yesterday we visited the bridge (scroll down) , an art installation by michael cross at dilston grove in bermondsey. the artist has constructed a pool inside the old chapel and designed a series of steps so that visitors can walk on water. the water has been blackened with dye so it looks pretty mysterious. when you stand on the first step the weight of your body as you lean forward causes the next to appear. it’s quite a slow process, designed to be meditative. it’s actually a prototype. michael is honing the concept hoping to perfect it such that he could install it on a lake. for the time being though he walks alongside the walker making sure everything works. it was a fabulous setting for it and we loved it. weirdly i notice that kester visited the same day – we must have just missed each other. he complains it was an exercise in health and safety – signing disclaimers etc – i think that’s a bit harsh on michael who has gone to extraordinary lengths to construct the experience. i agree that it could be improved – if the steps had disappeared behind that would have been fabulous, and it would have been good to be unaccompanied (though i confess my legs were quite shaky at first). but it is a prototype. the only thing that was a disappointment for us was that harry wasn’t allowed to walk it because it wasn’t insured for under 18s which he was pretty gutted about. what particularly vexed him was that both joel and his cousin sam had already walked it (both under 18) before michael thought to mention it! i hope to see a final version on a lake one day… it’s well worth a visit, especially if you have a secret desire to walk on water, though it has clearly been a lot more popular than expected. i have put together a slide set on flickr walking on water. joel and harry took some of the pics…
Technorati Tags: bridge, dilston grove, michaelcross
Poor Harry!
Sorry, didn’t mean the artist to come across as the one to blame… Far from it. Just a shame that we live in a society that means he ends up having to think about insurance and suchlike. I thought it was a pity. Plus, it was annoying in that people ended up applauding everyone as they got to the middle of the tank… Which made it for me a bit of a Outward Bound thing, rather than something deeper. Ideally one would be alone in the space. Really looking forward to the possibility of doing that in the next version though – it would be amazing outdoors.
We ended up being there because Saga ( http://sagasstudio.typepad.com ) studied with Michael Cross at the RCA last year. He’s definitely someone to watch – has done some really interesting work.
Yup – see you Friday.
Jonny, do you know how long the installation’s there for?
went a couple of weeks ago and thought the space was amazing – shame about the health and safety – it was pretty empty when we went and my experience was lessened by the life jacket and designer in a wet suit walking in the water next to me – apparently someone fell in so he has to do it.
it runs until 29 october and is open weds-sun 11am-4pm
laughing at andrew’s commment about someone falling in – that would be Peter and he’s my hero 🙂 because he stepped out and tried. How many of us would (and do) just stay in the boat.
blessings
the only person to have fallen in so far out of 1000 or so is the reviewer from timout!
I remember seeing this somewhere, I think on the http://www.ArtsandFaith.com forums. Pretty sweet installation!