A DISUSED former carpet warehouse, a stones throw from Wembley Stadium became home this week to a new multi-media art installation celebrating Wembley’s prestigious football related history.
‘The Saints’ exhibition by internationally renowned New York artist Paul Pffeifer was inspired by the completion and opening of the new £352 million stadium and is a celebration and study of the mass crowds who are drawn to the stadium to watch England games.
The installation is housed in the middle of a retail park in an empty warehouse approximately the size of a football pitch throughout which crowd noises resonate; there is a split screen which shows footage of the 1966 world cup final alongside synchronised footage of a crowd in
Manila who are edited so that they appear to be watching the game in the present day.
The crowd noises from the recording of the original game intermingle with the sound of the crowd supposedly watching the game in Manila.
Vicky Childs (18) an art student from London Metropolitan University was visiting the installation as part of an organised trip, she said
‘The exhibition is a bit bizarre, but the contrast between the old recording of the football match and the modern day crowd is unusual and interesting’
Artangel the organisation which commissioned the piece of work is renowned for its groundbreaking and sometimes controversial work.
In recent years Artangel commissioned Rachel Whitereads concrete mould of the inside of an East End house along with Anthony Gormleys Waste Man and Jeremy Dellers re-enactment of the battle of Orgreave.
Patrick Waters who runs front of house for the installation said there had been a steady influx of people visiting the exhibition despite its unusual location,
‘We had about thirty people on the first day and about 21 today, I think people are initially a bit intimidated by the building and the crowd noises coming out of it - i think a lot of people are coming to see the exhibition out of a nostalgia for the old Wembley.’
Patrick is not yet committing himself to any explanation of the meaning of the installation,
‘I think you can interpret it in your own way, a lot of it is about what you bring to the art, I think it’s a fantastic exhibition in a fascinating location.’
'The Saints' installation is open every Wednesday to Sunday between 11am-7pm, is free to enter and runs until the 28th October.
http://www.wembleystadium.com/
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Comment - Wembley Art Exhibition
I had read a review of this exhibition online and realised it was not far from where I live. I am a fan of the challenging work that Artangel produce and it was a treat to find this installation virtually on my doorstep. The interesting thing that struck me about this exhibition was its bizarre location, in the middle of retail-park. Wembley is a diverse, exciting and interesting place – but in terms of cultural events it is a little limited. In neighbouring Kilburn they have the Tricycle Theatre which shows art films and has exhibitions but there is very little of that sort in Wembley. I interviewed a couple of people which proved quite difficult as I don’t yet have fast enough shorthand and the installation was in darkness, so my notes were very scrawled when I entered the daylight again.
Some of the people I interviewed were less than forthcoming when discussing the art. Indeed, the installation front of house manager was very suspicious. He may have thought I was going to do a Daily Mail style hatchet job on ‘Modern Art’ but once he was convinced I was genuine he opened up.
I didn’t actually send this article away for publication in the Wembley Observer which on reflection I should have as they didn't cover it – though the exhibition was reviewed in a couple of the national papers.
I took the pictures for the article with my camera. Though not much of a photographer, the images help to add interest to the piece, especially when the location is so strange!
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