Ever since I was a child reading was one of my favourite pastimes. It started with my parents & on occasion my aunt reading to me, alongside the most magnificently imaginative stories my paternal[...]
Boxwalla February Book Box
Tag: Culture
Book review: ‘Lara: the untold story that inspired Doctor Zhivago’ by Anna Pasternak
We all have favourite authors and books, but often we don’t dig deeper in order to find out the story of the author or the way that a certain novel came about, particularly so, when it is a known[...]
Culture & Make-Up: Ellis Faas Red at the Temporary Fashion Museum in Rotterdam
Ellis Faas is one of the most unusual make-up artists I have met in person and the products that she creates continue to intrigue, even when you have been[...]
Pop life exhibition at Tate Modern
I have been meaning to go and see this exhibition for a while now, as it was getting quite a few column inches in the newspapers plus Tate Modern building is surrounded by so many unusual buildings that is always nice to just go and walk in the area, observing people, the river and the surroundings. It was raining really badly by the time I got there on saturday, so I rushed in but the coolish air inside didn’t make me feel too welcome either. Well, at least it was dry….
The exhibition is called ‘Pop life: Art in a Material World’ and is spread over several rooms on the 4th floor. You can see the works by Richard Prince, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami (I so love his work!), Andy Warhol, Tracy Emin and other artists. Some of the exhibits on display are completely beyond my comprehension, like Damien Hurst’s sheep in formaldehyde or the ‘dead’ horse lying on the floor with a spear going through it. Two of the exhibition’s rooms contain the material of sexual nature and you won’t be let in if you are under 18. I can only say that the room dedicated to Jeff Koon’s art, mostly containing photos or sculptures of him having intercourse with his ex-wife, pornstar Cicciolina, is quite grotesque.
The only room that I really enjoyed was dedicated to Takashi Murakami and contained shoes that he made in collaboration with Louis Vuitton, some sculptures and colorful figurines and my absolute favorite, a video titled ‘Akihabara’ which stars an actress Kirsten Dunst and was produced by the artist. I ended up humming the tune for the rest of the day.
All in all, I thought that seeing this exhibition, which cost me £12.50, was a waste of my time. The brochure that you can pick up before entering says that ‘Pop life examines how artists since the 80s have cultivated public personas and conjured a dazzling mix of media, commerce and glamour to build their own ‘brands’’. I didn’t learn anything new and most of the exhibits on display made me question their substance.