i’m currently suffering badly from a punishing hangover. except i don’t drink alcohol. so it’s just the result of punishing my body with an all-night raggahton/boombahton/dance-ahton, arriving home at 6:30 am. i haven’t had one of those for a while and, let’s face it, i’m not as young as i used to be. [although the girl i’m sharing a dorm with did the same and she’s still sleeping, so bully to her]
tomorrow will be the start of my ISEA2010 experience, so my wrap up of london is going to have to be brief. [sorry lucas, you’re wrong about me being thorough now].
so, pretending that i’m entering a competition on a cornflakes pack, here are most of the london galleries i saw in 25 words or less:
national gallery, 18C
discovered gainsborough’s late landscapes. beautiful active figures in the environment. also drank in chardin, vigee le-brun and the french rococco titillation.
tate britain: mike nelson’s coral reef
largely uninterested by banner’s planes – kids posing underneath them, repulsive. getting lost in nelson‘s labyrinth was thrilling: FPS game + inception -styles. redeemed orwell st.
MOT: ongoing program
i like this revolving project. good selection of works – especially brian’s twitter treatise on sculpture: daily tweets transcribed onto shutter door, transferred to a weekly poster.
chisenhale: 27 senses
nordic responses to kurt schwitter’s hütte. excellent theme, great space, nice works underpinned by drawing – humourous merzbau, interesting video about an exile and intriguing spatial projection.
whitechapel: alice neel, chapman bros, john latham
alice’s paintings were divine and the accompanying video accentuated them. chapmans’ story was good, etchings 7/10. john latham, new discovery – love his knowledge processes.
not that there’s a whole lot on in london right now – summer holidays has everyone shut. perhaps for the best, considering my short stay.
oh, and to add to that, i drank so much excellent coffee over those two days, that i was at once wired and embarassed for melbourne and its rapidly-declining scene. sorry.
images: major lazer from maddecent.com
s. mark gubb at concrete hermit. never laughed so hard at a gallery.