art july in london - part 3

Walking in my mind - Hayward Gallery

Hayward Gallery's annual summer exhibition last year (Psycho Buildings) has been quite popular with its interactive exhibits. This year, the gallery invited &à artists around the world to create some large-scale pieces in an attempt to "transform the Hayward Gallery's indoor galleries and outdoor sculpture terraces into a series of gigantic sculptural environments", which in short, means "repeat the success as much as possible".

walking in my mind by you
official poster showing Yayoi Kusama's (草間彌生) work

walking in my mind by you
by Chiharu Shiota 塩田千春

While the show is a bit kaleidoscopic (there is really a piece applying this concept) which seems that every artist is speaking on their own, the show title does warn you that a common theme could be non-existent. Nevertheless the works shown could evoke thinking for viewers, be it the walls of posters by Keith Tyson or the signature chaotic web of strings of Chiharu Shiota. Feelings are intensified with the scale and complexity of the works, on the contrary of minimalism which takes the essence only and strips the rest. This show is about enlarging the essence and giving it a spin on and on and out around the immediate space and into the audience's mind.

walking in my mind by you
by Thomas Hirschhorn 

full photo set here

Further reading -
official website for Walking in My Mind
curator's audio pod-cast for download before visiting the gallery
official website for Psycho Buildings
review by Laura Cumming for the Observer
Keith Tyson's upcoming show in Parasol Unit opening on 16.09