Mason's Yard Site
25-26 Mason’s Yard (Off Duke Street) St. James’s London SW1Y 6BU
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7930 5373 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7749 7480
Open: 10 – 6pm Tuesday – Saturday
The first thing I think anyone notices about the white cube gallery is the approach, weather consciously or not I think this has a tremendous impact on the mind-space of each individual entering the gallery.
For those of you that haven’t been there let me paint the picture. The gallery itself you would not be aware of unless you were looking for it, it’s tucked away so neatly in masons yard that to even be going to it is something of a cult pilgrimage. This is not something created by chance of course, when they rebuilt on this site they knew it would be hidden from most public view. And for their target audience this is exactly what they wanted, a secluded haven of modern art shopping.
They want people to feel like they are going somewhere off the radar of the modern universe, right into the cult of art.
So as you approach it you notice many things of course but one you cannot miss is the amount of gallery’s in its immediate area. You almost have to wade through all types of gallery come shop just too even come to the yard entrance. The format of these are all very similar so when you emerge on the other side of the arch the striking pose of the white cube gallery has double the effect it would have on you if it were just anywhere normal.
In this picture the Green Circles are galleries and the Red Square is the White Cube.
The cubiod stands proudly in the centre of the yard, as you enter it is bathed in sunlight and it quickly gives off an air of importance rivalling that of your town cathedral. Nothing is similar to it stands unaccompanied but not alone. Doors of glass, of course, floor is gray, walls are white and a single step up the same height as a kerb is the entrance.
The space inside does not disappoint, in terms of what they are trying to do anyway. I felt the illusion of natural light strongly. Fluorescent lighting flush with the ceiling massively diffused. And the ceiling was about forever away from the floor, lots of wide open space on the ground floor. The basement was an almost replica and I was still easily fooled by the lighting I could have been at any level and thought that I was within inches of the sky. Everything as you expect pure and unaffected by the outside world.
Visiting this place I found so interesting. The amount of deliberate psychological effects this establishment has taken to influence the visitors is fantastic. It’s not what I like to see art in but as an exercise it’s impressive to me.
It’s never possible to leave the world behind and the White Cube has used this to its advantage.
There are lots of other galleries on your map. Why not undertake a compare and contrast exercise? One way of looking at these spaces is to examine how easy they would be to climb or to swing in.
ReplyDeleteSee Climbing Around My Room by Lucy Gunning.
Hi Adam, nice analysis of your encounter with Mason's Yard White Cube. I was there recently and had similar thought to yours. I also visited the original White Cube, which is in an area inhabited by a cluster of small (and tiny) galleries. The contrast between the postal areas is marked but so is the method of encounter. The new white cube is clearly meant to impress, and to be found, but a number of the smaller galleries seem to hide themselves away, unannounced, behind locked doors, intercoms, dark stairwells etc. I assume this is because only certain people, those in the know, are meant to find them.
ReplyDeleteThe Lucy Gunning video which Garry cites might well be useful for you as it is concerned with measuring out space by climbing around it. It also occured to me after we spoke last week that you might want o consider Mona Hatoum's "A Couple of swings" which are made out of glass.