On at the NGV Aust & International respectively, entry on one ticket to both.
Jeff Wall's large-scale photos - most finalised and exhibited as transparencies in light boxes, to be lit from behind - were a mixed bag for me. A few were quite striking, either for their pictorial flair (the last two in the exhibition, "A sudden gust of wind (after Hokusai)", 1993 and "Coastal motifs", 1989, in particular) or for the successful way they metaphorise (or literalise) their subjects' psychological interiority ("A woman and her doctor", 1980-1; "After 'Invisible Man' by Ralph Ellison, the Prologue", 1999-2000), but most simply didn't leave much of an impression.
Thomas Demand combines media - he creates paper and cardboard sculpture and then photographs or videos them - in a manner that seems holistic. Scenes like "Copyshop" and "Bathroom" take on an unfamiliar air when constructed, in a way that is oddly undetailed yet wholly familiar, and then preserved via colour print; also notable is his "Rain" video, the raindrops created again using paper.
Jeff Wall's large-scale photos - most finalised and exhibited as transparencies in light boxes, to be lit from behind - were a mixed bag for me. A few were quite striking, either for their pictorial flair (the last two in the exhibition, "A sudden gust of wind (after Hokusai)", 1993 and "Coastal motifs", 1989, in particular) or for the successful way they metaphorise (or literalise) their subjects' psychological interiority ("A woman and her doctor", 1980-1; "After 'Invisible Man' by Ralph Ellison, the Prologue", 1999-2000), but most simply didn't leave much of an impression.
Thomas Demand combines media - he creates paper and cardboard sculpture and then photographs or videos them - in a manner that seems holistic. Scenes like "Copyshop" and "Bathroom" take on an unfamiliar air when constructed, in a way that is oddly undetailed yet wholly familiar, and then preserved via colour print; also notable is his "Rain" video, the raindrops created again using paper.
