This day started off a little gloomy, so we walked to the Tate Modern and passed a couple of ‘Poets for Hire’ along the way. They were not doing much business, perhaps because they asked people to pay whatever they wanted and how is anyone supposed to know what is the right price?
Outside the Tate Modern were blocks of melting ice. These were part of an art installation by Olafur Eliasson highlighting global warming and its effects on climate. The 24 blocks of ice were part of an iceberg which had broken away from an ice sheet and fished out of a fjord in Greenland. You couldn’t help but be drawn to these ice blocks and wonder ‘Why?’ which I guess is the point.
The Great Turbine Halls inside the Tate Modern always present a surprise, but this year I wasn’t sure what I was looking at. In one direction was the face of ? on which people were playing and dancing. The sign said this was something to do with immigration, but I didn’t get it. In the other direction the floor seemed to be coloured a bit like a Mark Rothko painting. We hunted out the Rothko Gallery as that space had made a great impression on me years ago, but this time it just felt small, dark, and gloomy. So what’s changed? Must be me!
So, we visited the cafe on the 3rd floor and went outside to see the view. By now the weather had changed and the northbank of the Thames was lit up in glorious winter ight.
We wandered around the newer extension at the back of the Tate Modern and came across a truely amazing exhibition called ‘The Clock’ by Christian Marclay. It was a large hall with rows of comfy 3-seater sofas and a huge screen showing film clips all referencing time to match real time. For example, it was 2:21pm and on screen was an actor looking at a watch showing the time as 2:21pm. It was fascinating seeing how the clips fitted together to make their own strange narrative, and trying to remember the name of familiar faces and films. Apparently this 24 hour film took 3 years to put together and has around 12,000 moments from different films. We stayed for about 40 min totally mesmorised.
Because the Globe theatre is just around the corner from our hotel, we have to pass this mural of Shakespeare. Today we saw a busker playing a tuba which released pulses of fire! Looked quite dangerous but was definetly eye-catching.
Here are just a view images of Borough Market; we stocked up on cheeses to take to Elaine’s for Christmas. The creamy Silton-like Stichelton was a great hit and disappeared very quickly.
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