Louise Bourgeois – Frames of Reference

Entangled: Threads & Making

The Turner Contemporary at Margate, a light box of etched glass walls lined like graph paper, its warp and weft woven with Entangled: Threads & Making, the best exhibition I’ve seen in a long while.

…sculpture, installation, tapestry, textiles, and jewellery from the mid-20th century to the present day. It features over 40 international female artists who expand the possibilities of knitting and embroidery, weaving, sewing and wood carving, often incorporating unexpected materials such as plants, clothing, hair and bird quills. Continue reading “Entangled: Threads & Making”

Between Object And Architecture

Tate Modern has a new offspring, grown out of the former power station’s oil tanks. It’s called the Switch House, with a similar tweedy brick texture to its parent building – a new London vernacular. It has a utilitarian look with no decorative frills, polished concrete inside, minimal, neo-brutalist, multi-storey car park aesthetic but beautifully tailored. In retrospect it feels a bit like we just visited an enormous new sculpture and discovered inside the seeds of its own germination. Continue reading “Between Object And Architecture”

Palais Des Papes

This was the antithesis of Château la Coste. The Palais des Papes in Avignon is the biggest Gothic palace in the world and the most visited monument in France. It is huge and noisy and crowded. There are signs and notices everywhere telling you where to go, what to look at, what to photograph, what not to photograph. Continue reading “Palais Des Papes”

Château La Coste

Château la Coste is a vineyard 15km north of Aix-en-Provence which, since 2004, has become home to a remarkable collection of art and architecture. Signs have been kept to a minimum and the entrance was not immediately obvious, but we eventually found our way to the elegant, new art centre designed by Tadao Ando and emerged alongside Crouching Spider by Louise Bourgeois. Continue reading “Château La Coste”