TUNNEL 228 To 25 May.
London.
TUNNEL 228
Arch 228 Waterloo Station To 25 May 2009.
Open 3pm -5.40pm; 7pm- 8.40pm closed 22 May.
TICKETS: On-line: www.tunnel-228.com
Review: Carole Woddis 16 May.
Art-works about work, work.
Capitalism is dead. Long live Capitalism. Whichever way you look at it, we are in the midst of exceptional times. Marx and Engels should have been alive at this hour. They’d have had a field-day.
In 1927, however, Fritz Lang made a silent movie classic, Metropolis, in which the division of labour – workers and moneyed elite – were immortalised in a dual vision: those above ground encased in an expressionistic urban world of Art Deco skyscrapers; the workers trapped below, toiling endlessly.
We should never forget the world that teems beneath our feet. Taking its cue from this, an intriguing alliance has emerged between the Old Vic, the Young Vic and Punchdrunk, whose adventures in immersive theatre (Faust, The Masque of the Red Death) have won them such a following.
Tunnel 228, generously backed by Bloomberg (an irony here?) is however a collaboration alongside over 20 visual artists. Together they have produced an extraordinary `art installation’, free to the public, though not exactly disability-friendly. You need good eyesight, sound footing and a strong sense of spatial awaremess to `enjoy’ this journey through the massive underground vaults of Waterloo Station’s Arch 228.
Part `gallery’, part active `theatrical experience’, an aural wall of industrial sound greets you. As you adjust to the gloom, you stumble on a myriad number of inanimate and animated artefacts, in no particular order. Up to you to grope your way towards your own understanding of two angels, cast in gold, one aggressively striking the other; a large lead monkey gazing down imperviously; or various automata: a human worker hauling a truck down a rail track whilst another (literally) climbs the wall and walks the ceiling. Deserted rooms await you, another worker repeatedly pounding an enormous wheel and in the distance a whitened forest with, incongruously, birds singing.
There is a constant play of liquid, light and water juxtaposed against the oppressive dust and iron weight of wheels and chains clanking. It’s an evocation designed to unsettle and it does, not least in the rotating crematorium of naked bodies – a reminder of the expediency and human cost of labour.
Performers:
Elizabeth Barker; Sam Booth; Hector Harkness; Geir Hytten; Anna Martine; Emily Mytton; Fernanda Prata; Frank Scantori;
Artists:
Atma, Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller; Philip Cath & Khloe Sjogren; Doug Foster; Paul Fryer; Susanna Hertrich, Mark Jenkins, Lightning & Kinglyface; Alastair Mackie; Kate Mccgwire; Anthony Micallef; Luke Montgomery; Polly Morgan; Olympia Scarry; Petroc Sesti; Slinkachu; Ben Tyers; Vhils; Xenz & Busk.
Punchdrunk:
Artistic Director: Felix Barrett
Associate Director: Maxine Doyle
Creative Consultant: Lisa Tse
Photography: Martin Bloom
2009-05-19 12:42:31