Andy Warhol | Ai Weiwei Exhibition and Studio Cats for Kids at NGV
Little Miss and I are still on a high from the media preview this morning of the Andy Warhol | Ai Weiwei exhibition and the Studio Cats installation for kids which opens tomorrow Friday 11th of December. Here's our review of both installations!
Andy Warhol | Ai Weiwei Main Exhibition
An amazing exhibition which ticks all the boxes starting with the towering 1,500 bikes in the Federation Court of the NGV International by Ai Wei Wei titled Forever Bicycles and over 300 works by both artists including major new commissions, immersive installations and a wide representation of painting, sculpture, film, photography, publishing and social media.
The main exhibition features key art pieces from Andy Warhol's collection like his famous Campbell's Soup cans.
Another impressive installation from Ai Weiwei is a large bed of thousands of delicate white porcelain flowers titled Blossom.
Little Miss' favourite part of the main exhibition was Ai Weiwei's Caonima and Bird Balloons floating away in the corridors of the exhibition based on Andy Warhol’s Silver Clouds from 1966.
Amongst the artwork are political pieces from Ai Weiwei such as the 20 Chairs From the Qing Dynasty.
Flowers project is another great piece from Ai Weiwei where Ai placed a fresh bunch of flowers daily into a basket of a bicycle situated outside his Beijing studio for two years as a symbol of his travel restrictions overseas by the Chinese government. The photos were taken via CCTV cameras and then uploaded to social media feeds each day until Ai was allowed to travel again outside of China in July 2015.
Ai Weiwei's art was a definite favourite for us in the main exhibition but we preferred Andy Warhol's cat artwork, iconic works and influence in the kids' installation.
Studio Cats - Andy Warhol | Ai Weiwei for Kids
The NGV has done it again with the free kids' installation Studio Cats which is a continuation of the main Andy Warhol | Ai Weiwei's exhibition. The space is split into two showing the artists' love for cats, the left side dedicated to Andy Warhol's and the right side dedicated to Ai Weiwei.
The Andy Warhol side features key cat artworks Warhol drew for his mother's books and unique photographs of himself interacting with his cats. It also features photo booths covered with Fish Wallpaper from 1986. Little ones can pose for selfies and create a video which they can send home via email inspired by Warhol's silkscreen portraits of celebrities.
Toddlers can have fun stacking up Brillo Soap Pads and Heinz Tomato Ketchup boxes in a little space inspired by Warhol’s early 1960s sculptures of packaging box.
On the Ai Weiwei side, a cat wallpaper is the background of the multimedia space where children can create their own cat tributes sitting on cat tailed chairs.
Children can generate cat memes using clever captions using Ai Weiwei's cat images.
Little Miss loved climbing up the steps of the amphitheatre overlooking the central screen which features clips of cats.
Her favourite place in the installation was the little theatre showing videos of cats filmed at Ai's studio in Beijing especially laying on the fluffy ottomans!
We highly recommend the Andy Warhol | Ai Weiwei main exhibition and especially the kids' installation Studio Cats. This will definitely be a favourite place for us to relax in when popping into the city over the holidays.
Andy Warhol | Ai Weiwei opens Friday 11th of December until Sunday 24th April at the NGV International on St Kilda Rd. Entry fees applies to the main exhibition however the kids' installation is FREE.
For more information, head to our information recap of these exhibitions here or visit the NGV's website.