‘Close to the Sea’ at FACT
Just into the third week now and I’m feeling a bit weary, contemporary art overdose, biennialy bloated.
So, I chill out by going to a gallery! Just the one today though. I had a quick look at this work by Yang Fudong on the first day, it seems to be one of the critics favourites so I had a longer look. I really like it, its in a large space and has ten video screens, 2 in the middle showing a young couple in love, living by the sea but threatened with death. The other 8 screens show the musicians standing on rocks by the sea playing the music you hear all the way through. To quote from the blurb “The specially commissioned musical score by Jing Wang conveys a strange, dreamlike, disturbing quality” thats just what it does. Its quite a long piece (about 30 mins) and there’s no seats.