The Musical Museum

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automatic musical instruments, history, London, museum, music, The Musical Museum, Wurlitzer

The Musical Museum

I’ve gone past The Musical Museum in Brentford a few times on the bus, but had never been until it was open for free for the 50th anniversary weekend. Though I was supposed to be packing for my holiday, I took a break in order to go down to Kew Bridge.

Inside the entrance

Inside the museum

The museum contains one of the world’s foremost collections of automatic musical instruments, including pianos, orchestrions, orchestrelles and violin players, among others. The star of the collection is the Wurlitzer organ, which is located in the hall. When I arrived, a tour was just going into the hall, so I tacked onto the end and enjoyed a quick performance from the tour guide. We also got to see the organ lowered down into the pit!

The Mighty Wurlitzer

One of the museum’s instruments

As well as having a look around myself, I attended the beginning of the next tour, in which the enthusiastic guide played us some of the instruments. This was great fun and I found the ingenuity and cleverness of these machines fascinating. There were several children there and they seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves.

One of the museum’s instruments

One of the museum’s instruments

The museum normally costs £10 but as I mentioned, it was free on the anniversary weekend. The museum completely relies on entry fees to run and maintain the instruments, so I’d urge you to visit and check out this quirky and unusual museum.

FACTS

Address: 399 High Street, Brentford, TW8 0DU

Website: musicalmuseum.co.uk

Opening Hours: Fri-Sun (& Bank Holiday Mondays) 11am-5pm

Prices: Adult £10, Concession £17.50, Child £4; under-5s free

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Digital Revolution – Barbican

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Barbican, digital, Digital Revolution, exhibition, gaming, London

Described as “the most comprehensive presentation of digital creativity ever to be staged in the UK”, Digital Revolution, an immersive exhibition of art, design, film, music and videogames at the Barbican, is one of the big exhibitions of the summer. I visited on Saturday afternoon, and thankfully my Barbican membership allowed me free entry without having to wait for an available timeslot – a definite perk of membership!

There were three main sections to the exhibition. The first, which took up the whole of the Curve and several feet outside of it, was by far the largest. The second was a small, fenced-off area in which participants could play some indie computer games. The third was Umbrellium’s Assemblance, a laser room installed in the Pit Theatre. There were other little bits dotted around the Barbican too, such as electronic “pet snakes” as part of Minimaform’s Petting Zoo, and another installation off-site in the Bloomberg Space which I didn’t get round to visiting.

The first bit was great fun, and I think my dad and brother would have loved it. It contained lots of retro computer games, including those I remember, such as Tomb Raider, Super Mario Bros and The Sims, and those that were before my time, like Pong and Tetris. I was sad not to see the NES classic Blades of Steel there, however!*

The Sims

This nostalgic section was followed by some more modern developments in the field of technology, including some “birds” made from old mobile phones, and an installation by pop star will.i.am. There was also a selection of cutting-edge fashion, including a 3D-printed dress worn by – who else? – Lady Gaga.

Birds of the future

Lady Gaga’s printed dress

will.i.am

If I have a criticism of this part of the exhibition, it would be that it was just so crowded. I understand that it was timed, and the Barbican have genuinely made an effort to control numbers. However, in an interactive exhibition such as this it can be very difficult to play that game or experience that technology without queuing for a while.

Magically transformed into angels

Pretty butterflies

The indie-gaming section would probably be of most interest to serious gamers. I had a go, and recognised one of the games – my housemates have been talking about it for ages. You play an official on the immigration desk of a totalitarian East European state, and you have to decide whether to let people into the country or not. It’s a brilliant idea, but I couldn’t play it for too long as it traumatised me!

The laser room was fun, but I got bored after a few minutes. The exhibition took me around an hour and a half to explore in total. However, I didn’t spend too long in any one place. I am sure that someone who was really passionate about gaming and technology would be able to easily spend half a day or more here.

 

*Amazing graphics. Awesome music. All your friends will want it!

The Human Factor: The Figure in Contemporary Sculpture – Hayward Gallery

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art, exhibition, Hayward Gallery, London, sculpture, The Human Factor

When I came out of the Tate Modern, I decided that as it was such a nice day I would walk along the Thames Path to the Southbank Centre. After a frozen yogurt from the pink Snog bus, I headed into the Hayward Gallery to see The Human Factor: The Figure in Contemporary Sculpture.

In general, I find that I tend to prefer older art (from the nineteenth century and earlier) to modern paintings and the like. However, I feel rather differently about sculpture. In my (completely uneducated) opinion, it gets a bit dull looking at yet another white marble figure, so the way in which modern sculptors use different materials to create imaginative and radical art is much more appealing to me. For this reason, I was looking forward to The Human Factor, which brings together new work from 25 international artists who use the human form in new and exciting ways.

