Creatives Anthony and Greg report back from a recent inspiration-sourcing visit to the Christian Marclay exhibition at the White Cube in Bermondsey.

Every once in a while us creative types need to step outside the bubble of advertising cars, running shoes, and milk, to simply take in the arts. It’s a necessary practice of freeing your mind and hopefully padding the vault with new creative references. So in keeping with this tradition, we ventured off to the White Cube gallery to do just that.

The White Cube currently features the work of Christian Marclay, which the pamphlet at the door described as, “Marclay’s long-standing interest in the relationship between image and sound.”

Image and sound? Seems up our alley. Let’s begin.

As soon as you enter into the White Cube’s main artery, our ears perked up to the sharp pings and clanks of glass. Projections on the walls flickered footage of the artist’s journey down London sidewalks where discarded bottles and glassware from the previous night’s bender was scattered about. The artist playfully taps, pings and kicks, anything and everything that catches his eye, resulting in a symphonic yet physcofrenic medley of sound. We couldn’t help but get lost in this experience. The behaviour was almost child-like, evoking distant memories of running a stick along a fence.

In the adjacent room, colourful mixed-media pieces complement the video installation. Here, Marclay translates the theme onto canvas, channeling 60s Batman, Roy Lichtenstein prints with a bit of Jackson Pollock – combining them in a distinctly sly and tongue-in-cheek way. The pieces seem to describe themselves. The word ‘Splat!’ literally referencing the paint splatter behind it.

Finally, we enter the last room of the exhibition. It’s a large room with one long running shelf that spans all four walls, holding hundreds of pint glasses. Think of the window sill outside of The Heart on a friday, x100.  In the centre of the room, a performance artist dunks his head in a pail of water. Like bobbing for apples, he searches the bucket, takes a big mouthful of water, and walks toward the wall of glassware. Greg and I watch (alone) as the artist chooses a glass, and painstakingly spits the water into it.

As we slowly back out of the room (hoping to go unnoticed), we watch him pour the pint of mouth-water back into the bucket and proceed to start the process all over again (and you thought you had a hard day at work). A interesting experience. Maybe there’s an idea in there somewhere. Maybe not.

After collecting a few thoughts and experiencing the uncomfortable nature that is ‘performance art’, overall, it was a good visit. The White Cube is a brilliant gallery displaying art in a beautiful space. If you have a moment, we suggest you take an hour to see it for yourself.

Until next time, we’re Greg and Ant.