Summer Of Dreams

The official end of summer may have been last week, but London was not ready to say farewell just yet and after a week of Paralympic action, it was time today to reflect on what has been an historic British summer of sport and celebration in the shadows of yesterday night’s extraordinary Coldpay tribute to the "Para- Para-" Paralympic Closing Ceremony.

From the magnificent spectacle that invited the world deep into the true British psyche of eclecticism and invention at the Olympics (Opening Up, July 2012) to the superhuman achievement that was displayed again from East London to Eton Dorney and across the United Kingdom during the Paralympic Games, London 2012 will be remembered as the city that shone the Paralympic flame brighter than ever before, as if the Olympics were merely a warm-up to what would be an inspiring summer of inclusivity for all.

London 2012 Velodrome by Hopkins Architects

After being hooked to the Olympic coverage and desperately trying to get in on some Paralympic action for myself, I was lucky enough to witness last week what had been reported in the press with my own eyes: pride, patriotism and personality that had brand GB written all over it around the Olympic Park. Zaha Hadid’s critically acclaimed Aquatics Centre was arguably the most iconic venue in style and substance and it was somehow an honour to experience an ecstasy of senses within this beautiful structure and even see more than ten world records on the night that I attended, including Paralympic GB’s golden girl Ellie Simmonds MBE.

Legacy officially has nowhere to hide (The Finish Line, August 2012) and it will be London 2012’s testament in years to come to its success in both sporting arenas as well as starting today and tomorrow in everyday life for young, old, abled and disabled alike.

My inherent British cynicism thought London 2012 was going to be like a difficult relative coming to visit for the summer. Now, I don’t want it to leave. Congratulations to all the athletes, volunteers and organisers who created a summer of dreams that turned fantasy into reality - where athletes proved that dreams really do come true and hopefully the dreams of a generation have been planted for a lifetime. Here are some photos from my Olympic day out last week…

London 2012 Basketball Arena by SKM/Wilkinson Eyre/KSS

 London 2012 Aquatics Centre by Zaha Hadid

 British Paralympian swimmer Ellie Simmonds MBE, wins gold 

The Finish Line

The London Olympic Games delved into the dictionary of Britishness. The city's charismatic Mayor, Boris Johnson started proceedings with zoinking off the Geiger counter and yesterday evening's Closing Ceremony said farewell to twenty-six million viewers across the world with a reminiscent zig-a-zig-ah. London has undoubtedly presented one of the most memorable and spectacular Olympic Games in modern history with stunning backdrops for sporting events across the city as well as the humbling service provided by volunteers and the armed forces over the last sixteen days. Add athletic finesse and unexpected triumphs with an electricity in the air that tasered even the stiffest of upper lips, the die-hard cynics were converted - even I caught the bug and I am now a proud owner of a Team GB t-shirt. British identity had a confidence boost on the court, lake, ring, track, pit... (didn't we do well?) as well as in the mirror - it is OK to be proud in competition, particularly when one is winning. It felt like the national anthem was on a loop for two weeks!  London 2012's official slogan is Inspire A Generation. Much debate will now take place around legacy and the future of sport for young people. Ironically London 2012 may have also inspired the quintessentially British introverts who may no longer be young, but are still young at heart and who have rather enjoyed the patriotic fanfare that has decorated our streets and television screens. 

Under the artistic direction of Kim Gavin, the Closing Ceremony was to be the last plug of brand GB. The arts have played an important role since London won the Olympic Games with an extensive programme of events, performances and commissions organised by the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad and it was time to shine on the global stage in a dramatic and soulful read-all-about-it finale of made in Britain culture. Boy bands, Girl Power and the late Freddie Mercury - our other Queen - celebrated decades of musical favourites around a London cityscape formed in the shape of the Union flag.

Hirst goes epic for London 2012 Closing Ceremony

Having visited Damien Hirst's retrospective at the Tate over the weekend (Money Maker, April 2012) and viewing his music video collaboration with U2 for the rerelease of their 1992 hit , Even Better Than The Real Thing, I was hoping Hirst would be involved in the ceremony and as the first shots of Sunday's stadium were being aired, my suspicions materialised. The stadium floor was covered in the artist's iconic spin painting in a red, white and blue colourway that spanned one hundred and thirty metres wide, providing a contemporary artwork as the backdrop for the bird's-eye shots throughout the evening. Art's ability to inspire was followed by a mobile fashion show with Moss, Campbell and Tennant joining a cast of British supermodels who showcased golden creations to the soundtrack of David Bowie's Fashion in global success stories such as Burberry, McQueen, Westwood and Paul Smith. From the billboard-sized lorries that looked if they had migrated the whole of Oxford Street to the Olympic Village and the iconic London black cabs, sold around the world, to the export go-to in luxury motors; a fleet of Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupés handmade in West Sussex circulated the stadium, travelling in time through Lennon's I am A Walrus from the Sixties and then to Fatboy Slim's appropriately named, Right Here Right Now of the Nineties. British business old, known an emerging had viewers spinning in sound and vision.

