I am hopeless when it comes to art. I don't appreciate the meaning behind artwork, I'm never moved by an image, and I rarely know how a painting makes me feel.
So thankfully I have Pippa to interpret these things for me. She is so much more creative than I am, with an equally wild imagination. So she's the perfect companion for an afternoon of art appreciation. Plus I'd been dying to go to Martin Creed's What's the point of it? since it opened at the end of January. Rather than being an exhibition solely based on visuals, it is a multi-sensorial celebration of interactivity and invention that intended to play as many games with your mind as it did with your eyes. Pippa and I were in.
I also realise I haven't done an outfit post for a while. So I thought I would include it here. Spending all week wearing fifty shades of indigo and black has reminded me how much I love experimenting with colour. And with the promise of up to nineteen degrees, I picked out the perfect spring look using every shade of pink.
I'm in almost head to toe Topshop, and nearly all some of my favourite pieces from last summer. But fear not, I've managed to find near-identical pieces in this years SS collections:
Blazer: Tailored peach blazer
Top: Crepe tee
Skirt: Pink skort
The shoes are New Look Limited edition, and the bag a Vintage piece I've had for years, but eBay always do some fantastic ones.
So we headed to The Hayward Gallery on the Southbank. As I'm constantly saying, the Southbank holds such fond memories for the girls and I, and it is always so good to head back to some of our favourite haunts there.
The exhibition begins with a large-scale instillation of the word "Mothers", a representation of how in youth, your mother always appears big (and sometimes a little bit scary) that spins around the whole room at varying speeds. Pippa and I were quick to duck as it span our way and scurried through the exhibition.
While you're not supposed to take photographs, I managed to sneak a couple of my favourite pieces, and Broccoli prints had to be one of them. A thousand half heads of broccoli graced the wall of room three of the Hayward gallery and each one was made from a different head of broccoli, and each one in a different colour. It was a celebration of Creed's favourite vegetable (strange choice if you ask me), as well as a celebration of colour, youth and imagination. And that I couldn't disagree with.
But the best part of this exhibition is the balloon room. I'm not much of a gallery person usually, as I said earlier I just cannot appreciate the beauty and emotion in an image the way I know the artist would wish. But what I can do is recognise the fun in a 7 foot tall room half filled with seven thousand balloons.
Pippa and I wasted no time in experiencing the room described as 'both playful and claustrophobic', diving straight into a game of hide and seek.
Finally finding each other again and deciding we had ran round the room enough times, we decided to take our static hair and claustrophobic minds through the rest of the exhibition, stumbling upon a giant instillation of a moving penis on the roof terrace. And rather than appreciate the exploration of rhythm and repetition, like the mature adults we are, we decided to giggle like children and take photos petting it. You can't grow up too fast.
You can buy tickets for £9 from the box office, or just turn up on the day for the exact same price. Or add a pre-exhibiton glass of champers for £3.50. It's well worth a visit, and has just been extended until the 5th May due to popular demand! So get your tickets here http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/
