Between Escher & Nendo
The master of optical illusion meets one of the leading contemporary design studios at the National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne) for an incredible unique exhibition: Escher X nendo | Between Two Worlds.
One is the master of hypnotic works, the other one is acclaimed for the design aesthetics brought to the contemporary design world, both are geniuses using their brains to create either a hypothetic or a very real world. National Gallery of Victoria’s ambitious exhibition showcases more than 150 of Escher’s woodcuts and sketches and commissioned Oki Sato and his team to produce large-scale rooms and installations to celebrate the Dutch’s master.
The famous works like the Drawing Hands; Day & Night; Relativity are of course present in Melbourne while the Japanese studio worked on immersive spaces focusing on the illusion of perspective. The complex drawings are opposed to pure, so Nendo-like, lines and spaces.
The House in perspective space displays Escher’s works in a simple manner. But looking closer, the rods merge together and form a house.
In the Zooming House, a corridor between two rooms recalls Escher’s obsession with illusion. The pathway shrinks from four-metre to a tiny 55 centimetres.
‘Escher’s logical, math-based ideas and interests have inspired nendo’s work process and served as a base for the creation of this exhibition design and new collection of works. The different installations vary in scale and in spatial impact, enabling the visitor to experience Escher’s world in a very physical way. It’s as if they are walking inside Escher’s mind, but seeing the exhibition through their own eyes,’ said Oki Sato, Chief Designer and Founder, nendo.
Escher X nendo | Between Two Worlds will be on display from 2 December 2018 – 7 April 2019 at NGV International, 180 St Kilda Road, Melbourne, Australia.
Pictures courtesy of Sean Fennessy and Akihiro Yoshida.