Imagine: Yoko Ono creates John Lennon sculpture 

Touching moments for reflection were encapsulated by a large scale piecemeal cast of John Lennon's face, designed by Yoko Ono, resulting in what must be the most unanticipated art intervention with that of Hirst to be ever staged in one venue. Competing with as many stars in the sky as those on stage, the mashup continued with super hits from Pink Floyd, the Bee Gees, Oasis and Julian Lloyd Weber alongside the Pet Shop Boys, the Band of the Coldstream Guards and George Michael. 

If the Opening Ceremony was a lesson in British social history (Opening Up, July 2012), yesterday evening was recess - a guilty pleasure playlist of Brit Rock, Pop and pride that catapulted brand GB, in Monty Python fashion, naturally, over the finish line to win Gold.

The verdict: congratulations to everyone who was involved in the London Olympic Games - it's been #highlife.

What A Difference 16 Days Make...

After counting down for the past four years, the closing of the London Olympic Games is nigh - what have been your #highlife & #lowlife moments over the last sixteen days?

Opening Up

Where does one begin with yesterday's Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games? The wealth of imagery, and surprising education, that was injected into Isles of Wonder presented the trials and tribulations of British social history (and its global repercussions) - three centuries condensed into a three hour performance under the artistic direction over the last four years of Danny Boyle - captivated the world, as well as the British who now have a clear reflection in the pool of identity to look at. 
A formula of all three British traits; wit, spectacle and class, were not enough for the greatest show on earth. With the addition of a good helping of bonkers, or should I say Bond-kers, it was a unique ceremony with loaded juxtaposition of both the familiar and new introductions of brand GB that Boyle unashamedly offered on a molten platter to the sweet teeth of the world. This morning an American reporter commented on how Americans felt at home on British soil due to the growing closeness of popular culture and celebrity, that some will say is unfortunately shared in equal measure across the Atlantic. After yesterday night, twenty-first century America may feel differently towards a nation that is so drowning in iconic history, the Opening Ceremony could have lasted a whole week if it were possible due to Boyle's selective choice, and we even have our very own Abraham Lincoln in the shape of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, or Kenneth Branagh if all of this detail is getting too much for you. Given that thousands were invited to the technical rehearsals earlier this week, one can add another trait to being British: keeping a secret. Paramount to any Olympic Opening Ceremony is the power of image above the word; it was an evening of open access for all into the host nation's visual archives - from the private apartments of Her Majesty The Queen at Buckingham Palace, as well as a taste of her humour, to the core of the British psyche - a brand so complex it will have curious tourists wanting more for years to come. I am not going to attempt to tackle Boyle's narrative - you only need to access the global press to read credit and critique in every possible language - here's my humble take on a remarkably humbling night to remember...

An Artist's vision with an epic tale of British history to tell, featuring icons across eras and the everyday: priceless. 

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Hot Wheels

Alexander Calder - 3.0 CSL, 1975

A work of art usually commands the pensive respect of time and reflection in environments of either beauty or clinical white space. The ICA in partnership with BMW, the Official Automotive Partner for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, have turned this concept upside down to present the brand’s celebrated Art Car series.

Spanning thirty-five years of international collaboration between art and chassis, ART DRIVE! explores an exciting vision that started in 1975 with the first commission of Alexander Calder to customise a BMW 3.0 CSL for the Le Man 24 Hour Race. This was art for the racetrack - before the era of corporate branding and art market obsession – far from the white cubes where one associates works by Hockney, Lichtenstein, Rauschenberg and Koons to name only a few of the members of this exclusive club of the who's who in the contemporary art world.

Going Up: the ICA at the NCP Great Eastern Street car park

In what was one of the most enthralling entrances into an art space I have ever experienced, the carport lift of the landmark NCP Great Eastern Street car park in Shoreditch carried me to the top floor of the ICA’s temporary outpost earlier in the week to view the exhibition for art connoisseurs and petrolheads alike. From the polished intervention of metallic letters by Jenny Holzer on a V12 LMR to Andy Warhol’s fluid enamels on his M1, the artist’s touch transforms these already beautiful machines into priceless works of art on four wheels. The mobile museum is themed by art styles across all floors – the bold colours and shapes inject a vibrancy and sense of speed, which these works were initially designed for. The seventeenth Art Car by Jeff Koons - an M3 GT2 - is the last in this iconic series, digitally rendered in an explosion of colour, it appropriately culminates the journey in time of BMW’s patronage of contemporary art through a variety of mediums and technologies over more than three decades. 

