Southbank Centre's Festival of Love - Art Across the Site 2015

Southbank Centre lay host to their own Festival of Love with art, activities and workshops. With a series of installations as part of their “Art Across the Site”, it explores the different types of love that we may encounter from family and friends to complete strangers.

1. Love Flags – Mark Titchner

Flags that spell out “LOVE” are displayed on the rooftops of the Royal Festival Hall and the Queen Elizabeth Hall. They incorporate the spectrum of colours from the rainbow.

2. Reverie – Nike Savvas

Made from a combinartion of wood, wool and plastic, they form thousands of ribbons made from a spectrum of different colours that represents “ hundreds of different paintings being made around you”.

3. Arcadia – Gabriel Lester and Martine Vledder of the design studio PolyLester

The installation is made up from translucent plastic strips found in industrial settings. The installation is lit by sun during the day (that is IF there is sun) and lit by a beacon from within during the night. What Lester said of love is that is “a heart should be colourful, open and light to let in love”.
4. Dil Phaink – PeaceNiche

The installation’s name means “to throw your heart out to work”, explores the different side to Pakistani culture through street design, cinema, visuals and matters of the heart. The installation takes away from the negativity that the media presents their focus on and looks at the artistry and quirks of Pakistani life.

5. Film Kiosks – Lyn Atelier and Restoration Station

The television screen shows different forms of love ranging from ones between siblings to unexpected connections made between strangers. The kiosk was designed by Lyn Atelier and the furniture made by Restoration Station.

6. This is a Public Service Announcement – Sarah Crane

Projected on screens across the Southbank site, the installation explores the interactions between people in our day-to-day-lives. The installation prompts people to “look up” as a way of looking at the positive connection made between strangers.

7. Love Story – Richard Woods

The colourful timber-encased pillars draw attention to the hidden venue of the Southbank Centre.

8. Love the Yarn – Lasmin Salmon in collaboration with Celia Pym and ActionSpace

Lasmin Salmon worked collaboratively with Celia Pym to gradually grow this piece of installation made with balls of yarn.

9. Ludus Folly – Simon and Tom Baker

The installation plays on the playful and flirtatious form of love, which is made up of a mirrored wall, maze and tower in all style of colours. It is based on the two chemicals (Serotonin and Dopamine) which are produced by the brain when we play and are in love.

10. Provocation – Mark Titchner

Plastered above one of the entrances to the Queen Elizabeth Hall is the Provocation.

11. Pulse and Bloom – Shilo Shiv Suleman

The installations are of Lotuses which a symbolism of beauty, prosperity and fertility. Each lotus is built with two hand sensors that transmits a heartbeat of LED lights up the stem to the lotus flower. Beats faster if two hands are placed on the adjoining flower of the individual lotus.

12. Squeeze – Linda Bell in collaboration with Sam Haynes and ActionSpace

Bell used different techniques to create and form different shapes to explore the tactile versatility of different materials. Bell and Haynes were asked to create a site-specific series of sculptures.

13. Vespers – Jones Bulley

A sound installation made from a musical score of thoughts, text and sound, celebrates the combined creativity that stems from the web. Bulley describes it as “a real-life moment ofg togetherness that reflects the digital togetherness provided by the web.

#SouthbankforLove

Turbine Festival 2015

The Turbine Festival held at the Turbine Hall in Tate Modern was held this year on Saturday 25 July 2015. The Festival is subtitled “One City One Day” bringing audio-visual experience to anyone that attends.

The event encourages everyone to get involved with the art installations, workshops and activities on display. The day included photography, music, art and technology as they explore different ways to explore different facets of experiencing from using the Oculus to transport to another virtual plane to DJing on a makeshift art turntable to getting your hair styled completely different to what you came in with.

What I particularly liked was FREE2Dance created by Evan Ifekoya where you are given headphones and encouraged to dance like no one is watching. Which I do most of the times anyway!

Live performances come from the main stage set up right at the end of Turbine Hall and I managed to catch Juneau Projects performing as they used their electronic instruments built from perspex, arcade machines and drum triggers.

They’ve created the My Culture Museum as an exhibition where anyone can submit an image of each individual’s culture representation, which could be anything that they wanted it to be. The image would then be displayed in the My Culture Museum exhibition.

#TurbineFestival

Whitecross Street Party 2015

The Whitecross Street Party takes place on – you guessed it – White Cross Street in Islington near to the Barbican. It is an annual summer event of performances, food and entertainment. Usually over a two day period but this year has been packed into a whole day. The event was held on Saturday 18 July 2015 between 12:00 to 18:00.

The event’s exhibition “Rise of the Non Conformists” was set up by a group of took inspiration from William Blake where he was laid to rest. The event encourages “peaceful non-conformists to rise once again”. The exhibition is drawn live during the day with their final artworks displayed along Whitecross Street for 2 months. There are also art installations dotted up and down the street.

The event is family-friendly with lots to do with the children as the event caters with various areas where children can play and participate in workshops. Fortune Street Park which stems from Whitecross Street became a children’s activity zone with a bouncy castle, an area for face painting and a play area.

There are performances set up on stages and canopies running along the street with performances from solo artists and groups.

The stages are interspersed with stalls of food and an array of items ranging from clothing to artworks.