Recently in Art Category

I took last week off and spent it slumming around London, so you now get two art reviews for the price of one. And when i say 'art', I mean of course playing in odd playgrounds for adults.

The most talked about of course is Test Site, the enormous slide in the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern. Only five? They should have filled that thing with slides! The queuing system was very oddly handled. We rocked up at midday to get a ticket for 5.00. But once we'd gone down at five, there were huge gaps where it wasn't being used. So clearly they are misappropriating times- I'm sure if they tripled the amount of slides and just let it be a free-for-all it'd be a lot more fun. Anyway, it's a big slide. Like a waterslide but drier and bumpier. I wanted to take my cameraphone down with me to capture the experience, but I didn't and Londonist has a great collection anyway.

More interesting to me was Bridge, an charming little art project that has received very little attention in the press that I can tell, but I really recommend. Essentially, the artist (Michael, who was there and happy to chat about the project/wade about in the water with you) has filled an old abandoned church with water, and installed these odd footsteps- they are like round pads (stepping-stones, really), and when you step on the first one, your weight causes the next one to 'rise up' out of the water, allowing you to take the next step, which brings up the next one, allowing you to slowly walk out into the centre of the water. It's purely mechanical and Michael's intention is to one day install it permanently in a lake somewhere (although he did say that it was slowly breaking down, even in the church).

It was by turns frightening and contemplative, which was more emotion than most art conjures in me. It's out of the way at the foot of Southwark Park, but I highly recommend you check it out while it's still open.

Performance artist Mark McGowan plans to leave six taps running for a year at secret London locations as a protest against private control of water in the UK.

Last year McGowan left a tap running in a south London gallery, but bowed to pressure to turn it off after a month. That stunt used 800,000 litres of water, and angered many Thames Water customers and gallery visitors - some of whom turned off the tap themselves.

This time he intends to keep the taps running at secret London addresses, sending an estimated 100 million litres down the drain.

"I understand we are in a drought. But I am an artist so I'm not actually wasting water for nothing."

McGowan: you're not an artist, you're a cunt. Slapping an art sticker on something does not automatically endow it with value. I've just been told that Thames Water intends to reduce the water pressure in my area. If the water pressure on my shower goes any lower, it's going to start sucking water back up the pipes. If your retarded stunt is even fractionally responsible for making my shower even worse than it was already, I fucking hate you. No, forget that, I already fucking hate you. This protest is like protesting the Iraq war by going around gunning down babies. Yes, Thames Water should get its house in order and start spending some of its vast profits on fixing major water leaks before they start reducing the water pressure I pay them for. They're fuckwads. But you don't protest a fuckwad by acting exactly like the fuckwad in question.

I've got a better idea for a stunt: Chain yourself to the bottom of an empty swimming pool. Start a faucet at the top of the pool. Time plus tragedy will surely equal comedy.

So I went and checked out the new installation at the fantastic Turbine Hall, under the Tate Modern. It's called 'Embankment', by Rachel Whitehead. It's not much to look at from the outside, but once you're actually inside the thing, it's a lot more fun. There are lots of nooks and crannies to explore, and a million different angles to view it from. Not as cool at The Weather Project, but definitely worth popping into if you're in the area.

We also popped into the gallery proper, and I have to say the current selection was not as inspired as it has been on previous visits. But it's a lot of fun to read the ludicrously pretentious title cards that tell you what the work is supposedly about. You could barely write a more perfect parody if you tried.

Have you ever heard of a guy named Gustav Vigeland? Yeah, I'd never heard of him, either. This is a great shame, because he's one of the most interesting artists I've yet to encounter. Monet and Turner get mega-installations at the National gallery while this guy wallows in relative (I must stress that's it's only relative, presumably everyone in Norway knows of him) obscurity.

One of the (many) advantages of being, well, me, is that I seem to gravitate, through accident or unconcious design, towards extremely talented people, particularly in the creative arena. Most of my friends have exceptional gifts, be they manifest in music, poetry, art, photography, web design, modelling, writing, cinematography, animation or comedy [and a few of the bastards are just good at bloody everything they put thier mind to].

One of the disadvantages of this is that, on occasion, you can feel a bit overwhelmed and inadequate when surrounded by such talent. That's okay though- it forces you to lift your game up and get going, which is a good thing. It's daunting, yet inspiring.

One such of these occasions was last Thursday, when I went to opening of the art installation that a friend of mine, Nicky Deeley, has been slaving over for the last year or so. Although- it's more than a simply art installation. Nicky has completely transformed an entire bar using her own unique asthetic.

Little details lurk in every corner. A flock of crows from one piece sits on a power line above the bar. An oilcan in the staircase can be found in the corner of one of the paintings. It's not a series of disparate works- it's almost as though you're inside a single cohesive artwork, which manifests itself in many different ways, all around you. It's brilliant.

These photos (and there's more on flickr and at the squidbunny) simply don't do justice to being in the bar and soaking up the atmosphere. And no still picture can prepare you for the moving tentacles!

So if you're in the Old Street area looking for somewhere to meet for a drink, you could definitely do far worse than to head over to Dreambagsjaguarshoes, 32 Kingsland Road. I recommend it.