friendship

Actually, this post is mainly about a day out in London and Anthony Gormley. But its all down to friendship really.

It was a wonderful day primarily because it was spent with Betty, an old longstanding friend who is a source of strength and comfort partly - always - because of who she is, but also at the moment especially because her mother very recently died too. So, we particularly have a lot to share just now.

We arrived at London Bridge with few plans, and walked along the South Bank.

Past - or rather, through - a riot of street art






(more pics on flickr and to come).

And then, just because it was there, and we were there, we stopped off for the Anthony Gormley exhibition at the Hayward gallery.

A fabulous, really excellent exhibition - a mix of sculpture, installation, prints, drawings, photography.... and some toast.

To quote the tour guide:
"Taking the body as its point of departure, the exhibition is an invitation to embark on a journey through different kinds of space. It explores the ways in which we orient ourselves spatially, how we react when disoriented; how we relate to architecture and the built environment. It also probes into the imaginative and emotional space of our inner beings."

and twas true!

The title piece "Blind Light" is a very large (small room-sized) glass box full of cloud / water vapour, and brightly lit. Theres water underfoot and visibility down to only about an arms length. It was sort of like sensory deprivation, or rather being at the very top of a mountain in low cloud - it was a fabulous feeling (though to judge from the expressions of some people leaving the box, not everyone thought so). I found myself focussing in a different way on myself, my movement - on the voices of the people around me who i couldn't see. Encountering other people inside became quite an adventure - and there were interesting interreactions between those inside, and outside the box. Really disorienting, I usually have a good sense of direction but completely lost any sense of where I was - which i found quite liberating.

This is a scan of a postcard, no photos allowed of course.




and more pics here.

The responses and movements of people around the exhibition was a key part of the experience - the way we occupy spaces. There were lots of instances of people watching each other in, around, under, through the installations - sometimes eyeball to eyeball through little holes in walls.

Another high profile piece of the exhibition was "Event Horizon" - many londoners know about this because it consists of 31 figures - life-sized casts of the artist - placed on the tops of buildings across 1.5km of London, all facing the gallery. One of the best things about this one, of course, was that - being outside - we could take pictures.









And of course, part of the experience was seeing other people Gormley-spotting - pointing, taking pictures...

What a simple and brilliant idea - it is so effective. Looking across London and spotting another figure - and another, and another even further off - changed my perception of the landscape - and particularly the horizons - in ways which i find it hard to articulate. It gave a sense of being looked at - I think it made the city seem smaller, in a way - though some of the furthest figures were so tiny - but also, gave a sense of expanding horizons.

There are 3 Gormleys in the next picture (click to enlarge)


and i quite liked this picture of reflections and activities in an office across the road, including a reflected Gormley.





The exhibition was followed by lunch, a film and beer, but i've gone on long enough already.

A great day, thankyou Betty and looking forward to the next one.

what would we do without friends?