Barney Bubbles and the Jets

Posted 21 October 2010

The Bisqits have been on another lunchtime outing. This time to see the Barney Bubbles exhibition and, just a short stumble across the courtyard, the Fiona Banner, Harrier and Jaguar jets exhibit at the Tate Britain.

A step inside the Barney Bubbles exhibition was a step back in time, musically, artistically and practically. It’s amazing to be reminded how differently graphics and print were produced in Bubble’s hay day. Back when every piece was handcrafted before being photographed and when final copy really did mean final copy!

Bubbles died two months before the Apple Mac came along to change the way designers work. Looking at his collection I’m not entirely convinced it would have changed the way he created art – if it had he probably would have made it his own.

Moving on from small scale craftsmanship we went to see something a bit bigger. The jets!

Seeing real jets up close was pretty cool but what really made an impact was seeing them in a completely unexpected space. Standing in the middle, looking to the left or right, each jet was beautifully framed by the impressive archways of the Duveens gallery.

From every perspective these birds were pretty imposing, but if you ask Dan there’s nothing quite as scary as being on the pointy end of a Harrier jet!