The Edges Of THe World | Ernesto Neto
The edges of the world is a place that I feel like I have been to a couple of times in my life so far. I have stood with my toes hanging over the edge, with nothing but a journey into infinity waiting for me, if I dropped over that edge and believe me it wasn’t a good place to be…no way.
When I was out and about wandering around the South Bank a week ago, I came across a poster promoting ‘The Edges Of The World’ exhibition and it grabbed my interest enough for me to get myself some tickets and get along and see what it was all about.
All I knew about the exhibition I was about to visit, was that it was a huge labyrinthine of an installation that covered all the upper galleries and outdoor spaces of the Hayward Gallery. I purposely never read anything about what the ‘The Edges Of The World’ was meant to be about or reflect. My thought process behind this was, because If I’m brutally honest I have seen numerous pieces of modern art, where the artist has a vision as to what their amazing artwork is meant to mean, and at the end of the day they are usually crazed lunatics and you need to have an equally crazy mind to understand their vision. I was going to enter ‘The Edges Of The World’ and make up my own mind as to what it was all about, not what Ernesto wanted to tell me.
As I entered ‘The Edges Of The World’ the first thing that grabbed my attention was that people looked happy and chilled out, there were smiling faces everywhere, children were having fun and dare I say it, the adults as well. And you were allowed to touch and became part of the installation and…and as well as being allowed to take photos! I don’t know about you…but any gallery or exhibition I have ever been to, pull out your camera to take a picture or heavens forbid actually touch something and the security is on you like a bad rash.
As I wandered around I wasn’t quite sure what to make of things. I entered a red nylon dome like shaped structure and sat down, it felt good. It was relaxing. I picked up the drum stick and slowly started to beat the drum, much to the dismay of my African Princess. I had become the heart beat of the Red Dome Tent. I was the beating the heart of the whole installation, until my arm got tired..!
‘You will have to take your shoes off’…WTF…I took my shoes off and entered ‘horizonmembraneave’ as soon as my feet stepped onto the floor it felt like I had entered a different world, it felt strange, and amazing at the same time. Each step I took I felt myself sinking into the ground. The floor, walls and ceiling of the place I had entered were made from stretched tulle. I felt like I was almost in a episode of Star Trek. I was in an alien world that felt so much friendlier, safer and more relaxing than the one I had just left behind.
There were a couple of babies crawling on the floor who looked like they were having the time of their life. A sudden desire to get down onto my hands and knees and start crawling around the weirdly coloured floor came upon me. I waited till the coast was clear and crawled around for a few minutes and unashamedly it felt good. The crawling had tired me out, so I lay down on the spongy like, weird floor and closed my eyes. The world or I should say the world of Ernesto Neto was a good place to escape too.
Unfortunately I couldn’t stay in ‘horizonmembraneave’ for ever, which was a pity. The show had to go on…next up was a viewing platform entitled ‘the other side of the hill’, from which the whole of ‘horizonmembraneave’ and the various other installation’s that were in the room could be viewed. I could see the Amazon rainforest before me, I could see shadowy figures wandering below. It felt totally different from above than it had done down below. I wanted to walk on the roof of the forest, but I was pretty sure that wasn’t allowed, which was a pity..!
I may not have known too much about ‘The Edges Of The World’ before I entered it, but one thing I did know was that there was a roof top swimming pool, which was part of the exhibition and with the weather being so amazingly good, there was no way I was going to let an opportunity like this pass me by. All I had to do was find it.
There was a large archway leading into a tunnel…a long and winding tunnel full of the smell of spices, leading to the swimming pool. Neto calls the tunnel, ‘the flavour happens in the state of being’. As much as I was in a rush to get to the pool, I walked slowly through the tunnel enjoying the pleasant aromas of the spices.
The pool was empty…I was happy…I wanted to strip off my clothes and get my naked body into that inviting pool. But there were quite a few people going around and I didn’t want to get arrested and make the front page of the daily rags. I had of course come prepared with a pair of swimming turnks.
The water looked inviting. I jumped into the wonderfully cool water from the top step and as I hit the water I felt amazingly alive. The pool may have only been 2.5 feet deep with water, but I didn’t care, it was the place to be. My tranquillity of having the pool all to myself was destroyed when someone else appeared. The pool had suddenly became crowded..! Isn’t there are saying that in an inflatable pool on top of the Hayward Gallery, that two is a crowd…well there is now!
Just as I was enjoying the view of London, the warm weather and the cool water on my body. A girl appeared saying that they were going to be doing some filming, and would I mind. I of course said, ‘I don’t mind at all.’ I carried on with my business of lazing around, when she came back a minute latter, and asked if I would be up for doing an interview? Because I’m in the process of launching my acting career, I thought it would be good to get some practise in front of the camera.
As I was waiting for her to come back, I strangely felt like a goldfish, swimming in gold fish bowl. I never noticed it before, but there was the security watching over the pool, as well as people looking around the exhibition and now I was waiting to answer a few questions for some television programme. Then a couple of old timers appeared, oh why couldn’t they have been a couple of Brazilian girls looking like they had dropped straight in from Copacabana Beach.
In the midst of getting filmed and feeling like a gold fish, I somehow got back to taking things easy and relaxing…
I finished off the exhibition by visiting the outdoor sculpture called ‘walking to the future’, which was a nice little oasis of calmness. There was nothing but a tropical palm and a temperate hawthorn tree, along with an elevated path around them, which was all of 5 inches wide. I of course walked along the little pathway falling off a couple of times, did that mean my, walk to the future was messed up. After a wee bit of practise I managed to easily navigate the precarious little pathway, I was balancing on the edges of the world and it felt good.
‘The Edges Of The World’ is a exhibition that I really got into. Ernesto Neto is most certainly a very talented artist who has created something at the Hayward Gallery that I’m glad I had the opportunity to experience and be part of. The fact that you actually get the chance to touch things, walk, climb and even swim as part of this exhibition really makes you feel like you are in tune with it. Ernesto Neto’s vision of ‘The Edges Of The World’ is a good place to be.
I would definitely recommend getting yourself along to the ‘The Edges Of The World’ which is on at the Hayward Gallery untill the 5 September 2010.
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