This is the only day the four conical light films of Anthony McCall were shown in The Tanks of Tate Modern, the place where the three oil tanks of the old power station were and recently opened as a space dedicated to performance art. Again the redevelopment of the space was done by Herzog and De Meuron. A row of slanting concrete columns have been put in to support the new gallery extension above ground.
I joined the then short queue half an hour before the said screening time. After half an hour passed and the length of the queue multiplied, a staff said the show would begin 15 mins late. When the room was finally opened, we walked into the huge space where there was nothing except a film projector standing under a spotlight and a big black projection screen opposite to it. Another 10 mins or so passed, the projectionist finally appeared, starting to run the film. The film played for a few seconds - we could see the title of the piece, the name of Anthony McCall, and then the fire alarm went off, the film stopped and everybody had to get out. This seemed to be a sequel to the all the bad things that I've recently experienced...
Anyway, for the second time I went in, I managed to stand at the place where I was. The first film, Line Describing a Cone, began with a dot on screen - or more precisely, a thin beam of white light which hit the screen and was reflected as a white dot. The dot gradually grew to become a small curve, and continued to grow into a longer arc. You could see the growing beam of light right in front of you, solid like a material, almost touchable - many people had started to touch, cut, poke, stroke the light while I attempted to blow it away - there was a mist machine and it's the whirling mist which animated the light beam and made it so solid/visible. As the title suggested, the curve would grow into a circle, creating a complete cone of light.
The last piece, Conical Solid, though relying on the same ingredients or principles, had a more active, exciting feel. It's basically a line on the screen (or a triangular plane of light beam) which multiplied and rotated at different speed.
Such a simple idea, yet very effective. You can easily imagine what it would look like, yet you would still want to 'see it for yourself', having a belief in the value of experience and authenticity. This, I guess, is the special value of performance art or installation. Something has to be experienced or communicated through the body.
The other two exhibitions/installations by Sung Hwan Kim and Suzanne Lazy didn't seem to be my cup of tea and I didn't stay long in their rooms... As I went back into the Turbine Hall, many people were walking slowly in one direction, and there I spotted Eleni as one of the performers and we talked for a short while.
There was enough time for me to walk from Tate to Waterloo before the Luke Fowler film at ICA at 5. They closed off a huge area of St James Park for beach ball Olympics so there was no way to visit the pelicans although theoretically they should be just across the road =(
I saw part of Fowler's A Grammar For Listening in British Art Show at Hayward Gallery last year and it's the only piece I liked and remembered from the exhibition. The films I saw today were Pilgrimage from Scattered Points and The Way Out, two documentary-like artist films on Scratch Orchestra / Cornelius Cardew and a post-punk musician called Xentos respectively. Almost endless noise, jumping narratives, collage of images... not for untrained audience obviously. I'm glad I got in for free as I had the buy 4 get 1 free card. I am also glad that my friend couldn't watch with me as I think this would kill her. I am not saying the films were bad though, it's just that it would be much more enjoyable and worthwhile if you see these for free rather than having to pay 10 pounds! Actually I quite like how the artist made films about these legendary but marginal people. In fact, the first film about Cornelius Cardew / Scratch Orchestra tells a rather typical story of the rise and fall of an artistic movement. It makes you think of Situationist International - a idealistic, charismatic leader > experimentation > controversy or some success > internal disputes / changing ideologies, more emphasis on left wing politics and less art > breakdown