Week 40: Sir John Gilbert/The Guildhall

Hello world

Just a quick one today – and the last time I send an email telling people I have done a blog post I promise!! From now on I will just do them and if you want to check (which I doubt you will) just check on a Monday afternoon or Tuesday.

This week I was going to ditch the cultural pursuit and go directly to the heath but weather turned a bit iffy so did a quick search of my Timeout app and came upon an exhibition called Sir John Gilbert: Art and Imagination in the Victorian Age. ‘MY GOD!!’ Thought I, ‘this is clearly the show for me’ and it was closing next weekend so hot footed it down there (well after sitting on my bed for a further hour looking out the window) and had a quick look before heading back to the heath.

I love the Guildhall, they do so many wicked Victorian shows which would never get put on anywhere else and they are so cheap. I think the entrance fees have changed recently though – before I think you paid £2 or somet to get into the whole thing but now the main collection (and amazing 80s roman amphitheatre) is free but the exhibition is £5 full price – although it’s free to art fund members apparently!! £5 is still a good deal and seeing as it’s always empty in there am very glad to support them, where would all the random Victorian stuff go without them?? I really feel they are one of the last bastions of 19th century appreciation left in London these days and unlike Tate don’t stick to the fashionable stuff only.

Saying that I have to admit the exhibition this time was only so-so, although I don’t think that’s particularly their fault. Sir John was wildly popular during the Victorian era. He was very, very much a man of his age and consequently fell quickly out of fashion, even within his own lifetime. This show is the first major retrospective of his work and although I think very much worth having, there is none the less a sneaking suspicion prevalent throughout the exhibition that there is, perhaps, a reason why he fell so quickly out of fashion; I don’t think he was actually very good!!

Perhaps the finest examples of his work are in the first room you enter and are done in watercolours. Sir John became president of the Royal Society of Watercolours and helped raise their profile considerably during this era. He also worked in oils and was a Royal academician but I think it’s his watercolours where he is definitely at his most comfortable. These large watercolours are almost exclusively of literary subject matters, something he found great popularity for during the Victorian era. In fact his recreations were so popular that he was given the nickname the Scott of Painting; alluding to the huge popularity of historical novels at this time. I was rather intrigued by this as I have found myself with a insatiable thirst for historical literature myself recently – mainly because it provides excellent stimulus for a good old Wikipedia session. The Victorians would have been MAD for Wikipedia wouldn’t they!? He was particularly fond of Shakespearian subject matter and did something like 400 paintings of various Shakespearian scenes throughout his career as well as many, many other types of novels. These images, which were definitely better executed that the majority of the other pieces in the show gave an insight, I think, into why he was so popular. It wasn’t simply his love of the narrative painting, something the Victorians seemed to be orgasmic about, but it’s also his whole aesthetic. His paintings were designed for the walls of the wealthy, not for the academy. His paintings mirror exactly the tastes of the Victorian bourgeois – every single inch of his paintings are covered in intense decoration – pattern, colours, swirls etc. It’s exactly like the interior of the average wealthy Victorian; every section of wall tightly packed with some form of decoration, image or artefact. They are almost afraid of a blank space in which to be allowed to think!
Whereas the majority of his oil painting is unquestionably bad and a not insignificant amount of his watercolours likewise, I was genuinely impressed and fascinated by his engraving work. Again, Gilbert was very much a man of his age and therefore was at the forefront of the illustrating revolution bought on by the serge in popular novels and more importantly the development of the illustrated press, both hugely significant developments during the 19th century. For one thing this explains the tremendous popularity of his literary subject matters, print versions of which he often produced on request for new publications. It was his work for newspapers however that would be most prolific; working for both Punch and The London Illustrated News he produced over 30, 000 woodblock images for the later alone. They had an amazing example of his work on show depicting the Plantagenet ball hosted by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert with amazing descriptions of what everyone was wearing – ermine for the queen apparently. It was amazing because this was like a 19th century version of Grazia and Gilbert was the paparazzi, in a Kim Kardashian relationship with the paparazzi kind of way obviously. They also had a really interesting panel about the relationship between the artists and engraver and the process they went through for news illustrations. Gilbert was so successful in this medium, they suggested, partly because he worked so quickly – often been given only an hour or so to produce images for, or directly worked onto the wood black. An odd job to have really.

The Guildhall, for some reason, had decided to make this a sort of Works of Art as Physical Object exhibition and throughout the show they had labels about ‘the studio’ describing his technique. Fine thinks I. But then for some reason they decided to dedicate half of the ‘grand space’ to this – creating a little room made of information panels all about canvas stretching, pigments, frame making etc (he often made and gilded his own frames specifically for certain works). To be honest I found the majority of this deathly dull and oddly a bit out of place. If it had been some master then maybe it’s important to know his process etc – but really does anyone care that much about Gilbert to do a full on investigation into his process? Well I don’t anyway.

