In the galleries: Experimenta: Recharge, Iwasaki, Amber Stones and Green

Takahiro Iwasaki: Reflection Model.

EXPERIMENTA: RECHARGE

With a contemporary art landscape largely defined by its multiplicity of genres and technologies, you can't help but wonder about the enduring relevance of a technology-based arts biennale such as Experimenta, now in its eighth edition. What to make of an event that showcases video, light, kinetic sculpture, sound and other technology-centric works when they are already part of today's wider art lexicon? That said, good art is good art and while there are a few too many works that fail to transcend their tech-centricity, there are plenty that subtly broach the exhibition's thematic bearings of reinterpreting history through technology's lens. Khaled Sabsabi's vast 3D, 100-channel video installation composed of 70,000 layered photographs is an immersive and spectacular deconstruction of place, politics and propaganda, where Berlin-based group Korinsky's sound and sculptural installation pulses with droning energy and physicality. A sound and strobe light installation by Stuart McFarlane, Darren Verhagen and Toby Brodel, meanwhile, transforms and animates a simple wire sculptural object into a dynamic, ever-changing form.

Until February 21; RMIT Gallery, 344 Swanston Street, city, 9925 1717, rmit.edu.au/rmitgallery

Hope: Kate Just's communally knitted banner.

TAKAHIRO IWASAKI: REFLECTION MODEL (ITSUKUSHIMA)

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While one can't ignore the fastidious detail imbedded in Japanese artist Takahiro Iwasaki's prodigious architectural model of the sacred Itsukushima Shrine off the coast of Hiroshima, his series of sculptures created as a commission for the NGV resonate for their almost surreal optical and spatial effect. Suspended by wires attached to the ceiling, the vast wooden models not only quote the meticulous structural and architectural detail of the UNESCO World Heritage Site and its famed "floating" Torii gate, but physically mimic the reflections created by the water that surrounds the actual site. It's a simple but remarkably powerful device. Iwasaki's levitating sculptures use fastidious realism to recreate a perceptual conceit that is the divine work of both architecture and nature.

Until April 6; NGV International, 180 St Kilda Road, city, 8662 1555, ngv.vic.gov.au

Khaled Sabi: Experimenta.

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In the galleries: Experimenta: Recharge, Iwasaki, Amber Stones and Green