THE NATIONAL Gallery of Australia is, naturally enough, in a state of excitement with news that the installation from this year’s Venice Biennale by Australian artist Fiona Hall will open in Canberra during April next year.

Denton Corker Marshall’s fabulous new Australian Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale attracted extraordinary international attention when it opened in May and Hall was commissioned to be the first artist to represent Australia in the new building, with her exhibition “Wrong Way Time,” curated by Linda Michael, a show now seen by over 250,000 people.

Australia’s representation at the Venice Biennale began in 1954, and since then 36 contemporary visual artists have exhibited under the Australian banner, including our own Rosalie Gascoigne.

In “Wrong Way Time,” the artist brings together hundreds of disparate elements which find alignments and create tensions around three intersecting concerns: global politics, world finances and the environment.

Hall, beloved of arty Canberrans for her Fern Garden at the NGA and for her rhapsodic sardine can installations, “Paradisus Terrestris,” has said of her work, ‘The world is such an amazing place, yet sadly we are living in troubled times and that sense is reflected in a lot of the works, as suggested by the title.’

She declared herself, “really very happy to have this exhibition, created for the Venice Biennale, travel to Canberra and hopefully seen by many people from around the country.”