Just before Christmas I went to Union Chapel in Islington to see the Tindersticks play a low key show. It was the third time I was seeing them after previously seeing them at the Royal Albert Hall and the Barbican.
Their set was largely made up of the new album ‘The Hungry Saw’ which has some beautiful moments, especially the closer ‘The Turns We Took’. They also played a few older songs (‘Her’, ‘The Not Knowing’, ‘She’s Gone’, ‘Sleepy Song’, ‘Buried Bones’). They also threw in a cover of ‘Kathleen’ by Townes Van Zandt. Stuart mentioned how he had seen Townes play the Union Chapel some time ago. They didn’t have a string section as such, just occasional cello and violin (just as much as the new album requires). Seeing them in full orchestral mode is brilliant but tonight was suitably trimmed down for the smaller venue.
As usual Union Chapel looked great, the coloured lights being projected on to the stage, the tea lights around the balcony, the beautiful striking Gothic arches, the large stained glass window, the two Christmas trees at either side of the chapel…I could go on…
Thursday 18 December 2008
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer at the Barbican
On Sunday morning I went along to see the exhibition at the Barbican Curve gallery by Mexican artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. This is the eight site specific installation it has hosted but this was my first visit.
His work 'Frequency and Volume' is an interactive pieces featuring 48 radios, which can all be tuned to different channels simultaneously. As you begin to walk through the gallery powerful lights project your shadow on to the opposing large curved wall. By changing your position you influence the frequency that the radios are tuned to. This is then broadcast at loud volume throughout the room. The frequency is also projected on to the wall, occasionally along with the name of the station.
It was fairly quiet while I was there (sometimes I was the only person there), although I still occasionally could hear frequencies being generated from the movements of others further down the curve.
I managed to pick up the following stations/frequencies: 'Meteor Burst Data' (click here to find out what this is), 'Bus Despatch', air traffic control, emergency services, BBC Radio 1 and Classic FM.
I thought it was another great interactive exhibition overall (after seeing Cildo Meireles only days earlier). The conflicting and seemingly random frequencies can be quite funny, pirate radio stations and distorted static, occasionally being interupted by fragments of a popular song being played by some commercial radio station.
His work 'Frequency and Volume' is an interactive pieces featuring 48 radios, which can all be tuned to different channels simultaneously. As you begin to walk through the gallery powerful lights project your shadow on to the opposing large curved wall. By changing your position you influence the frequency that the radios are tuned to. This is then broadcast at loud volume throughout the room. The frequency is also projected on to the wall, occasionally along with the name of the station.
It was fairly quiet while I was there (sometimes I was the only person there), although I still occasionally could hear frequencies being generated from the movements of others further down the curve.
I managed to pick up the following stations/frequencies: 'Meteor Burst Data' (click here to find out what this is), 'Bus Despatch', air traffic control, emergency services, BBC Radio 1 and Classic FM.
I thought it was another great interactive exhibition overall (after seeing Cildo Meireles only days earlier). The conflicting and seemingly random frequencies can be quite funny, pirate radio stations and distorted static, occasionally being interupted by fragments of a popular song being played by some commercial radio station.
Cildo Meireles at Tate Modern
Earlier this month I went along to Tate Modern to see the exhibition by Brazilian artist Cildo Meireles.
It proved to be a wide-ranging, interactive delight, with all rooms containing large scale installations which were in turns thought-provoking, ingenious or aesthetically beautiful.
There was an emphasis on the tactile throughout, a lot of the rooms encouraging participation or requiring you to feel your way through. As you work you way through the various rooms it becomes clear that Meireles succeeds in invoking some pretty big ideas and concepts; morality, history, conscience and spirituality are some that I picked out.
The exhibition really gets going in Room 2. In particular the piece ‘Mission/Missions (How to Build Cathedrals)’ is quite striking – comprising 600,000 1 penny coins on the floor being joined to 2000 bones at the ceiling by 800 small communion papers. It is quite a unique comment on the impact of colonialism on indigenous societies. More can be found on this on the Tate’s mini-site.
His piece‘Glovetrotter’ juxtaposes everyday familiarity with an alien lunar quality, various items hiding under a silver fabric mesh.
The piece ‘Red Shift’ was one of the exhibition highlights for me – a regular domestic room with one key difference in that all items are red. There are some brilliant details – you can open the fridge or wardrobe to find a further array of red objects. A spillage of red paint leads to you a side-room, which is completely dark. Towards the back you see what appears to be a sink…as you edge towards it you see it has a tap which is running…with red coloured water.
‘Fontes’ is a disorientating thrill – a small room full of identical black and white clocks and oversized tape measures and plastic numbers scattered around the floor.
‘Babel’ was another highlight for me – a huge shrine-like installation of analogue radios, stretching from the floor to the ceiling. The dark room is lit by the small coloured lights emanating from the radios. Each radio is quietly tuned to a different wavelength. It is a beautiful experience, in some ways similar to the Rachel Whitehead piece shown earlier this year at the Hayward Gallery as part of the ‘Psycho Buildings’ exhibition.
The exhibition ends with ‘Volatile’ a ‘U’ shaped dimly-lit room which requires you to remove your footwear and walk through 8 inches of white talcum powder, inviting you on a small personal journey before you reach a small, flickering candle. I have read some mixed reviews since but I thought it was just beautiful – a simple room full of visual and sensual minimalism.
A triumphant combination of artistic beauty, humour, ambition and far-reaching ideas.
