Escher x nendo at National Gallery of Victoria

Last week I finally started my 2019 Adventure Days. 

What are my Adventure Days? 

Each week I spend one day exploring somewhere or some thing in my home town Melbourne. 

So last week I took myself off to the National Gallery of Victoria to view the Escher x nendo exhibition. We have had some really hot and humid days in Melbourne lately, but wouldn't you know it as soon as I got off the train we got a huge downpour. I knew it wouldn't take long to pass, so I just hung out on Flinders St. Station for a while. 

The seagulls were up bright and early having a bath

The moat at the front of the NGV was getting a clean out.

 Maurits Cornelius Escher or MCE as he signed his work was born in 1898 to a prosperous family in the Netherlands and in1972 at the age of 73. He was a graphic artist who produced some amazing mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs and mezzotints. After training and working in Italy for a number of years his departure from Rome prompted him to shift focus away from the external world to his inner, imaginary world. He began using his refined skills to produce ingenious and complex optical illusions, tessellations and impossible realities. 

M C Escher created this self portrait of himself sitting in his living room

Japanese design studio nendo has created and immersive environment for more than 160 prints and drawings of Escher's work. Nendo is a design studio founded in 2002 by Oki Sato, one of the worlds most well-known and prolific designers. Based in Tokyo and Milan, nendo (meaning clay in Japanese) designs graphics, products, furniture and interiors that seek to surprise people in subtle and playful ways. 

While walking through this piece of art I got an amazing sense of 

peacefulness, even though there were quite a few people. 

The optical illusion of this tunnel was deceiving 

as it looked long but was quite short. 

Interesting small piece of art

Dragon : 1952 

Print of a wood engraving depicting a folded paper dragon sitting on a pile of crystals.

 I love the detail in this piece. 

Bond of Union : 1956

Inspired by the novel Invisible Man by H G Wells. 

The floating spheres of Escher and his wife Jetta enhance the suggestion of infinite space.

Plane Filling 11 : 1957

The more you look at this piece the more you see.

Belvedere : 1958

In Belvedere, we perceive a two story building that could not possibly exist in the

 real world because the orientation of the second floor contradicts that of the first floor. 

I have been intrigued by Esther's work for many years. Back in the 90's I bought a diary that featured Escher's works and they just intrigued me. 

Ascending and Descending : 1960

A closer look at the staircase in Ascending and Descending. 

Does the staircase go up or down?

 Does it go anywhere. 

The way Escher played with perspective and impossibilities is just amazing. No matter how many times you look at a piece of his art, each time you notice some other quirky portion. 

Snakes : 1969

This piece depicts a disc made up of interlocking circles that grow progressively 

smaller towards the centre and towards the edge. 

I really love the detail in this piece of art. 

Seeing I hadn't had breakie, by the time I had finished at the 

NGV I was pretty hungry. So it was a big bowl of 

Won Ton Noodle Soup for Davine.