Categories: heritage-and-art
Date: 20 June 2009 15:27:23
Today I finally made it over to the Baltic to explore the North's answer to the Tate Modern.
Unlike the Tate Modern there are no permanent installations, rather it is several floors of exhibitions. Some are easy to find....taking up most of a floor, others are more tucked away. The first I discovered was tucked away between the cafe and the information point. It was a film by David Blandy entitled "The Barefoot Lone Pilgrim". It was clever and entertaining; the bit I saw becoming a montage of rap music, suburban and city living and Kung Fu movie wisdom. The sofa that I lolled in whilst watching was v. comfortable aswell.
Moving on into the gallery properly, after negotiating the shop which was sadly lacking in a decent selection of post cards or cultural studies books of a reasonable price, you got to Harland Miller's "Don't Let the Bastards Cheer You Up." It was an exhibition based on dark humour and the "it's grim up north" theme. The works based upon subversion of 70's posters relating to the Yorkshire Ripper were disturbing. They begged the question of whether good art justifies what is really bad taste. Yet, this was part of the cultural landscape he grew up in. More comfortable were his subversions of penguin book covers. My favourite was the one based on the green penguin crime novels I remember my mother consuming at an alarming rate. The title was "Can I get Involved in Your Crisis" (and yes I checked the question mark was missing). Most amusing was the one based upon the blue Pelican cover which proclaimed "Bridlington Costal Erosion. It's Not all Bad News". This is the type of modern art I really like.
Moving up to the other floors I was less impressed. The next exhibition I encountered was the Baltic's Dawin exhibition. You stepped out of the lift to be hit by the sounds of a childrens choir singing All Things Bright and Beautiful before moving into "A Duck for Mr Dawin". Now this is one of those exhibitions where unsuprisingly history, natural history and art meet in film, sculpture and installation. Not my sort of thing but a clever and well put together exhibition.
Finally it was up to Sarah Sze "Tilting Planet". Have to admit this was the sort of contemporary art that I just don't get but which is very clever.