This morning I attended the preview for the Hayward Gallery’s new exhibition Art of Change: New Directions from China, which opens on Friday.

The exhibition shows performance art or installations by eight contemporary Chinese artists on the theme of change.

Art of Change is certainly one of the most unusual and interactive shows I’ve seen at the Hayward Gallery. All the works are in a state of change, allowing the artists to explore notions of impermanence and transformation.

The first installation is a piece of gym equipment which you can move yourself via remote control. In the next room, a performer tucks herself into a sleeping bag on a shelf, while another pokes her head through a shelf.

It soon became clear that we were not alone – striped pyjama-clad performers were silently following some of us around the gallery, stopping patiently when we paused to read, and following quickly when we changed direction.

The real “wow” moments for me are Xu Zhen’s In Just a Blink of an Eye, where a person seemingly floats in mid-air. This was the one that got people talking – “is it a real person,” “how do they do that?” It is a real person, although I didn’t see him blink or even breathe.

Liang Shaoji’s Nature Series is another highlight: a room full of items around which silkworms have spun their cocoons, from giant chains to tiny bed wire bed frame. There’s also a darkened room where you can sit on a cushion and “listen to zen,” the sound of silkworms eating and spinning. You even see live silkworms in the next room.

The upper and lower galleries have a more sombre tone. Here you can see a room of work by controversial duo Peng Yu and Sun Yuan, including a four metre tall tower made of human fat siphoned off during liposuction, and a room of objects covered in mud by the late Chen Zhen.

There’s also a digital archive where you can find out more about each of the artists in the exhibition, and about the development of installation and performance art in China from 1979 to the present.

Art of Change: New Directions from China is at the Hayward Gallery from 7 September to 9 December 2012

Katesca‘s vibrant photograph really brings out the gorgeous colours of the fabric wrapped around the Baobab Tree sculpture next to The Hayward gallery on the Southbank.

The work is called Under the Baobab and is part of the Festival of the World celebrations.

The baobab tree is sometimes known as the tree of life because it provides shelter, fruit, bark for making clothes and ropes and store water. The fabric was chosen by the the textile design MA students from Chelsea College of Art and Design and represents their communities of origin.

There’s so many exciting things going on in London this summer, bring your camera and add your photos to the Visit London Flickr pool.

This week’s video comes from the Southbank Centre, and is a tantalizing glimpse at what’s coming up for the venue this summer.

The Southbank Centre is celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Festival of Britain with a four-month festival of British culture and creativity.

Highlights include Ray Davies curating Meltdown  in June; a major show by Tracey Emin at the Hayward Gallery (18 May to 29 August); plus appearances by Lang Lang, Heston Blumenthal, Billy Bragg, John Berger, Meera Syal and Tony Benn.

Themed weekends celebrate some of the highlights of British culture: a weekend of comedy and music curated by Stewart Lee (27 to 30 May), a hip-hop weekend (22 to 24 July) and Wayne Hemingway’s vintage weekend (29 to 31 July).

Find out more here.

Are you excited about the Festival of Britain 2011? Let us know in the comments below.

If you’ve been meaning to see Gauguin at Tate Modern or Diaghilev at the V&A, now’s your last chance. Many high-profile London exhibitions are closing over the next fortnight to make way for exciting new shows.

These exhibitions are all in their final days - catch them while you can!

Closing 9 January 2011:

• Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes at the V&A
• Dior Illustrated: René Gruau and the Line of Beauty at Somerset House
• Move: Choreographing You at the Hayward Gallery

Closing 16 January 2011:

• Gauguin: Maker of Myth at Tate Modern
• Eadweard Muybridge at Tate Britain
• Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals at the National Gallery
• Damián Ortega: The Independent at the Barbican
• Rachel Whiteread: Drawings at Tate Britain

• Miró, Tate Modern, 14 Apr-11 Sep
  The first retrospective of Surrealist painter Joan Miró’s work in London for nearly 50 years
• Degas Dancers, Royal Academy, 17 Sep-11 Dec
  A landmark exhibition featuring Edgar Degas’ famous paintings and sculptures of young ballerinas
• Afghanistan: Crossroads of the Ancient World, British Museum, 3 Mar-3 Jul
  More than 200 ancient objects from the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul
• Tracey Emin: Love is What You Want, Hayward Gallery, 18 May-29 Aug
  The first-ever major survey of Tracey Emin’s work in London
• Glamour of the Gods: Hollywood Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, 7 Jul-23 Oct
  Film portraits from the industry’s golden age, the period from 1920 to 1960

Let me know what you’re excited about seeing at London’s art galleries in 2011 in the comments below.

