Today was a busy, but exhilarating day. We started out by going to Tate Britain. We started out by hearing three presentations- again, I didn't like that we had to jump from one piece to the next with the three presentations because I feel like we don't get to enjoy the pieces for that long, but it's understandable since it'd be difficult to get the group together over and over throughout the day. We got to go to the special Eadweard Muybridge exhibition, which was exiting because he's a highly influential photographer, furthermore, he contributed to the science field with his anatomical findings. Either way, I truly enjoyed seeing his series of photographs that portrayed movement. The horse photographs were the ones I knew about; however, I didn't know he did so many with other animals and so many people. I think the Bird in Flight was one of the more interesting ones to look at. Also, I didn't know that he had set the photographs in a series to create a moving photograph/video. It was interesting to look at one of the old cameras that he would have used, and to learn that the size of the photograph was equivalent to the size of the plate would be. I really enjoyed that they had the little section that looked like the grid that Muybridge used in his images- so when people walked by you could take mental photographs to mimick his style. It's also worth noting his ridiculously long panaramic view of California. Overall, I found that show worthwhile and profound. After the special exhibition, Danielle and I wandered all over the museum. I've come to realize that despite saying we're going to come back, it's very difficult to get to and see everything that we want to in London while we're here. So I'm a bit disappointed I can't see EVERYTHING that there is in each museum, despite my best efforts, but that'll just give me an excuse to come back. There were a lot of notable pieces in Tate Britain. Some of which were the Damien Hirst room, which while interesting, was a little disappointing. The room was a little smaller and emptier than I had hoped. I was interested in the "Straying from the Flock" piece of the sheep in the flamaldihyde. Also, the photograph of Hirst with a severed, dead head. I enjoyed seeing Blake's work- especially the distinct differences between his "Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrims" to "Beatrice Addressing Dante from the Car"- it was striking how grusome and twisted some of his pieces were, while others were romantic and subtle. Overall, his demented, slightly surrealist style was disturbing yet alluring. The Pre-Raphelite room was a bit overwhelming sheerly because of the huge size of the paintings. You couldn't see all of some of the paintings because they were so large unless you stood back. For some reason, I was really drawn to John William Waterhouse's "The Lady Shalott"- there was something beauitful, yet tragic about it. I loved the pastel-like use of paint, colors, and overall composition of the piece. Lady Shalott looks like she's stuck in a moment of contemplation- which I don't know the story behind it, but I'm sure was tragic due to it's cultural context and contemporary themes. We also visited the Marc Vaux room which seemed like overally large color studies. He filled huge rectangles of canvas with mostly one color, with maybe a line or box of another. The piece "B/3L/73" was the only piece that amused me. The piece was this huge large red canvas with three little boxes of other colors. It seemed to dwarf the other colors as the red was so overpowering. While I found this a bit of an artistic or cerebral joke, I didn't enjoy many of his other pieces. Aside from this, I did enjoy many other pieces: I liked seeing Stuart Brisley's documentation of his performance work "No Reason", I liked seeing Constable's landscapes (especially his detailed clouds), John Riddy's work, and many of the contemporary pieces. The Turner wing was also an experience- while I'm not a huge Turner fan, it was surprising to see his paintings in person. There are more details and depth in them than I thought. It's almost like a "Where's Waldo" effect where you're looking for the one object justify the title. Either way, I enjoyed his use of color and light. I also didn't realize that his style was much more realistic when he started out and eventually progressed towards abstraction. So that evolution was interesting. One of my ultimate favorite parts of the Tate Britain was the interactive Color and Line exhibit. There was a section where it showed sketches by Turner and you could re-draw it and put your pieces up for display. Not only did I, but now I can say i have a piece hanging (at least, for a day) in the Tate Britain. I always like looking at artists sketches because it's like a behind-the-scenes look at what the artist is considering, compositional ideas and changes, as well as notes for their ending piece. I was a bit disappointed we didn't spend more time there.
