3-5 October 08
www.southbankcentre.co.uk/visual-arts
South African artist Robin Rhode has transformed the Queen Elizabeth Hall undercroft on the South Bank into an optical illusory landscape... He uses art to comment on urban poverty, the politics of leisure and the commodification of youth cultures... ok!
"My idea for the project is to create an optic environment using layered geometric forms that are sprayed directly onto the wall through a stencil," - "These forms will animate the environment, particularly for the skateboarders moving through the space."Robin Rhode.
...While enjoying my morning stroll into work last Friday morning (3 Oct) I was lucky enough to stumble across Robin Rhode and helpers creating his new piece of site-specific art (pics above). It was amazing to see the Skate park so sterile and graffiti free... all the walls had been painted silver, ready to accept the new 'look' created by Robin and his black spray/stencil combo. I revisited the site yesterday morning (6 Oct) and found the final results a little disappointing and uninspiring. AND - unfortunately much of the work had already been covered in fresh tagging and graffiti... so the skaters obviously thought the same as me then!
The Hayward are holding a major retrospective of Robin's work from the 7th Oct, so I will post more once visited... sounds very interesting!
Regarding the future of the Southbank's skate City... Earlier this year the skating community became alarmed by the Southbank centre's proposals to create a new entrance to the Queen Elizabeth Hall directly on the riverside walk. A petition, signed by more than 4,000 people, was handed to the prime minister urging him to guarantee the future of skateboarding on the South Bank. Michael Lynch, chief executive of the Southbank centre said - "I think there's no question that we see skateboarding as an important part of what we're doing," - "I started off as a skater so I know where it works. There are better ways, I think, that we can make the space work, depending on what the future plans are."
7 out of 10
