootli, above, the gallery interpretive material notes that the artist’s ‘practice engages her cultural foundations as a member of the self-governing Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation, along with Western art history and contemporary production.’ Apparently, the double leaning steel plates ‘Wind sucked in through bared teeth highlights a dialogue between Indigenous and Western artistic methodologies.’
As per the gallery notes above – the entrance to the installation by Jordan Bennett is through an ice fishing shack. The main room for the piece is dimly lit, with some accent lighting on key elements, and a large corner projection of sky and clouds. The young boy, who is on the right in the last photo of the installation space above, asked aloud – Is this real?! For some, or many, this would be a relaxed, smile-worthy space.
The images here are from a small exhibit of sketches by Moshe Safdie that date from the time when the National Gallery’s design development was underway. The exhibit also includes some explanatory text about the project and design.
The current feature exhibition at the National Gallery is a Paul Klee retrospective. The exhibit includes seventy-five drawings, watercolours and oils by the Swiss artist. This is the Berggruen Collection from the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The three images above, are details from the work.
Yesterday, the colonnade at the National Gallery, 1pm
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