Quick summary of stuff I went to in London…
Cats on the Page (Free British Libarary) exhibition about fictional cats in books by various theme.
Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War (££ British Libarary) exhibition with lots of books and some other shiny stuff like gold jewellery from hoards
Tate Britain Winter Commission by Monster Chetwynd (Free Tate Britain) two giant slugs and glittering rope of mucus on the front of Tate Britain. Its different and actually pretty cool
Edward Burne-Jones (££ Tate Britain) busy exhibition about the Pre-Raphaelite artist. The usual greatest hits but also more rare stuff like tapestries
Figure Totem Beast: Sculpture in Britain in the 1950s (Free Tate Britain) varied selection of mostly metal sculpture
Living with Buildings (Free Wellcome Trust) excellent exhibition about development of housing and hospital design in the UK over last 150 years or so
Videogames: Design/Play/Disrupt (£££ V&A) look at video game design since 2000. Starts out well with really good sections on design. Interesting middle section on games that are trying to do different things and some talking heads on themes like violence and inclusiveness. Then lost its way trying to do a massive video screen room like they had for Pink Floyd exhibition and then a room of pretty obscure games to start a conversation about what games might be.
Beazley Designs of the Year 2018 (££ Design Museum) finally my 9th annual trip (I missed the first 2) to see what had made it to the finals of the Design of the Year awards. Last years od presentation has been ditched for a more simplistic use of the space and there were projects I really liked too. A couple of really good architecture projects. Fashion wasn’t just really odd choices. Some really good sustainable design projects – 3D printing vases using algae. Liked the medical centrifuge for doing blood tests where you have no power based on the kids toy where you spin a disc by pulling on strings.
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