After The Dream The Eternity Chamber

Other things that I thought were pretty good whilst taking in the Walking In My Mind exhibition were the pieces by Charles Avery (whos work I had previously been meaning to see) which basically were artifacts and images from this imaginary island which he creates as part of this epic project where he documents and investigates the island and its inhabitants. I really like the idea, and I think it most comes to life in the biggest sculpture which is an Eternity Chamber - its a lot like the black revolving box I had in my exhibition at Brighton - apart from its much bigger and better! You can only see the inside through a a small opening - this is what the catalogue has to say about it: ' ...an Eternity Chamber belonging to the Island's Cult of the Gulls, whos insane leaders extreme longevity is attributed to his having once witnessed eternity. The kiosk's brilliantly patterned and mirrored interior presents a dazzling illusion of infinity, which we are only allowed a glance of through a crack in the padlocked doors.' The outside of the 'kiosk' is pretty special too.

The brilliance of the exhibition lay in the wildly imaginative landscapes that the visitor was able to experience by walking through them as the title suggests - there was a network of cardboard and packing tape catacombs, a red and white spotted inflatable and astroturfed wonderland, as well as Chiharu Shiota's soft yet disturbing web of wool called After the Dream. This was an incredible tunnel of interwoven threads which encased 5 long fairytale dresses in its woven thicket and gave the feeling of being inside a giant spiders lair where objects had been captured and forgotten, protected and ensnared.