Sunday 12th October 2003

Decided to head for the Tate at the Albert Dock for a birrov culture.  On the way we saw a billboard advertising “The Mersey Wave” but as we sped past it at 60mph, it was a tad difficult to read!  Intrigued, I did a search on the net and found these snippets:

• GIVE US A WAVE!
  One of the biggest pieces of public art ever commissioned in Liverpool has been announced. The Mersey Wave, developed by the Speke Garston Development Company, will be a dramatic 30m high and 72m long gateway feature along Speke Boulevard close to the John Lennon airport. The £700,000 project, which was unveiled last week, includes a further four sculptures on roundabouts along the A561. Work is expected to begin in January 2003 and completed in March. For more information or to view the Mersey Wave log onto www.sgdc.co.uk 

(well, they're late cos it's not there yet!)

• A visually dramatic gateway resembling two tidal waves of the Mersey frames the geographic boundary. The gateway is specifically designed to be read as a distinct presence from moving cars. Its monumental scale is achieved by a progression of twelve thirty-meter high fins. During nighttime the Mersey Wave Gateway will further evoke the experience the tidal river by slowly moving waves of blue light forming on the surface of the fins facing incoming traffic. http://www.art2architecture.co.uk/current/gateway_liverpool.htm 

• Designed by internationally acclaimed, Czech-born lighting artist Peter Fink. Peter's company - Art2Architecture - has been responsible for many well known lighting projects including several at Britain's tallest building, the Canary wharf tower in London.
  
  His other work has included the Concorde roundabout at Heathrow Airport and a permanent laser display marking the line of the old Greenwich Meridian based at the Old Royal Observatory in South London. The 200 ft long structure in Speke will occupy both sides of the dual carriageway with the wave effect created by a series of giant aluminum 'fins' set at different angles from the vertical. The Mersey wave is intended to be a 24-hour feature, but it will be particularly dramatic at night when it will be internally lit. http://www.liverpoolcitywise.co.uk/magonline_articleseven.htm

Sounds……………..enlightening! 

It was one of those perfect autumn days, sunny but crisp and the leaves on the trees this year are particularly colourful.  Another symptom of change in climate.  The warmer the summer, the more vivid the autumn colour.  I love the effect of sunlight on water.  This shot is looking across from the Tate.  These used to be old, disused dock buildings.  The epitome of recycling!

Had lunch in the Colonnades café as opposed to one of the trendy bars.  It’s not too expensive in there and we had lovely minestrone soup and a baguette each (Ian had tuna mayo and sweetcorn and I had coronation chicken) and they don’t skimp on the filling!  (I like to note all the little details  for when I'm old and grey!)  We also had a pot of coffee for 1 (which was in a very small, stainless steel teapot!?!) and a latté.  Came to £14.20 all in which is significantly cheaper than other eateries on site.  Trendiness comes at a price J  You just have to look inside some of the shops there.  Saw a cruet set in “The Room Store” for £28!  What a flashy place that is, with the staff watching your every move!  I hate shops where you're made to feel like some sort of interloper.

Then it was on to the Tate www.tate.org.uk/liverpool   I'm not going to bore myself, let alone you with tedious descriptions of the various exhibits, just some notes on things that made me go "ah!"

Bernard Cohen "In that moment".  This painting appealed to me because of what it represented.  The absurdity of life!  based on Albert Camus' essay on absurdity and Sisyphus.

The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor. http://stripe.colorado.edu/~morristo/sisyphus.html

  Just a single line covering the whole canvas with no end and no beginning. 

This picture doesn't do the painting justice really but it's the only one I could find on the net (http://liberalarts.udmercy.edu/marcel/1829/cohmomt.jpg), in reality the colours are so much more vivid and the canvas is huge!

Robyn Denny "Baby is three" was also a huge canvas and the blurb said it was designed to be viewed close up so that you have to move your body from left to right to view it and not only your head but the sticky tape, marking a perimeter on the floor, meant that you couldn't!  It was only some coloured vertical lines anyway- sometimes I just don't get the point of modern art!   The title refers to a sci fi novel by Theodore Sturgeon, praps you have to know the book, must look it up at some point!?

Peter Sedgley "Yellow Attenuation" red, blue and yellow lines creating an optical illusion- made me feel sick!

John Charles Denham "A Haystack resembling a devil" pencil, w/colour, brush and ink- very droll!

George Dance -   "A woman seated on a two-legged ass-headed monster straddling a man in military uniform" 

Shades of Monty Python?  I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions!

On the ground floor was an installation that intrigued Ian- "Ballet of the Woodpeckers"- Rebecca Horn- basically, several massive mirrors with hammers attached which appear to strike the glass but don't, they made a really eerie noise and I found it quite spooky and disturbing, I think mainly because of the noise or maybe seeing my own reflection!?

Then it was on to the most satisfying part of the visit, the tea and cake in the café :-)

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