Out of the ‘Blog’ Office while London Swings… or is it just ‘Cracked’?
Apologies for the lack of new blog posts and articles recently - September and the first half of this month have been the busiest so far this year. A lot has happened in the past month and a half, me-wise and in the world of the web, digital media and marketing/ communications, some of which I hope to write about soon (soon as things calm down a bit that is!)
Upcoming blog posts and articles that I hope to cover include:
- The i-phone, i-mac and i-pod touch.
- Facebook, Google and the Privacy debate.
- Re-Designing an Intranet - where to start.
- Social Networking for your personal life versus for your business life.
Despite the recent hectic ongoings, I managed to escape for a short get-away to visit friends, do some sight-seeing and a ‘bit’ of retail therapy in London last weekend. I don’t really see the opportunity for a holiday or to go travelling anywhere too far afield from Dublin over the next while so I jumped at the chance of a weekend get-away while I could. It’s always nice to remind yourself that you can literally book a flight, hop on it Friday after work and within under 2 hours be in another city for a change of scenery. After seeing the friends, doing a bit of socialising and of course, some shopping, I also managed to get in a visit to the Tate Modern before I flew home Sunday evening. My first visit to the Tate may have been a flying one but I still got to see lots of great art… I power walked my way around the building in order to see Rothco, Klint, Warhol, Lichtenstein, Monet, Picasso, Bacon, Chirico, Kounellis, Frize, Matisse, Léger, Miró, Wadsworth, Man Ray, Magritte, Duchamp, Pollock, Johns, Rauschenberg, Roth…. a lot of power walking! Anyway, I have intentions to go back on my next London trip in order to enjoy more time there and to see more!
Unfortunately, I just missed the opening of Doris Salcedo’s ‘Shibboleth‘;
The latest work to go on show at Tate Modern, in London, has depth… and length. A 548ft fissure has been installed the length of the Turbine Hall, starting as a hairline crack in the concrete floor and widening to a few inches in breadth and a depth of almost 3ft. But is it representing a tear in the fabric of modern society or is it just a crack in the floor?
Both critics and the public are debating the crack. So far, two people have even fell into or have been tripped up by it, causing speculation about the health and safety aspects of the installation!
The work by Colombian artist Doris Salcedo begins as a small hairline fissure and gradually widens and deepens as it zigzags across the floor if the Trurbine Hall. Wire mesh, evocative of a fence or a prison, is found within the gap.
Salcedo, refuses to say how it was made instead asking her audience to concentrate on the subject matter, not the material. The crack is said to represent the division problem of integrating immigrants into European society.
According to the artist Shibboleth* “represents borders, the experience of immigrants, the experience of segregation, the experience of racial hatred… It is the experience of a Third World person coming into the heart of Europe. For example, the space which illegal immigrants occupy is a negative space. And so this piece is a negative space.”
Christine Beluriee, a market researcher from Paris, likened the work to “the frontier between a lot of things – between modern life and ancient life, the young and the elderly, ugliness and beauty”.John Knights, a photo-illustrator who lives near the gallery, which is on the South Bank, remarked: “I rather liked the floor as it was. I’m not overly impressed.”
Sir Nicholas Serota, the Tate director, said: “There is a crack, there is a line, and eventually there will be a scar. It will remain as a memory of the work and also as a memorial to the issues Doris touches on.”
The history of racism, Salcedo writes, “runs parallel to the history of modernity, and is its untold dark side.”
Asked how deep the crask is, Salcedo replied enigmatically “It’s bottomless. It’s as deep as humanity.”
*A ‘shibboleth’ is a custom, phrase or use of language that acts as a test of belonging to a particular social group or class. By definition, it is used to exclude those deemed unsuitable to join this group.
Related links:
- Tate Modern Website:
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern- Tate Modern interactive gallery map:
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/explore/?action=1