NGV Triennial

The NGV Triennial is an international exhibition of over 100 contemporary artists and designers from 32 countries that opened in mid-December 2017. It showcases works in different media across cultures, scales, geographies and perspectives throughout all four levels of the NGV International.

Ebony and I went this morning to check out the exhibition before it got too crowded. These were my main highlights out of the many different pieces we saw. On the ground floor was the large sculpture installation Eternity-Buddha in Nirvana.... by Chinese artist Xu Zhen, which combined replicas of Buddhist and Greco-Roman, Renaissance and Neoclassical sculptures.

American artist Pae White's (Untitled) installation used paint and acrylic cord in different colors to create three-dimensional shapes that ran across the room and from the floor to the ceiling. As you moved around the space you got a different perspective on each piece. The room was slightly disorienting and I worried that I might accidentally bump into one of the pieces.

Another cool and interactive room was the immersive digital installation Moving creates vortices and vortices create movement by the Japanese art collective teamLab. As people moved around the room sensors created a continuum of digital particles on the floor. Therefore, the faster you moved, the stronger the vortex or flow became.

One of the most popular pieces in the exhibition is Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama's Flower obsession. Created as a little apartment, each attendee is given a red flower sticker to place anywhere in the various rooms as you walk through. Over time, all the surfaces will become covered in red flowers.

Upstairs on Level 1 is one of the most creative fashion collections I've had the pleasure of seeing in person. Chinese fashion designer Guo Pei's spring-summer 2017 couture collection Legend was inspired by the Cathedral of Saint Gall in Switzerland. The pieces are ornate and beautiful, and you can also watch footage of the fashion show to see how the garments move.

One of the most confronting works in the Triennial is Australian artist Ron Mueck's Mass, which is located on Level 2 within the historical collection galleries. The piece is comprised of 100 large-scale sculptures of human skulls that are mainly piled up in one half of the room. It reminds you of the Paris catacombs as well as genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda and other places.

The NGV Triennial is free and runs until 15 April 2018. Definitely make an effort to check it out if you are in Melbourne.