4/10/14

We visited the Tate Britain today. I have to admit I could't really find anyway of properly engaging in the majority of this gallery, as it is a gallery mainly full of fine art. Although I can appreciate the skill in fine art, as it is amazing, I just don't enjoy it as much. I wrote my review on the 'Dock' exhibition, by Phylida Barlow.

After visiting the Tate Britain, the exhibition that most appealed to me personally was the commission by Phylida Barlow in the Duveen Galleries, 'Dock'. The mere scale of these pieces is what hit me straight away when I first walked through the archway to the Duveen Galleries. They are huge pieces, filling the entire space of the halls they are housed in. You notice when you are looking at these pieces that they are made from incredibly basic materials, such as cardboard and wood. Another thing I liked about this exhibition was that instead of sticking with the natural colours of the materials originally used, there was a lot of colour added in, especially with the tube piece, which was covered in coloured tapes, whilst the rest of it was only made externally with cardboard. The main reason these pieces attracted me however, was the way they looked to me, which was that they portrayed an image of destruction and chaos, instead of an exhibition full of neatly put together pieces. I liked the feeling this gave, as it contrasted to the rest of the gallery in my opinion, with most of the rest of the pieces in the gallery having more connection with the fine arts. Another part that I liked about this piece, was there was a small amount of interactivity to it, with people looking through parts of it, and into others, getting different perspectives of the pieces. For example, with the first piece you see when you walk in, the one with all the suspended, broken boxes, people were walking around it, as well as under it, and looking into the boxes that had holes in them, showing a curiosity to what was inside these destroyed items. Overall I really enjoyed seeing this exhibition, mainly because of how different it was to the rest of the gallery, where nothing much else really caught my eye.