Sunday, March 02, 2008
Kulchur
More to come, including part two of 'why comics are shit', but my family is coming up to London with the mistaken belief that I was aware they were going to do so, so I have to leave in half an hour to go meet them at one of the few stations which are open to both train and tube this weekend.
For now, just a quick note on Derek, the film by Isaac Julien about Derek Jarman. It's very good, I could have happily sat through something that was twice the length so it didn't feel quite so rushed. I could have done without the shots of Tilda Swinton walking through modern-day London talking about how boring it all is these days, as though you couldn't move in eighties London for laudanum and bumming. Tilda, you want to talk about boring films? You did Vanilla Sky and Constantine, so please be quiet.
You can see Derek and Blue at the Serpentine Gallery exhibition, though be prepared to go for a walk around the Park if you miss the times they are showing the film. Annoyingly they don't have this up on the website and while the dozen or so pieces of Jarman's art are good, I doubt they can hold your attention for the hour or more you may have to wait.
For now, just a quick note on Derek, the film by Isaac Julien about Derek Jarman. It's very good, I could have happily sat through something that was twice the length so it didn't feel quite so rushed. I could have done without the shots of Tilda Swinton walking through modern-day London talking about how boring it all is these days, as though you couldn't move in eighties London for laudanum and bumming. Tilda, you want to talk about boring films? You did Vanilla Sky and Constantine, so please be quiet.
You can see Derek and Blue at the Serpentine Gallery exhibition, though be prepared to go for a walk around the Park if you miss the times they are showing the film. Annoyingly they don't have this up on the website and while the dozen or so pieces of Jarman's art are good, I doubt they can hold your attention for the hour or more you may have to wait.
Labels: art, artists, gay, London, queer, Serpentine Gallery
Saturday, August 25, 2007
The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2007
I don't really like the Serpentine Gallery much, don't know why, but I quite like the architecture of their yearly pavilions. This year it's been built by Ólafur Elíasson, who did the big sun in the Tate Modern a few years back, and Kjetil Thorsen, who hasn't made it on to Wikipedia yet. The Pavilion looks good from the outside but is rather lacking inspiration inside.
Lovely wood panelling but there's the small platform at the top from which people can look down on the scene below. In many ways it's the opposite of last year, which looked daft from outside but made more interesting and brighter use of the interior, considering this will be standing until the fifth of November it's going to need more than those three lights by the evening then.
I did like the rope, which makes it look like a piece of meat being ripped apart and the flesh stretching out before splitting.
Labels: art, Flickr, Hyde Park, Serpentine Gallery
