Yes, it's Art!
As part of our love of stage productions, we have become frequent audience members at the National Theatre -- a modern building with three stages, presenting different shows simultaneously. It is the UK's national theatre, as the name states, partially subsidized to keep ticket prices a bit lower than the standard in the West End -- and it's mission is to encourage exposure to the best of theatre. We have rarely seen a show there that we didn't find to be of a high order in at least some respects.
Two years ago, a play produced there (Strindberg's A Dream Play) opened with the line "Look how the tower has grown". For some reason this inspired someone to try to "grow" the flat tower. (Flats are scenery pieces, often backdrops and most theatres have a raised "tower" above the stage where the flats can be raised and lowered to facilitate changing the scenery -- and storing the flats themselves). The artists, Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey decided to accomplish this by covering the tower exterior (two sides of the four) with a layer of clay and planting grass seeds in the clay. As the grass sprouted the tower could be said to be "growing" and its appearance would change, from gray concrete to green grass, and knowing that the grass would be short-lived, to brown. There are a couple of pictures of this apparition (including a man "watering the lawn") at: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/2837009#151923162
At the same time, London is being treated to another outdoor art display, entitled "Event Horizon" commissioned by a local civic group to celebrate the reopening after renovation of the Royal Festival Hall. The intent here is to have human figures appear across the city skyline in the area surrounding the river near the Festival Hall. The figures are made from casts of the body of the sculptor (Antony Gormley). Some of these can be seen at the same web site.
A contest might be fun at this point -- provide a caption for the picture of Kathi at left. Perhaps "Is that the dress code?", or "Hi, Big Boy".
We have to admit, our preference reamains with Impressionist paintings and sculptures by Rodin or Michaelangelo.
Two years ago, a play produced there (Strindberg's A Dream Play) opened with the line "Look how the tower has grown". For some reason this inspired someone to try to "grow" the flat tower. (Flats are scenery pieces, often backdrops and most theatres have a raised "tower" above the stage where the flats can be raised and lowered to facilitate changing the scenery -- and storing the flats themselves). The artists, Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey decided to accomplish this by covering the tower exterior (two sides of the four) with a layer of clay and planting grass seeds in the clay. As the grass sprouted the tower could be said to be "growing" and its appearance would change, from gray concrete to green grass, and knowing that the grass would be short-lived, to brown. There are a couple of pictures of this apparition (including a man "watering the lawn") at: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/2837009#151923162
At the same time, London is being treated to another outdoor art display, entitled "Event Horizon" commissioned by a local civic group to celebrate the reopening after renovation of the Royal Festival Hall. The intent here is to have human figures appear across the city skyline in the area surrounding the river near the Festival Hall. The figures are made from casts of the body of the sculptor (Antony Gormley). Some of these can be seen at the same web site.
A contest might be fun at this point -- provide a caption for the picture of Kathi at left. Perhaps "Is that the dress code?", or "Hi, Big Boy".
We have to admit, our preference reamains with Impressionist paintings and sculptures by Rodin or Michaelangelo.
posted by Chuck and Kathi Calvano @ 8:20 PM
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