The design of the Gallery is defined by human scale and responds to the natural environment in which the building is sited, particularly Canberra’s unique natural light. For the exhibition, the team have created an installation centred on the actual table used to design the building from competition to completion.
Portrait of Johnson Pilton Walker,
Inside the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra,
25 Hours 31 minutes, 22-23 May 2009
by Ingvar Kenne
‘We wanted to convey the transformation of a space during a day and night and incorporate the portrait of each architect’ says Ingvar Kenne. ‘Each one of them was asked to turn up in the clothes they wanted to wear and where they appeared in the frame was dictated by the moment rather than being planned. We were excited having the opportunity to photograph them in the space they designed, knowing that these portraits would end up hanging inside the same space during the exhibition.’ These are the first commissioned portraits created in the National Portrait Gallery.