Friday 8 August 2008

Hayward Gallery, “Psycho Buildings” and Portobello Road 7-29-08




I went to Portobello Road and did some shopping this morning with another library student. It was very nice, since it was a Tuesday and the tourists weren’t crawling all over the place. The only bad part was that the markets and stalls were not open, since they only open on Friday and Saturday. I found some unique souvenirs while shopping there.

They have an official website: http://www.portobelloroad.co.uk/

This afternoon we walked up to the Hayward Gallery, which is very close to the dorms. I had wanted to see the “Psycho Buildings” exhibit since I heard about it before the trip while doing research online. It was definitely worth the cover charge, in particular because while I am not a huge fan of modern art, for some reason the installations by participating artists were amazing to me. These art pieces are made on such a large scale that each has its own room, or in some cases part of the rooftop. There was a room lit only by the lights inside hundreds of dollhouses arranged to look like a village, a room set up like the inside of apartment in the middle of being bombed, and several others. The one that was my favorite, though, was the one we had to stand in line for 30 minutes for, which was the opportunity to get in a row boat and paddle around in a pond made out of a sculpture garden on the rooftop of the Hayward Gallery.

Here is the website for "Psycho Buildings": http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/visual-arts/hayward-exhibitions/psycho-buildings/exhibition

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