I spent a day in London on Saturday – the 21st March in glorious sunshine, with great company and saw some fantastic art. The day started in Elephant and Castle where I used to live and work. I wanted to see the redevelopment. I found recently plans for the Heygate Estate I photocopied in Southwark Archives around 15–20 years ago. We had breakfast in Cafe House Restaurant, a classic on the Walworth Road.
Archive images: plans for the Heygate Estate in Elephant and Castle from Southwark archives.
Cafe House Restaurant
The day included eight exhibitions at five galleries. The exhibitions were: Nigerian Modernism at Tate Modern; Tracey Emin: a Second Life at Tate Modern; Yin Xiuzhen: Heart to Heart at the Hayward Gallery; Chiharu Shiota: Threads of Life at the Hayward Gallery; Tetsumi Kudo: Microcosms at Hauser & Wirth; Takesada Matsutami: Shifting Boundaries at Hauser & Wirth; Seth Price: Redistribution 2026–2007, Sadie Coles HQ and David Hockney: A Year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts about Painting, Serpentine North Gallery.
Threads of Life by Chiharu Shiota at the Hayward Gallery
David Hockney ‘A Year in Normandie’ at the Serpentine.
Of them all, my current favourite is the Hockney show. A glorious panorama describing a year in the life and work of the artist in France. The concept reminded me of Oliver Grau’s work in Virtual Art (2003). Grau argues the idea of immersion and illusion goes back to painted illusion spaces and in particular the panorama from the 18th century. According to Grau these spaces create illusion in a similar way to the technology available today with which the user can experience interactivity (pp. 4–5).
Agenda