Everybody came

Fujiko Nakaya at Tate Modern. What a brilliant sculpture! Children ran, adults laughed, posers posed, photographers photographed and some people even switched roles.

Then I went inside to the Radical Eye exhibition which I've been looking forward to for ages. There are lots of fantastic photographs and I am very glad to have seen them, but... it didn't challenge me, make me see differently or enthuse me to try something new. I came out thinking I want to do more of what I do already. Perhaps some excellent exhibitions I've seen recently have led me to expect too much.

So I went back out to the Fog for some more fun. (Other blippers' takes on this here and here.)

Then, because I no longer live in London and can't say I'll just pop in tomorrow, I went to Incoming at the Barbican. Richard Mosse has used advanced thermographic weapons and border imaging technology - that can register heat at 30km - against their intended purpose, to create 'an artwork about the refugee crisis'. It was recommended to me and the reviews have been amazing. But... (again). Perhaps I meet too many people for whom this has been reality for me to appreciate it. I know about missiles hitting people's homes. I know about conflagrations in the tents in refugee camps. I know about trying to pump the water out of a drowned child's lungs. Seeing it in an odd sort of ghostly solarisation didn't turn it into art for me.


Black and white in colour 130