2012 pics project: ESTUARY / DOCKLANDS MUSEUM

Friday 14 June 2013

ESTUARY / DOCKLANDS MUSEUM

I am just coming back from the Museum of London Docklands. This my first visit to this new location and was quite excited to discover how the show would be devised. I was also very keen on seeing Peter Marshall's photographs.
My reaction few hours after is actually more excitement than before stepping in. The exhibition space is great, convivial, intimate, surprising and has the perfect size. One work can also be found on the third floor, so this is very organic and entertaining. The show is described has being a selection of contemporary artists, and that description always worries me when it comes to this kind of museum. But very quickly it appears that they got it right as the mix of mediums is clever, appropriate and surprising. Peter Marshall's photographs are colour and panoramic. They present new property developments along the estuary and shore scapes in the ever growing London East End titled Thames Gateway 2000-04. Sharp, understated and revealing are his pictures. My best experience I have to say remains with John Smith's Horizon. It is a video of still frames 18min long. This montage of the sea in different states is in the continuity of Hiroshi Sugimoto's contemplation of nature's beauty mixing abstractions, minor events and sounds. This is truly one of the best experience I have had in years!!! I am still very surprised as why Mike Seaborne's stunning estuary colour landscapes are not present in this exhibition!? Just go there and enjoy, it is really worth it.