The
work for Chelmsford is rusting nicely in the back garden - the colour is quite
beautiful. Meanwhile ....I had to go back to see Ed Atkins at Cabinet - and on second viewing it just gets better - it's
still head swivellingly odd but then when spending more time you see the
interlinked nature of the films - the baby from one frame wandering into
another the boy in the field moving across to play the piano etc etc http://www.cabinet.uk.com/index.php?ed-atkins-olde-food
. The Tate has the extraordinarily bleak coloured
sculpture by Jordan Wolfson - this is also starkly eye wateringly cruel and
a truly must see - after the last Tate mess having this in the tanks has resurrected
my faith in them a little. Age of Terror
at the War Museum was okay - but most of the work was not about terror but war and
most of it seen elsewhere so £15.00 seemed a little steep (maybe that was the
terror?) - the two stand out pieces were Francis Alys video work of soldiers from
both 'sides' stripping and rebuilding weapons and the very raw footage by Tony
Oursler at the 'ground zero' site days afterwards as he prowled around the site
videoing the carnage and the human fair that arrived - so many stalls selling
prayer as the answer. The real terror is
laid out in the Holocaust exhibit on the 4th floor - it is very clever,
starting off with a little bit of nationalistic pride and snappy sloganeering
and ending with war trials World just after harrowing images of concentration
camps and testimony from survivors. World
without us at Battersea Arts Centre was just that a one person show that
explored the before and after of our existence on earth. Some nice ideas and
the narrative visualised what it would look like when we are gone. quieter with
a lot of plastic.
