Since our group morning meeting was beginning a little late today, Danielle and I ended up going out for breakfast. We headed to the Brunswick mall to try breakfast at Apostrophe, which was this cute little coffee shop. I got a white chocolate chip, lemon muffin and it was amazing. I may go back tomorrow morning. Anyway, our day began by going to Tate Modern. However, on the way there we passed St. Paul's Cathedral which was so overwhelmingly large. We're going there tomorrow because today they were having a religious ceremony. Either way, it was gorgeous from the outside- so I can't imagine what the inside is like. More on that tomorrow though. It was amazing to see all the juxtaposing architecture. You get a place like St. Paul's Cathedral, or Westminster Abbey, or any of the other older buildings next to these modernized, edgy new buildings. I think this unique cityscape is another reason why London is so amazing. You get the history with the present simeltaneously- and it makes for a wonderful experience. To get to Tate Modern, we had to walk over the Millenium Bridge, which was this sharp-angled, edgy bridge. Someone explained to me that it was featured in Harry Potter, which was kind of interesting (despite not being a Harry Potter fan). Either way, we ended up at Tate Modern- which I think has been my favorite museum thus far. As the title states, it has modern artwork such as surrealism, pop art, cubism, etc.- which are some of my favorite art movements. When we first got in we saw an installation by Ai Weiwei in the Turbine Hall. It's such a large space, so I'd like to frequent it to see the different kinds of rotating instalations that are there. Weiwei, however, made millions of painted porcelein sunflower seeds and covered nearly the whole floor in the huge hall. Even though he originally intended people to walk around and touch the seeds, we were unable because the museum was concerned about dust particles. After seeing the ridiculous amount of seeds, we watched a short film on the process and purpose of the making of the seeds. I was almost offended by Weiwei's process. While he was trying to make a political and historical statement of the working man- he himself was perpetuating paying other people to do tedius, mindless tasks. In the film, he never once painted one of the thousands and thousands of seeds- but rather hired many weomen to do so. And while he was paying them and bringing money to the town, he didn't save them from their poverty or unemployment. Rather, he had them do his dirty work and then left. After that exhibit, I sought to find everything on my museum plan. I had quite the lengthy museum plan and was dissappointed that I couldn't find everything that I wanted to see. For instance, I REALLY wanted to see some of Cindy Sherman's photographs; however, I never got to the room that they were in. I did see a lot of the pieces I wanted to and I even found some pieces I didn't realize were there. I saw Rodin's "The Kiss", which was absolutely beauitful. I thought it was interesting that it seemed to have a rougher finish on the inside of the sculpture. I didn't realize that he didn't completely carve out the two individuals- but rather, they're joined at the hip by the marble. I found this interesting since their lips are not actually touching, however, they are cut by the same marble and connected at the hip. This made me think that Rodin intended this and was showing that their love was more than purely sexual. I saw a lot of paintings I was looking for, I saw Cezanne's "The gardener vallier", Kasimir Malevich's "Dynamic Suprematism", Mark Rothko's "Untitled", Rene Magritte's "Man with a Newspaper", Jackson Pollock's "Number 14", Wassily Kandinsky's "Lake Stamberg", and many, many more. I truly enjoy actually seeing the brush strokes and textures on the paint. I was surprised by Rothko's painting because it was not a solid yellow like I thought. It was actually a series of layers of paint and you could see the oranges and greens from underneath pulling through the yellow. This was surprising. Also, in Magritte's "Man with a Newspaper" it actually seemed more cartoon-esque and less realistic than I had expected. It didn't much matter to me either way though because I love his playful and humerous style. Kandinsky's work was full of thick splashes of vibrant colors. When I stumbled into the Marcel Duchamp room I literally got goose-bumps. His "Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelor's Even" was absolutely gorgeous. I didn't expect the transparency of the glass to have such a powerful effect with the shiny metalic pieces within it. It was so wonderful to see in person and it was gorgeous. I also enjoyed his other glasswork in that room- especially since I haven't seen any of his work in person before. I also learned a lot at the museum. Perhaps my favorte fact is that Mondrian never used the color green in any of his works; furthermore, he never had anything green in his studio. I thought this was a strange, yet interesting fact. It's probably something I'll remember forever. There was a lot in the museum and a lot of different things. The Dark Humor was a unique room- I enjoyed seeing disturbing, yet clever little funny drawings. Some were a little too bizarre for me such as one piece by David Shrinkly in which said "Santa Claus is not evil, there is no need to defend myself against him" seventeen times. I also liked Bridget Riley's "To a Summer Day" which was an optical illusion where she painted pastel color swirels on a huge canvas, which when looked at up close, seemed to move. I also enjoyed seeing Picasso's etchings which highly contrasted his cubist works. The etchings had such depth and shading. I was a bit disappointed that I didn't get a chance to see the Gauguin exhibit. I would have loved to have gone, but we didn't have enough time!
