William Blake
There's something about religious imagery and, if you like, mythology that has captured my imagination for as long as I can remember, certainly going back to primary school days, and while that's waned over the years (as my tastes have moved more in an intellectual, artistic and humanistic direction), this exhibition of a large number of pieces from the NGV's collection of his - often fragile - works reminded me of that old sense of wonder. (The relief etching - 'illuminated printing' - technique that he apparently invented is impressive.)
That was particularly the case for the watercolours for the Divine Comedy, depicting Dante and Virgil's journey through the circles of Hell and then on through Purgatory and Paradise, many done in pen and watercolour over pencil, and with a strong air of the fantastic - and, of course, the very finely detailed engravings depicting the Book of Job, interwoven with Blake's own personal and seemingly rather spiritualistic mythology.
But actually my favourites were the tiny pages (leaves) from his Songs of Innocence - green ink, finished in watercolour, words and images finely matched (and, it must be said, at times reminding me of Edward Gorey).
Wang Gongxin
Three large-scale 2010 video installations. The first one that I walked into, "Relating - it's all about Ya", was my favourite - nine large panels ('channels') showing a series of projections, scored by related sounds, hung around a large room and in such a way that it's not possible to see all of them at once as the images cascade across the screens (leaves and branches in the wind, bellies wobbling, close-ups of clothing). The others were less striking - "Basic colour", give screens with close-ups of parts of the body on which coloured pigment gradually drizzles, and "The dinner table", an installed table tilted at an angle from the surface of which the crockery, food, etc gradually slides.
There's something about religious imagery and, if you like, mythology that has captured my imagination for as long as I can remember, certainly going back to primary school days, and while that's waned over the years (as my tastes have moved more in an intellectual, artistic and humanistic direction), this exhibition of a large number of pieces from the NGV's collection of his - often fragile - works reminded me of that old sense of wonder. (The relief etching - 'illuminated printing' - technique that he apparently invented is impressive.)
That was particularly the case for the watercolours for the Divine Comedy, depicting Dante and Virgil's journey through the circles of Hell and then on through Purgatory and Paradise, many done in pen and watercolour over pencil, and with a strong air of the fantastic - and, of course, the very finely detailed engravings depicting the Book of Job, interwoven with Blake's own personal and seemingly rather spiritualistic mythology.
But actually my favourites were the tiny pages (leaves) from his Songs of Innocence - green ink, finished in watercolour, words and images finely matched (and, it must be said, at times reminding me of Edward Gorey).
Wang Gongxin
Three large-scale 2010 video installations. The first one that I walked into, "Relating - it's all about Ya", was my favourite - nine large panels ('channels') showing a series of projections, scored by related sounds, hung around a large room and in such a way that it's not possible to see all of them at once as the images cascade across the screens (leaves and branches in the wind, bellies wobbling, close-ups of clothing). The others were less striking - "Basic colour", give screens with close-ups of parts of the body on which coloured pigment gradually drizzles, and "The dinner table", an installed table tilted at an angle from the surface of which the crockery, food, etc gradually slides.
