Diary assignment + visit Hayward Gallery, British Art Show, in the days of the comet

Diary

Wednesday

16 February 2011

When I woke up this morning, the two small marbles staring at me in the mirror told me this was going to be a long day. My bike ride to the University took me very long although my watch didn’t tell me anything different than normal.

During the class in the morning the subject ‘diaries’ made me think of a specific work of the artist Sophie Calle, the break-up letter, an email her ex-boyfriend send her to break up their relationship. This letter was hanging on the toilet door in my previous flat in Amsterdam. Everyone who ever visited me and used the toilet, made a comment about this piece of writing. Was it my own??

To me it is as if Calle surrenders herself to the world outside her ad involves you in it. But once you are involved, you ask yourself, what to do with it? Hang it on the door of the toilet…? That was my reaction, to have the opportunity to read the same text over and over, to unravel the words.

Also I found a note on the doormat today (written by hand):

MISSING: HUGE

BLACK + WHITE CAT

please check your

gardens/sheds/garages/

houses

his name is SANCHEZ

and he is MASSIVE

we are really worried

--

Flat 2, 85 Downs Road

077818 006665

There is a magazine that exists out of found notes, called Found. It's interesting to see what people leave behind and how others interpret and categorize it. This particular note for me is about the feeling of missing (one of the worst feelings, especially when you wait for the other to come back.)

http://www.foundmagazine.com

Thursday

17 February 2011

Today I received an email from an artist friend who is going to participate in a land-art project in France. She has just decided what work she will be installing there: a reproduction of a Dutch garden of 5.6x8 meters, this is typically included in the design of the newly built houses in specific residential area’s called Vinex. By placing a fence of specific measurements in a farmer’s field where the horizon is the curve of the planet, she plays with the experience of the open space and the changing perspective on a garden.

Friday

18 February 2011

After waking up in the early morning, I hopped on my bike to work and with a cheerful mood I finished 5 hours later. I decided to go to the Hayward Gallery on the Southbank. It took me about 15 minutes to get there and with big expectations I entered the gallery.

These big expectations have developed after seeing the show in the Royal Academy of Arts. Since the Hayward and the Royal Academy have a similar subjects of their current exhibitions: British Art Show, In the Days of the Comet vs Modern British Sculpture, it made me expect a similar approach. But nothing is less true. As the overview of Modern British Sculpture is well presented in a chronological way, throughout the Victorian halls of the Royal Academy, so are the art works in the big open halls of the Hayward Gallery curated without any apparent structure.

I can imagine, that the curators of the Hayward Gallery had no wish to do a chronological show, but it doesn’t hurt to create some kind coherence in a space that isn’t the easiest to show art in. I got lost in this show and I didn’t feel like staying there for long. I even started questioning why I liked the works of artists I adored long before this exhibition. Instead of the presentation of the show being a complement to the work, it seemed to be the opposite.

And WHERE did that weird smell come from?

Saturday

19 February 2011

The morning showed me nothing but grey clouds and drops of rain, so today the bikes were staying inside and my boyfriend and I decided to take the bus, down to St. Pauls to make a visit to the Tate Modern’s collection. I realized that I had never taken a close look to the collection of the biggest museum in the UK.

Entering the museum we decided to go to the 5th floor, where we weren’t disappointed by the famous artists names and works. But when walking through the room filled with sculptures, we disliked the amount that made the giant space feel small. The explaining tags on the wall next to the works weren’t our favorite either, though the ‘background information’ tags were written quite different from the general ones, interesting and useful.

The high point of this visit for me was when we stepped into the Hoffmann Gallery. Three sculptures were installed of which two from Luciano Fabro, it felt like seeing an artwork for the first time again, it was inspiring, surprising and amazing. As if I hadn’t been walking around for half an hour seeing all these other works, but this to be the only purpose for my visit.

Maybe it was meant to be, since the name of this room was Hoffmann, only two letters away from being a part of my surname.

Sunday

20 February 2011

The Sunday is very different from all the other days in the week. For example the traffic, the Sunday traffic. Cars drive faster than usual, less careful and do not pay any attention to cyclists at all. This made the uphill bike ride to the highest part of London, Hampstead Heath, not the most fun. But it was rewarding, this foggy, gloomy day gave the hills a mystique feeling. It covered the view of London and I can imagine artists being inspired by this place, the sublime of the nature. This mystical feeling made me and my boyfriend talk about death and love, which are probably the two most used subjects in every form of art.

Caspar David Friedrich- Monk by Sea

Hampstead Heath – Sunday 20 February

Monday

21 February 2011

Monday, the first day of the week, but not the first Monday when I wake up saying the words ‘stupid Monday’. But, after getting up on time and having to be at the Chisenhale Gallery at 10:30 which is just 15 minutes by bike, instead of at Uni at 10:00 (23 min. by bike) I felt quite relaxed. The Chisenhale Gallery in East London is now showing works of Daniel Sinsel, but our visit didn’t have anything to do with his work, but with what the director had to say about the gallery to give us a broader idea of what type of institute the Chisenhale is.

From there I cycled to Uni because at 2pm my class would meet and discuss the new developments of the exhibition we are curating in April. I wonder if working with 11 people on one exhibition will end up the right way. I might propose to work in smaller groups to discuss subjects quicker and more thorough, afterwards we can discuss the outcome in a bigger group meeting.

After being a bit drained of this meeting, the bike was my friend for emptying my mind and taking me to the Hayward Gallery, again. This time with the whole class and we would discuss the exhibition after viewing it. Funnily enough, there were more people with the same opinion about the exhibition as mine, what I wrote down on Friday. Others noticed even the weird smell.

Tuesday

22 February 2011

Today I have been working, all day. From 11 a.m. when my bike and me arrived in Soho until 10:30 p.m. when I left the same place called Humus Bros.