Jonathan Ellery at Wapping

To Wapping on a dark damp evening, to the opening of a show by Jonathan Ellery. First a drink at the Prospect of Whitby, nice old pub dating from 1543 with view of river at high tide and Canary Wharf beyond -Wapping Power Station has been converted to an exhibition space and a restaurant, with some of the original machines left in place. The exhibition space was the old boiler room; at the back was the coal store. The work is engraved, reflective metal, lit to cast shadows of the images on the floor. In the coal store, the video of the artist's book that is splayed on a very long table the right of the gallery. The video has a sound track of swelling, overwhelming sound - if you're standing in the alcove at the time, the brickwork shakes with it.
I loved the way the edges of the metal caught and focused the light -
Ellery comes from a design background, and part of his art is making books - there's an interview with him here.

The Wapping Project was the site of a most amazing exhibition years ago - in fact Conductor was the inaugural exhibition in 2000 - Jane Prophet flooded the gallery with 74 tonnes of water, then had 120 electroluminescent cable suspended from the ceiling, vertically into the water. You stood on the viewing platform and listened to the occasional drip of water, watching the ripples make the long green reflections shiver. It was magic.