Decisions: You want it all but can you have it All? A look at Carsten Höller at the Hayward Gallery

"Dice (White Body, Black Dots), 2014

Carsten Höller: Decision

10 June - 6 September 2015

Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, London

Photograph by: Amanda Chain

The Southbank Centre puts on a number of shows, concerts, and exhibitions. One that has been gaining in popularity, especially among the young adults is Carsten Höller's Decision exhibition on now at the Hayward Gallery.

For twenty years, Höller has been attempting to get his audience to rethink the way they see art and exhibitions through the creation of a myriad of devices, and situational installations that interweave people between various psychological states. He intentionally forces his audience to venture out of their comfort zone, and this exhibition is no exception. Upon entering, you are given the choice of picking two entrances. They alternate signs between A and B, although both provide the same experience. You are taken through a maze of disintegrating light and forced to find your way through darkness in an enclosed space.

This is the first of many instances throughout the exhibition that asks visitors to make a choice. His intention is to bring out so-called "moments of not-knowing." However, it is impossible to take a part the void of knowing and the indecision out of the setting. Knowingly visitors enter the museum expecting to touch, see, and do, and yet at many occasions are they reminded of "museum etiquette." Reminiscent moreso of behavioral psychology than the decision-making process, visitors are still influenced in their actions by gallery assistants telling them protocol.

In this regard, I find the exhibition somewhat lacking. In addition there are a number of installations that appear to have no purpose at all. I found myself more enthralled by a large die in the middle of the room through which I wasn't suppose to crawl (Dice: White Body, Black Dots, 2014), but could indeed poke my head through rather than the fat pink snakes in the middle of the room with a not-so-imaginary boundary around it (Half Mirror Room, 2008/2015). Although you are very much part of the exhibition and your actions are what determine your experience, I can't help but see how mediated this experience actually is. My group and I felt the need to recall the article by Tony Bennett entitled "The Exhibitionary Complex" in which he discusses how the structure of a museum influences our behavior an how we interpret everything inside.

My greatest disappointment surrounded the two roaming beds. It's all well enough to look at beds that appear to be moving themselves around an empty room. What would be far more entertaining would be the option of laying on one of these beds and feeling as though you are being taken in an unknown direction. The experience of which I'm told you can purchase an evening of for a mere £400. However, there are a couple I didn't even bother, such as the Memory Game and Table, which looked like a disheveled child's play area (Memory Game and Table, 2013).

One of the most memorable however, would have to be the goggles (Upside Down Goggles, 1994/2009). You are given a set of goggles and escorted outside to the terrace to which everything you see is reversed. The sky is down, the ground is up, and you are completely disoriented. Should you choose, you could spend a few hours getting your eyes to settle and adjust to that norm, however my general fear of falling off buildings, made me spend not nearly as much time on this installation.

Yet my favorite would have to be the last installation, if even it was that: the slide. The kid in me made me love that aspect of fascination of spiraling in an unknown direction into a space you only know to be down from whence you came. Höller described these (Isometric Slides) as a "sculpture you can travel inside and a device for experiencing a unique condition somewhere between delight and madness." I find madness to be somewhat more intense a term, but nonetheless fairly accurate.

Regardless, I did enjoy the exhibition as a whole. It made me seriously contemplate what it was I was experiencing and what I was meant to gain from this awareness. And furthermore, I had to accept the decision of each opportunity for action no matter what. Alea iacta est.

Henley Royal Regatta 2015

"Leander Club and Boating Dock from Henley Bridge"

Henley-On-Thames, UK

Photograph by: Amanda Chain

Henley never ceases to amaze me. Whether it is the fact that the majority of people that attend are more concerned with picnicking, Pimms, and being seen, or the fact that it passes by unnoticed most of the time as it falls at the same time as another major sporting event: Wimbledon; Henley is the unsung subtle hero of British sporting institutions.

"Henley Royal Regatta: Spectators" 2012

Henley-on-Thames, UK

Photograph by: Amanda Chain

As a rower, I find it absolutely incredible how what normally would be considered one race, in actuality becomes a Five-Day event, ranging with participants as young as 15 to ages exhibiting much more maturity. It brings junior and national team representatives into the same realm and inspires young athletes and mesmerizes the older ones.

This Henley was rather meaningful on two respects. The first was that for the Women's Henley which took place two weeks prior, after a grueling year I was able to win the Intermediate Academic 4+ with the University of London Boat Club. I had come over when I was a junior and lost with Mount Saint Joseph Academy and so this was especially poignant as MSJA brought over girls to race again and my old coaches were able to witness the race. It felt like something out of a Disney movie to be honest.

"Intermediate Academic 4+ Winners ULBC 

with The Cathy Cruickshank Trophy"

Henley-on-Thames, UK

Photograph Courtesy of: Beth Welch

The other poignancy comes from the fact that I spent the last three years of my life coaching at Winchester College and this year, I watched the boys from Winchester College compete, the majority of whom I taught to row when they first joined the school. They had an admirable showing but lost to a crew traveling from the States by a little over a length open water. The boys are majority J16 so they have many more races ahead of them, it was so nice to see them compete with "the big boys," and still stack up phenomenally.

"Winchester College racing Boston College High School"

Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup

Henley-on-Thames, UK

Photograph Courtesy of: The Henley Royal Regatta

www.hrr.org

In fact, there were many crews traveling from the States including University of Washington, and the Ivy contingent of Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Brown, Cornell, and Princeton, with a few representatives in the University Barge Club from my alma mater UPenn. I'm not even going to get into all the various countries represented, of which there were many.

This year was the first expansive effort for live coverage of the racing. Drone cameras made it possible for viewers to watch from all over the race course and video screens set up in the Steward's enclosure made it possible to see the racing from start to finish. For people who are not well-versed in rowing it made it a lot easier for them to understand what was happening with each race in conjunction with the announcers and of course the leader board. To see aerial footage of rowing was breath-taking and unlike anything I had ever seen with the sport. It changed the vantage point, and made me see rowing in a different, more exciting light.

"Live Drone Footage from Racing on Friday Morning"

Henley-on-Thames, UK

Photograph Courtesy of: The Henley Royal Regatta

www.hrr.org

This year being the year before an Olympic year tends to bring a number of athletes from abroad. As England is the birthplace of rowing, it should come as no surprise that the most prestigious event takes place here. Aside from the Olympics, there is no other regatta that commands the same respect and reverence from international rowers. Hence the presence of sporting celebrities like New Zealand's Mahe Drysdale who is an Olympic gold medalist in his own right, and the Czech Republic's Miroslava Knapková who also won gold in the London 2012 Games.

The number of people drawn to the banks of the Thames is an ever increasing figure. Although the event retains is prestige, it is slowly becoming more accessible for competitors from all over the world to take part. It is not so much a British institution as it is an International one these days, and this is seen by the ever increasing numbers of world-class athletes coming over for the opportunity to participate, and the chance to win the renown Little Red Box.