Bigger, Better, Louder

As my student Alex has gone to spend a few days in respite care (and strangely didn't want me to take his school work there...) I took some of his paperwork into the hospital school today to file it.

A couple of years ago I did a post about the hospital school and the children's hospital where it's housed (sort of). It has a huge glass atrium where the school was inserted with no walls, no ceiling, glaring sunlight, heat in summer, cold in winter and voices echoing all round you and leaving you with a headache. The architects and engineers did such a good job of this abomination that six years after the building opened they are installing internal scaffolding so that they can replace the glass, which it seems is not safe. So now the heat is even worse because the school area is boxed in, and the noise is unbearable. Imagine being in a box with someone banging scaffolding together around you. Once I had finished, I intended to try and get some science DVDs for Alex's schooling. I was unsuccessful. But my long trek (seemed like about 3 million miles, but it was probably only a round trip of 5 or 6) took me close to the Royal Academy of Arts, so I decided to see if I could get in to see the Hockney exhibition.

Wow! It was stunning. Even with my legs dropping off, I spent an hour-and-a-half taking it all in. It was much better than the Leonardo exhibition, because real thought had been put into how to group and display the pictures. I suppose it helps that the artist is still alive to supervise.

The landscapes date back over his career back to the 1950s, with a substantial number done recently specifically for the exhibition. There are oils, b/w sketches, watercolours and TA-DA! pictures done on the iPad. There are slideshows of them on several machines, and there are huge, multi-page printouts. I wish I had an App for that...

Of course, the crowning glory of the exhibition was the filmshow. Hockney had supervised the editing together of his nine-camera films so that 18 frames were showing at once, with the same scene filmed at different times on either side. There were audible gasps as one pair of films moved into the next.

Most people were awed into silence as they watched. It was a really peaceful and calming experience.

Except for the man next to me with his audioguide on (why?) and loud enough for me to have to suffer it too.

And the woman who took a phone call. The ringtone was not enough. Her side of the conversation was not enough. She had to make sure I could hear the other half too.

And the man who felt obliged to explain every set to his wife. Obviously she was stupid and he was so brilliant he had to give her - and the rest of us ignoramuses - the benefit of his genius.

And the women who held a loud conversation, most of it nothing to do with what was on show, and who weren't even looking at the screen. My contribution was to ask them equally loudly to take their conversation outside.

What is wrong with people? Why can't they relax and enjoy having something so wonderful just wash over them?