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| Tate Modern, 2016 |
Hey, guys! Steph here. A few weeks ago I met up with Dami Ayo-Vaughan, a writer for Lucid Lemons, to delve into London's art culture. We visited two of my favourite galleries in London; The Photographer's Gallery and Tate Modern. If you read my post a few weeks ago introducing my new feminist
series, you'll remember that I mentioned an exhibition on at The Photographer's Gallery, so I'll talk about the exhibition in a bit more detail. While the Tate Modern is just one of the many Holy Grails for all forms of art in London. At the end of this post, there'll be a link to Dami's P.O.V. of the galleries and exhibitions.
If you're stuck in London or even anywhere in England and you're willing to take a trip down or up to London this icy Christmas; then here's why you should visit these two spots.
THE TATE MODERN
The Tate is easily one of my most visited galleries because it has such a wide range of work on display all year round and also because they always have free exhibitions. They arguably have some of the most prestigious names holding solo exhibitions there e.g. Georgia O'Keefe, Robert Rauschenberg, Alberto Giacometti etc. Apart from that they hold the originals of actual OG's in the art industry, I'll get into that soon. Can I just mention that Dami was basically a kid in a candy store at the Tate because that's how great the Tate is.
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| Dami obstructing your view of an original Picasso. |
Proclaimer: a lot of these pictures are punctuated by Dami's silhouette, and yes he forced me to take these picture because you know "kid in a candy store".
Well, yeah guys do you feel like Pablo? You could because that's a real Picasso. The Tate houses a few of Picasso's works and if you want to sound like a snobby art snob and talk about Picasso, then you should definitely go see this art king's pieces at the Tate.
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| Dami once again obstructing your view of Andy Warhol's Marilyn Diptych. |
I don't know if you know Warhol or how legendary he is but you should definitely know Marilyn Monroe and this iconic diptych of her by Andy Warhol. I've talked about this piece and the artist in more detail in one of my older posts and you can check it out
here. The piece itself is immersive and you'll find yourself staring at it for a good few minutes trying to capture Marilyn's journey throughout the piece, I know it sounds like b.s. but trust me. (p.s. you can find both on Level 4 at the boiler house).
Another reason why the Tate is one of my favourite galleries in London is because it is where I discovered the love of my life,
Lorna Simpson, who I will most likely be talking about in my aforementioned feminist series. It was '
Twenty questions [A Sampler]' that triggered this love.
This is possibly one of my all-time favourite pieces of art. I feel like it perfectly summarises every black girl's physical struggle growing up in a world where ideas of beauty are westernised and whitewashed. A lot contributes to this idea, the questions themselves are one "is she as pretty as a picture" but you can't see her face, you never see her face so how can you determine if she is as pretty as a picture. I think it plays on the lack of representation of black women in mainstream media. The other questions give a similar sort of feel. Each time I read a question and looked back at the images, I interpreted them differently in context to the question. The questions really challenge you to look and look beyond. The deep blacks heighten the idea that she's either hiding from you or has been cast into the shadows, which of common for black girls and women in general (
behind every man is a woman bs). And if she is hiding, is she hiding her blackness? Her shame? What is she hiding? Why isn't she looking at us? I don't want to go to deep into an analysis of the piece (even though I kinda already have). But yeah I really like this piece and you should go check it out if you do tell me how you read it! Email me or something.
Btw there's also Tate Britain, which is in London as well and has lots of great stuff.
THE PHOTOGRAPHER'S GALLERY
I don't want to be too repetitive with this as I have already spoken about the exhibition so I'll just briefly discuss it.
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| me on Hannah Wilke's "S.O.S." wall poster. |
The exhibition was especially thrilling for me because It featured a lot of my favourite artists, Hannah Wilke being one. The image above is me reflecting on Wilke's famous "
Starification Object Series", where she stuck chewing gum moulded in the shape of little vulvas (the opening of a vagina) all over her body. She juxtaposed this with sexy pin-up poses and nudity. The series was supposed to be likened to the Holocaust, where her idealistic feminine body is presented as some kind of ceremonial sacrifice. Okay, I think that whole concept gets lost in itself but the juxtaposition of the feminity and pin-up against the (grim) mini chewing gum sculptures is enough to challenge notions of traditional values of female beauty.
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| Here's me watching a video on how to use domestic household tools as a woman should, right? |
There was a nice range of media used as well, some sculptures, installations, photography, videography etc, which made it incredibly engaging and very busy. It's possible to spend a good few hours there if you really decide to take everything in.
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| At this point, Dami is the art. Here he is again in front of Francesa Woodman's wall poster. |
Okay, so there was another exhibition on at the gallery. Simon Fujiwara's interview/documentary style piece of his former secondary school art teacher Joanne Sully, who also happens to be an ex-beauty pageant winner, boxer and model. It uses a combination of installations and film. In the film, she discusses the representation of women on social media after images of her topless were leaked on social media and ruined her career as a teacher and as a public figure.
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| I don't even have to say it. |
Here's a list of other galleries and museums that are worth visiting:
Saatchi Gallery
Tate Britain
Whitechapel Gallery
Victoria and Albert Museum
Somerset House
National Gallery
National Portrait Gallery
Natural History Museum
Royal Academy of Arts
For Dami's perspective click
here. It also includes a wider gallery of images from the day. Thank you for reading x
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