Friday 14 February 2014

Missing..... Martin Creed

I'm going to do my best not to be that whiney person who never gets over the fact they had an incredible overseas adventure only to move somewhere else in search of other adventures. No one likes that person. Not really.

That being said....

Martin Creed, Work No.200. Half the Air in A Given Room, 1998


What I wouldn't do just for a day in London to you know, see the Hannah Hoch exhibition at Whitechapel Gallery before popping over to Southbank to see the Martin Creed survey at the Hayward. My Instagram feed is only feeding one thing at the moment - my insane jealousy.

I'm not sure how much I knew of Creed before I left for London and my MA but my first encounter with his work came courtesy of a school trip to Ikon Gallery in Birmingham, part of a bigger trip up through the North of England to the Liverpool Biennial. Even then I was struck by his gently surreal style of questioning the point of things with sculptures made from Blu Tack rolled and squashed to the wall or balls of scrunched paper afforded their own plinths. There was something both elegant and odd about these works, simplified expressions of banality and beauty, with a dash of frivolous humour thrown in to the mix too.  

Martin Creed, Work No.79, 1993
Later encounters included an Easter date with Lovely Boy to Sketch in Mayfair, when he was commissioned to re-envision the dining space as a complete work of art. God I loved that. Replacing every piece of furniture, cutlery and crockery with something unique and one-off to the space. In the pantheon of Memorable Meals I had the privilege to eat during my five years that one is definitely a top ten.

Martin Creed, Work No.1343, 2012
And now there's Creed's survey at the Hayward. And I am in Sydney.

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