During the half term I took a trip to see the Light Show at
the Hayward Gallery with my 3 children. I thought this would be a show that
would interest them and we weren't disappointed. The Light Show had 25 completely different light artworks
and most of them could be interacted with. All used artificial light and
invited us to experience and explore our responses to the work.
The show opened with Leo Villareal's 'Cylinder II'. It is a
ring of beautiful LED lights which hand from rods. The intensity and speed of
the light changes form a ring of falling water. Anthony McCall's 'You and I, Horizontal' is a 'solid light'
installation. My children loved this as they walked through the endless beams
of light a bit like the light you see beeming down from a cinema. They were
totally fascinated at the effect the light had on their bodies, shining through
them. Conrad Shawcross's 'Slow Arc inside a Cube IV' plays on
moving light and shadows and his simple sculpture will make you feel very
dizzy. I left this room quite quickly!
I couldn't decide if Jenny Holzer's 'Spinning 35,000 words'
sculpture or Olafur Eliasson's 'Model for a Timeless Garden, 2011' was my
favourite. Two completely different works but both mesmerising. Eliasson used
strobe lights to illuminate flowing streams of water which appeared to look
like dancing ghosts.
