Saatchi Gallery

Due to my current ICA project I thought I better visit some current gallerys and exhibitions to see how they are treating space and hopefully find some examples of interactive projects that are in place. However I was not so successful to find interactive work I did come across some really interesting pieces! I had forgotten how much I loved the Saatchi gallery!

I particularly like the installations at the Saatchi gallery, He definitely has an eye for finding the original and outrageous and there are always interesting things on display. One installation that particularly caught my eye was Ximena Garrido-Lecca's work 'The Followers' which is a recreation of a burial wall from her native country Peru. It is tradition in her country to adorn graves with flowers, photographs and personal belongings to accompany the family and friends that had passed away. 

Another installation that caught my eye was Steve Bishop's 'Its hard to make a stand'. Steve Bishop uses found things to create sculptors and installations that conveys a message. The horse is made from foam and the blue plastic is the wrapper that came in it. The fur coat that has been drapped over the horses head creates imagery similar to that of a dogs head. Steve Bishop has said about he's work that it was 'really hard to make a stand for it' which was where the title came from. The stand has a double edge to create a likeness to public sculpture. Its supposed to represent a defaced memorial, Steve Bishop says about the work, 'Its like when you see a statue of a solider on a horse and someone's put a traffic cone on its head - what does that gesture stand for?

 Another of Steve Bishop's work, 'Christian Dior -J'adore' This was one of a set of three works. All three of them involved copying the form of figurative perfume bottles. The bottle and the goat have been melded together and overlap as images. As both the materials are white there is an idea of purity involved, and when you see the fur matted and embedded in concrete it's quite jarring.

Whilst I was looking at the installations I was thinking back to some of the gallery's old exhibitions. When the Saatchi Gallery reopened in Chelsea it opened with an exhibition of contemporary Chinese art. There was one really amusing installation by two Chinese artists: Sun Yuan and Peng Yu. It consisted of a group of life size sculptures of old men in electric wheelchairs, each one looking like a world leader in his dotage. The uniformed men, wearing their medals meander about bumping into each other and then move slowly away creating a really surreal atmosphere. Visitors could look from the balcony view or walk freely amongst the old men, becoming part of the installation and interacting with the exhibits.

I definitely want to use this old exhibition as a case study as I think it is a really fun way of visitors being able to interact with an exhibition and really get involved with the art.