This wonderful installation is exactly the kind of modern art I like: it’s interactive, original, and provokes a strong emotional response. You can enjoy it even if you know nothing about art and have no ideas about what it might ‘mean’.
The Curve space at the Barbican centre has been transformed into a large aviary full of zebra finches – yes, a huge flock of live birds. It is landscaped with a path winding through sandy areas with tufts of grass, and nest boxes have been placed on the walls. And around the room, there have been placed a selection of guitars, base guitars and cymbals, all hooked up to amps. As the birds fly around and come to roost on these instruments, pecking seeds out from between the guitar strings, their movements trigger a constant background of musical sounds.
Fascinating as it is to hear this soundscape, it is being in such close proximity to these creatures that makes the installation such a unique experience – and it helps that the zebra finches are just about the cutest birds imaginable. They are tiny, with delicate pointed red beaks and fluffy, prettily patterned feathers, in varying shades of grey and brown. They dart through the air at speed, and chirrup surprisingly loudly for such small creatures, their calls mingling with the more unorthodox sounds of the installation.
Since they have now been in residence for some time, the finches are very tame, and will land, uninvited on visitors’ shoulders and bags. I saw about six of them crowd onto one man’s feet, perhaps attracted by the bright yellow laces in his trainers, preventing him from walking anywhere until his companion gently shooed them away. The sense of wonder was clear to see in the faces of all the visitors.
I don’t know if there was some deeper meaning to this piece, but I believe that sometimes art is all about the experience, and this was one that I certainly won’t forget.
A video clip of this installation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89Kz8Nxb-Bg
Wednesday 21 April 2010
Monday 19 April 2010
Film Review: Shutter Island
Director Martin Scorsese has created an old-fashioned thriller, in which he openly acknowledges his debt to the likes of Hitchcock. The film is set in the 1950s, and its tropes and imagery hark back to an earlier age of cinema: the protagonists are physically isolated on a forbidding looking island, dramatic weather sets the mood, the hands of the inmates reach out through the bars of the asylum cells.
However, the film is not an exercise in knowing pastiche, more of a faithful homage. And it is fitting, therefore, that I found it enjoyable in a very old-fashioned way – as an exciting and satisfying mystery. Despite the many twists and turns of the plot, it was in no way demanding to follow and I felt that the story was always ‘fair’ to the audience in that none of the twists came out of the blue. They were not predictable, but they were always set up within the context of the story. Twists that come completely out of nowhere can feel contrived, leaving the audience feeling cheated, as though the film they thought they were watching has been tossed aside for the sake of some meaningless cheap shock. In this case, the twists, as good twists should, throw new light on what has gone before, so that, even when everything is turned on its head, the audience still feels they are watching a complete and satisfying film.
Leonardo diCaprio - an excellent and somewhat under-rated actor in my opinion -gives a typically convincing performance in the lead role, and the supporting cast do a good job too, with just the right amount of hamminess on display for the type of film. Everybody looks the part - Mark Ruffalo in particular, as diCaprio’s sidekick, seems to have the perfect face for the 1950s - and the cinematography is stunning and atmospheric.
Despite touching on some interesting points about power, exploitation and the nature of madness, it never explores any of these ideas further than they move the plot along. This is not a think piece. It set out to be a thriller and it delivers magnificently – a masterclass in tension, pace and atmosphere.
However, the film is not an exercise in knowing pastiche, more of a faithful homage. And it is fitting, therefore, that I found it enjoyable in a very old-fashioned way – as an exciting and satisfying mystery. Despite the many twists and turns of the plot, it was in no way demanding to follow and I felt that the story was always ‘fair’ to the audience in that none of the twists came out of the blue. They were not predictable, but they were always set up within the context of the story. Twists that come completely out of nowhere can feel contrived, leaving the audience feeling cheated, as though the film they thought they were watching has been tossed aside for the sake of some meaningless cheap shock. In this case, the twists, as good twists should, throw new light on what has gone before, so that, even when everything is turned on its head, the audience still feels they are watching a complete and satisfying film.
Leonardo diCaprio - an excellent and somewhat under-rated actor in my opinion -gives a typically convincing performance in the lead role, and the supporting cast do a good job too, with just the right amount of hamminess on display for the type of film. Everybody looks the part - Mark Ruffalo in particular, as diCaprio’s sidekick, seems to have the perfect face for the 1950s - and the cinematography is stunning and atmospheric.
Despite touching on some interesting points about power, exploitation and the nature of madness, it never explores any of these ideas further than they move the plot along. This is not a think piece. It set out to be a thriller and it delivers magnificently – a masterclass in tension, pace and atmosphere.
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