A Monday in London: Up at the O2 and Down the Spiral of a Carsten Höller Slide...

The O2 with walkway.

From August 30th to September 1st my sister & her family very kindly let me stay with them in London. On the 31st it was a bank holiday Monday, so I also managed to meet up with my creative and lovely friend Kei - she blogs at Doing A Thing and Unfortunately Oh! - and we had some silly, fun adventures! I should point out here that I didn't take many photos, so any that are marked with "Doing A Thing" were taken by Kei and used with her permission (thank you!).

The O2 with the blue walkway arching over the top of it.

First, we went to the O2 Arena, as we were going to "climb" right over the top of it a little later that afternoon! However, as we were still a bit early we had a look around inside first. There wasn't much going on at the time, but we did find this interesting looking wall panel...

Visitors could change the music being played via touch screens.
There was a matching one to the left of it as well.

After a short wait, our timeslot for Up at the O2 came, so we went into the briefing room to meet our guide, Phil (he wasn't the mannequin modelling the rather fetching climb suit!)  and to watch a safety video.

Then it was time to get suited, booted, have some photos taken by the photographer (available for purchase at the end if you so desired; we didn't), have a few things explained, and begin the ascent.

Information about the O2 on the viewing platform

When we reached the viewing platform, 52 metres up at the top, it actually didn't seem that high. Even though there was a lot of cloud coverage the view was still great though!

With Kei at the top,

It rained the entire time, but I like rain, so it was enjoyable!

We needed to do this pose.
It was necessary.
It was.

We were on the viewing platform for a while and our guide came and told us some information about the various landmarks that could be seen, including The Arcelor Mittal Orbit, which will have a giant slide added to it by spring of next year! (Incidently, that slide is being created by the Belgian artist Carsten Höller, but more about his work a little later in this post). 

The way down was a little steeper, but actually much easier and the time seem to pass quite swiftly.  It was a fun experience and absolutely worth doing!

Next, we headed over to the Southbank Centre's Hayward Gallery in order to see the interactive exhibition, Decision, by Carsten Höller (told you there'd be more about him later). We entered via a long, dark tunnel (the "claustrophobic" entrance) that we had to navigate around by feeling along the walls. The sound echoed around and it was difficult to tell how far away from the other visitors you were at any time. Also, it gave me the feeling of wanting to stoop down to avoid banging my head constantly, even though my head was nowhere near touching the top. It was a great start!

Flying Mushrooms
The end of the tunnel and the mushroom orrery.

We emerged into a brightly lit room featuring what can only be described as an orrery-like structure , only with giant toadstools circulating in its mechanism instead of celestial bodies. Visitors were allowed to push the mushrooms around and I couldn't resist having a go...

The look of stupid awe and glee when I get to touch things in art galleries!

To avoid this entry getting extremely long, I won't detail everything here, but I'll share a few more images with you (if you'd like to know the context, Kei explained it over at her blog, which I'll link to below).

Moving on, at this pile of pills I was encouraged by a grinning security guard to take a pill and told "good luck" before he laughed a little. I appreciated that he got into his role (though he didn't have to), and took a placebo pill at the water fountain, haha.

Pill Clock

Divisions (Wall Painting with Aphids)

Snake and Half Mirror Room
There were two snakes and a mirrored wall

Kei: Upside Down Goggles
Dice can be seen in the background

Me: Upside Down Goggles

Isometric Slides

Isometric Slides was absolutely the best way to exit the exhibition (I went down the left one/right one on the picture)! I did feel bad for the two women in charge of helping people onto the slides and the guys taking the sacks back at the bottom though, because it must have been a boring job for them. 

Despite Two Flying Machines and Adjusted Hayward Sign not being open due to rain, I still liked this exhibition and actually appreciated the ideas behind the installations once I had read about them afterwards too (I always like to experience things without knowing the meaning first, for some reason). 

If you'd like to read more detailed accounts & or see additional pictures of the two experiences, you can check Kei's blogs about Up at the O2 and Decision.

As we were wandering back to the tube station, I also took photos of the murals/wall art below. The first one has been there for a while, but I hadn't seen the second one before. Either way, I think they're both gorgeous!