Turner Contemporary Margate and how do you take a picture of something that isn’t there, a day off ramble about this and that.

With The Turner Contemporary there was one work of art that was there when the gallery first opened, see http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/2011/04/pictures-of-inside-turner-contemporary.html this means that to those of us who know the gallery from the beginning have come to accept this as part of the building.

Frankly when the gallery’s first exhibition which this work of art was part of closed and all the other artworks were removed leaving this one behind looked like a case of aesthetic cold feet on the part of the management.

What I am talking about here is “Borrowing and Multiplying the Landscape” by Daniel Buren, well I wrote abut this exhibit ages ago, see http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/2011/04/turner-contemporary-revisited-some-more.html

Well now it’s gone and about time I think, there is a blank canvas to photograph people and “The Kiss” against.

The Turner Contemporary fascinates me, it was very busy today and obviously busy with visitors with money to spend, although for the most part Margate has lost places to spend it.

There was a queue of parents and children waiting to spend £2 on painting with the elements, I rather like the idea letting children paint with fire.

Something that occurred to me looking at the Turner paintings today is that Turner didn’t sign any of them. So I guess having a signed Turner would be a bit suspicious, some on ones tried to sell me I signed first edition of “Under Milk Wood, Dylan Thomas died the year before it was published.

The protestors were still there, chatting to the gallery visitors and taking advantage of the milder weather to thaw out a bit.

Another new neighbour for the gallery is The Ramsgate Tunnels exhibition in the Droit House. 

Coming back to photographs in the gallery I have to say I miss the opportunity to take photographs in the upstairs gallery, although I understand why it has to be forbidden, I do wonder how in an age when everyone’s mobile phone contains a camera how long this sort of photography ban will remain workable.

Anyway I did take some pictures today here is what was on the camera card http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/laptop212/id7.htm 


I see the shadow cabinet details are still missing from the council’s website, something that is beginning to look like more than a TDCIT glitch, perhaps they really are having a reshuffle.

Like the significance of the absence of “Borrowing and Multiplying the Landscape” by Daniel Buren, the significance of something missing reminds me of the poem.

Indeed the very existence of this artwork meant that a large proportion of what’s in the picture above wasn't there.

Yesterday upon the stair

I met a man who wasn’t there

He wasn’t there again today

Oh, how I wish he’d go away

When I came home last night at three

The man was waiting there for me

But when I looked around the hall

I couldn’t see him there at all!

Go away, go away, don’t you come back any more!

Go away, go away, and please don’t slam the door

Last night I saw upon the stair

A little man who wasn’t there

He wasn’t there again today

Oh, how I wish he’d go away

Do I miss the missing infinity? I don’t really know yet, perhaps I will know better when I get used to them taking away what mostly wasn’t there. 

Turner Contemporary Margate Revisited, some more photographs of inside the gallery, some criticisms and problems.

Every new project is bound to have teething problems and attract some criticism and David Chipperfield’s turner contemporary is no exception.

If you are not familiar with this art gallery I would recommend you first look at the pictures I took of the inside if it last week, here are the links to the pages with them on:

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/Turner/id2.htm 

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/Turner/index.htm

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/Turner/id4.htm

You may also wish to read my blog post about my first visit, here is the link http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/2011/04/pictures-of-inside-turner-contemporary.html

Today’s pictures are on two pages, unedited straight from the camera card, here are the links:

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/laptopturner

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/laptopturner/id3.htm

I had my two youngest children with me and the way things worked out I took them both into the building for the first time separately, they both said it smells like a swimming pool, I had a good old sniff and couldn’t confirm this.

I meandered around with David Hockney in the back of my mind, the pictures are all natural light, with the obvious compensation for tungsten halogen and fluorescent, some fairly low shutter speeds all hand held, I took a tripod but didn’t use it, lens focal lengths between 10mm and 55mm, 35mm camera, sorry about the dirt in it, it’s worn out and needs replacing.

OK here comes the criticism.

