At the foot of the gallery was this piece called The Nine Minds, by Eric Anderson which consisted of 9 vividly coloured sides of a concertinaed board, each with a different mood listed on the top, and either a set of head phones, or a microphone attached. The idea is that you chose your mood, then listen to the headphone or speak into the microphone and eventually, all the moods will mix, and we will all be able to be "one great mood together".
Through into the main exhibition space, we were faced with a huge mirrored wall, similar to a dance studio, with wigs, necklaces and hula hoops hanging from the hand rail. I didn't really get it, I'm not sure if somebody was secretly filming us or taking photos or something, and possibly we were the art, but I had great fun trying on the wigs and hula hooping!
In the middle of the gallery space was a small, dark room. Inside, in the centre, there was an arcade-like racing car seat and steering wheel and a box of 3D glasses. On the cinema screen at the back, there was a video on loop of children playing cars along a race track, which happens to be the black object photographed above. I tried to take a 3D photograph...it didn't really work!
So, this section was clearly for kids, but nevertheless, we got involved. Any excuse to draw a picture!
This was a picture that somebody had left on the side......strange....
Our pictures, pinned on the hall of fame (plus business cards aha):
This room freaked me out. The photograph doesn't do it justice, but it was a pure white open, yet confined space. I felt like I had died, and I was in limbo.
Downstairs, there was a second gallery. This seemed to be more of a science experiment involving art. The photograph below tells a story of 15 white jars, all containing a different scent. The idea is that, in pairs, one person smells the jar, and guesses the scent, and the other person reveals the answer from a secret sheet of paper. Some of the scents were foul, like skunk shit. Others were lovely, like roses. Awesome fun though.
In this lab (below), and it really did look like a science lab, down to the little gas taps on the table tops, we put the headphones on and listened to four pieces of music. On the piece of paper provided, we had to draw whatever we felt when listening to the contrasting symphonies.
I wonder how a psychologist would analyse this:
Continuing with the interactive theme, we played another game. This meant sticking your hand in a black hole to feel the hidden sculpture to decipher which it was from a bunch of photographic cards.
And I've never seen an art gallery like this before:
This section was pretty cool. We had to sit opposite each other, with a divider between us. With exactly the same shapes, Tommy made a sculpture, and I had to ask him questions in order to try to recreate what he had made, but without seeing it.
Well, that was a complete fail:
But, when I made one, and he questioned me, we did it! Woo hoo!
Possibly, the best art gallery I've ever visited.
Awesome.
