But is it Art? It's definitely modern, but what is it?

[xxxLinda]

I went to this today, it was wonderful:



Critics' Choice
Until Feb 3 Serpentine Gallery, Kensington Gardens, W2 3XA map

Mingling with the other slow-moving, shadowy visitors to Anthony McCall’s projected light exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery felt a bit like ... being in a mystical monochrome antechamber, perhaps on the stairway to heaven.

McCall creates large-scale ‘solid light’ installations by programming a projector’s beam to draw a sequence of moving lines of white light on the wall – either singly or in combinations of straight lines and waves. The magic then takes place in the space in between. By sending out subtle puffs of curly white mist from a haze machine, the lines transform into three-dimensional planes and curves. Observed from the outside the pieces are diaphanous sculptural forms in a darkened gallery, but put yourself in the beam’s trajectory and you’re no longer a mere spectator. You become part of the work, alternately interrupting or being enveloped by these shifting tunnels of transparent film, its oily-looking surface swirling with smoky clouds.

If McCall’s is an unfamiliar name, it’s because he has only returned to making art in the last few years. A member of the experimental London Filmmakers Co-op in the early 1970s, he made his first solid light installation in 1973. ‘Line Describing a Cone’ is an exploration and a deconstruction of the film-screeening process where, over a period of 30 minutes, a single spot of light is drawn into a circle and a cone-like tunnel is formed between the projector and the projection. Shortly after making this work, McCall moved to New York and disappeared from view as an artist, spending the next 20 years making a career as a book designer.

[xxxLinda]

One of the most sublime experiences of the year... You will never see anything like this again.
Daily Telegraph

[Deedee]

What does it feel like when you're standing in the light beams? Is that how it works?

[xxxLinda]

What does it feel like when you're standing in the light beams? Is that how it works?

Absolutely.  You could touch it, see it, hear it, smell it even (there was dry ice).  What's my fifth sense I've forgotten, well you could do that too.


What was funny was that I went on a Sunday when all the tourists come to London, so it was packed.  Children loved it and ran all over.  It was a massive space and you could either stay outside of it or go into it...

My friends had traveled two hours from Cambridge, having read the reviews and came to see me.  When we got to Hyde Park, one of the projectors had broken, and you obviously can't call either the artist or an electrian to come out on a Sunday so you had to walk through a completely dark room to get to the second installation.

Turned out he made this art 35 years ago!


I'm going back again in the daytime in the week when it's empty and they've fixed the first installation. 

I've invited my Italian friend because his Mother is visiting from Tuscany for a week.  I'd love it if everyone could see it.


all my life I've had a huge dis-taste for modern art & that crap they call an installation, but this I so loved...










Also the V&A is nearby and that was completely fantastic, i need to get there more often, it's only a short bus ride or a walk through the park away.  Lots of lovely people there too.  They had fabrics and fashion on at the V&A.  It's all free, too.  No admission charge.  Amazing.



Walking out of the Serpentine down through the park and into the V&A pretty much did my head in.  You arrive and there's a corridor a mile high and nearly that long, full of Rodin sculptures.
xL