inspired by Oil and Light - Saatchi Gallery and The Tate Modern

Saatchi Gallery

Richard Wilson

 

 

 ...in the Saatchi Gallery...this was amazing...it looks at first glance like an empty room, then you notice the smell of oil, and then start to spot small bubbles and the odd bit of dust that appear to be floating and then you realise that the room is filled with oil and what you are looking at isnt the floor but a reflection of the ceiling...absolutely brilliant! The way you start to see it really plays with your perception. So good.

 

Richard Wilson 20:50

1987

Used sump oil, steel

Dimensions variable

Richard Wilson’s 20:50 is truly a contemporary masterpiece. The work is the only permanent installation at the Saatchi Gallery and has been continuously shown in each of the gallery’s venues since 1991. Currently on display in Gallery 13 – a room custom built for the piece – 20:50 transforms the gallery into a site of epic illusion.

Viewed from the entrance platform 20:50 appears as a holographic field: simultaneously a polished floor, infinite clear pool, an expansive and indefinable virtual space that clinically absorbs and mirrors the gallery architecture. The room is in fact entirely flooded in oil.

Visitors are invited to examine the piece close-up via a walkway that extends into the lake, placing the viewer, waist deep, at the centre of a perfect mathematically symmetrical scope. Through this altered perspective 20:50’s phantasmical aura is enhanced, amplifying the disorientating and mesmerising experience of the space, and further confounding physical logic.

20:50 takes its name from the type of recycled engine oil used. It is thick, pitch black, and absolutely indelible: please take extreme care with your clothing and belongings, and no matter how tempting, please do not touch. 20:50 often has to be demonstrated to be believed: the liquid can be seen by blowing very gently on the surface.

 

 

 

 

Tate Modern

 

 

Dan Flavin

 

....so beautiful...lights from fluorescent tubes create installations ...these colours reflect on the wall opposite as people walk past, breaking the 'whiteness' and stillness as people become part of the art. The colour is lovely...so simple but works so well.

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

'A Peak District Thing' Private View...Lewis Noble!!

Friday 2nd August - the opening of 'A Peak District Thing' at the Foxlowe. Felt strangely nervous as 'the curator'! Not that many would know I was the curator (unless i kept saying to everyone hi...i'm the curator!)  but I wanted people to enjoy the selected work as much as i had enjoyed selecting it and to go away saying what a great exhibition....Almost felt as if it was my work on show

The private view was great, very busy with a good atmosphere. Lewis and his wife came thought the exhibition looked good. It was Mandys first exhibition so felt pleased to have been part of her first show with her beautiful quilts. I personally absolutely love Lewis's work, so having curated a show with his work in feels like an indulgance on my part and I was really chuffed when one of the people at the private view asked Chris...'How did you manage to get Lewis Noble to show here!!' Just wish i could afford to buy one...maybe one day, in the mean time will just have to enjoy looking at his work in the Foxlowe. His sketchbook is fantastic, with so many amazing paintings in it. The ceramic work looked great and Lindas work had a really great response...overall, i think, a success.

The artists:

Lewis Noble

...and again...cool in his shades!

 

Mandy Noble

Linda Rolland

 

David Howson

 

The viewing...

Mr Thompson