While it is not known what is next for BMW’s creative future, what is certain is that this year’s London Games have employed the most culture-fuelled agenda ever seen at an Olympics with a varied and innovative schedule of events that reiterate the focus of art, music and performance alongside sport during the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. 

Having missed catching a sight of an Art Car at the BMW Welt Museum in Münich last year, it was the first time I have seen one in person and the whole experience of all seventeen models was a curatorial marvel encased within black tape screens that added a flair of minimal engineering for its design-conscious visitors amongst the classic CSis and CSLs. Due to the rarity of this unique collection's outing, it is a must-see in everyone's Olympic diary before its closure in two week's time. Below are a few photos from the my visit – sit back and enjoy the ride…

Jenny Holzer - V12 LMR, 1999

Frank Stella - 3.0 CSL, 1976

César Manrique - 730i, 1990

 Andy Warhol - M1, 1979

 Roy Lichtenstein - 320 CSi,  1977

 Robert Rauschenberg - 635 CSi, 1986

David Hockney - 850 CSi, 1995

Esther Mahlangu - 525i, 1991

A.R. Penck - Z1, 1991

Jeff Koons - M3 GT2, 2010

For more information on this exhibition and other events from the Cultural Olympiad over the London 2012 Games visit London 2012 Festival.

ART DRIVE! The BMW Art Car Collection 1975-2010

21st July - 4th August 2012
NCP Great Eastern Street car park

London EC2A 3ER

Rise & Shine London

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"... I think if it did work, it would be brilliant..." says Martin Creed on his latest commission, Work No. 1197 for the London 2012 Festival. The adventurous work calls for all the bells in the county to be rung as quickly and as loudly as possible for three minutes at 08:12 tomorrow morning 27th July to ring in the first days of the London 2012 Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games thereafter. Visit allthebells.com for more details on how to participate in what will be the biggest wake-up call across the land. 

Travel Light

Day 53 of the Olympic Torch Relay

Red, white, blue and an optimistic gold were the colours of the day in my home turf of Windsor yesterday. Marking T-minus sixteen days to the opening of the London Olympic Games, it was Day 53 of the Olympic Torch Relay which has travelled across the United Kingdom and is now beginning it’s descent around the home counties of the South East before it’s final destination of London on 27th July. Dedicated to travel within an hour’s journey time of ninety-five percent of people in the UK, the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey over seventy days, its route has been coordinated with precision to involve local communities and inspirational individuals to carry the Olympic flame and represent their respective towns and cities in what is the ultimate event in the international sporting calendar. 

This year’s games are not just about sport - the launch of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad in 2008 has been committed to involve the arts through nationwide events and performances. Made in Britain obviously plays an important role during such a unique opportunity for a host nation, so when the Olympic Torch was due to pass only a few hundred yards from my doorstep I had to see it with my own eyes.

Winning design by BarberOsgerby

Winning London-based designers Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby of BarberOsgerby created the contemporary triangular torch from recyclable aluminum alloy. The simple perforated form is light to hold – for the varied ages and abilities of its eight thousand bearers – and represents, more golden future than golden age of British engineering and technical production. Crucially, the torch must be recognizable not just amongst crowds of spectators but when the weather can change from sunny skies to dark showers, which it did yesterday. Even through the canopy of umbrellas, the golden torch had a distinguished presence and bobbed through the thousands that welcomed the flame to Windsor Castle to meet Her Majesty The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. As the flames ‘kissed’ (changed hands) between Gina Macgregor and Phillip Wells before it made its way down the Long Walk, it was also a symbolic kissing of a contemporary and traditional brand GB with the world's oldest working castle for its backdrop. 

Britishness is already a global brand in itself – add the rich narrative of monarchy and the House of Windsor throughout the centuries as well as its claim to the creation of brand identity as we know it today (Brand AD, November 2011) this is a unique formula very few nations are able to offer in their culturel credentials. The drive for a contemporary and dare I say try-hard alternative Britain through neon, off-kilter graphics that are being used for the Olympics may be a design-detour too far especially with talk from Artistic Director, Danny Boyle of green and pleasant lands for the opening ceremony. Britain does juxtaposition very well. It has done so for centuries but fails when it forgets what it has to begin with. The eyes of the world will view our one-shot showcase on 27th July – my eyes will be on the Royal Box, looking at how organizers will be installing the Royal Coat of Arms next to London 2012’s asymmetrical neon pink ‘creation’: sounds like a case for a pre-show jug of juxtaposition on Boyle’s lawns to calm the nerves.

Here are few photos from yesterday’s Olympic Torch Relay through Windsor…

The Olympic Torch enters Windsor Castle 

Spectators line the Long Walk as the flame continues to Ascot

For the latest on the Olympic Torch Relay click here.