
Walking back to Waterloo station on the Southbank and the sun came out illuminating the dome of St Paul’s, I stopped to take an in-camera jpeg sweep panorama.

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms;
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lin’d,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
After the Tate Modern I made my way over to the Barbican Centre, expecting to see an exhibit of Simryn Gill photos adverted to me by the Saltoun Gallery. As it turned out, Gill was just a small part of a much larger exhibit on ecofeminism and its illustrious (photographic) history with works by Gauri Gill, Francesca Woodman, Simryn Gill, Fay Godwin and many others.
Couldn’t believe they had (the 1964 replica of) Duchamp’s famous urinal on display and I almost walked right past it. Also some suspended objets (below) that I don’t remember the story of.
Wall of Coloured Glass (part of the larger installation, Coal Sculpture with Wall of Coloured Glass, 1999). A Greek artist working in Rome in the arte povere school, Jannis Kounellis also produced the below.
I continue to be struck by museums and galleries’ use of space. All the whiteness, openness, vastness and what this says about wealth in the hegemonic metropolises. This is particularly seen in empty space, and the use of geometry in defining spaces like staircases. The Tate Modern is a little bit of a special case, situated as it is in a former power station but the vastness of the space continues to echo the theme. Click on any of the images below to see them full sized.
More than the art in the sole, hallway exhibition mentioned in yesterday’s post, was the architecture of the Chicago Cultural Center which was quite ornate. Click on any of the pictures below to see them all larger.