the tanks at Tate Modern

It was great to catch the last day of exhibitions in the tanks at the Tate Modern. They were only opened this year. They are giant underground tanks which held oil when the Tate Modern was a power station. These underground galleries have retained the derelict and industrial feel of raw concrete spaces and this is now being channeled into large and complex film and video installations.

It seems they have at least 4 different spaces to use as they choose. I was particularly impressed by 2 creations. Light Music is an innovative work by Lis Rhodes that was created in response to the lack of contemporary female composers. It is formed from two projections facing one another on opposite screens in a hazy room. I found the visual experience so much more profound than the musical! As the two patterns of black and white lines pass through the projector they are ‘read’ as audio, creating an intense soundtrack, forming the aural equivalent to the flickering patterns on the screens. Instead, I was fascinated by the way in which the two beams of light traverse one another and in the space between these two projections, people play with their own ethereal sculptural forms comprised of light, shadow and theatrical smoke. I loved the way we all moved between the screens, engaging with the projection beams, enjoying the images, and taking photos...

The other piece I really loved was titled Crystal Quilt. On 10 May 1987 in Minneapolis, 430 women over the age of 60 gathered to share their views on growing older. The resulting performance, the creation of a duplicate design of tables in a large urban shopping centre, to match a bed size quilt was captured on video. The process was guided by a desire to represent diverse ethnic and social backgrounds alongside life experience and achievements. The author Suzanne Lacy created a complementary video, documentary, quilt, photographs and sound piece, and they are all available to experience. It was great to be able to piece them all together by yourself to recapture an understanding of the whole impressive project.

On the road - a classic book cum movie

This current film adaptation of a cult novel by Jack Kerouac tries to bring together a feeling of life in the 1950's with a sense of literary history. Having neither read the book nor being familiar with 1950's America, I enjoyed some of the universal themes. 2 young men meet, bringing together a deep search for a good story with a life of hedonistic rebellion. Both are searching for something more, and ultimately provide the perfect counterpoint for each other... The film tells the provocative story of Sal Paradise (Sam Riley), a young writer whose life is shaken and ultimately redefined by the arrival of Dean Moriarty (Garrett Hedlund), a free-spirited, fearless, fast talking Westerner and his girl, Marylou (Kristen Stewart). I enjoyed the experience, in quite a cognitive way, and found that like so many American films, the good guy always wins out in the end...

Untouchable - but seriously engaging

The French film Les Intouchables, translated as Untouchable, is way better than the title suggests. Based on a true story, Phillipe has a high level spinal cord injury after a paragliding accident. He is a wealthy aristocrat who can re-engineeer the life he wants. Despite his obvious penchant for risky adventure, he seems cocooned by a terribly conservative team of well meaning staff. Somewhere along the way he lost his wife and he strikes me as being seriously alone and in search of a new challenge. He sets up this challenge by hiring an endearing black ex-con who was only looking for a signature to get the dole. Despite a very limited life growing up in an overcrowded family, Driss is still pretty enthusiastic and open to experiencing the alternatives of aristocratic and disabled lifestyles. The script is well written and both actors very accomplished - so that they systematically and humourously demolish stereotypes about race and social class through enjoying discovering their common humanity. I really could enjoy the way they both uncovered and eventually respected each others' worlds; something very close to my heart and my life experiences. There is a real beauty is appreciating something that is seen as normal and everyday to someone else! The humour was subtle and the message was deep and significant. While there has been some criticism about the cultural contrasts, I cannot bear to think about a proposed American remake - this would need to be avoided!

Bronzes at the Royal Academy

I feel so lucky to be able to view two great exhibitions in London in one day. From the traditional halls of the Tate Britain, it was a short drive to the ultra conservative enclave of the Royal Academy.

Perhaps it is this amazing tradition that can bring together bronzes across the centuries and from across the world, literally. The unique and exciting perspective of this exhibition was that bronzes were arranged thematically, from antiquity to the present, across themes of the Human Figure, Animals, Groups, Objects, Reliefs, Gods, Heads and Busts.

