Two days ago was my last day in Canada after four years of studying to get my Bachelor's degree I am returning home to Europe. Thanks to a generous family I also get to finish my University life with a bang, so to say. I will have the chance to visit two beautiful cities, that I haven't yet seen and many major art events and museums/galleries.
I think it is needless to say this but I will regardless. This travel blog will not be a traditional travel blog. I've done my research in what such a bog would look like and what information should go in but since this is more about the art and things I saw, I believe it will turn out to be a reflection of my thoughts and interests. I have no intention to continue this blog after I will finish my 12 days of travel but I will leave it up for anyone who is curious or wants to revisit it. On a a side note, pardon my English, I have noticed the closer my return to Europe came, the more I started to think and speak in my mother language without even noticing it. Hence, the grammar and spelling part of my English might be a little wonky. Off we go then...
Days 1 and 2
(June 30 - July 1)
Sadly I have nothing much to add in these two days. Anyone who has traveled overseas has an idea how hectic long flights and travels can be. The short version of it goes like this: I left in the afternoon of June the 30th, my flight to London went through Vancouver but thankfully the layover wasn't excruciatingly long. I must admit, the 8:45 minute flight to London I was not looking forward to, especially after my last night flight that left me feeling more like a zombie than human for days. I did my best to catch some sleep and be ready to hit the ground running once I land in London at 11 am the next morning. I lost quite a lot of hours traveling opposite of the time zones but the excitement and a few hours of sleep on the plane kept me going. Finding my accommodations was easy enough, the room I had booked was in a great location in South London, an area called Camberwell. It took me a while to drag my two massive bags from the train station to the house I was staying in and by the time I settled in and went grocery shopping there wasn't much time left to anything else. I was ready to meet up with old friends and visit Tate Modern the very next day.
Day 3 - July 2 - Tate Modern
A few words about Camberwell, it is a lovely suburb area that has a lot to offer - pubs, restaurants, parks, little shops and meeting spots everywhere, even a modern library was just a few meters from the central park. Everything is easy to find and public transport to city center goes so often you will have to wait hardly any time at all at any day of the week. This place also has its own little funky treasures and oddities, for example, I saw a building that housed both a church and a pub (separate entrances, of course). Peculiar.
It was a Sunday so I met up with a dear friend that I had not seen for years. He lives and works in London now and I missed his personality a lot. We met in my first year of University, he was an exchange student at the U of S, also a huge art lover and my local guide for the first day. We went for a breakfast at the Lumberjack cafe, it was great but the name of the place fascinated a lot. I don't know if he picked it for the sole purpose of me just arriving from Canada or because the food was great. I will never know, I guess... After breakfast we were ready to explore all that the gallery/museum life offered us. We caught a bus (yes, one of those fancy two floor red buses) to downtown. London is full of life, it is one of those cities that never stops going at all times of day. However, it does have this dark brick and smog aesthetic to it. The first time I saw it the industrial revolution, smoking chimneys and muddy streets came alive before my eyes. I know it was my imagination but, to me, it appeared as if the British Empire was still very much alive in this city. The houses built in times of the fast wealth and expansion of maritime business and the distinct air of hierarchy reminded me that for locals, it is all very much still alive. My friend confirmed a lot about my suspicions in our conversations about living in London. Funny thing though, most of the population seemed to consist of ethnicity other than European.
A few tips for those who wish to visit the Tate Modern:
a) The museum is free except for the special exhibitions that are quite expensive. Find a friend that has a membership to take you there for free, like I did.
b) You will need all day to see everything.
c) Be patient with all the people mulling around, it is a popular place.
d) Tate now has a new expanded and there are exhibition rooms to see in the basement.
The first thing I saw in Tate was the Turbine Hall. It is an impressive room, for a while any person just needs to sit and take it in by themselves, let alone the art work that can be found in the building. I must confess I was a little disappointed that I did not find anything in the Hall at first. There were some people mulling around but that was about it. Like many things in life, I will attribute this to me being blonde, it just took me a bit longer that the art piece in the Turbine Hall was not visible but I could hear it! It was Bruce Nauman's Raw Material, an audio installation that consisted of 21 unrelated recordings. From the bridges crossing the Turbine Hall they sound just like any chatter in a crowded space. I recall thinking that it was just that - people in the room making the noise - I did not stop to think that the amount of people could not physically make that much noise. How did I not know about this installation? I did not do any research beforehand on the contents at the Tate, I left that as a surprise element to myself. In the photos below, you can see the speakers installed on the sides of the room. There are not just randomly placed. Except from standing directly in the middle between a pair of speakers, it is just a chatter. This all created a ghost like feeling, you strain to hear the conversations but cannot make out the words. It is like dozens of people are having conversations right next to you, except you cannot see them. They are ghosts. Or you are intruding in hushed conversations other guests are having. Only when standing exactly in the middle between two speakers, one conversation becomes clear and you can hear it as if it was happening right next to you. But if you listened only by one speaker, you would hear just half of the conversation. This installation is as complex as it is simple. I don't know a lot of audio work that could create that kind of level of participation and curiosity in the public.
One of the first things I did notice about the Turbine Hall was the remnants of the Doris Salcedo's Shibboleth. Like a scar it was still there, always present. It is another work that makes me think a lot about my own art practice and why I do what I do. You can hear her talk about it in this video.
Now that I had finally figured out the mystery of the Turbine Hall, it was time to move on. I spent the entire day in Tate Modern and almost got kicked out. There are smaller galleries that hold a specifically themed artwork, like Between Object and Architecture or Living Cities and other such galleries. They were collections of many different works from various artists. Some I had never heard about, others are so well known anyone would know them, or at least recognize their work. There is great deal of art represented from all around the world. I only selected a few to very shortly describe what caught my attention and what held it.
I must admit I am biased when it comes to these works. Almost all of them are related to my research I begun a while back now. It is like my brain is on a constant lookout for a new information to process and file away for later.
John Hearfield was a German artist that used photomontage as one of his main tool to depict political deception. His works were displayed in Media Networks gallery. Aside from the very provoking subject matter anyone on this planet would recognize, and what drew me in at first, his works are extremely well done and quite courageous. He worked for a communist party in Germany and published these before the World War II had started. He used the propaganda material published by Hitler Germany and used the visual information against the leader. Each one of those photomontages have multiple layers that can be pulled back and examined. Definitely a work I will return to to juxtapose them with the Soviet artists and their propaganda and anti-propaganda work.
Yayoi Kusama - The Passing Winter - I liked this work just because of its joyful interaction and the mystery of how it works. On the right hand side photo below you can start to see the colorful inside of the mirrored cube. It is like an infinite wonderland that is affected by the colors from the outside that are carried in through all the other holes in the glass you are not looking through.
I am primarily more interested in conceptual work so I won't be spending much time on works like these.