Half way through our visit at the Tate, Danielle and I were in one of the rooms when an alarm went off. We thought someone had touched a piece of artwork and that that was the reason for the alarm. Everyone in our room was quickly escorted down the emergency stairs and outside. However, once outside, we realized no one else in the museum was worried or leaving, so we just walked back inside and upstairs to where we were about to look. Then more and more alarms went off and we were once again escorted outside. We were outside for a while, but it seems that it must have been a false alarm. Either way it was a goofy experience. Before we left the museum we visited the gift shop where I got three very different, but interesting books. I got "The Art Book" which is a short guide on basically every famous artist in history, "Is This Some Kind of Joke?" which is a hilarious book with mimalist sketches mixed with dark humor, and "Banksy Locations" which is a guide to where there are Banksy pieces in London. I would really like to find some of his street art work since he is one of my favorite artists. I've been keeping an eye out and haven't seen anything yet. So hopefully with the book I'll be able to locate some.
After Tate we wandered over to the recreatino of shakespeare's Globe Theatre. Before we went to the theatre, there was an exhibition in the education room with various paintings of Shakespearen plays, artifacts, a clothing explanation, and props. We didn't spend too much time down there, but it was interesting to see what kind of clothing the actors had to wear- especially since we were told they weren't cleaned much more than once or twice a year. The actual theatre was amazing, and the tour guide was very aware and hilarious. She talked about how The Globe (to which Shakespeare wrote for) and The Rose (Christopher Marlow wrote for) were rivals. She also explained that Shakespeare actually made fun of The Rose in Romeo and Juliet when Juliet says "What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."- this was actually making fun of The Rose theatre because it was notorious for smelling due to the lack of plumbing. She also explained that the foundation of The Rose is still visible; however, there is nothing at the site of where The Globe was. The current Globe is as close to the original as they could make it. It as a thatched roof, wooden seats, and two trapped doors. They are not sure if the walls and wood would have been painted- so they painted a couple of walls just to give an impression on how it would look. They do put on shows during the spring and summer months which are as close to the original Elizabeathean production as possible. I was a bit disappointed that we couldn't see a play...so I'll have to come back in the warmer months.
After the Globe we only had an hour before we had to be back at the hotel for our meeting...so we tried to get to the Tower Bridge in time, but we only made it to London Bridge before we had to get back. While the actual bridge was not too interesting- there was a beautiful view. Plus, we got to sing the song. Once we crossed the bridge it was time for us to head back and due to a delay, we were late for the meeting.
During the meeting we talked about what our favorite pieces that we've seen so far have been. It was interesting to see what different people were drawn to. It becomes strikingly apparent that art is all about personal viewpoints and interpretations because some people's favorite things were other's least. It was nice to get as a group and kind of see where everyone was at. After the meeting, Danielle and I went up to the room to see what we wanted to do since the length of the meeting prevented us from going to the British Music Experience like we had wanted to do. Although we both fell asleep the minute we got to the room. We were both so exhausted from all the walking and site-seeing and everything that we just crashed. It's been such a busy, fun week thus far...hopefully this'll just mean we're well-rested for tomorrow.
Question of the Day: What was the thing that disappointed you today?
One piece that was especially surprising, and actually disappointing, was Monet's "Water-Lillies". I know many others enjoyed it, but I found it overworked and muddy. There was a lack of depth (though it appears the define lillies in the foreground are meant to create depth), but rather everything just clashes in the middle into a brown mess. I didn't get the effect that I was looking at the water either...so I didn't care for it. I think the images of the painting are far more generous than the actual painting itself. I wonder if I'll feel differently about his other waterlily paintings.
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