The building itself inside is almost hospital-like, clinically white and echoey, which did make it a good space for art.
The artwork that really stuck out for me was Cerith Wynn Evans' flute piece. This was an installation of seven clear crystal flutes which were suspended in the air. They almost resembled a chandelier of frozen icicles. Each emitted a single note as air was pushed through the mouth-pieces from a wind-operated automaton.
The sounds they made emanated through the gallery and you could hear them in all the rooms. I know that some people in my group thought that the sound ruined the other pieces of work, but I didn't think that.
For example Kitty Krause's installation of mirrored light boxes. I think the sound actually contributed to the experience. Her work was displayed in a room separately and it was almost as if I was walking into a construction site in the city. An entire city being built at night. On the wall at the bottom in text it said:
'The reflection angle is a right angle, thus the light does not reach the lamp.'
The gallery opened up from these two separate rooms where the work I have just talked about was displayed. The exhibition was called structure and absence and definitely with Kitty and Cerith's work I felt they played along well with the theme, but I couldn't see how some of the other works fitted in.
Damien Hirst's 'Neverland' was the piece I spent most time in front of, a giant housing estate/glass bathroom cabinet... with shelffuls of handmade pills made from resin. Some looked to be invented, but others (eg, a simple omega 3 tablet) were based on real pills.
Walking alongside Neverland (it's very long, 93 x 344 inches), I could see my own reflection broken up by the shelves. I'm not sure why the mirrors were there except maybe to create the illusion of more pills. I also liked how I had to get involved withe the piece closely to realise what was going on.
It reminds me of a piece in The British Museum - a tapestry called Cradle to Grave – that contains all the tablets an average person consumes in a lifetime. Lovely...
