On the 16th of February senior students from Art (AME) and Design (VCD) subjects attended the NGV Triennial Exhibition, featuring a wide range of contemporary artists from all over the world! They enjoyed the range of art from robots to interactive play; here are some of their responses.

Jordan, Year 11:

The NGV was an eye-opening experience. To see all the different forms of art clumped together into a single building for every person to enjoy; the different techniques that each artist uses, and the backstories of each singular artwork. Each artwork was its own experience.

As for the things I learned? Cultural identity and history can play a huge role in art and what you present to the audience. For example, one exhibit featured depictions of soldiers with guns terrorising people which was drawn on a sort of fabric-based material. The child who made this drew upon his experience and history with these men and used his emotions and memories to create a work that spoke more than it showed. The same thing applies to Farrokh Madhavi’s artwork labelled “Untitled”. It depicted a man shaving off various parts of his face as if he was in a panic to find his real face under all the cream. This depiction is relevant to his midlife crisis in trying to figure out who he really was under all those layers. Art has a way of drawing people’s experiences and emotions out.

And the artworks I enjoyed? There was one exhibit quite close to the entrance that Was very interesting. It features 3 robots that do various different things in the space they are provided. They paint, move objects, walk around and sometimes sit and observe someone as if they were saying “Look how different this one looks from that one and that one." They were a joy to observe. The future of robotics is looking bright.

Zoey, Year 11

Attending the Triennial exhibition was such a great privilege, being able to witness and take in all the interesting art and the unique architecture of the NGV. I learnt the many different aspects that go into displaying an artwork, and the many roles and people it takes to display a piece. It takes a community to be able to share your talents, culture and identity, truly a crucial part. I never realised the smallest detail was planned out with such precision like the eye catching piece that you were able to notice as you walked in the exhibition, in this case the one that caught my attention was from Farrokh Mahdavi, which was a series of portraits covered in thick layer of pink paint and realistic flesh tones.

I thoroughly enjoyed the different techniques on how we can find different perspectives to an art piece and all the various displays that truly shows how different creativity and artistry can be for anyone.

One of my favourite rooms was in fact the kids room. It was refreshing from all the deep symbolic art pieces that required a lot of mental gymnastics to comprehend. The objective was clear, we had to ‘pick up trash from the ocean’ and chuck them into cute little fish-shaped ‘bins’, there were also fish costumes that we were able to wear and roam this fun colourful area. Yes, 16 year old teenagers, dressed up as fish and holding silly buckets were having more fun than the children themselves, however, this won’t let me bother me for now.

Amber, Year 11

The triennial exhibit was an eye-opening experience that gave a range of perspectives of ‘art’. The first room we entered was almost a jump scare, the whole room being filled with distorted faces, a man shaving, with canvases on the floor that we walked on. In this room, I learnt about how much detail goes into planning a room that seems to just have artwork placed everywhere. I learnt about the different roles that are necessary for an exhibit to run. This was when I learnt that even the placement of the artwork on the wall needed two or three people to collaborate to get to the final result. This room was the most imprinting on my brain and now encourages me to think outside of the box.