Cathy's Art Diary

Fragmented pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery by Minsuk Cho. I found this year’s pavilion disappointing. I’d liked the press photographs of it from the air forming a star shape but from the ground it felt disjointed with few angles from where you could see it as a whole. I liked the pink stained glass entrance from the gallery but the library space felt like an add on and as an x-librarian I don’t like things which try to reinvent a form which is under threat, just support the libraries you do have! I’m afraid I am a grumpy old what not and found the climbing frame element annoying. In previous years the pavilion has been a haven of peace and quiet but this encouraged noise. There was also little comfortable space to sit. Closed 27 October 2024 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard  

Delightful structure at the Serpentine Gallery by Lina Ghotmeh. I must say as I walked up to the pavilion I was a bit disappointed as it was quite flat although I did note that it was the same height as the tree canopy that surrounded it. This year it worked best from inside where the finish to the woodwork was beautiful. I loved the crescent shaped tables and lovely stools which evidently reflected the Mediterranean idea of families eating together. Sadly there were only four of us there when I was there so it didn’t stimulate the conversations that it was meant to start. I would also say that a better food selection than coffee in cardboard cups and a few croissants weren’t in the   spirit. I wish I had gone earlier in the season when the weather was better to get the full effect of the light coming through the lattice walls but I did enjoy it even on a dull day. Closed 29 October 2023 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard    

Impressive installation/pavilion outside the Hayward Gallery by Asim Waqif. The piece consists of poles and strips of bamboo woven together and supported by steel. Evidently the piece was improvised over 10 days. It is billed as a place of contemplation but that is a bit hard when it also has sticks with which to hit the poles to use them as musical instruments. I love the contrast of the natural materials against the brutalist concrete of the gallery and the way it entices you to walk through. This is the third annual commission presented in partnership with the Bagri Foundation to bring new public artworks by artists from or inspired by Asia and its diaspora to the Southbank Centre. Closes 22 October 2023  

Colourful pavilion at the Victoria and Albert Museum to mark the holy month of Ramadan. This is the first Ramadan Pavilion at the gallery and is designed by Shahed Saleem to evoke an abstracted mosque. It is based on prints and drawings in the gallery’s collection and has been used for events and two open Iftars as part of the annual Ramadan Festival curated by Ramadan Tent Project. I loved the way it had simplified elements of a mosque and was open on all sides. It was a shame you couldn’t go in it when I was there but that might have been due to the rain or to stop children using it as a climbing frame. In its bright colours it was a great use of the porcelain floored new entrance square. Closed 1 May 2023

Austere Pavilion at the Serpentine gallery designed by Theaster Gates. I always enjoy coming to this annual installation and this year's is large and impressive. It’s less open than other years but I love the vista through it and the deep, dark space it creates. Outside there is wood at the bottom and a soft metal like zinc round the top but inside it is all lined in back wood. There are benches around the walls with a lovely set of seven silvered pictures on one side. Reading the commentary it references ceramic kilns both from Stoke on Trent and America as well as various African buildings and the Rothko chapel. I love the fact the pictures are made with a roofing technique as a nod to Gates father who was a roofer. Outside the structure is a bell salvaged from St. Laurence, a landmark Catholic Church that once stood in Chicago's South Side where Gates was born. Closes 16 October 2022 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard

Interesting  pavilion at the Hayward Gallery by Jyll Bradley. This work is colourful and uses bright colours which look great against the concrete of the South Bank. I liked the link to Londoners going to Kent as Hop pickers and the shape is meant to be like hop vines. I’m not sure I would have got the link to hop picking without the explanation and that’s a shame as it is an interesting emotive one and the reason for the piece, I loved the way the colour of the sky changes as you walk through. I’ve seen it against since in different lights and from different angles and it is effective. However if you want people to sit in it, picnic etc as the introduction suggests, it would be good to have seats inside. It does feel like a lean to on a concrete structure and is not inviting to stop within it. Closes 2 October 2022

