Artangel’s projects have varied widely in artistic nature and quality, but you can never accuse of them of finding less than interesting locations. In recent years one could visit a tin church in Kilburn, Hornsey Town Hall, and of course the condemned council flat for Roger Hiorns’ ‘Seizure’.
Their latest exhibition in London, Daniel Silver’s Dig, utilises an atmospheric vacant plot of land a stone’s throw from Tottenham Court Road, once a giant Odeon cinema and now owned by the hospital next door. An overgrown, rubbly site, steel concrete reinforcement cables poke out like demented eyelashes from the remains of the building, and the adjacent vertiginous buildings tower above you.
The artist has created faux artefacts from a fictitious archaeological dig. With newly ‘cleaned’ objects displayed on the ground floor, you can descend into the partially flooded basement, open to the elements, where a number of mysterious Easter Island-esque statues lurk.
Apparently Silver used to walk past the site as a student at the Slade, and always wanted to use it. Luckily for us he got his chance. It is earmarked for a new cancer research centre, happily. Not ‘happily we have still to find a cure for cancer’, but that it’s not going to be another property blandout.
Daniel Silver: Dig until 3rd November, Free.
24 Grafton Way, WC1 6DB. 11-6pm Tuesday – Sunday, until 3rd November. Free
