A Day In London

Rain was forecast for today and so I decided to go to London as there was nothing pressing to do at home. I had been planning to visit two exhibitions and decided to do this while I still had time. I had some calls to make so I didn't leave home until late morning and got to Waterloo just in time for lunch.

There is a restaurant/gastro-pub near Waterloo called "The Fire Station" (yes, located in an old fire station). Their restaurant menu is quite expensive but the bar menu was more reasonable. I ordered a bacon and chicken baguette and looked at the beer selection before settling for a pint of Staropramen - "beer from Prague" it said on the blackboard. It tastes different in London! The beer has a sharper flavour and is slightly darker than the usual. Almost like a Granat, but not quite that dark. It was definitely worth trying it, and sufficiently different that I wasn't overwhelmed with homesickness for Prague.

The first exhibition was at the Hayward Gallery on the South Bank. Antony Gormley is one of my favourite artists and sculptors and the Hayward has a new exhibition of his work. Much of his work is too big for an indoor venue, such as his Angel Of The North, a gigantic metal sculpture outside Gateshead, near Newcastle and Another Place, an installation of sculptures over several square miles of beach, so I was curious to see what would be exhibited.

One exhibit was called "Allotment" and consists of

300 Reinforced concrete life-size units derived from the dimensions of local inhabitants of Malmö aged 1.5 – 80 years.

Each unit is rectangular and the whole thing reminded me more than anything of a war cemetery.

The flagship of this exhibition is a work called "Blind Light" which is a glass-walled room filled with water vapour, like the inside of a cloud or a very heavy fog. I walked inside and was disorientated almost immediately. I couldn't see my own hand at arm's length and lost site of the entrance within a few metres. I didn't dare lose contact with the wall as I walked around inside, hearing voices of other visitors and not seeing anyone.

There was an external exhibit, too, called Event Horizon which consists of more sculptural figures standing on rooftops in the South Bank area, all looking towards the Hayward Gallery. A more typical Gormley work. I won't write any more about him, but take a look at the exhibition website if you want to know more.

I then went to the Imperial War Museum to see their temporary exhibition on camouflage. The exhibition shows how avant-garde artists contributed to the development of camouflage during the First World War and discusses developments since, including the use of camouflage clothing by anti-war protesters and fashion designers. It was interesting, but slightly superficial as it was intended to appeal to a mass-market.

I just had time for a latte at Waterloo station before getting a train home in time to avoid the rush hour.