Dramatic structure at the Serpentine for this year’s Pavilion commission by Counterspace, the South-African architectural practice directed by Sumayya Vally. The structure looks very solid and permanent and is a change from some of the more temporary looking structures. It is built of reclaimed steel, cork and timber covered with micro-cement and yet looks like a modernist concrete piece. From reading the commentary I learnt it quotes various community spaces for immigrant communities in London but I must admit I would not have got this from looking at it. I did stop for a coffee in it and liked the way people were using the various heights of benches to sit and talk in small groups. However the concrete style seats were not the most comfortable and didn’t encourage me to linger. I would have liked to see the space in use for large event as I think this would have worked well. Closed 17 October 2021 Reviews Times Telegraph Evening Standard  

Wonderful variety of national pavilions at the 58th Venice Biennale on the Arsenale site. My second review is looking at the national pavilions on the Arsenal site. These tend to be smaller than the main pavilions at the Giardini but contained some fascinating and beautiful work. I liked the India pavilion which focused on artists who had worked with or been inspired by Gandhi to mark 150 years since his birth. I loved a wall of painted sandals and modern murgal style paintings. I loved the Ghana pavilion whose interior was designed by the architect Sir David Adjaye in the colours of the land and featured lovely paintings by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and El Anatsui’s hangings made of bottle tops. Also the Luxemberg offering, shown here, of note books soaked in sea water and sculpture into different shapes. I also have to mention the Malta Pavilion for Trevor Borg’s re-imagination of an archaeological site on suspended black platforms, stark white objects on   a dark ba...

Elegant pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery designed this year by Junya Ishigami. I thought this year’s Pavilion fitted beautifully in the space, respecting the trees and working well with the undulations in the land. I liked its swooping slate roof which was held up by thin steel posts. The random placing of the slates made the roof look like the sea close up and I loved the fact that it came down to the ground at either end so you could see its structure. The whole thing looked like a more substantial building from a distance but was more fragile close up. The internal space worked well to give a more open area than some years. Closed 6 October 2019 Review Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard

This year’s pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery by Architect Frida Escobedo.   This had a more substantial and blocky appearance than some of the previous pavilions but I loved the detail of it. It was made of roof tiles mounted one above the other horizontally on scaffolding poles. It looked solid however the sun perforates through the walls to light the space. There was an event on when I went so it was hard to assess the internal space but it seemed quite large with a café area at the back off one of the entrances.   Closes on 7 October 2018   Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard  

Lovely pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery designed this year by Francis Kere. It’s an annual event to have a pavilion at the Serpentine. I particularly like this years although it appears simpler than some years have been.   It looks like a large wooden spaceship has landed on a blue stand. I like way the red and the navy blue wood work together. The stand looks simple but is made up of pyramids of stepped wood blocks with light coming through. The space inside is more open that in other years and easier to walk around. The light comes thought the slatted roof and there is a space in the centre set on upside down pylons which is open to the elements with shingle and concrete stools. As usual there is a café in there and my only criticism is that they need more seats and tables. Closes on 8 October 2017 Reviews Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard

Structure in the courtyard of the Victoria and Albert Museum designed by Achim Menges with Moritz Dorstelmann and Jan Kippers. A robot is gradually building the structure on site so it is growing over the course of the installation. It is made of glass and carbon fibres and the robot is using a winding technique. The shape is based on the filament structure of the shells of flying beetles known as elytra. It is part of the museum’s engineering season. The shape and technique reminded me of a craft kit I had as a child in which you wove/sewed sheering elastic between two right angled triangles to create a curved shape. I love the idea that is a growing shape and I have been back since to look at the bit it was making when I was there! Closes on 6 November 2016

Slightly messy temporary pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery designed this year by Selgascano. I say messy because some of the sections were made of plastic ribbons threaded around the aluminium frame along with sheets of iridescent plastic covering the frame. It was effective as you walked round and has a maze like feeling but it looked a bit unfinished from the outside. I think it might look better of an evening as the effect of light from inside kicks in. Reviews Guardian Telegraph  

Annual Pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery which this year was designed by Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto. It is designed like a big adults climbing frame and it is amazing to see people sitting on sections which don’t look accessible but you start to realise there are glass steps with arrows on showing ways to climb to get to seats. The roof is clear round discs which you barely see but I suspect keep off enough of the rain to be able to sit in it in all weathers. All in all rather fun! Reviews Times Telegraph