We all file in, in single file, at our allotted time. To be stalled by the Gallery shuffle on entering the first chamber of the Nendo design studio’s articulated presentation of Escher’s work at the National Gallery of Victoria.

The first couple of galleries are cramped and by the end of the day hopefully the air is not too rancid. Single file is a difficult and slow way to view intricate work.

After shuffling shoulder to shoulder you enter the great house space of black and white patterns softened by the music of Bach.

Many houses

The familiar house shapes are fun to explore Escher.

Many houses

The knockout for me was the delightful and delicate hanging house that dominates the space with a gentle glow. This installation captures the spirit of Escher in three dimensions-Visually intricate, with a hidden image, fine lined, repetitive pattern-the simple made complex through repetition, movement and light.

The Escher work is so familiar. The strength of the show is seeing the work to correct scale and not on the pages of a book. My other observation was his interest in focus and blurring an area of the image, not just playing with pattern, depth, light and dark and metamorphosis. He truly explored visual perception of the two dimensional plane

A link to a short montage of the visit here

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