It proved to be a wide-ranging, interactive delight, with all rooms containing large scale installations which were in turns thought-provoking, ingenious or aesthetically beautiful.
There was an emphasis on the tactile throughout, a lot of the rooms encouraging participation or requiring you to feel your way through. As you work you way through the various rooms it becomes clear that Meireles succeeds in invoking some pretty big ideas and concepts; morality, history, conscience and spirituality are some that I picked out.
The exhibition really gets going in Room 2. In particular the piece ‘Mission/Missions (How to Build Cathedrals)’ is quite striking – comprising 600,000 1 penny coins on the floor being joined to 2000 bones at the ceiling by 800 small communion papers. It is quite a unique comment on the impact of colonialism on indigenous societies. More can be found on this on the Tate’s mini-site.
His piece‘Glovetrotter’ juxtaposes everyday familiarity with an alien lunar quality, various items hiding under a silver fabric mesh.
The piece ‘Red Shift’ was one of the exhibition highlights for me – a regular domestic room with one key difference in that all items are red. There are some brilliant details – you can open the fridge or wardrobe to find a further array of red objects. A spillage of red paint leads to you a side-room, which is completely dark. Towards the back you see what appears to be a sink…as you edge towards it you see it has a tap which is running…with red coloured water.
‘Fontes’ is a disorientating thrill – a small room full of identical black and white clocks and oversized tape measures and plastic numbers scattered around the floor.
‘Babel’ was another highlight for me – a huge shrine-like installation of analogue radios, stretching from the floor to the ceiling. The dark room is lit by the small coloured lights emanating from the radios. Each radio is quietly tuned to a different wavelength. It is a beautiful experience, in some ways similar to the Rachel Whitehead piece shown earlier this year at the Hayward Gallery as part of the ‘Psycho Buildings’ exhibition.
The exhibition ends with ‘Volatile’ a ‘U’ shaped dimly-lit room which requires you to remove your footwear and walk through 8 inches of white talcum powder, inviting you on a small personal journey before you reach a small, flickering candle. I have read some mixed reviews since but I thought it was just beautiful – a simple room full of visual and sensual minimalism.
A triumphant combination of artistic beauty, humour, ambition and far-reaching ideas.
Thursday 11 December 2008
Ensemble Intercontemporain at Royal Festival Hall
I picked up a late ticket to go to see the final concert in the Messiaen festival on the South Bank last night (on the centenary of Messiaen’s birth). It featured two relatively less well known pieces by Messiaen – ‘Couleurs de la cite celeste’ & ‘Sept Haiku’ and finished with ‘Sur Incises’ a piece by the evening’s conductor, Pierre Boulez.
The Messiaen pieces were relatively short pieces, both registering at the upper end of the musical scale, full of fast, dynamic high notes and featuring the striking virtuosic piano embellishments performed by Pierre-Laurent Aimard. The first piece especially picked up on the birdsong themes present in a lot of Messiaen’s work and also touched on the issue of synthasesia. It was quite unusual to see the RFH stage with so few performers – the Ensemble Intercontemporain being a lot smaller than the kind of orchestra that usually plays the RFH.
‘Sur Incises’ resulted in the stage being even more sparsely populated – 3 pianos, 3 harps and 3 percussionists combining to create a complex, slightly minimal sounding piece – not as loud or raucous as I had expected, given what I had read online and had been mentioned in the pre-concert talk. This had taken place in the St Paul’s Pavilion room and featured Gillian Moore, the South Bank’s Head Of Contemporary Culture talking about the series and concert. Some of her comments struck a note with me – especially how educational the year-long Messiaen festival had been. I didn’t know too much about him at the start of the year, but now know a lot about his life, music and passions. A great example of how the South Bank can really inspire and educate with it’s out-reaching and ambitious programming.
I was sat up in the balcony, three rows from the back on the left hand side. The view was great, you can really appreciate the full scale of the hall from up there. It had been a while since I had been to the RFH but this concert really reminded me of what a great venue it is and made me start thinking about booking tickets for more concerts in 2009.
The Messiaen pieces were relatively short pieces, both registering at the upper end of the musical scale, full of fast, dynamic high notes and featuring the striking virtuosic piano embellishments performed by Pierre-Laurent Aimard. The first piece especially picked up on the birdsong themes present in a lot of Messiaen’s work and also touched on the issue of synthasesia. It was quite unusual to see the RFH stage with so few performers – the Ensemble Intercontemporain being a lot smaller than the kind of orchestra that usually plays the RFH.
‘Sur Incises’ resulted in the stage being even more sparsely populated – 3 pianos, 3 harps and 3 percussionists combining to create a complex, slightly minimal sounding piece – not as loud or raucous as I had expected, given what I had read online and had been mentioned in the pre-concert talk. This had taken place in the St Paul’s Pavilion room and featured Gillian Moore, the South Bank’s Head Of Contemporary Culture talking about the series and concert. Some of her comments struck a note with me – especially how educational the year-long Messiaen festival had been. I didn’t know too much about him at the start of the year, but now know a lot about his life, music and passions. A great example of how the South Bank can really inspire and educate with it’s out-reaching and ambitious programming.
I was sat up in the balcony, three rows from the back on the left hand side. The view was great, you can really appreciate the full scale of the hall from up there. It had been a while since I had been to the RFH but this concert really reminded me of what a great venue it is and made me start thinking about booking tickets for more concerts in 2009.
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