Thursday 30 July 2009

Sleeping Beauty


image via artnet
For my birthday this year my Dad bought me membership to the Museums Association which means free entry into lots of exhibitions and galleries across Britain. I have been pretty bad about using it, so yesterday made the effort to visit the Hayward Gallery after work, en route to supper at Anna's. The current exhibition at the Hayward is called 'Walking in my Mind' and features the work of ten different artists, who have each created a piece of installation art to represent their 'individual mindscape'. There was one particular room, that created by Chiharu Shiota, that stood out most for me, perhaps because I had the Seeds and Stitches's fairytale post from Monday in my head. Shiota's room was filled with a network of black threads which crisscrossed each other over and over, reaching from floor to ceiling and wall to wall, but structured so that they created an arched walkway around the room. Suspended in the centre of the room were five white dresses, ballgowns or possibly wedding dresses, that hung there, entangled in the black threads. The whole thing was very fairytale-esque, and Sleeping Beauty in particular sprang to mind, with the castle and sleeping princess encircled by a wall of thorns. When I visited the artist's website, the image on the homepage made me think of Sleeping Beauty even more...very haunting, and rather suitable for a distinctly chilly summer's day.

image from here

No comments:

Post a Comment