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post 10 Sustainable Approach to Design
RCA exhibition 2017 The Architecture and Interior Design programmes of the Royal College of Art had ventured out from their premises in Kensington Gore to a disaffected fire station in Vauxhall where it staged its end of the year exhibition. The large hall suited the exhibition installation made of blond wood for the stage and […]
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post 9 Collective pursuit of the universal
Individuals vs collectives In our hyper-individualist times it is sobering to revisit the world of creative artists and their collective pursuit of the ‘universal’ a hundred years ago. No doubt the horrors of the first world war and its destruction of the ‘normal’ had a role to play (see also post 7 about Paul Nash). […]
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post 8 Innovative Performance – Innovative Space
It was well worthwhile wondering out in the dark, the cold and the damp to this chaotic area in the making, adjacent to refurbished railway stations in central London to see a Shakespeare play. There were two innovative features of Shakespeare’s Henry IV at the King’s Cross theatre: first an all female cast https://www.kingscrosstheatre.com/whats-on/shakespeare-trilogy second […]
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John Nash at Tate Britain, October 2016-March2017 (p7)
Wars How lucky we are, I mean those who lived through the ‘trente glorieuses’, those who were spared world wars, at least during their years of consciousness. It tends to be also those who endorse the European Union despite all its faults, simply because Europeans have refrained from using arms against each other – contrary […]
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Arts Post 6 RA 2013 Summer Exhibition
It has been going on for 245 years. If nothing else the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition (RA) has staying power. A treat is to see the exhibitions in bright daylight. This was emphasised by the main room which was obscured in preparation of acorporate party and where the paintings, usually the most prestigious ones, looked […]
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Dissent
Not all is well in the (alp-)rose garden? In the midst of wealth and dynamic urban change a group of artists are manifesting their disquiet, or more urgently their angst about what extreme wealth is inflicting on those without access to any of it. Their work expresses how over-confidence is affecting those who do not […]
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Light – Magic – Life
Light is magic. The popular success of the Light Show at the Hayward Gallery is living proof of that. http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/venues/hayward-gallery One could spend hours just watching how spectators – from very young to very old – interact with the various ways artists are manipulating light, creating illusions, curiosity and unforeseen reactions. Light has always been […]
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Money and Music
Festivals, ‘a must’ for cities Festivals have become almost ‘a must’ for cities in their competition for attention and position on global city rank orders. The ‘City of London Festival’ has completed its first half century of existence last year and has established itself firmly as a prominent city festival. (City of London Festival 2013m […]
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Orbit: Signs of our Times
New Landmark Anish Kapoor has built a viewing tower with ten times the amount of steel than the roof of the Olympic velodrome next door. It consists of 2000 tons of new steel out of the ArcelorMittal owned factories, while the adjacent stadium was built with recycled gas pipes. Kapoor’s is an empty gesture, neither […]
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Art in the City
Two Artists – two visions of cities ‘The Gerhard Richter Panorama’ at the Tate Modern www.tate.org.uk/modern/ and Grayson Perry’s ‘The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman’ at the British Museum www.britishmuseum.org offered two mind-stretching experiences to start the year. What is striking in both artists is their extraordinary craftsmanship, the scaffold of their vivid imagination, and […]