The road layout outside the gallery is dreadful, one near miss and one minor accident in the short time we were there. It is summed up as fast traffic on a road full of pedestrians that looks like a pavement with badly placed traffic lights.

The surface is very porous paving slabs that are already badly stained with the oil from cars passing over it during the last week.

Inside the gallery the polished stone like textured concrete floors, that so impressed me last week, have been damaged by using the wrong cleaning equipment, not sure if this is covered by the insurance, in some places quite deep circular grooves have appeared in the surface.

Parts of the gallery were too hot on what it is a sunny April day, I don’t know if the climate control was set wrongly or is inadequate. A mixture of very large windows and the conservation of valuable works of art may cause problems.

One thing about the TC is they are very quick to rectify some errors, “closed Monday except bank holidays” is now prominently displayed at the top of their homepage.

I will start my criticism of the aesthetic on home ground, from the shop assistant perspective and point out that books published at $25 USD are not usually priced at £25 Stirling, like wot they are in TC shop.

Next the first artwork: “Borrowing and Multiplying the Landscape” by Daniel Buren.

As this is art, here is a novices description, yellow stripes with a big round hole in the middle stuck to one of the windows, with lots of mirrors stuck to the walls each side.

We probably shouldn’t limit art by attaching names to it, but the stripes look a bit abstract to me, think Margate, think deckchairs and all that and the rest of course is all done with mirrors.

I was dead influenced by this work and have been playing with reflections since I first saw it last week.

The problem if anything is that Daniel Buren is just too good at this sort of thing, he has looked at the gallery space and considered what should be there, so that frankly when the exhibit is taken away, it’s going to look, well missing.

I don’t really see how having one art exhibit stuck there all the time is going to help the TC, I mean if some artist or rich bod donated them a major artwork they could play the swaps game with other galleries, but not this one, it fits where it is.

From the shop assistants point of view though, the question We find surfacing in the back of our mind, like “what is the square root of minus one” is. Is it great art or a very good start on a shop window display? Where are the goods?

One thing that I am certain of it is a particularly helpful exhibit to the photographer, like having an extra camera attachment, so thanks Dan. Or should I say, so long and thatnks for all the affichages sauvages.

There is a bit of sense of pulling no punches with this exhibition, in most cases the gallery hasn’t attempted to go for contemporary art that anyone can understand. This failure, I suppose is best expressed it terms of the failed magician, you know what I mean they haven’t gone out of their way on the sawing in half front, not even a solitary half mouse, let alone a cow.


I suppose the exception is "arcadia" by Ellen Harvey, the mundane explanation of this one is the shed within the shed. Outside the shed is something that could very well be waves projected light that could very well be particles, opposite an arcade sign. Inside the shed lots of black and light pictures of Margate.

Various engravers have had a bit of a go at Thanet and my favourite, Henry Moses, even drew a map showing where he had done the drawings for the engravings, no this isn’t a criticism, I aint saying “lacks map” and the work is certainly going down well with the locals.

There are people standing in front of the pictures saying things like. “I like that one.” Almost like being at Ramsgate’s great wall.

I thought of the gallery stairs.

I understand it therefore I like it.

I don’t like it because I understand it.

I don’t understand art therefore I like it.

I like it therefore I understand art.

Sorry lots on knots RD pass the couch.

Sorry about that I have put my shop assistant hat back on. Here in the books business a lecturer in literature postulated the notion of T S Eliot’s influence on Shakespeare, admittedly he did so in a humorous novel. However this was a problem for me, now the Turner and I have tried with this painting, but I just don’t think it is a very good Turner. One thing about though is it makes me think of the Turners that I do think are very good paintings, there aren’t many very good English artists and Turner is the exception rather than the rule, he is world class. So I found on both occasions, my mid swirl with colours, mostly goldish and surrounding some sort of focused Turnerish lump, you know the train funnel one with the viaduct exploding in Turnerishness.

