Cathy's Art Diary

Beautiful light and sound show after hours at the Tower of London looking at the coronation and history of the British monarchy. The show was held in the courtyards of the castle with the projections on the buildings. I loved the scenes of processions against the long Waterloo Block but my favourite was the montage of the monarchs over the ages against the White Tower as you left. The walls must have found it odd to see them all again. You also got the chance to visit the Crown Jewels while it was quieter which is always a treat. There was quite a feature made of the pieces used for the recent event. I suspect in the past this would have been called a Son et Lumiere and people would have understood what it meant but now everything has to be an immersive event. Closed 25 November 2023  

Beautiful and innovative installation at the Tower of London of wildflowers planted in the moat to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. I was blown away with the idea of this work and booked to see it quite soon after it was opened. It was a bit behind where it was expected to be and some of the planting looked a bit thin. However I had been warned and offered a free ticket for later in the year. In fact I am going again next week so from the flowers being held back by low temperatures it will be interesting to see how it has coped with very high temperatures. There were good commentary boards explaining why it was behind including the lack of rain and cold. Evidently there were more frosts in April than February this year. The east side had been planted first and it was a bit further ahead. There were very friendly guides who explained that they are hoping to continue the display next year and they are interesting to see how the first planting self-seeds and looks in future years. ...

Moving installation at the Tower of London to mark the century of the end of the First World War. Created by Designer Tom Piper and sound artist Mira Calix it filled the moat of the Tower with flames which were started by one flame being lit by a Yeoman of the Guard and this being spread gradually throughout the space. This was a beautiful spectacle but was very popular so the space was very crowded. I was meeting friends there and we just watched from the rim of the moat, once we had found each other! It’s strange to be directed in the opposite direction in which you want to go for crowd control reasons. I never worked out what people were queuing up for. I know before the event you could get tickets to go into the moat but not sure this is what people were queuing for as there didn’t seem to be many people down there. I got a good view from near the entrance to the Tower by standing in tip toe and peering over people’s heads but a much better one from the road to Tow...

Magnificent installation at the Tower of London of ceramic red poppies filling the moat to mark the one hundredth anniversary of the start of the First World War. It is created by ceramic artist Paul Cummins, with setting by stage designer Tom Piper. This work is being put together gradually. It started at the end of July and the plan is to place the last poppy on 11 November this year. There will be one flower to mark every fatality of the war. When I saw it I already thought it looked spectacular but I missed the fact the flowers were cascading from one of the windows of the Tower making it look like the building was bleeding. I plan to keep going back and watch it grow and I have already bought one of the flowers. I love the idea that it is partly to commemorate the fact that the Tower was one of the main recruiting stations for the City of London. Imagine how proud you must have felt to have signed up there. However it is like all the men who signed up have return...