Adventures in Thanet, Part Two
Actually part three or four, since getting to Broadstairs was more complicated than anticipated (the 8 takes a weird detour to pass the Turner Contemporary, with no visible convenient stop) and there was coffee/work stop in Caffe Nerd at Westwood Chaos (itself approached through a circuitous route on the Loop). I'll write about Broadstairs later - suffice it to say I saw both this week's Old Lookout Gallery exhibition, and reccied for my own project. I now know, more or less, where I shall take the photographs and how. We'll see if reality matches the plan. Thirteen locations. Annoyingly, today would have been perfect weather, and it was sufficiently quiet to photograph in peace.
But I came back earlier than planned - although it was sort of the plan all along - to finally visit Turner Contemporary, the long anticipated and argued upon arts space which I had the impression was not to be associated with a passe word such as "Gallery". The original plans, by Snøhetta, were to place the gallery partly under water, and it has to be said that British civil engineering has a mixed record for underwater building. It's further from the harbour, and a David Chipperfield design. It clearly aims to be an iconic building, but not of the level on Towner or De La Warr Pavilion, nor does it reuse an industrial site, like Tate Modern. It is closer in spirit (and I suspect cost) to Nottingham Contemporary (Caruso St John Architects), which is built into the side of the Lace Market hill and makes similar use of concrete and metal.
The building has gone up remarkably quickly - I don't recall seeing cranes, and I'm sure I've been nearby in the last year. From the road, it looks like two cubes next to each other, both with a sloped top (apparently there are six). There's a flight of concrete steps to give the necessary above sea level and climb to see the art drama. I chose the wheel chair/pram ramp, which keeps the building out of sight behind concrete. The piazza has cafe tables, and seems a pleasant space at the moment. Most of the building is clad in what I took to be a silvery metal - not Gehry shiny a la Walt Disney Concert Hall - but in fact white opaque glass, and generous windows.
The Art
I confess I didn't spend long looking at the art - I'll go back for a longer visit soon - but it struck me the building was, er, generous for the amount of art. There's a Turner painting of a volcano The Eruption of the Souffrier Mountains, in the Island of St Vincent, at Midnight, on the 30th of April, 1812, from a Sketch Taken at the Time by Hugh P. Keane, Esqre (1815), and the nearest there is to photographs are pictures of Margate, in a sort of panorama, done in the style of etching on mirrors by Ellen Harvey. Most of the art is upstairs - a safety measure due to the sea, but also part of the need for an ascent to see the materials.
The show stealer is the window - Daniel Buren's Borrowing and Multiplying the Landscape, work in situ, yellow (latex?) stripes across the north window, endlessly reflected in mirrors. It both steals Turner's beloved light, and frames the seascape.
So Thanet now has two world class exhibition spaces!
This entry was originally posted at http://stares.dreamwidth.org/4273.html, as part of my photography blog. Please comment there.