Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting exhibition at Somerset House by Eloise Hawser, the resident artist at the studios there, inspired by the building’s relationship with the River Thames, Joseph Bazalgette’s embankment and sewer system and the current Thames Tideway ‘Super Sewer’ project. I wasn’t too sure how all the ideas in the show hung together, in particular how she then linked the Thames to medical instruments which measured flows around the body however there were some fascinating diagrams and objects. I loved the digital print on the floor showing the different depths of the Thames in 1928 and a diagram looking at the wildlife that can be found in the river. I was interested in the items on the ‘Super Sewer’ as you can see lots of dredging work going on for this at the moment at various points in the river. My favourite item was the simulation of a journey on the Thames from Wapping to Somerset House used to train tug boat masters removing the waste from the current sewer works. As ...

Site-specific installation at the ICA by Eloise Hawser based on the life span of a cinema organ. I’ll be honest. I’m not sure I understood this, but there were some interesting element which I found rather calming. The centre piece a very slow moving mechanism called the Burbey Wurlitzer which had various cogs and chains moving so slowly it took a while to realise they were. This was somehow linked to the fact that the ceiling was changing colour creating different atmospheres in the lower gallery. The best things though was that I learned a new word “skeuomorphism” the process of making new stuff out of old stuff or as the leaflet describes it “the potential for obsolete objects to be appropriated and transformed for contemporary use”.