Tate.Modern.War.Horse

Today was started off no better then a ride on the London Eye. We were able to scope out the city on a beautiful morning. After the London Eye we walked to the Tate Modern. The Tate Modern housed in a restored industrial city is a perfect place to house art. It's a perfect place to house Ai Weiwei's The Unilever Series.

I'm going to say that Weiwei installation was my favorite for the day. Millions and millions of porcelain hand painted sunflower seeds lay on the floor like a carpet. Here the sunflower seeds a natural form inhabit the industrial very unnatural space. Though both the installation and the space they are in are man made, there is a beautiful contrast there. The grey scale that takes over the vast room is also quite amazing, from the different shades of grey that come from the seeds on the floor to the grey walls. I don't know if it was by chance, it being overcast outside, but the lighting was beautiful too. It was subtle and almost allowed for the ground to glow. As the viewer got closer to the work, the whole became individual pieces of sunflower seeds. At first glance I thought these porcelain pieces were real. It speaks to the concept of the individual being a part of the whole and that the individual is needed in order to make that whole. Though they may look the same from a distance, each piece is hand crafted and has its own uniqueness.

After spending sometime there it was off to the Gaughin Show. Not my favorite of the rooms to walk around in but appreciated it all the same. The Show being very stuffy and crowded it was hard to be able to enjoy and really stand with the work. I enjoyed his smaller more intimate drawings and paintings. I also liked how he combined image with text very relevant to many contemporary ways.

Later on that evening we joined the Theater students to a play titled War Horse. Based on WW1 this story was told through the lives of horses. The life size horses were really amazing in there design and the way they were puppets. That everything played as a puppet