Arts, various

I was puzzled by a Luke Jerram work that RobBris50 blipped last week which seemed to me to be shallowly banal. I wondered whether it was a conceptual piece to do with red tape and arts funding but apparently not (though I do believe that an idea triggered by an artwork is valid, whether or not the artist intended it). Anyway, since I was in Bristol and had already agreed to meet a friend nearby I went to look. 

I think Luke Jerram has some arresting ideas and he manages, impressively, to get large institutions involved to help make them happen. His work also appeals to a huge number of people. But I think he sometimes works his ideas to tedium. His Moon outside at night was magical but I was disappointed by (yet another) Gaia in (yet another) church.

Anyway, back to the Bristol red tape. It seems it was to draw attention to a tiny exhibition of textile art (for sale) inside the gallery called 'Connecting Threads'. I can't see the relationshhip between the red tape and the exhibition (which contained one piece I'd plagiarise/be inspired by if I had the patience and dexterity) apart from an unhelpful piece of artsy language about the artists exploring 'line' which 'creates structure, establishes movement and conveys emotion'. But I did have an exchange with a couple of other people in there who I overheard saying they'd never seen music (a Chopin Prelude) expressed in art before. I suggested the artwork looked quite like a pianola roll - to which the response was, 'I didn't think Chopin was played on pianolas.' Can you say 'whooosh' if it wasn't a joke?

Great to see V, after an age of not meeting up, and good to get back to Firstborn's where he arrived home very tired after 5½ hours of being in a car for the sake of a one-hour set at a wedding in mid-Wales. This is his fairly new three-beatboxers group, Air Dynamix (shameless maternal promotion). I asked whether they were responsible for accompanying the first dance, but no. 

Extra: An artwork I came across by chance which made me smile much more than the others.