Summer Fun on the South Bank

London's South Bank comes alive in the summer with installations and exhibitions- many of which are free. Here are a few snippets that captured my interest this summer.

'Volume'
This interactive artwork was created by United Visual Artists and spent some time on the terrace outside the Royal Festival Hall this summer. The piece reacted with people walking around the area which stimulated sounds and lighting displays on the light towers.
I have to admit that I could not work out how interactions were causing the piece to respond, but never the less, I did enjoy the work. It was visually pleasing and watching the way in which an audience interacted with it was quite fascinating.

'Appearing Rooms'
An water fountain display created by Danish artist Jeppe Hein also ocupied a space on the Festival Hall terrace this summer. This installation was really fun and very much appreciated by younger children on hot summers days. The installation is formed of a cube of water fountains, created from four smaller cubes. Each side is controlled independantly and can turn on and off. This creates, reforms and removes 'rooms' with walls of water. These can trap people within them and even take them by suprise whilst moving through the fountains.

'Watch This Space'
This installation was positioned outside the main entrance to the National Theatre as part of their summer programme of events. The concept was quite simple- to make a fun space which could be used for a variety of events, or just as a nice location to spend time. In practise this involved creating a larger than life 'grass' room from an astroturf material. The piece included a larger than life 3-piece suite, lamp and a large rug, complete with over-large cushions. On a hot day the space worked fantastically, with the entire area thronging with people relaxing, socialising or even using the space as a picknic area. Even by night on barmy evenings people were still using this intriguing space, which due to the popularity of the area felt quite safe as there were always people passing through.

'Psycho Buildings'
The 'Psycho Buildings' exhibition at the Hayward Gallery represented artists interpretations of Architecture. The results were a very interesting collection of visual and spacial installations which challenged our relatioship with the space around us. My favorite instatllation at this exhibition was 'Show Room, 2008' by Los Carpinteros of Havana, Cuba. The piece depicts a room frozen in a moment of time of a disaster where the interior is being destroyed and scattered at random. The juxtaposition of the stillness in this image of sheer devastation provokes a curiously unatural responce. This work may certainly influence my design work for in the future, if even only in terms of the construction of the piece with items suspended from above.
Another quite unatural experience on offer here was in 'Normally , Proceeding and Unrestricted With Without Title, 2008' by Gelitin. This installation filled one of the Hayward Galleries terraces with water to create a small boating lake in whicn one could row across the skyline of London. Despite the fact that the creation was slightly victimised by it's own sucsess (it was so popular people had to que for the experience rather than stumbling across it by chance) the spectacle of rowing with views of the London skyline with the River Thames below you has to be quite unique!