Fountain displays- Heathrow T5, Bellagio hotel, Jeppe Hein's appearing rooms.

 

Over the summer I worked for a company that meant that every week I would have to go to Heathrow airport for the day. The highlight of it was that I loved to go see the fountain display at terminal 5. It was just bursts of water that went up and down at different heights but it was mesmerizing. I once saw a child walking straight down in between two lines of them and waving her hands up and down; so that it looked like she was controlling them- it was really beautiful!

I also remember how amazing the display was at the Bellagio in Vegas. It was just on an enormous scale, and it looked like the water was dancing.  

Last week when I was in London, I also went to see the Jeppe Hein, the Danish artist's, appearing rooms at the Southbank centre. It was originally commissioned for the garden of the villa Manin in Italy. You are able to enter into the sculpture, darting the water. He wants you to interact with the 'changing spaces,' as the walls of water rise and fall. This was so great to see as it was a step forward in an idea after seeing the girl at Heathrow and it was really fun. "This public artwork explores the relationship between spatial perception and memory, presence and absence, inside and outside. "

Vegas Baby

                                             
Vegas is one of the most surreal places I have ever been to. It is so true what people say about it; that you drive for hours to get there, in the pitch black with nothing around you and then suddenly you see a burst of lights and the biggest buildings I have ever seen. The hotels are all so unique and bizarre, all so beautifully, intricately decorated. For instance the New York New York hotel has separate buildings mimicking famous buildings in New York and a roller-coaster going all the way around them. I also found the darker side of Vegas quite interesting as well; the men on the streets giving out cards for prostitutes because its legal, the way you can go shoot guns at the gun store, the strange stories you would hear about builders on new hotels going up, dying each day because they have no ropes holding them; the tourists below so unaware. I also loved their bold advertising they used for promotions and clubs! ( seen above.)

Balconies

I've had a strange obsession over the last couple of months with balconies and windows, and looking down into them or down from one. I love the idea of looking into someone's life, or viewing the world from a different angle,-spying in at a random time into a moment. In Cannes I saw a lot of buildings with Balconies or beautiful shuttered windows. At first I thought that they looked very romantic; reminding me of the obvious Romeo and Juliet, but I also think you could do a project where you twist it; and look at other weird things you could see, other emotions you could capture, conversations you could make up from watching two people for example on a balcony eating lunch. I've put some pictures up to show you kind of what I mean.

Gifford's Circus

(more pictures to come soon)I really like how surreal the circus can be and the kid-ish joy you get from being there whatever your age. I went to 'Caravan' - Gifford's circus and it fulfilled this need more than any other circus i have been to. It is a recreation of a 1930's old rural village circus with jugglers, aerialists, people on horses with geese following them, a pretend bear and strong men; run by Europe's only female circus owner.  The performers come from all over the world, including Russia and Eastern Europe which makes it even more special and different. I partially liked the energetic brass band from Paris who sing the songs as well. It is a magical story of love and marriage, inspired by the story of Rebecca Biddell.  You can see all the beautiful gypsy caravans that they stay in when you are waiting to go into the traditional big top tent which feels like it is home made and it only fits a few hundred people so it is so personal for anyone who is there.

"Giffords Circus fulfills every childhood fantasy of what a travelling circus should be” Sunday Telegraph

“Charming, emotional, and an absolutely essential British summer experience” Elle

“Possibly the best show on earth” Vogue

Nancy Holt- Sun tunnels.

I was watching " The Sculpture diaries" on channel 4 last night and although never being hugely in ore of sculptures, found  American artist, Nancy Holt's sun tunnels mesmerizing. 

Nancy’s work, partially the sun tunnels are associated with land art. It emerged in the 1960’s and has a hidden agenda of making people more aware of the negative impact people have on the environment. It is often in remote, uninhabited regions; the sun tunnels being in the Great Basin Desert in Utah.

Nancy is also interested in how people perceive time and space, and issue that she incorporated into this piece, as well as her interest in the variation of intensity of the sun in the desert compared to in the city.

The work consists of four concrete tunnels that are arranged in an x configuration; on the latitudes of the summer and winter solstices and well as the sunrise and sunset. They therefore react differently to the sun, producing beautiful orange and red colours inside their sphere; a huge contrast to the grey landscape they sit in. However bizarre they seem placed in the desert, they do not look alien, but have become harmonious with the land. The tunnels also have small holes in each which are the exact constellations of Draco, Perseus, Columba and Capricorn. These holes cast spots of light on the dark interiors.  Holt says; “"It’s an inversion of the sky/ground relationship-bringing the sky down to the earth."