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Going South ...

Greg then took us on a bit of an adventure to deepest South London: Elephant and Castle, to view Roger Hiorn's Artangel Project, Seizure. I love Artangel projects for their sheer ambition and uncompromising commitment to the artists' vision. Seizure did not disappoint. We were all fairly tired when we reached the site: a derelict housing estate just off the New Kent Road. Bemusedly, we donned wellington boots and gloves as instructed before entering a disused ground-floor flat.

Neither images nor video can do justice to this installation - you really do have to be there. The artist has coated the entire interior of the space - walls, floors, ceilings, fixtures and fittings - with dazzling blue copper sulphate crystals.

On one level, this is such a simple intervention - resurfacing a found object (a favourite working method of Hiorn), and, of course, the apparent simplicity belies the technical challenges of making the space water-tight and filling it to the brim with a supersaturated copper sulphate solution - but the word which keeps popping into my head to describe the result is "spiritual" (this, from a hard-headed, logical/scientific type!). We were all struck by how hushed everybody became when they entered the rooms, and afterwards several of us commented on how refreshed we felt by the experience ... ready to face the rest of the day.

A programme of talks accompanies this project, including the artist Roger Hiorns in conversation with Michael Stanley at the Jerwood Space on Tuesday 14 October. Full details on the Artangel website.

Frank Gehry and Gerhard Richter at the Serpentine

We left the Dana Centre and met Greg Epps, who accompanied us as we walked up Gloucester Road and through Kensington Gardens to the Serpentine Gallery. Here, we enjoyed a relaxing lunch in the 2008 Gallery Pavillion, designed and engineered by Frank Gehry in collaboration with Arup.

"Gehry and his team took inspiration for this year’s Pavilion from a fascinating variety of sources including the elaborate wooden catapults designed by Leonardo da Vinci as well as the striped walls of summer beach huts. Part-amphitheatre, part-promenade, these seemingly random elements make a transformative place for reflection and relaxation by day, and discussion and performance by night."

Opinions of the structure were mixed. Some did not like the "blocky" appearance or the "cheap pine" look of the wood. Others loved the way the light came through in soft dappled stripes.

Carl Collins, CAD manager at Arup Associates (N.B. not the part of Arup associated with this project) said: "It reminds me of a flat-pack shed I once built ... I like it!"

After lunch, we had a quick look round the current exhibition in the gallery: Gerhard Richter's 4900 Colours: Version II

"4900 Colours comprises 196 square panels of 25 coloured squares that can be reconfigured in a number of variations, from one large-scale piece to multiple, smaller paintings. Richter has developed a new version especially for the Serpentine Gallery exhibition: 4900 Colours: Version II, formed of 49 paintings of 100 squares.

4900 Colours is in the context of Richter’s design for the south transept window of Cologne Cathedral, which replaced the stained glass that was destroyed in World War II. Cathedral Window, unveiled in August 2007, comprises 11,500 hand-blown squares of glass in 72 colours that are derived from the palette of the original medieval glazing."

Although I generally enjoy systems-based art, and appreciate the nerdiness of the grid, I felt that this particular use of a system was somehow a bit sterile - random for the sake of randomness, perhaps. They are nice and bright and colourful, however, and I imagine the cathedral window, which I haven't yet seen, looks splendid.

From Shoreditch to the Dana Centre, via the "Gherkin"

From Shoreditch, we took a brief detour to view 30 St Mary Axe, better known as the Gherkin. This building, described as "London's first environmentally progressive working environment", is a wonderful example of a collaboration between Foster & Partners (architect), Swiss Re (developer), Arup (structural engineer), Hilson Moran Partnership (building services) and many others.

(GNU licenced image from Wikimedia Commons)

We then boarded the tube and headed for the Science Museum's Dana Centre, where we met Professor Tim Molloy. Tim talked to us about the role of the Dana Centre as a forum for adults to learn about and discuss scientific issues in a relaxed environment. A heated discussion about scientists' apparent failure to effectively communicate ensued, proving that the Two Cultures debate is not yet entirely dead.



(image "borrowed" from Tony Blair's religious hobby site)

The Dana Centre will always be a bit of a special place for me as that is where I first heard about Ravensbourne, at the excellent 2006 Takeaway Festival of Do-It-Yourself Media.

(psssttt!!! Takeaway 2009 - Call for Work - Online submission open till November 28)

London-Nature collaboration

In the city of London there is a form of collaboration between man-made and natural environment. The combination of these two creates a balance and harmony in the urban living.
When this collaboration stops, nature might have the upper hand in the landscape.

Onwards to Shoreditch, via Liverpool Street

From Canary Wharf, we travelled to Shoreditch, where we had coffee at Shoreditch House: a private Members' club in the heart of Shoreditch, East London, which hosts several bars and dining rooms, together with a bowling alley, sauna and steam rooms, a gym, a games room and a rooftop heated open-air swimming pool.

Over coffee in the snug, with panoramic views over shoreditch, Giovanna Forte told us her inspirational life story, from secretarial student, through various PR activities, to how she came to be MD of Peezy - a company making female-friendly urine sampling devices. She also talked about the local area and how concerned local residents had set up the Save Shoreditch campaign to challenge the encroachment of the City into the vibrant, somewhat bohemian melting-pot that is Shoreditch today.


(public domain image of Shoreditch Town Hall from Wikimedia Commons)

Early Morning at Canary Wharf

6.40 am: On the train from Plumstead to Greenwich - About half of the passengers on the train are dressed in suits. The other half look like construction workers. There is not much conversation - people keep themselves to themselves. The men mostly read newspapers and the women, novels. Only the Polish, of whom there are quite a few, talk to each other.

7.50am: Outside Carluccio's at Canary Wharf - Share prices scroll past on the side of the building opposite. There are clocks every few feet along the pavement ... time is money ...People arrive in swarms with each incoming tube train. Nobody smiles. Women wear suits with trainers - their smart office shoes in bags, to be put on at the last minute. Only about half of the men are wearing ties ... dress-down Friday? Do they still do that?


8.10am: A few school-children join the throngs. A man filming at the top of the steps with a tripod is stopped for the third time by the police. Wearily showing his permission letter again, he films on.
The most cheerful person to be seen is a whistling street-cleaner in a bright red fleece.
A few people are carrying weekend cases and one or two have sets of golf-clubs. The weekend beckons. Nobody seems to look at the scrolling share prices. I try to work out which of the women are secretaries and receptionists: I have a theory that they are the ones with great big handbags.
Below the stairs, a string of people enter the building, each holding the door for the next in line. They smile at each other!


News comes through on the Reuters screen that the American bail-out deal has not yet been agreed. The scrolling share prices, previously a mixture of ups and downs, are now all resolutely down.

8.30am: People are still streaming through from the tube to the building, and a few very young men with oily hair and problem skin are wandering about with cardboard trays of coffees ... office juniors on the "bun run".