Tuesday, 10 August 2010

(MORE) STRANGERS ON THE SHORE

(MORE) STRANGERS ON THE SHORE

Went for a bit of a run along by Portobello. Started at the office, went down to the Cat & Dog Home then more or less followed the route of the Portobello 4 mile race, before heading back to work.

Not my normal route of choice when I’m in Leith but I fancied something a bit different. Also, I think because I do the same route so often I have a tendency to get “hung up” on the time and there is a real danger that every run turns into a time trial – and that isn’t always a good thing.

So, thought a slightly different route with none of the usual landmarks that act as “split time” points and new things to look at might encourage me to take it easy. And it did, just took it at a nice relaxed pace.

I also knew that there was currently some “installation” art on display on the beach and I was keen to get a look.

It’s called “Black Swan” by Miles Thurlow and consists of 13 fruit machines sitting on the sand and (apparently) flashing and whirring away. Now, I don’t know what it looks like at night but I didn’t see much evidence of flashing and whirring when I went by, but I have to admit it did look very striking. Something about the shape of the machines reminded me of the heads on Easter Island. Perhaps I’m not reading enough into it, but it seems to “borrow” from Anthony Gormley’s works with the fruit machines replacing the iron figures.

Does the act of looking at something “out of context” also, conversely, force you to look in greater detail than you might normally at the landscape that it is out of context from??

Whatever – to quote the oft used phrase “I dont know much about art but I know what I like”… and I do like this!

I don’t know how long it’s going to be there, but if I get a chance I’d quite like to see it at night.

1 comment:

Davie said...

Hmmm, where I live it's called fly tipping.