The Male Menopause

After a meeting at Festival Hall, I bunked off and went to the Martin Creed at Hayward Gallery. I spent the first 40 minutes sitting on a very comfortable sofa 2ft inside the entrance surrounded by ticking metronomes as part of a installation exploring (amongst many other things) the powerful urge in women to have a child, 'MOTHERS, 2011' its like an Angel of the North automaton squeezed into too smaller space; a dangerous rotating illuminated Mcdonalds sign at Fleet Services on the M3 . I had a great experience.

On the top floor the gallery security mischievously encourage us to go out onto the roof terrace where there is Creed's 'What Goes Up Must Come Down'. It is beautifully realised and carefully not shocking at all. It reminded me of sex education in biology at school; he has somehow managed to strip the work of any pornographic or sensationalist elements. I found it rather beautiful and vulnerable, it speaks eloquently of the male experience in the same way as MOTHERS does on the ground floor. It is positioned perfectly with the London skyline behind it, the office blocks mimicking the briefest of arousals that loops like a Muybridge Collotype.

Earlier that morning ironically I had a blood test to check my testosterone levels.

Me with Martin Creed's 'What Goes Up Must Come Down' #1 © Photographer Unknown 2014

Me with Martin Creed's 'What Goes Up Must Come Down' #2 © Photographer Unknown 2014