I was so impressed to see side by side works from ancient Greek, Roman and Etruscan periods, together with some rare survivals from the Medieval period. The Renaissance was well represented as were the modern artists from the 19th century to today. I really enjoyed seeing bronzes by Rodin, Picasso, Jasper Johns, Moore and Bourgeois.

Historically, it is impressive to see the role of bronze as an artistic medium for over five millennia. I learned that bronze is actually an alloy consisting mainly of copper, with lesser amounts of tin, zinc and lead. I also enjoyed learning about the universality of the complex processes involved in making bronze. It was great to watch reconstructions of how models are made, cast and finished by a variety of different techniques. I was totally impressed to see so much history and creativity across cultures and history together in one place.

Pre-Raphelites - Victorian Avant-Garde at Tate Britain

I came to this exhibition with a history and an open mind. I admit that in my early 20's I saw these young artists as romantic idealists - representing life and love in the intensity of pure pleasure, indulgence and at times total despair. I oscillated between experiencing life as the Lady of Shallott and Ophelia. So, this time as we drove down to the Tate Britain in autumnal sunshine, I was ready to see these artists in a new light. Thankfully, the curator was in tune with my advancing maturity. They had taken a developmental and educational approach across the 7 main rooms. We began to recreate the origins and history of the group. So many pieces were descriptive of mediaeval life, as described by Shakespeare and other historians. Then we were taken to the painstaking recreation of nature in all of its beauty and detail. Throughout this exhibition, every painting could be examined at a distance for a total effect, and at close quarters for detailed investigation. Later in the exhibition, the themes were salvation, seen from a very Christian perspective in a sensually indulgent world, beauty and paradise, which were interpreted fairly literally. I really enjoyed the final room titled mythologies and populated by large paintings by Rosetti and Burne-Jones. From here, it was a natural progression to the symbolism of turn of the century art nouveau and the Vienna Seccession. It is great to see this art in its historical context and to continue to enjoy the romantic idealism for exactly what it is...

Anna Karenina - classic but frustrating

Is Tolstoy as universal as Shakespeare? sadly, I don't think so. I must admit that I have never read the novel - but Anna's idealistic naivete seems to outweigh the universal theme of love vs marriage. So it seems that Anna Karenina has as it's core theme the challenge of whether marriage is for love or stability. It seems that Russian society of the late 1800's was fairly conservative - marriage was for prosperity and life; love was a much more dangerous and idealistic construct. So it was kind of fun to see the movie occur on and beyond a traditional stage, and to see the child's train set become larger than life - okay it is extremely cold in Russia but it seems impossible and implausible for a train to arrive at a station compeletly covered in ice!

This adaptation of the great novel was written by Tom Stoppard and directed by Joe Wright, and oscillated between Anna’s home town of St. Petersburg and the social and political center of Moscow. The costumes were truly magnificent and Keira Knightley pouted less often than in previous roles. But it seems that the passion ignited at a railway station was somewhat shallow. Perhaps she really thought she loved him, but to sacrifice her marriage and her son for this serial flirtatious maniac seemed to be totally crazy and unbelievable. I was not happy to be proven right,as I consider myself a true romantic, but this whole crazy relationship was totally unrealistic. I just don't know why she did not take the courage to leave her longsuffering husband and start again. Although this might well have been difficult at the time, her personal integrity was seriously in doubt. So by the end of this extended film, I felt deep respect and allegiance to her boringly conservative but deeply moral husband!

Shadow dancer - subtely and intrigue

This was a film I wanted to see - I really do not understand what has been happening in Northern Ireland and this film offered me a chance to see it from the inside... The chance to be a spy to opt out of a jail sentence as a terrorist sets the tone at the beginning - and all this as a consequence of guilt at her brother being caught in the IRA crossfire. But can someone ever be free once you have sold your soul in this way? Strangely though, it seems as if her MI5 contact is also not abreast of what is really going on - could they really care for each other, or just be trapped together and desperately dependent on each other? I was horrified at the way the anger spans generations and how the men carry the fury while the women just get on with it and make the ultimate sacrifices... I am so thankful that I did not gorw up in this society as I know I would not have found a way through it...