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Digitalia

Digital Abstracts

By Steve Wilde

Back Underground
October 25, 2009

After spending Friday afternoon beneath Holborn, Saturday afternoon was to be spent in the oil tanks of the Tate Modern. A far more enjoyable experience. The space is vast, the three tanks once held a million gallons of oil and with the spaces around them knocked through the place is a darkened labyrinth.

To coincide with the, Members Only, tour there was a John Baldessari installation spread amongst the various spaces. One screen, divided into quarters, showed parts of The Green Berets, Rosemary's Baby, The Thomas Crown Affair and Planet Of The Apes. The other four showed those four films in their entirety [well, we were only in there 30 minutes but they were full screen]. I think the premise was that all of these films were showing in cinema's in Prague on the night of 20th August 1968, when armies from the Warsaw Pact countries invaded.

The screens seemed to float in the darkness of these big spaces and the soundtracks bounced around the cavernous "rooms" bleeding from one to the other and "remixing" themselves as we walked around to great effect. I sincerely hope the tanks retain their acoustic properties when they open as new gallery spaces in 2013. The space[s] will be devoted to time based media.

We were a bit earlier for this event than yesterdays subterranean quest in Holborn. So we filled in the time by taking a peek at Miroslaw Balka's How It Is; the black steel monolith currently residing in the Turbine Hall. It's impressive in its scale but the impact of walking into a black void is somewhat diluted by the fact there are hundreds of other folk milling around you. Not exactly condusive to any conptemplative thought on its meaning.

The members bar looked chock full so we went for a drink on the 7th floor to watch the river buses buzzing up and down the Thames. In fact the Tate was incredibly busy, no wonder they need to expand. After that we jumped on a number 45 and headed to Loughborough Junction to catch Synecdoche New York at Whirled Cinema.

We had been warned by the Ginger DJ that we'd be bored, but, even though its two hours long [and I find all films way too long] I thought it was justified in this case to stress Caden's seeming inability to discern the passage of time.

Sitting with bottle of Rioja in Whirled is probably more condusive than a hot stuffy cinema mind. Neuroses, psychosis, alternate realities, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton and music by Jon Brion... What's to be bored with?

As the film didn't start nutil 8:30 we decided to eat at The Cambria and had a decidely unspicy, albeit nice, Beef Madras! Luckily the Cambria's Got Talent show that had filled the pub with many folk in dodgy wigs wasn't due to start until 8:30 either, so we escaped that.

Categories: Art, London, Food & Drink, Film

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