There was an incredible array of sculpture on display, from Thomas Schütte Krieger’s huge statues, made of wood which has been coloured and oiled, battle scarred and contorted, to Paloma Varga Weisz’s double-headed “Falling Woman”. Cathy Wilkes’ untitled sculpture of 2011 shows a disturbing tableau of contorted figures surrounded by battle equipment, while Maurizio Cattelan has created a frighteningly lifelike representation of John F. Kennedy in his coffin. Figures have been cast from wax, formed from mannequins with added material, sculpted from bronze and given a beehive for a head (the latter is Pierre Huyghe’s 2012 creation – the first and, probably, only time I will ever see a sign warning that “The following exhibition contains live bees”). Jeff Hoons’ “Bear and Policeman” of 1988 shows a giant teddy bear towering over a rotund policeman, while Martin Honert’s unsettling sculpture of his former English teacher recreates the shadows of the black and white photo from which the image was taken. Other sculptures evoke living statues, of the kind you see in Covent Garden surrounded by tourists – it is surreal to view statues of people pretending to be statues. Mark Wallinger’s “Ecce Homo” of 1999 displays a man with a shorn head and a crown of thorns – an allegory of persecution.

Even with the breadth of sculpture on offer, I still managed to find favourites. One, entitled “Tell my mother not to worry”, is a marble sculpture of the artist’s four-year-old daughter disguised as a ghost. This is achieved by the sculpting of a white sheet which trails along the ground, with extremely realistic folds; it suggests that there really is something underneath.

This piece was by Ryan Gander, as was another of my favourites, a “re-imagining” of Degas’ Little Dancer. You see an empty plinth ahead, then turn to the right to see the dancer on tiptoe, staring out of the window. The sculpture is easily recognisable as the Degas character, and I liked the attempt to suggest that she had her own autonomy and views.

My final favourite piece probably made the strongest impact on me. Located in a small room by itself, Maurizio Cattelan’s “Him” is a kneeling schoolboy figure with his back to the entrance, hands clasped in an attitude of prayer. As you approach and turn to see the boy’s face, however, you see he is not a boy at all, but Hitler. This discovery raises more questions – what is Hitler praying for? Is he seeking forgiveness for his past actions? Or is he asking for help to continue his evil plans?

I loved this exhibition and I think there is something for everyone here. The Hayward Gallery always tries to show something different; it doesn’t always succeed, but it has done so here.

This is Kev. He is at the entrance to the Hayward Gallery and his clothes are changed every day of the exhibition!

Malevich: Revolutionary of Russian Art – Tate Modern

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art, exhibition, Kazimir Malevich, London, Malevich: Revolutionary of Russian Art, modern art, Russian art, Tate Modern

View of the Thames from the Tate Modern

On Saturday I attended a performance of Muse of Fire at the Globe. Afterwards I decided that, as I was right next to the Tate Modern, I would go in and see their new exhibition, Malevich: Revolutionary of Russian Art.

Kazimir Malevich (1879–1935) was an influential and radical artist whose work spanned one of the most eventful periods of Russian, and world, history. This retrospective examines his life’s work, which culminated in his most famous example of suprematism, the Black Square. I must admit I might not have seen the significance of this work, if I hadn’t discovered that it had been banned by the Soviet authorities. Anything deemed worthy of banning surely has some merit. In fact, when I actually saw the picture, I found it strangely compelling and unsettling, like a black tunnel, or a void. I could never have anticipated reacting like this to such a painting.

Suprematist work was, however, only one facet of Malevich’s work as an artist. Over the course of his life he explored landscape, religious painting and images of Russian workers, in both figurative and abstract styles. His range and versatility is clearly on show in this rich exhibition.

The exhibition runs until 26 October.

View of the Thames from the Tate Modern

Virginia Woolf: Art, Life and Vision – National Portrait Gallery

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art, exhibition, literature, National Portrait Gallery, NPGWoolf, photography, Virginia Woolf, Virginia Woolf: Art Life and Vision

I took advantage of the National Portrait Gallery‘s late opening on Fridays to visit the Virginia Woolf: Art, Life and Vision exhibition. The exhibition, which runs until 26 October, looks at the acclaimed 20th century writer’s life and work through the mediums of photography, painting, illustration and archival material.

The exhibition begins with a display of Woolf’s diaries, rescued from her bombed-out house. They are shown alongside images of Woolf in the house at Tavistock Square before it was destroyed in the Blitz. There are several pictures of family members, many of them photographs by Julia Margaret Cameron, and many images of eminent men of art and letters who were family friends when Virginia was young.

Other pictures show the writer in the early days of her marriage to Leonard Woolf, as well as the other members of the Bloomsbury Group, including the artists Roger Fry and Vanessa Bell. The exhibition also explores the founding of the Hogarth Press in Hogarth House, Richmond, and Woolf’s relationship with Vita Sackville-West, as well as her suicide in 1941.

This is an interesting exhibition that explores not just the life of Virginia Woolf but the life of those around her, whether family, friends or other significant figures. A definite must-see for fans of her work.