Surprisingly, London fun might be on the agenda after all in a gallery, if you're a teen or a student who hates traipsing round staring at pictures all day.
Expecting jeers of derision and tears of laughter at the thought of visiting a so-called piece of 'contemporary art' from the same stable that produced a crumpled sheet of paper, blu-tak and a toilet, I tentatively mooted the idea of visiting the latest Martin Creed installation at the Tate Britain gallery.
Martin Creed, the former Turner prize winner, has had an Olympian inspiration to set a constant stream of runners to sprint through the marble halls and weave through the lofty columns of the Tate Britain gallery - and call it art.
Far from decrying the whole idea of a Puma-sponsored attention-grabbing spectacle as a piece of exploitative sensationalism designed only to hook them in and make fools of them, my teen and tween sons actually showed a spark of interest! As a result, this spectacle 'Work no 850' makes it onto our Autumn London fun things wishlist, as it runs until November.
They will be interested to watch the runners coping with the challenge of slippery floors and in the difficulty of supplying the human running chain with fresh replacement runners. They will probably be disappointed to find out however, that members of the art-loving public such as themselves - or other London fun seekers - will not be able to take part. The usual health and safety concerns apply, and anyway, the runners are apparently only getting paid ten pounds per hour - not that much more than my sons get paid per hour for their paper round.
It will be interesting to hear the opinion of the young on the idea that art can represent the qualities of nothing - it takes a child to see things with a fresh, uncynical and innocent eye. Whether we are being 'taken for a ride' rather than a run will prove interesting debate - as did the intriguing story of The Emperor's New Clothes - in this case that would be running shoes and sports wear apparently sponsored by Puma.
Grab a copy of the best London fun magazine and see what else is new, edgy and different to do in London, in case they've all 'run' out on the very day you want to buy one!
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