One Stop Arts

The guide to London's glorious and eclectic arts scene. onestoparts.com var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-32093718-1']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();

[onestoparts]

What fun. The programming was creative: the perfect match to the on-screen shenanigans. Littered with bad puns, the overall story remained true to Wallace and Gromit's trademark haphazard approach and good-natured humour. The Aurora Orchestra was stupendously good. Nicholas Collon's enthusiasm as conductor-compère was obvious. A technical hitch (unplanned, I'm sure) near the start was humorously dismissed as "what happens when you leave things to Wallace and Gromit"; that made it entirely forgivable. The final animation showed the weary pair relieved that they had pulled it off. To Gromit's horror, though, Wallace exhaustedly flopped onto the chair on which Gromit's Strad was resting; you can imagine what resulted. I suspect it may be some time before the duo make another musical appearance...

Julia Savage reviews Prom 24, featuring Wallace and Gromit.

[onestoparts]

I have never seen so many empty seats in the Royal Albert Hall. Empty, because it took all of three minutes for the audience to descend en masse to the standing arena, transforming it into a dance floor. Children and grandmothers alike got up, unable to resist the heady pull of the music. When the dance floor was full, the audience simply danced in the stalls. The simple fact is that it is impossible not to be moved to dance by the infectious sound of Vallenato – now recognised as Colombia’s national folk music.

Verity Quaite reviews Prom 24, featuring BBC Radio 3 World Routes artists.

[onestoparts]

This is not your average zoological museum: there appears to be far more material to display than there is room in the Grant Museum of Zoology, so that you are met with unnerving specimens from every angle and from every cabinet. Inviting in its modesty, this collection has an extremely high concentration of interesting specimens per square meter.

Phoebe Crompton reviews.

Image © UCL Grant Museum / Matt Clayton

[onestoparts]

I know that sometimes experiments simply can go wrong and that audiences may remain unresponsive. I am more than ready to see past those weaknesses if there is a brave idea at the heart of the performance. But Wish Experience’s The Awesome Show, however, had a disconcertingly lewd and witless vacuum in the place where its heart should have been. At the Tristan Bates Theatre.

Annegret Maerten reviews.

Image © The Awesome Show

[onestoparts]

[onestoparts]

Korean Eye is the exhibition of the summer.  Playful, witty, solemn and astute - it presents Korean cultural identity as shifting, dynamic and globally interconnected. The range of media, its scale and originality make this exhibition a fantastic visual experience. Once you’ve visited the gallery, you’ll want to go back again.

Jessica Shepherd reviews.

Image: Sungsoo koo, From series Magical reality comics, 2005 © Courtesy of the Artist

[onestoparts]

It was perhaps inevitable that much of the audience should leap to its feet immediately, as much in recognition of the work of the man and his orchestra in the Middle East as in praise of the Beethoven. It was a well constructed performance with some excellent individual playing in the woodwind and timpani, some fine solo singing and a few magical moments. It fell just short of superb, but will linger long in the memory largely for Daniel Barenboim, who made this Beethoven (and perhaps even the first half of the Proms season) his own. Though founded on the shoulders of an earlier generation of broad, bold Beethoven conductors, he continually adds subtleties of phrasing and tempo which give even as popular a work as the ninth a feeling of freshness. He spoke compellingly after much applause, saying "We cannot change the Middle East, but I assure you, we will not let the people in power in the Middle East change us". Bravo, Barenboim, and bravo Beethoven and Boulez.

Rohan Shotton reviews Beethoven 9 at the Proms.

[onestoparts]

Parading pandas vie with birds and bears on jam-packed walls this summer as the Cartoon Museum examines the fascination with using animals for social and politcal satire in their latest exhibition.

Claire Daly reviews.

Image: Spectator, 29 June 2005 © Martin Honeysett

[onestoparts]

This new stage version of the classic story quite sensibly stays loyal to C S Lewis' original book and tells the children's adventure with charm and imagination. Add to the classic story a big top tent in the middle of Kensington Gardens and some wonderful puppetry and you have a sure fire treat. At threesixty Theatre.

Sophie Lieven reviews.

Image: Philip Labey (Peter) with Aslan © Simon Annand

[onestoparts]

Lynda Morris has taken the brave step of opening up her personal archive as curator, writer and art historian to deliver this show, which focuses on Morris's involvement with the contemporary art world across a career of over forty years, and shows her to have been constantly at the cutting edge of emerging artistic talent.

Rita Fennel reviews at CHELSEA Art Space.

Yinka Shonibare, Aliens © Photo: CHELSEA space

[onestoparts]

I wasn't convinced by the inclusion of a John Cage radio work, Excerpts 7pm to 8pm, played after the Harvey. While generally I'm all for programming as much Cage as possible (especially in his anniversary year), this recital's carefully cultivated calm ambience suffered a little on forcing the crowd to listen to some randomly assembled passages of noise culled from several radios. Joely Cragg's brilliant, vehement performance of Iannis Xenakis' Psappha also suffered a little from its context: when so much calm music had come before, this ludicrously loud rhythmic percussion study seemed out of place. It's an enormously exciting piece and was certainly performed with vigour, but relaxing into one's comfy chair during it was not a possibility.

Paul Kilbey reviews the London Contemporary Orchestra Soloists at the Royal Albert Hall's Elgar Room.

[onestoparts]

This collaborative work of Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat was their artistic response to the 1984 Olympic Games held in Los Angeles, and is a perfect demonstration of how the Olympics is not only concerned with athletics.

Ashitha Nagesh reviews at the Gagosian.

Image: Jean-Michel Basquiat & Andy Warhol, Olympic Rings, 1985. © 2012 The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat/ADAGP, Paris/ARS, New York; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

[onestoparts]

For anyone with an interest in Baroque music, this is a fascinating space as it gives one a true sense of how music was performed and enjoyed in a domestic setting in Handel’s time. Below the elegant sash windows, the traffic rumbles along Brook Street and Bond Street. Turn back into the room, and you are in Handel’s enchanting world again.

Frances Wilson reviews.

[onestoparts]

ART SPOTS

In this series on London's art districts, Jessica Shepherd takes us on a tour of the Art Spots you need to know about. Each article examines a different area, from Vyner Street to Bermondsey. Read on to find out what makes them worth a trip...

[onestoparts]

The Whitechapel Gallery's London Open is an exhibition of fresh artworks that are right on the pulse of contemporary experiences.  There is a great vibrancy and freshness about the show that is suggestive of artists fearlessly pushing themselves to explore new ideas.

Rita Fennell reviews.

Image: Leigh Clarke, Detail from the Heads of State installation, 2012 © Courtesy the artist

[onestoparts]

Dance GB is a collaboration between the UK's three national dance companies, Scottish Ballet, National Dance Company Wales, and English National Ballet. A new piece was commissioned for each company, and they are being performed together in a triple bill: in London, as part of Big Dance 2012.

Hanna Weibye reviews.

Image: National Dance Company Wales © Andrew Ross

[onestoparts]

A thimble, a miniature padlock, a button, the shell of a nut. All are on display in the Foundling Museum, as examples of the "tokens" which mothers used to give to the Foundling Hospital as mementos for the babies they were giving up. To ensure the anonymity of the parents, the tokens were never passed on.

Paul Kilbey on the Foundling Museum.