Lost (and listed) in Battersea
After an interminable court case in Manchester and Party Conference in Bournemouth we had a week-end off when we managed to catch up with films and saw four very different ones, each very enjoyable in their own way – Atonement, the Bourne Ultimatum, Two Days in Paris and The Singer. Good to be able to switch off and relax in the cinema!
But now it’s back to business as usual with a chance to see a stunning production at the Battersea Arts Centre, an engrossing show at the South Bank’s Hayward Gallery and a crafts fair that demonstrates once again just how good we are at this sort of thing in the UK. And in the middle of it all, I upgraded the ‘listing’ for a national - some would say international – architectural icon.
The Masque of the Red Death, Punch Drunk Productions’ new performance at the Battersea Arts Centre is a really thought-provoking piece of work, pushing back the frontiers of theatre and exploring innovative new ways of interaction with the audience. The Gothic surroundings of the old town hall are an apt setting for enacting Poe’s dark and mysterious pieces and, given that the (masked) audience has to roam from one set to another while following the action as best they can, it’s fair to say that none of us would have come away at the end with anything like the same experience. Sadly we had to leave before the end, but part of the adventure for us was our inability to locate an ‘Exit’ adding to the scary nature of our evening.
The Hayward Gallery’s autumn show, Painting of Modern Life, is a fascinating exhibition showing how photographic images take on a life of their own when reproduced by artists as paintings. The pictures are powerful and convey a very different experience from the photographs on which they are based with many of the images lingering in my mind long afterwards. It’s also faintly depressing to note that Andy Warhol’s famous early excursions into this area are now 50 years old – a disquieting thought on a damp evening.
I also had the privilege of opening Origin: The London Crafts Fair last week. The craft sector has long been the ‘quiet one’ in the arts world, lacking the media razzmatazz that contemporary fine art often attracts while producing an endless procession of really stunning work. The fair is a great showcase for international work and a reminder that crafts are becoming more and more important to the cultural sector, employing 36,000 people and bringing more than £800 million to the economy each year.
Finally for this week. I can report that I have upgraded the listing of Battersea Power Station from II to II*. It’s the largest brick-built structure in Europe and, with its design by Giles Gilbert Scott, is a very obvious – and conspicuous – part of our built heritage with a resonance that goes way beyond London. I can’t believe any present or future owner would want to tamper with its iconic design, but I’m very pleased to be able to give it that extra layer of protection that upgrading provides, just in case.