last week i had another day in london for meetings.

i took the opportunity to visit wallspace. wallspace is the exhibition space in all hallows where the greenbelt offices are based. it is really turning into a great space with some wonderful exhibitions. following on from damien hirst earlier in the year, sam taylor wood is showing three films – one a week for three weeks. i caught the first film which is only about 2 minutes and repeated on a loop. it’s now into week two – not sure if i’ll get back to see the others. i loved the screen it was projected onto – a sort of mesh…

round the corner (ish) and pretty much next door to the big chill bar is the amazing new rough trade store which is very cool indeed – proving that vinyl and 7 inch singles are still alive and well. there is a progreso cafe inside.

and then of course i had to check out the new exhibit in the tate modern’s turbine hall. shibboleth is a crack that has been excavated somehow right through the floor of the hall. it’s a simple idea and works wonderfully well. i think the whole series in the turbine hall has been brilliant. shibboleth of course comes from a story in the bible when the ephraimites were stopped at the river by the gileadites. if they couldn’t say shibboleth they were killed. the crack in the heart of london hopefully raises questions about racism and other divides that run through our culture.

‘The history of racism’, Salcedo writes, ‘runs parallel to the history of modernity, and is its untold dark side’. For hundreds of years, Western ideas of progress and prosperity have been underpinned by colonial exploitation and the withdrawal of basic rights from others. Our own time, Salcedo is keen to remind us, remains defined by the existence of a huge socially excluded underclass, in Western as well as post-colonial societies.

In breaking open the floor of the museum, Salcedo is exposing a fracture in modernity itself. Her work encourages us to confront uncomfortable truths about our history and about ourselves with absolute candidness, and without self-deception.

it was fun watching people interact with it. i spotted this guy sticking his head in it for example – shame it didn’t get stuck! lots of photographers trying to get a unique angle, kids playing and people having fun…