Every September, the current crop of London exhibitions close to make way for exciting new shows. That means it’s your last chance to see some of the summer’s hottest exhibitions…

Closing on 5 September:

• Rude Britannia: British Comic Art
• Ernesto Neto
• The New Décor
• Francis Alys
• Urban Africa – David Adjaye’s Photographic Journey
• Sustainable Futures

Closing later this month:

• Close Examination: Fakes, Mistakes, Discoveries – 12 Sep
• The Surreal House – 12 Sep
• Magnificent Maps – 19 Sep
• Wolfgang Tillmans – 19 Sep
• BP Portrait Award – 19 Sep
• Sargent and the Sea – 26 Sep

But don’t worry, there’s plenty to look forward to this autumn. Major new exhibitions include Gauguin, Treasures from Budapest, Serge Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes, and the Turner Prize.

The Hayward Gallery‘s new exhibition, Ed Ruscha: 50 Years of Painting opens today.

The exhibition celebrates the American artist’s 50 year career with a retrospective of his work.

On display are 78 striking paintings, from bold images with playful words, to haunting black and white silhouettes.

Ed Ruscha was at yesterday morning’s press view and explained how he paints ideas rather than scenes. He also said there are a few more of his works “in the refrigerator,” which have never yet been exhibited.

The Hayward Gallery’s director, Ralph Rugoff also talked about Ruscha’s amazing contribution to the art world – how he introduced language into painting by painting words, how his work continued to evolve in each decade, and how he has influenced countless modern artists.

Ruscha is like an old friend of The Hayward Gallery, as his work was exhibited in a pop art show during the gallery’s first year, back in 1969.

The gallery will be closing from February to May 2010, and we know we’re going to miss it! So make sure you see Ed Ruscha: 50 Years of Painting before then.

Yayoi Kusuma, Dots Obsession 2004, © Yayoi Kusama 2009, Photo: Yayoi Kusama Studio

The Hayward Gallery has gone all John Malkovich on us with their surreal, new exhibition Walking In My Mind. Through a series of giant works and sculptures, ten artists invite us to enter their imaginations.

The exhibition begins before you even step foot inside the Hayward. Along the sunny Southbank, 24 trees have been wrapped in red spotted fabric. It’s the brainwave of iconic Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama – a life-long dot-obsessive, according to a recent interview in The Guardian.

Of course, all art is about stepping into the artist’s imagination, but in Walking In My Mind it is a much more physical, adventurous experience. It was also darker, funnier and more bizarre than I expected. 

Scottish-born artist Charles Avery had me chuckling out loud with his inventive project The Islanders. As well as sketches of life on his imaginary island, Avery displays his ‘souvenirs’, including Stone-mice (“part rodent, part mineral”), which look suspiciously like normal stones, and a Bejewelled Hare – stuffed and brandishing its bling like a hip-hop superstar.

Thomas Hirschhorn’s Cavemanman was even more surreal. His uneven maze of tiny caves and tunnels, made of cardboard and plastered in brown parcel tape, was like something out of a postman’s nightmare.

But there was a darker side to the exhibition too. Walking through Chiharu Shoita’s After The Dream was quite unsettling. The painstakingly woven web of wool – Shoita told me it took a week to complete – felt like a swarm of bats that could get caught in your hair any second. 

Yayoi Kusama’s new work, Dots Obession, has become the ‘face’ of the exhibition so I was eager to see this. For me, the red spotted shapes worked best on the Southbank and on the bright, green Astroturf of the Hayward’s sculpture terrace, where they looked vibrant and delightfully out of place.

One of the curators Mami Kataoka pointed out that while a doctor can visually see the brain, the mind itself has no boundaries – “there is no shape”. This sense of freedom in self-expression has produced an exhibition that really does blow your mind.

Inspired by the exhibition and want to discuss your views? Head along to the Hayward’s free workshop Talking In My Mind on 5 July.