“The Tennis Ball Exchange was initially inspired by my dog. She 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. 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.”
— David Shrigley
Melbourne Tennis Ball Exchange is a centrepiece of the NGV’s (National Gallery of Victoria’s) late-night Triennial EXTRA festival, which unfolds over 10 nights featuring live performance, DJ sets, artist pop-up talks, conversations and other creative activations in response to the works in the exhibition.
Visitors to Melbourne Tennis Ball Exchange have the opportunity to contribute to this ever-changing artwork by exchanging a pre-loved tennis ball for one of over 8,000 new ones lining the walls of the installation. Shrigley hopes that visitors can consider the joy that can be experienced through trading everyday goods, even when the goods are of equal value.
A previous presentation of this work Mayfair Tennis Ball Exchange premiered in London in 2021 at Stephen Friedman Gallery and saw thousands of people engage with the work over three months.
This large-scale and evolving installation at the NGV is making its Australian premiere and is presented as part of the free, late-night Triennial EXTRA program.
In the NGV Triennial exhibition Shrigley also presents Really Good, 2016 a monumental seven metre high ‘thumbs-up’ sculpture at the entrance to the NGV. Originally conceived for the Fourth Plinth Commission in London’s Trafalgar Square, the sculpture is characteristic of the self-conscious irony often found in Shrigley’s work and is intended as both a satirical and sincere gesture.
19–28 January 2024
Open late until 11pm nightly
Introducing the Artist Advice Bureau