Eight thousand tennis balls will line the walls of the National Gallery of Victoria in a special, participatory exhibition by British artist David Shrigley, inviting visitors to swap their pre-loved tennis balls for fresh ones.
Shrigley’s Melbourne Tennis Ball Exchange installation will make its Australian debut in January 2024 as part of the free, late-night Triennial Extra program. The exchange will enable visitors to go beyond just observing and instead have an opportunity to contribute to the ever-evolving artwork. The display seeks to encourage participants to consider the joy that can be experienced through exchanging objects, even if the items are of equal value.
David Shrigley said the concept for the installation was initially inspired by his dog, who loves tennis balls. “Dogs and human beings have different relationships to objects. My dog will fight over a tennis ball at one moment and then be completely uninterested in it the next,” he said.
David Shrigley, Mayfair Tennis Ball Exchange, 2021. Courtesy David Shrigley and Stephen
Friedman Gallery, London and New York.
Image:
Max Newson
The installation has premiered in London in 2021 at Stephen Friedman Gallery under the name Mayfair Tennis Ball Exchange.
“When I first made the Tennis Ball Exchange in London I thought that people would bring in soiled tennis balls that their dogs had chewed and replace them with nice new ones. What most people actually did was create an artwork on a tennis ball which they then came and exchanged. So it became a sort of free-for-all open exhibition.”
The Melbourne Tennis Ball Exchange will feature at the NGV every evening until 11.00 pm from 19 to 28 January, coinciding with Melbourne’s much-loved international tennis tournament, the Australian Open.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
