I thought I’d kick off the blog properly by drawing some of my favourite posts from the old blog into this one. I’m going to do a few rewrites and it’ll unfortunately mean that any comments previously made will have to remain archived on the old site. But never mind about that.

I’m going to kick off with my trip to the Hell’s Half Acre exhibition which took place between 12-17 October 2010. I wanted to open with this one because not only was it the first time I’d actually enjoyed looking at art, but because next week I’m once more off to an exhibition hosted by Lazarides. This time it was by invitation to a preview and so there should hopefully be plenty of free wine being distributed! I’ll be discussing that one once I’ve been.

For now I want to revisit Hell’s Half Acre. As I said, art had never really been my thing. I think that’s because I’ve always assumed that you should have to know about something in order to appreciate it. I’ve since learned that sometimes art can be appreciated for it’s presentation and how it makes you feel. And this exhibition invoked something a little darker in me.

Based on the allegorical tale of the nine circles of hell from Dante’s Inferno, the exhibition was held in the dark, damp and labyrinthesque Old Vic Tunnels beneath Waterloo Station. An absolutely perfect choice for such a display, which certainly wouldn’t have had anyway near the same impact in a clean, white, bog-standard gallery setting. It definitely needed the crumbling plaster on the walls, the dimmed lighting and the puddles forming from the leaking roof above to set everything off.

The art itself was a very eclectic mix, mirroring much the wildly varying settings in each of Dante’s circles. It was mostly good, but there were obviously a couple of duds as I’m sure there usually are at events like this, including the obvious representation of lust which seemed like a GCSE art student’s excuse for filming penises. The majority, however, certainly captured my interest.

The first was Doug Foster’s The Heretic’s Gate; a fiery, explosive video projected onto the wall in a darkened corner and perfectly reflected in a huge pool of oil on the floor below. It really gave the impression that we were all about to be swallowed up by the gates of Hell. Several minutes were spent mesmerised by the footage and it took quite a lot of effort to drag myself away. (Incidentally, this piece was also shown at a preview of In The Naughty Chair. For more information on that one, take a look at the article over on Minx and Her Mind).

Another particular favourite was the disco ball made from hypodermic needles, or rather Object Desire by Paul Insect. No idea why, but I had an overwhelming urge to hug it. Which would have really hurt.

There were 28 exhibits altogether, so I’m not going to go through each one individually. But I will just give one final mention to Blue Fever by Polly Morgan. Or as we renamed it, Pigeon Explosion. Because that’s exactly what it was. I’ve no idea what it represented; all I know is that I loved it.

There’s a book currently available relating to Hell’s Half Acre, which can be found over in The Outsider’s Store. I’ve ordered myself a copy and plan on picking it up whilst visiting Stanley Donwood’s exhibition next week at The Outsiders gallery. I really can’t wait.