Anyway this is the problem with the next exhibit “The Perfect Third” by Conrad Shawcross, the influence of Turner on Shawcross approached from the influence of E Harvey on Turner, the light that is.

So there I am with my camera playing with The Perfect Third trying to photograph the people exploding into Turnerishness.



   

I will ramble on if I get time I hope to criticise the artworks on display in this exhibition next.

Pictures of Inside The Turner Contemporary a Margate Ramble

I went to Margate this morning, to see both the new Turner Contemporary Art Gallery and to look at the first art exhibition there.

I arrived before the gallery opened and wandered around a bit first, a few parts of the landscaping outside of the gallery are obviously not finished yet, including what appears to be the largest concrete flowerpot I have ever noticed.

Most of what is there inside and outside the gallery should be pretty obvious from the pictures, however one thing you can't explain is the smoothness of the concrete surfaces that  feel like polished stone.

I walked around the gallery and the town a bit, trying to find a notepad and a pen and have to thank the lady in Remembrance Angel who gave me both.

There was a very loud alarm going off on an empty building opposite the gallery, fortunately this stopped after a while.

Eventually I came at the gallery from what must have been the tradesman’s entrance or something so I arrived before it opened, on the inside of the barriers that were there to control any crowds, that could have turned up.

This takes you to the end of this page of pictures

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/Turner/id11.htm

Eventually I gravitated to the kitchen, in order to check that what was going on there would be ok when the gallery opened, fortunately people are usually kind to me in kitchens.

I have sampled the wares there and you can be assured that it is a good place to eat.

The staff are charming too as you can see from the pictures. I then went into the gift and bookshop, the gallery opened about this time.

I think this should take you up to the end of this page of pictures

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/Turner/id2.htm

Next I had an inconvenient moment probably due to the way I gravitate towards kitchens, and obviously a chat with the chap cleaning the loo, he says that it is hard work to keep clean, but he thinks that it’s a fantastic building.

Then to James Webb’s marvellous picture of Margate, and on to some good and bad stairs, to view Etagram, this was the only work in this room, either intentionally or they intend to hang some more pictures, not sure really.

On to the Russell Crotty exhibits, I contemplated being employed to turn the pages of the very large books and wondered what happened to the gallery attendant who tore a page.

And then to the shed within the shed, Arcadia, this contains Ellen Harvey’s illuminated Plexiglas etchings of Margate, my favourite part of the exhibition and by far the most difficult to photograph, sorry about the results.

That takes you to the end of this page of pictures

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/Turner/index.htm

I wasn’t that keen on the Turner, this isn’t one of my favourite pictures of his, I played about with the camera at this point tying to get Turner like effects, this sort of affected behaviour is I know rather embarrassing, so please accept my apologies. Especially to Conrad Shawcross whose exhibits I used as a background for this tomfoolery in the next gallery.

You may also note that the Turner gallery has a very big lift, most galleries do, but not always available for the public to use, it had the inevitable attendant as I expect it was expensive.

At this point I did what most Englishmen do when confronted potentially embarrassing situations and went in search of a pot of tea, served in a civilised fashion.

This takes you up to the end of this page of pictures.

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/Turner/id4.htm

Next tea in Puffins Café, very civilised, pot of the with proper china for £1.20, something I considered to be excellent value.

Then into Artists Open Studios on the harbour arm, some good quality work here as you can see from the pictures of the pictures, I hope.

That should take you to the end of this page.

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/Turner/id5.htm

Past the shell ladies and on to the Imperial Art Gallery and a few pictures of the people on the beach and into the old town. I was surprised to find the Community pharmacy Gallery closed. Punch and Judy were amusing the children, well I suppose you can see from the pictures. Into Outside the Square Gallery where they told me that I couldn’t take any pictures, this threw me a bit,

That takes you to the end of this page http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/Turner/id6.htm

I took a few more pictures but was flagging a bit by then see http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/Turner/id7.htm so I went back to Ramsgate. 

 I will ramble on and add more pictures as the mood takes me.