As I mentioned in my last post, I spent last weekend looking at more arty stuff. It started in Trafalgar Square on Saturday morning to see my friend Myk Reeve posing on the fourth plinth as part of Antony Gormley's One and Other. He was the fifth of six people that I've met to appear on there, which is pretty amazing when you consider both the number of people to apply and the number of people who took part1.
Myk put on a pretty fun show, with a suitcase full of clothes bought on his worldly travels, and plenty of placards with anecdotes explaining where they'd come from and why he'd bought them. One of the local pigeon-hawks also paid a visit to the plinth which was quite cool, so look out for that if you're watching the video. You might even spot me somewhere, too.
Popped into Orbital Comics for a quick look at Steven Cook's photographs of comics industry people, which was much more fun than I was expecting, although it's not very big. In fact, after giggling my way around the small selection I was quite disappointed that it wasn't bigger, because most of the pictures were great — especially the ones that date back to the 80s and 90s. The hair! The clothes! The hair! Mostly the hair. Go take a look, if you're in the area, if only to see Dave Gibbons with a mullet — it's on until October 17th.
Then on to The Design Museum. I'd recommend you go and see Super Contemporary, except it finished on Sunday, so you can't, but it was very interesting. (Lots of pics on Flickr, though.) Actually, it was a bit of an overload, being absolutely stuffed full of information and the sounds of various different videos blaring out everywhere, so it was quite a relief to head upstairs for the Mariscal exhibition, which somehow felt more soothing, even though it too was packed with lots of stuff on the walls. The overall shapes and colours were bigger, brighter and bolder, though, which was quite uplifting and energising. It's on until November 1st, and I recommend going on a dull grey day; it will really cheer you up.
If you can, you should also try to make it to the exhibition of Jan Kaplicky's architectural models for Future Systems, which are currently on display. Some of them are quite bonkers (and at least one of them looks like a sex toy, but we won't dwell on that), but fans of retrofuture stylings and the interior design of films like Stanley Kubrick's 2001 will enjoy it.
After a brief sojourn for tea in Bermondsey, it was off to Hackney to find the Drawing Room to see "an exhibition of a film of a book that never was". Ostensibly a display of imagery taken from Alejandro Jodorowsky's never-made adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune, my main reason for going was to see some of the original production designs by Moebius. Sadly, the only Moebius works on display were some photocopied pages of an untranslated article in Métal Hurlant, featuring tiny reproductions of the artwork, so that was disappointing. The rest of the small exhibition wasn't really my cup of tea, as I've never been much of a fan of Chris Foss or HR Giger and there were only two or three prints by either, which were unlikely to make me change my mind2. I did quite like the paintings by Vidya Gastaldon, which reminded me a bit of William Blake's work, but the rest of the stuff didn't have anything to do with Jodorowsky, or even Dune itself, so it didn't really feel like it had been worth the trek3.
However, just across across the canal we randomly and unexpectedly discovered yet another exhibition, which was a bit of a surprise, given the location. One edge of an insalubrious and neglected housing estate has almost entirely been given over to huge photographic portraits peering out where windows once were, for a project called I Am Here.
click on the pictures to see larger versions
It's quite a touching exhibition, featuring what presumably must be (and in fact are) locals, in their own locale, but it's depressing, too, as it also highlights all the empty flats, and it draws attention to the state of the other windows which are all in great need of repair. In another block, all the windows are simply covered with bright orange metal boards, or else blocked up with breeze blocks. One can't help but wonder what the locals really make of it all, especially as the bright orange slabs are hard to ignore and make a constant reminder that the estate is unloved (although they are more attractive than the breeze blocks, which you can see in the top right corner of the picture).
Finished the day off with a walk along the canal, which inevitably offered up a constant exhibition of street art and different architecture. I got quite excited to find a piece by Neck Face, a long long way from his regular stamping ground of New York City. We popped into The Narrow Boat for a drink, where I was surprised to find parts of The Beano pasted on the toilet tiles. Comics really do get everywhere, don't they?
Also spotted a grey wagtail bobbing about the canalside opposite the pub (identified in a bird book when I got home), which I found quite exciting because I'd never seen one before. Even though they're named "grey" they'd be better named "yellow" as they have a bright yellow stomach and chest (except of course then they'd be confused with yellow wagtails, which are even more yellow). They're very pretty and fun to watch — as well as bobbing in the water, it also hovered like a hummingbird at times.
1The others are Isabella, Mike TD, Hazel and Alasdair. I couldn't find Nick, because there's no actual search facility on the website unless you know exactly what date they were on, which is completely useless. FAIL.
2There's actually much more imagery at Unseen Dune which is much more interesting, including the designs by Moebius.
3As disappointing as the exhibition may have been, it was delightful to browse through Google Reader a couple of days later and see this gorgeous Dune piece on Paul Pope's blog. Not just because of the synchronicity, but because it reminded me how much I love Pope's spacescapes. I'd not been paying much attention to him lately, because his superhero stuff kind of bores me, but now I feel the urge to dig out THB for a reread….
