Museums
Not that many years ago museums
used to be stuffy old places that were filled with a whole load of inanimate
objects and everyone in them - visitors
and staff alike - spoke in hushed tones , that is if they spoke at all. All the world’s most beautiful and rare
items were on display here in these magnificent and stately buildings – well not
quite all were displayed - as anything remotely to do with explicit sex was not
on public view but was hidden away in the basement rooms and ordinary members
of the public didn’t even know that they existed.
The V & A in London was the
first to initiate change, only in a small way to start with in a newly opened
restaurant tucked away in the corner of a gallery and a resident musician
playing classical music to a slightly bemused audience. We have come a long way since then thank
goodness and now even the most formal of our national museums have a whole host
of entertaining and/or educating presentations to add to the usual range of
ancient historical and artistic objects on show. In some places even a few of the more
explicitly sexual bits and pieces have been taken out of the closet and put on
display and as well as museums almost every major city nowadays also has it’s own purpose built Arts Centre, offering a whole range of artistic and
performance facilities.
Centres for Art
Provided
by The City of London Corporation as part of its contribution to the cultural
life of London and the nation, The
Barbican Centre , which opened in 1982 is the largest multi-arts and
conference venue in Europe, presenting a
year-round programme of art, music, film and theatre. Under one roof are a concert hall, two
theatres, three cinemas, two art galleries, a conservatory and public library,
as well as three restaurants, private function rooms, conference suites and two exhibition halls. Altogether this superb venue presents an
unparalleled variety of performing and visual arts of world class calibre:
classical and contemporary concerts, theatre, opera, dance, folk weekends, jazz
and world music series, first release films and cinema seasons, painting, photography,
sculpture, and applied arts and crafts. The main exhibition gallery is of
particular interest, from where the
exceptionally well qualified and multi talented team of curators have over the years
hosted some ground breaking exhibitions. But these unique exhibitions are not just
about pictures , drawings and sculptures.
An intimate relationship
Re- designed by the architects Stanton Williams to exploit
the height and space of this impressive gallery space, it also conveys it’s
meaning via all the senses. Moving
images flicker from above on to the walls at different levels , sounds from hidden speakers increase the feeling of seduction, while
soft lighting and sometimes total darkness all add to the overall
enjoyment.
The Surreal
House at the Barbican – part 1.
THE SURREAL HOUSE which ran throughout the summer months of 2010 was
one such event , an incredible showcase which
also included a whole programme of special events designed to complement the exhibition itself . Late night openings and after hours events
throughout the duration of the show
included live music , sexy cocktails, erotic readings and lively debates, all
rounded off with a rather naughty show which included burlesque and nudity. The show itself used an imaginary house to
create an amazing fusion of art, film and
photography to explore the relationship
between surrealism and architecture, bringing together more than 170 works from
around the world – a priceless collection which included the iconic art of Salvador
Dali , Louise Bourgeois , Frances Bacon, Rene Magritte , Edward Hopper and many
other well known masters of this genre.
Installation art is a medium that
is perhaps ideally suited to the surreal movement. I have seen some strange examples of this style
on my travels over the years , some large, some small - from one end of the
scale thousands of completely naked people laying on the ground with their bums
in the air on the University campus in Mexico City waiting to have a picture taken
by the American photographer Spencer Tunnick, to the other - tiny
scraps of material displayed on a board about ten inches square using the
artist’s snot to stick them together .
But there was one piece of installation art in the Surreal Exhibition
which was without doubt the best I have ever seen anywhere.
Metal Fucking Rats
Interestingly entitled Metal Fucking Rats, at first sight this
exhibit seemed to be just an inert pile of old scrap metal lying on the gallery
floor, but when at regular intervals
some kind of timing device kicked in, with
a whirl and a grind the whole thing sprang to life. As the
assorted cogs , rods and other strangely
shaped parts slowly gathered speed a small projector on the floor behind it
beamed a brilliant light through the now moving assembly of old ironwork to
fall on the white painted gallery wall in front of it.
The flickering light , just like an
old fashioned black and white silent movie produced an incredibly realistic
image of a pair of very human looking rats- one large male the other a slightly
smaller female - having sex while they
both looked back directly at their viewing audience.
This sensational piece of exhibitionist/voyeurism
was created by the London based artistic duo Noble plus Webster - why not check them out to see if it’s showing
anywhere else.
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