It's been awhile and I'm conscious of losing momentum with the blog. Hint, hint for the rest of you Urban Archaeologists!
I haven't managed to get around to much more art events since I last posted, (life just seems to be so busy here) however I did catch
Ai Weiwei's Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads installation at
Somerset House a little while back.
They are huge cast bronze heads of each of the 12 anuimals of the Zodiac. They had great presence and were beautifully finished. I thought there were some inconsistencies, some were very realistic looking with some nice stylised treatment, while others such as the Monkey and Snake looked almost cartoonish yet the Dragon was presented very realistically. It made them interesting to look at though, comparing the different treatments.
I was fascinated by the video showing the process of their making and installation, which a large team of people were involved in. The cost to produce, ship and install these would have been phenomenal!
I mentioned they were large, which they definately were, however so is Somerset House and I kept trying to imagine the amazing imapct they could have had in a different, smaller scale setting. If you stumbled across these in the street, they would have blown you away!
I would have loved to have seen these out in the 'real' public arena, where more everyday people could have interacted with them, I think then, their meaning and presence would have come into their own. However, nothing really ever totally pleases me! And regardless, these are amazingly beautiful works, which belie the politics and publicity surrounding Ai Wei Wei and seem to stand for something more intrinsic.
I'm off to Amsterdam this weekend, and I promise to post some more things up shortly!
Louise
