Rain Room

In Britain, it never rains, it pours.  In celebration of this, Random International have created an installation of cascading water, which opened at The Barbican last week. 

This multisensory experience, allows visitors to hear, see and feel the splash of rain without getting wet.  Instead of emerging from the exhibition looking like a drowned rat, a la Thorpe Park’s Tidal Wave, this installation keeps you dry as a bone.  Visitors can feel Moses-esque by ‘parting’ the rain, as the installation tracks movements and stops the water as visitors walk towards it. 

A light at the far end of the rain room provides a dramatic backdrop for the water to glisten against.  So escape the outdoor weather and head to the rain room to keep dry.  It is open until 3^rd March and admission is free so there’s no excuse to miss it!

The Great Wall of Vagina

Like it or loathe it, the widely talked about Great Wall of Vagina has arrived in the Capital.

From Essex vajazzles to One Born Every Minute, vaginas are everywhere. However, nowhere puts the female nether regions in the spotlight more so, than Jamie McCartney’s Great Wall of Vagina.  With 400 participants ranging from 18-76 years old, the artwork took 5 years to make, used ½ a tonne of plaster and has resulted in 9 metres of vaginas  (now there's a sentence I never thought I'd write!) The collection includes mothers, daughters, identical twins, and even a pre and post labiaplasty mold. The presentation of the artwork is far from being a pornographic pervert party; instead, it is a provocative response to cosmetic labial surgeries and encourages people to take a deeper look (pun intended) at what constitutes normality, by changing female body perception through art.

It's free, on at the Hay Hill Gallery and is here until 2nd June.

Marilyn

Getty Images

You only need to say ‘Marilyn’, and the world immediately knows exactly who you’re talking about.  We’ve all seen a million photos of Marilyn Monroe, from her iconic breezy white dress picture, to more sincere, sadder shots.  This month, Getty Images is providing us with more insight into the Hollywood star’s successes and downfalls through an exhibition commemorating the 50^th anniversary of the iconic beauty’s untimely death.  In addition to photos capturing intimate moments and behind the scenes video footage of the star, the exhibition displays David Gainsborough Roberts’ collections of original dresses and costumes worn by Marilyn. 

It’s free and finishes on 23^rd May, so there’s no excuse to miss out on seeing unique pics of the best blonde bombshell the world has ever seen.

Space on Earth!

Yayoi Kusama’s exhibition at the Tate Modern looks right up my street!  With everything from the weird to the wonderful, the main attraction is her infinity mirror room (her largest to date) with hundreds of hanging changing colour LED lights – now do you see why I’m so excited about it?!  This is the closest most of us are ever going to get to experiencing floating in space.

The exhibition showcases the 82 year old’s astonishing array of media from painting, drawing, sculpture, film, performance and immersive installations.  In 1977, Kusama voluntarily checked herself into a psychiatric home where she has remained.  Since then, her work has been representative of psychiatric trauma and obsessive repetition (as seen through her infamous dots).  So while the infinity mirror room may seem astronomically beautiful, it’s conceptualisation has probably come from a much deeper and darker place than any of us care to venture. 

Regardless of this, I’m planning to check it out at the weekend.  If anyone’s been or is going, let me know what you think!