Somerset House 4

Now for a quick dash through some of the exhibits as my penultimate post about this fantasmagorical exhibition! Come on – keep up!

First up, Full Spectrum:  Australia’s Celebration of gay marriage being accepted by law

I liked the way the rainbow lights shone out of the darkness in such a playful way – metaphorically beautiful.

Next a room to make you giddy with exotic scents and mesmerizing patterns

from  Hong Kong, Sensorial Estates: lift the lids and inhale deeply! Heady stuff!

And now a quick trip to Guatamala. This exhibit really deserves more time – click on the link to discover more and see much better photos. Such a great project.

Closer to home: Dundee and Shpeel

Each button on the black box, when pressed created a different light effect on the wall and different sounds. It was fun to play with these and feel like a conductor of light and sound. I played for some time here and  it got even better when I was joined by a group of students – I got a tiny teeny titchy sense of what it must be like to be Jean Michel Jarre! Ha!

 

Lastly, for this post, kaleidoscopic doodles from Saudi Arabia – blurred because they were constantly moving. Oh how I would love to be able to do this with my mandala doodles.

It makes me feel charged with electricity just thinking about it! A mandala doodle as a kaleidoscopic mirrored wall – oh my goodness wouldn’t that be trippy!

Gosh I have to stop now and go off into my mandala-doodle-filled fantasy – I might be lost all day!

Click on the links to discover more about each exhibit.

See you soon with my last post about the London Design Biennial at Somerset House.

Somerset House 3: Latvia

 

 

I loved this exhibit and sat on the bench for some time as if sitting in a forest after rain. The green was soothing. Watching people quietly drawing in the condensation, watching their drawings fade …. time takes on a different quality in the presence of transient art.

We like to make our mark, carve initials in trees, create spray-can graffiti, but we are transient. Non – attachment is a concept in Buddhism and other philosophies eg Hinduism, Taoism. Practising non-attachment to things, people, events and non-attachment to outcome has guided me through some difficult times. It has helped me to stay centred and whole, true to myself and maintain a loving detachment from the actions of others.

Creating transient art like flower mandalas and labyrinths on the beach has a profound effect, bringing me into the Now at the same time as connecting me with time and space outside the everyday.

The spiral with a 5 pointed star, a heart and an exclamation mark is the symbol I sign next to my name or intial on cards, letters, paintings, being able to place my handprint next to this symbol was fun.

Sitting and watching it fade felt good, merging into all the drawings that had been made before.

As I sat there (do you see my fading symbol to the left of my handprint) others came and drew around and over other drawings…. and then this happened – I don’t read music – can anyone tell what tune it is? Just Beautiful!

Just before I left, not being able to write music, I made a tree.

 

Somerset House 2

In one corner of the courtyard there was Turkey’s contribution to the London Design Biennial exhibition, a cube made of white rods embedded with lights. You can read a description/explanation here. It is called ‘Home’, but I did not find any resonance with the title or the explanation. I did enjoy it though, it must have looked wonderful at night. The best bit was watching how others interacted with the space. There were some gorgeous romantic photographs being taken of girlfriends, couples and family groups, who all seemed to glow within this white space.

It got me thinking how wonderful it would be to have an exhibition of spaces/settings that would be perfect for photographic portraits. For instance, Rachel Whiteread’s sculptures would be perfect.

Click on any photo to see it larger

There was an exhibit ‘Kiss in Budapest’. The idea was that a person would enter from either end and kiss in the middle – outside the booth their picture would be displayed againt the backdrop of live webcam photos of places in Budapest. Fun idea.

Inside Somerset House room after room was filled with interactive exhibits.

This one from Qatar

I could only get a faint floral whiff from a couple of the domes, maybe I needed to be taller, but I did like the shape of the carpet.

On to Germany’s exhibit of recycled household items

I loved this standard lamp made of bottle tops, maybe I’ll try a table lamp one day.

Made from Beach Clean too – win-win!

Here are a couple of  links if you would like to read more about the Exhibition

Kiss in Budapest FB page.

‘Culture Trip’

Somerset House FB Page

Somerset House on Instagram

 

Somerset House 1

Last Friday I went to London to stay with Son number 2 and his family, but first a bit of art at Somerset House where they are holding the London Design Biennial

‘Emotional States’

40 countries participated

In the courtyard there were several pieces of interactive art/sculpture – my favourite type of art.

Greece provided a wobbly walkway that was entitled (click on the title to see the description)

ΑΝΥΠΑΚΟΗ

My own experience of it emphasized that every step we take has an impact.

As you entered the sides expanded and opened up, with a creaky sound, each step made the next section open up for you, each step felt a bit wobbly

so you had to think about keeping your balance. It was made of recycled plastic.

A whole body experience has an impact on all the senses – every step I take makes a difference …  to something, or somebody.

If I know it in my body, I know it forever.

There was so much to see and interact with in the whole exhibition, and as you can imagine I took hundreds of photos. It is taking me a while to process the photos and the feelings that each exhibit evoked …… more to come.