transported

I took last week off and spent it slumming around London, so you now get two art reviews for the price of one. And when i say 'art', I mean of course playing in odd playgrounds for adults.

The most talked about of course is Test Site, the enormous slide in the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern. Only five? They should have filled that thing with slides! The queuing system was very oddly handled. We rocked up at midday to get a ticket for 5.00. But once we'd gone down at five, there were huge gaps where it wasn't being used. So clearly they are misappropriating times- I'm sure if they tripled the amount of slides and just let it be a free-for-all it'd be a lot more fun. Anyway, it's a big slide. Like a waterslide but drier and bumpier. I wanted to take my cameraphone down with me to capture the experience, but I didn't and Londonist has a great collection anyway.

More interesting to me was Bridge, an charming little art project that has received very little attention in the press that I can tell, but I really recommend. Essentially, the artist (Michael, who was there and happy to chat about the project/wade about in the water with you) has filled an old abandoned church with water, and installed these odd footsteps- they are like round pads (stepping-stones, really), and when you step on the first one, your weight causes the next one to 'rise up' out of the water, allowing you to take the next step, which brings up the next one, allowing you to slowly walk out into the centre of the water. It's purely mechanical and Michael's intention is to one day install it permanently in a lake somewhere (although he did say that it was slowly breaking down, even in the church).

It was by turns frightening and contemplative, which was more emotion than most art conjures in me. It's out of the way at the foot of Southwark Park, but I highly recommend you check it out while it's still open.