24/7

I've been otherwise busy recently and have  missed out on several exhibitions, but got to 24/7 at Somerset House, and without knowing what to expect [having missed out on reviews etc] found it chimed neatly with recent experience that is in many ways one's chronic experience nowadays - that of having too many tasks and rapidly shrinking time in which to achieve them. [Who has a to-do list that gets done every day?]

It's not only about the pernicious always-online aspect of digital devices, though they have aggravated the situation to intolerable levels.  24/7 ranges widely, in no particular order, with time-lapse videos next to mechanically pecking hens, next to Mark Zuckerberg gabbling 'more, more, more', and inexorably ticking clocks, then swinging back historically to a dramatic 1780s painting of  Arkwright's textile mill by night, every window illuminated to demonstrate non-stop production through two 12-hours shifts daily.  Which is essentially the modern experience, in varied forms.   Plus of course Bentham's famous panopticon, an apt precursor of today's continuous surveillance.


I half-expected to see a calligraphic version of W.H.Davies's once-famous poem 'What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare?'  And perhaps missed it, as 24/7 has over a hundred exhibits, randomly distributed in Somerset House's southern undercroft, a string of spaces on different levels that begins to feel like an Escher drawing, with stairs up and down, mysterious frosted lifts and dark caverns for immersive installations behind thick black curtains.  One has benches and  continuous recordings of the dawn chorus by actual and electronic birds, another invites one to hum along with a humming soundtrack as the bench vibrates. Parts are frankly scary and nightmare-inducing.  One's balance is disturbed, and with it, possibly the balance of one's mind.

Flickering screens everywhere,  with abrupt clips of factory workers and slow-time videos of artists writing and reading real letters.Naturally, the visitors were filming the exhibits on their phones...