IN REVIEW: Week One

PLACES WE WENT: Thames river walk/mudlarking, the Hokusai exhibit, tea at the British Museum, The Ladykillers, East End London graffiti tour & The Tempest

Note: After many days of sleep deprivation, I am finally able to have a moment to sit down and write out the first week’s review. Here it goes.

THE VENUES:

In the first week of London, we visited a vast variety of venues. The riverfront was a wide open space, continuously stretching on and on, lined with food trucks, store fronts, and small groups of people, perfect for people watching and street photography. Our mudlarking excursion provided a great view of the city, and led us to a few grungy, algae covered walls and dilapidated architecture. 

These places greatly differed from the aura of the British Museum – a looming stone and marble structure, the museum contained collection after collection of invaluable artifacts from history since the beginning of art itself. Though the museum as a whole had a sort of overwhelming sense of wonder about it, the Hokusai exhibit was a much more quiet, intimate experience. Examining each print one by one, the Hokusai exhibit offered serenity to the viewers; Hokusai’s work itself is very calming, or even full of fantasy, so it felt like I was able to escape – for just a moment – from the hustling crowds in the rest of the museum as well as the outside of London itself.

Gatehouse Theatre – the site of The Ladykillers – was a sort of combination of small and quiet, but also sort of crowded. A tiny independent theatre in a quieter neighborhood of London, Gatehouse is home to amateur actors and a cute bar right outside. Because of the lack of square footage in the venue, it was quite crowded in the bar area, but the stage setting provided an intimate experience for the audience. In contrast, the Barbican was gigantic, and the theatre company was much more capable of doing more with their work in comparison to the Gatehouse. While it didn’t necessarily feel more formal, it did feel a bit more immersive, but that probably had more so to do with the effects than it did with the actual space.

Our graffiti tour was unlike anything we had done that week. Let by our awesome tour guide Gary, we saw so many nooks and crannies of London that we surely would have passed up had we been in a more populated setting or shoving against the busy crowds. Seeing these works of art was a great way to learn about some of the diverse cultural history of London without sitting in a stuffy classroom.

Did you find some of the events challenging? Entertaining? Surprising? Off-putting? Was that response based on the content or on the form of the art?

As far as challenges I encountered during these events, I would say that following the storyline of The Tempest was perhaps the only one I had to deal with. Unfortunately, I am not very familiar with Shakespeare and have a hard time comprehending the language, so for the next time I will definitely read a detailed synopsis of the play so that I can both enjoy the experience and follow along with the story. I definitely found the British Museum entertaining – Brianna and I ended up going there for a total of three times, and still did not cover every room – it was a god given experience to see all the pieces we had learned about in our art history classes the year before. Gary’s tour was also quite interesting, although I wish I had worn better walking shoes. I feel like I learned a lot about street art and the hardships London has been through, and is still struggling with. Gary was both very passionate about his neighborhood as well as informed about the history of the area. Even though the tour was long, Gary never lost my interest, in part because of the amazing art on the street and his captivating ability to tell a story.

Did you find some of the events more “creative” or “artistic” than others? Why or why not?

I think that all of the events had their own connection to art in their own unique way. I think perhaps the riverwalk and the mudlarking were perhaps the “least creative/artistic,” but that is not the say that they were not enjoyable. Although the mudlarking had a connection to art history, it definitely had a different impact than the British Museum, where most of the artifacts were quite a bit more intact and whole. However, the mudlarking allowed us to interact with pieces of history rather than just view it, since most of the events were viewing art (the street art, pieces in the museum, watching performances, etc).

What is the most memorable moment from each of the events? What did you feel in those moments? What did you think about?

Mudlarking: the feeling of disappointment when we had to leave our found artifacts behind. It didn’t seem very fair that shards of objects not important enough to a museum couldn’t leave without a permit to go home with someone who did find significance in holding an actual piece of history.

Graffiti tour: hearing Gary talk about the issues of poverty, homelessness, and the corporate takeover of the neighborhood. It really made me think about the need for art and diversity, as well as a support system for the people living in those areas so that they and those who inhabit them can survive.

British Museum/Hokusai: seeing certain famous pieces in person for the first time (the Elgin Marbles, the Assyrian Winged Bulls, The Great Wave, etc). I remember a feeling of awe coming over me and immersing me in the beauty of each of these things, and how great it was that they have been able to be preserved and last thing long over time.

The Ladykillers: honestly, not a fan of amateur theatre.

The Tempest: whenever Ariel’s character makes his first appearance. I had never seen an effect like that before, and it really opened my eyes as to how far along theatre has come over the centuries.

Did those memorable moments – good or bad – affect how you feel about that kind of art in general? Do you think you would actively pursue (or avoid) this kind of art in the future?

I think the good moments (which was 99% of my experiences) really made me want to experience more of those things. Given if we had had time, I would have loved to visit Gary’s gallery and see more street art and ask more questions about it. Of course I’m always down to visit art museums since I am minoring in art history. I do want to go down to the riverfront a few more times to see more street performers and get more pictures of the area, as well as revisit the mudlarking bank. Because of the magnificent performance of The Tempest, I am really looking forward to seeing The Globe’s rendition of Twelfth Night, since I know that the director is putting her own nontraditional twists on the play. However, as charming as The Ladykillers was, I would probably not see a performance like that on my own.

Did any of those memorable moments change how you feel about, think about, or experience some element of life beyond your relationship to art? Did the experience change you in any way? (Those are big ideas – but we’ll be doing some pretty amazing things!)

I think what perhaps “changed me” the most was the graffiti tour. I think this has to do with the fact that the artwork was not only contemporary but the work was charged with a sense of real, raw meaning, either working to provoke authorities, honor cultural heritage or the surrounding area, or shout “we are still here!” It really made me think about how art can be directly related to social issues and how artists use their creativity to not only express themselves but speak for those who have no outlet.