I went to this exhibition to relive my love of browsing a book of Escher’s work as a child but came out wowed by Nendo and their collaboration on this exhibition. To be honest I was feeling pretty cynical about the collaboration – draw people in with Escher and then Nendo is the bit you get ‘introduced’ to.

What I loved about the collaboration was that Nendo took Escher’s 2D explorations of reflections, infinity etc and then explored them in 3D. I also enjoyed how this was slowly revealed as I walked through the exhibition. First, I recognised that they were exploring the simple shape of a house in different ways. Then I realised that they were not just contributing works to the exhibition but that their work was the 3D exhibition design. The realisation of what was going on really fell into place as I watched the house motif they’d chosen for the exhibition hypnotically shifting and duplicating and twisting and turning in their video installation. Then I got to just enjoy what I thought of as the ‘infinity room’ and the ‘house-shaped’ corridor.

In some ways they were perhaps a little too effective in their exhibition design. Never a fan of the crowded block-buster exhibition where you move through the exhibition with people either jostling behind you or dallying in front of you, I found myself feeling a bit like I might be trapped in one of Escher’s drawings by the end. It is quite a long exhibition.

Visited: 18 Jan 2019

Book accompanying ‘Escher X Nendo’ exhibition, NGV