Bazball and the Tate Gallery

You don't 'get it', until you get it. Or not.

    It was a pleasure and privilege to be in Hyderabad and Visakapatnam for the first two Tests between India and England and both matches were compelling and memorable, in different ways.

    England’s brave, fearless new approach to Test cricket (and Ollie Pope’s once-in-a-lifetime innings of 196) saw the tourists perform an unprecedented comeback from a first innings deficit of 190 to win by just 28-runs. Everybody arrived on the fourth, and final day in Visag wondering, bizarrely, whether they could chase down 399 to win again. That’s what they’ve done to us.

The harsh reality of budgets meant that TalkSport’s radio coverage of the series had to decamp back to London for the next two Tests so we called the action off a giant telly in a studio in the London Bridge headquarters. One man was left behind in India to do interviews, keep us all up to date with the news and negotiate a fair tuk-tuk rate to the ground.

Starting work in the dark at 3:30am was a jolt for the third Test in Rajkot but not so jarring as the reaction to England’s thunderous defeat by 434-runs. Having outrageously Bazballed their way to victory in the first Test, it seemed reasonable to accept the approach might also end in titanic defeat occasionally.

    In the four days between Tests it seemed sensible to escape the Bazball noise and refresh. Given the proximity of the Tate Modern Art Museum on the Thames Southbank, it was an obvious place to start. A vast structure repurposed brilliantly for a new, vibrant life.

The former Bankside Power Station building is enormous and imposing, an asset the architects made full use of by incorporating ten-stories of space in their design. There are even comfortable seats provided on the fourth floor facing directly into the vast cavern of nothing. I sat in one, in wonder.

    The gallery rooms, all confusingly and lovingly linked so you end up back where you started when you thought you were heading to the next, were glorious. They were confronting without aggression. Informative, too – I watched a six-minute short film about Cubism which answered questions I’ve had since my well-meaning High School art teacher confused me four decades ago. I still don’t like it, but now I understand.

Reinvention of everything is a cornerstone of being alive. There is nothing wrong with doing things the same way for 148 years, if that provides comfort and security, but that is no reason to adhere to the tried and trusted. Modern Art, as the Tait illustrates - for free! – is multi-medium and boundaryless. It was also warm with pensioners, single-Mums with infants in prams and students taking advantage in the best possible way, imbibing knowledge and nibbling sandwiches.

    Then there was a bedframe hung on the wall. On a yellow background. Presumably the artist painted the yellow. Maybe bought the hook. Credit to him if he also screwed it into the wall. It symbolised human size, or something. I didn’t get it, at all.  

Next up, multi-dimensional exhibitions illustrating how easy, and premeditated our reactions are to race, culture and sex. It was challenging and, no doubt, some people may have been offended, but they almost certainly wouldn’t have been there in the first place.

The positioning was no doubt unintentional, more the result of my Brownian Motion on my first visit to the Tait, but one of the last sights was of a men’s urinal bowl, in a Perspex case. The usual one, that many men have relieved themselves into, for many years.

    The bed springs on a yellow backdrop seemed enlightening by comparison. I still didn’t get that, or the urinal. It troubled be me until I went to sleep, finally having forgotten Bazball. When nature’s call woke me in the middle of the night, the epiphany presented itself. I understood.

Some things are just for taking the piss.    

(Apologies to a number of people who have tried to buy me a coffee or become paid subscribers in the last few days. There was a ‘glitch’ way beyond my comprehension. I believe it is sorted. Thank you. Love you All.)