Tram Town
Monday, January 05, 2004
| Category: Art We visited the increasingly inappropriately named National Gallery of Victoria - International in StKilda Road today. Much of it was "Closed for Engineering Tests" and I had to spend a little time to find out what that meant. A security guard, appropriately intent on not letting us through into the closed space, said he was not allowed to say what "Engineering Tests" were taking place but they might be able to tell me at the "Information Desk" (lots of quotes here because I am truly not sure that the words in quotes have their usual meanings). At the "Information Desk". I asked about the "Engineering Tests" and was told that it couldn't be plainer, engineering tests were taking place. "Engineering Tests" seemed to tell me everything and nothing so I continued, is it that parts of the new refurbishment are still not completed? She hesitated and then abruptly said something to the effect that the glass ceilings were being tested. I wondered why the signs didn't just read "Temporarily Closed". She said people like to have a reason for the closure. My best interpretation of "Engineering Tests" following my acquisition of "Information" is that things are falling out of the newly constructed ceiling. You don't get a lot for $168mill these days. On the 12th of June (last year), Arts Minister Mary Delahunty (who was, incidentally, a terrific news reader) informed us that the NGV would have "a total of 18,500 square metres of exhibition space, more than double the original space". On the Major Projects web site, this: "redevelopment began in 1997 and will increase exhibition space by 25 per cent", but they say it is only a $160mill spend. Perhaps the state government managed through some magic to throw an extra $8mill (that might have gone to our supposedly beleaguered hospitals) into the kick and created TARDIS-like space. It makes no never-you-mind anyway because it's closed... for "Engineering Tests". Just in case it matters, Blue Poles: Number 11, 1952 is big, there's still a bloody lot of crockery about the joint, and Picasso's magnificent Weeping Woman (not this one, or this one, maybe they all wept when they saw his pictures) looks none-the-worse for its holiday at Spencer Street (if you do go to that link you must scroll down to the B. A. Santamaria quote). Oh, and the Magritte next to it would have been worth the visit on its own. But $168mill is a lot to spend to drop a few arts about for folk to have a perve when the precursor seemed to do the job admirably. UPDATE: My intuition was correct... in The Age, this ironic observation: Also closed is a multi-media survey of the career of Italian architect and designer Mario Bellini, the principal architect for the building's $168 million redevelopment.And in the Hun, less detail but more to the point as would be expected. |
