Exhibition at the Hayward Gallery & Easter Music

Cities in a suitcase

 I've often said how much I like the Hayward Gallery, and last week I took a chance by going up to London to see if there were any tickets available for the double exhibition (running together) - Threads of Life by Chiharu Shiota and Heart to Heart  by Yin Xiuzhen. I'd seen a few photos on the website, but I had no idea real what to expect. I was totally blown away.

Xiuzhen's suitcase cities were mesmerising. They were placed on a replica of a Baggage Area of an airport. New York and London feature and everything was done using found clothes material. I'm assuming the suitcases were found too. I thought of all those suitcases we'd disposed of from my cousin's old house when clearing it. I could have donated at least six! As well as the suitcases there was a 'building' and book shelves. Everything was made in the same way. With the books you could see what the back of the shelves looked like with the rest of the clothes stuffed together. Recognised brand names could be seen, like GAP. With so many clothes ending up in landfill, I love this type of art.

London

The back of the book shelves

Equally mesmerising were Shiota's Thread of Life. I cannot imagine how long these installations took to arrange on display, so intricate as they are. Again, found material was used, at least in one with the hanging threads which you walk through. Here are letters and articles fixed to the threads. Theres is also the room with the open door. And finally, the eerie beds used by workers. My photos of these came out like monochrome pictures, which I really like. Everything was either red or black in this part of the exhibition.

Destruction of Beijing

This is one of the best installations exhibitions I've seen in a long while and I highly recommend it. The exhibition is on until May, so there is still time to see it.

St Martin in the Fields

On what is known in the Church calendar as Low Saturday, I went to a concert of Easter music in St Martin-in-the-Fields. Allegri Miserere by Candlelight was an hour long. What drew me was Miserere, which is one of my favourite pieces. Not being a huge fan of choral music, I checked out another piece on the programme on YouTube first, to see what it was like. I did, so I took a chance and bought a ticket. I was not disappointed. St Martin's Voices were terrific. Miserere mei, Deus was stunning. The male singer stood in the pulpit and the small group singing the responses stood at the end of the nave. Oh, those top C's. Wow|! The main singers stood in the performances area, and then when the piece was finished, all the singers came together.

O vos imes by Tomas Luis de Victoria was the piece I had listened to on YouTube. It's really short, but beautiful. Then came Stabat Mater by Domenico Scarletti (a friend of Handel, whose biography I am currently reading). My parents had sung this when they belonged to a choral choir. Me and my brother used to get dragged along to these things and all I thought about was when would it all end! Oh, how things have changed. I think my mum was smiling down to find me listening to this type of music! 

Stabat Mater had ten movements. And then we came to The Reproaches by John Sanders. This was the only piece sung in English, and is a modern piece. I found this particularly moving, maybe because I could understand the words. However, the programme had all pieces with the English translation alongside the Latin. The last piece was James MacMillan's version of Miserere. This reflected some of the original in the responses, but was very different in the rest.

Overall, this was a wonderful programme of music. The venue was almost full. I managed to grab a cheap ticket in a side box where I had been before. Although there is a restricted view, there isn't a pillar in the way, and it works for me. It certainly doesn't detract from the brilliant acoustics. St Martin's is one of my favourite London churches, and I have been there many times. The Crypt has a great cafe and shop, and there is a chapel for a lunchtime short communion service which I went to once. The church runs Friday lunchtime concerts, Crypt concerts (a silent disco) as well as the concerts in the main church. They also have talks which they put on YouTube. It is a thriving church right by Trafalgar Square.

Of course I took a few photos while up in London!