After Tate Britain, we headed off to the Imperial War Museum. While it was not really my cup o' tea- it was interesting to see some of the things- such as the huge tanks and fighter planes from the war. I was really effected by how our professors were telling us that even there we were in the World War I and II, we didn't feel it as hard as the European countries. As a result, everything had a little more power to it. Especially today, wars (especially past wars) seem a bit abstract to me. I know how the movies display them, and can envision it, but I've never seen tanks or rockets or bloodshed in person before - so this was truly an eye-opening experience. I agree with Carmen that the The Holocaust Exhibition was just gut-wrenching and overall depressing. It's really hard to swallow that something like this could happen and that all of these people were effected. The exhibition truly brought us through the history and story of how World War II took off- everything with the Rise of Hitler to the camps. Unfortunately, we really only spent time in the large exhibits gallery and the Holocaust exhibition because we had purchased tickets to go see a football game- but this museum was worth coming to. We may try and make it back if we have time.
Since we didn't want to try and navigate through the underground to try and find Chelsea Football Club to see Chelsea versus Blackburn Rovers, we got a taxi. Which was our first taxi in London. Luckily, our driver was incredibly friendly and talked to us about driving policies (evidentally it's alright to take a U-turn in the middle of a street), the area, and just friendly conversation. We had ordered tickets online, so once we picked them up and got inside, we were thrilled to find our seats were amazing despite being the "cheap seats." We could see the whole field and we didn't have an obstructed view or anything. Either way, the game was exhilerating. There was so much energy from the crowd- much more than any other sporting event I've been to. People were swearing, and calling the referee a wanker, and chanting. It was interesting how as a group people they knew when to all stand up or when to start chanting. It was overall a great cultural experience. Luckily, Chelsea won (I'm not sure what the crowd would have done had to lost). There were also SO many people there. Once we got into the gift shop, it was worse than Black Friday. We were in line to look at shirts! It was ridiculous, I've never seen so many people shopping at once. At one point my sweater got stuck to a man's velcro on his jacket and accidentally started dragging him around with me and had to apologize...it was a bit awkward, but funny enough to mention. Danielle and I both got a sweatshirt to remember the game...overall, I'm so glad we got to experience a British football game.
Later that evening we went to Queen's Ice Skating and Bowling. I had never been ice skating before, so it was QUITE the experience for me. I was really nervous because there were so many people on the ice and they were much younger and faster than I. I didn't want to be the oldest person falling- so it's safe to say I wasn't on the ice TOO long. Either way, I'm glad we did it and it was fun...for a few minutes. I stayed up the whole time and surprisingly did alright for my first time. Afterwards, we got gellato and hung out in the arcade for a while. It's a great place to use up any extra pence coins you have. Carmen got addicted to the ten-pence machine, which was funny to watch for a while. She kept winning, but then spending her winnings to keep playing. I don't think I'll ever bring her to a casino.
I really don't want to leave London. I'm having such a great time and I'm finally getting used to everything. I learned some more British lingo, for instance tout is a scalper and a cloakroom is a a coat check. The resteraunt issue is also making more sense. We went to Giraffe's tonight which was a global resteraunt with all sorts of food. It was delicious, but I finally noticed that they added the tip in the check...so now I'm on the look out for that. Overall, I'm having a great time. But, quite frankly, I think I'd prefer if the trip were limited to people in the art and art history departments. It's frustrating to hear people complain or to have them rush around the museum or just not appreciate what we're doing. I'm excited to come back on my own to re-experience and take more time on everything.f
Question of the Day: After seeing the Elgin Marbles, do you feel they should go back to Greece or not? Why?
I don't think seeing the Elgin Marbles changed my position on whether they should be moved or not. In a perfect world, I think they'd be in Greece in or near the Parthenon since that's where they came from and they are a part of Greece's history. However, saying that, I think it'd be such a hassle to move them and it could be dangerous to the safety and preservation of the marbles. I agree that the art world should just be happy and supportive that the marbles are safe and on display. As long as they are being respected and enjoyed, it shouldn't matter where they are. So in summation, I think they should stay where they are.
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