I was so pleased to hear that the Martin Creed exhibition at the Hayward had been extended until the 5th May, so on Friday I took the opportunity to head on over to the Southbank and see "What's the point of it" was all about! And well there was so many points to it, I found it totally inspiring, a sensory overload and at times, difficult to digest in a matter of speaking! I haven't seen an exhibition that so honestly takes over the entire space, filling each second you are in there with an abundance of joy and at times pure laughter. It is truly extraordinary.
The moment you walk through the slightly different entrance to the usual, you are stuck, almost literally by the artwork. A huge neon spinning sign entitled "Mothers" spins around on its axis, alternating the speeds at will, I sat for quite a long trying to work out the rhythm but to no avail, it didn't matter after all. The sign is huge, it is just the perfect height from the floor and ceiling, that it passes your head with about a foot left to spare. What becomes apparent from the onset is that this exhibition is curated in a way that from the first entry you are thrust into Creed's world where you are forced to deal with the dark edges of comfort intermixed with the bright lights of joy.
As you wonder through the exhibition, taking over all the floors, three balconies as well as the toilets and the lifts, you are thrown an impressive list of works, films and sound installations. Each room you walk through, a multitude of inspiration for the mind and senses. Being an Emetaophobic, the film in the second room, of which you cleverly have to go through to exit the exhibition, I found very difficult to watch. But I did manage to watch 1 of the vomit participants, whose face seemed strangely familiar.
After a rather, uncomfortable dark place for me, a much brighter one upstairs, the balloon room! Now this is a crazy, joyous, fun thing to do in a gallery space. I decided to take my shoes off, I am much happier without shoes anyway and I really wanted to feel the space. You enter, pre-warned of allergies, the usual health & safety and then on into the white balloon filled room. It is absolutely hysterical, people blindly wading through the balloons, trying to find a edge, the end, something! You are surrounded, every which way you turn with balloons, the static turning your hair more and more on end, it was so much fun, much laughter filled the room. An absolute joy!
You can't really do the exhibition justice with words, I can only say you MUST go and see this exhibition before it closes on May Bank Holiday, it will surely change how you view the world around us, Martin Creed thank you.
No comments:
Post a Comment