We went to see the Dan Flavin retrospective at the Hayward Gallery yesterday.
I think this is the first time the exhibition has been shown to such an extent in the UK - there were 90 pieces there yesterday, including his line drawings and ideas for future sculptures.
Dan Flavin was a New Yorker who designed sculptures made of commercially available neon tubes, and some of them are plain beautiful, as well as being stark, fluorescent light never being that flattering a media. The first exhibit you see when entering is a grid of about 200 squares made up of bright green neon tubes. Others are smaller. One I liked particularly was made up abou 120 circular flouresecent tubes, the kind you used to find regularly in 70s designed kitchens.
Apparently many of the bulbs are hard to pick up now as fashions have changed and gases and gone up on value. Apparently, some of the rarer Philips tubes have had to be scoured from various old warehouse stock. I would hate to have to be the person to turn them on each morning - I'd dread the sound of a now-valuable tube popping.
Worth a visit, and look out for the array of 18 bright green tubes laid vertically to form an eight foot high wall. Its like the gateway to heaven. In fact, there is a yellow version too, but the green one seems far more dramatic to my eyeballs.
Despite being given a ticking off from one of the Hayward's staff, here is a rather bad picture I took with my mobile phone which sort of gives you an idea of what to expect. The picture is rather blue, where the real sculpture was actually made of multi-coloured tubes and is far more stunning and gorgeous than my poor old Motorola can deal with.
Mood: Bit bored, but in an OK way
Book: The Lost Cosmonaut - Daniel Kalder
Music: 6Music's "Freak Zone"
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