RCKa Blog

RCKa building visit

Inauspiciously, Friday 13th August saw the first RCKa building visit of the year for the entire office including recent additions Josh and Alice. The jaunt masquerading as an afternoon of Continuing Professional Development took us from the office in Farringdon to the unexplored depths of South London via some of London’s more interesting new buildings and exhibitions.
We started at The Hayward gallery on the South Bank where Ernesto Neto has strung large expanses of coloured netting between and around the textured walls of the Hayward and made tunnels of tactile and aromatic cloth stretched over bone-shaped pieces of plywood. It’s full of small children who seem to appreciate it and, personally, I always think good art can elicit a positive response from small children. The response from our own group is a little more mixed - vive la difference.
The Hayward is effectively a solid lump of concrete without any of the fuss of modern construction such as insulation and rain screens and I liked the contrast between the light and tactile netting and the metre-thick, citadel-like walls of the gallery. The best bit was when you stuck your head above the false netted ceiling and found yourself in a dream-like soft landscape of colourful tendons and suspended globes of light.

Downstairs was an exhibition of art of varying quality mostly made up from bits of junk and found objects. A work of particular contention was the three legged chair with its fourth leg on a turntable which returned the chair to its complete state once per revolution.
Nearby was the favela model of London made by children in Brazil. It was a bit like a model village on acid with all of the houses made from the honeycomb bricks they use for internal walls in Europe. It could have done with a bit more input and they should allow kids to add to it here in London which would have made it all a bit more interactive and inventive.
Further south took us along the ungentrified Walworth road to the irreverent chaos of Camberwell. Alan looked a bit scared even though he’s from Glasgow but cheered up when we got some Danish pastries and Bakewell tarts from a bakery that was so cheap ‘it’s virtually free’ (T.Riley). Dieter couldn’t help but take us inside a new youth venue on Camberwell road even though the receptionist looked a bit confused at our presence. It was a good space with colour and light although the occupants had filled it with the usual cheap furniture and notices made with the effects tools on PowerPoint.
Between Camberwell and Peckham is the newly refurbished South London Gallery which recently hosted the ‘art bin’ installation that got the tabloids all excited again. The gallery occupies the old Camberwell school of art building and an adjacent Victorian terrace. We were quite impressed with the quiet and thoughtful additions and restorations by 6A architects. They obviously had no money to spend but have put it in the right place and obviously responded very sensitively as the existing building was stripped away. I liked the extruded rooflight in the new gallery space at the back which gave an interesting light to the room. The gallery staff got a bit concerned when all eight of us crowded around door architraves or went into the toilets together to look at shower screen details.

We finished the day in Frank’s cafe – a temporary restaurant and bar strapped to the top of a car park in Peckham. It was set up by a bunch of architecture students and there were some quite interesting art installations on the car park floor leading up to the roof. The views of London were very impressive and it was quite elegant to sip Campari Sodas and watch the weather come in (apart from the water dripping in from the tarpaulin roof).

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