The Edges of the World.

I visited the Ernesto Neto exhibition, The Edges of the World, at the Hayward last month and found it very interesting.  The immediate room contained a large red structure meant to symbolise a heart. Inside the heart there was a large drum and a suspended drum stick with which to create the heart beat. As you can imagine, this space was frequented by little children intent on creating the loudest bang possible!

A print called Two Hearts and One Body taken from Neto's computer-rendered drawings of the exhibition.

Further on in the exhibition you reach an area which can only be described as a large nylon membrane. There is an area to sit down in (shoes off), a walk-through in which the nylon gradually changes colour from reds and oranges into blues and purples, several look-out posts where you can poke your head through and see above the membrane, and a very green area where you take your shoes off and walk around on top of the nylon.

Pockets filled with herbs, large stalactite-like strucutres filled with stones, and cuff-like holes in the membrane walls add another dimension to what could be a very minimalist use of space. There are also platforms where you can peep above the structure (see photo below) and view the empty void. A very random feature was the outdoor paddling pool and outdoor changing rooms - totally empty on my visit. People were wandering into the changing rooms as if they were part of the exhibition, which was quite amusing!

Charles Darwent, reviewing the exhibition for the Independent, made a poignant remark:

"It's quite an artwork that can provoke a crisis of identity in a grizzled old critic like me, but that's definitely what is going on here. The question is: which Teletubby am I? The little red one with the circle on its head or the purple one with the handbag?"

Honestly, although I tried, I didn't find any part of Neto's installation very interesting or personally enlightening. It felt like I was walking around in a glorified children's playground, trying desperately to find something profound among the teletubby landscape. Vaguely fun teletubby landscape!


Here is a YouTube video from the Southbank Centre interviewing Neto:

Is this really art? I think the jury remains out on that one.