Sir John did do a few quite good military paintings, a subject that he relished apparently. Other than that there was one he did about Rembrandt which was quite good (hahaha did anyone see this AMAZING Radio Four programme about Anthony Blunt/The Courtauld with Brian Sewell? ‘GETTING TO GRIPS WITH REMBRANDT?? In my day we did not GET TO GRIPS with Rembrandt, we took Rembrandt VERY SERIOUSLY’. Amazing – see here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0134z00)

Really though, I think there is a reason this guy may have been forgotten!!! Apologies byt the way cant seem to get many clear images of his stuff.

Week 39: Women War Artists/Imperial War Museum

Hello!! How crap has this summer been?? Totally disappointed and pissed off about it. When I contemplate another winter stretching before us for 9 months or so I literally want to kill myself!! So happy Tuesday to you all.

This week I ventured back to the Imperial War Museum, because it was near to where I had crashed the night before and I was seriously broke this weekend and it’s free, plus I was with boys. We had a quick walk round World War 1, popped into World War 2 , had a brief stop over in the Cold War before pointedly avoiding the Holocaust rooms in favour of some nice pretty pictures in the gallery. Actually I really should spend more time in the main parts of the IWM (as we call it in the biz, yes really I do have occasion to type that in a work capacity sometimes) as it’s basically a 3D visualisation of my day to day Wiki-wanking. It got me all morbid in an enjoyable blood-lust kind of a way.

When I went to the IMW last year
(see here for blog: http://elizakessler.blogspot.com/2010/02/week-6-imperial-war-museumhall-of.html) I think they just had the usual stuff in the main gallery along with the amazing work for the Hall of Remembrance. This time they had rearranged it somewhat and half the space had been given over to a special (although still free yippee) exhibition called Women War Artists. Hurrah hooray.

Now, to be honest I don’t remember an awful lot written about this exhibition, mainly because I think I didn’t read it – which is unusual for me but there you go. So, even more than usual this blog is going to be a bit of a ‘visual essay’ burgess style. Quickly though it seems that Anna Airy was pretty much the first women artist to be employed as an official war artist by the British War Propaganda Bureau during the First World War, she joined the likes of Paul Nash and John Nah, Wyndham Lewis. It was during the Second World War, when the War Artists Advisory Committee was set up by Kenneth Clark through the Ministry of Information that women war artists became more of the norm. However, many of the artists featured in this exhibition were not official war artists at the time and it wasn’t until after the war when a concerted effort was made to gather images of the conflict that these artists were properly appraised.
Anna Airy was the main female war artists in the First World War (it seems, I don’t know this for a FACT ok!!). However, it seems that she was not expected/allowed to travel to the war zone proper (again don’t know this for a fact ok guys) but was instead charged with depicting the industry of war in various locations across the UK including Hackney and Glasgow. Apparently her commission was incredibly specific with fines occurring should she go even a day over the appointed deadline. One of my favorite images in the exhibition was this one by her called A Shell Forge at a National projectile Factory, Hackney Marshes, London 1918. I love how she manages to catch the intense orange heat of the metal, things

The exhibition opened with the rather fabulous painting Ruby Loftus screwing a Breech-ring by the 2nd World War artist Laura Knight, or Dame Laura Knight RA if you like. This was accompanied by a fabulous war time news reel showing Laura and Ruby visiting the picture in that years summer exhibition with lots of comments such as ‘wat a lovely gal wat-ho wat-ho’ etc etc:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PTtzGS0gmg
I also found this great interview with Ruby Loftus of Newport about her experience of sitting for the painting and filming the newsreel: http://www.wartimenewport.virtuallyhere.co.uk/pages.php?page_id=56
Fab painting I think you’ll agree.

They also had the famous image of the Nuremberg trials by the same artist, a commission she specifically requested and where the horrors of the war, something she obviously witnessed first hand when travelling to Bavaria to document the proceedings break through her usual strictly realist style:


Although most of the female artists seem to have been denied access to the battlefield, at least until long after the danger, and action had ended, one woman artists was present soon after the liberation of Belsen concentration camp. Doris Zinkeisen worked as a nurse throughout the war but it wasn’t until after 1945 that she was taken on by the War Artists Advisory Committee to produce official work. She spent 3 days at the camp almost immediately after it’s liberation and obviously, that’s not something you’re going to get over quickly. The work she produced is truly chilling, the title Human Laundry says it all:

As most of the woman artists in this exhibition, official or unofficial, were denied experience of the front the work they produced obviously dwells more on the every day life of the people at home rather than documenting conflicts and violence first hand. Ethel Léontine Gabain for example made many images of women during the Second World War at work and on the street. She was particularly interested in the revolutionary new treatments being developed to nurse the injured, a useful propaganda subject displaying the might of British technology and innovation as seen in A Bunyan-Stannard Irrigation Envelope for the Treatment of Burns, Applied by Sister Roberts in Middlesex Hospital:

Evelyn Dunbar was apparently (i.e. according to Wikipedia – so who knows how true this is…) the only salaried woman artist of the painters and sculptors employed during World War II by the War Artists Advisory Committee. I’m a bit confused about who was and wasn’t actually employed by this committee so we are just going to skim over this. Anyway her work was FABULOUS, and again stuck mostly to themes of domestic life during the war years:

This theme of the domestic is carried through many of the works in this exhibition. The work of Flora Lion who was commissioned to depict factory work in the First World War concentrates on the interaction of the women when off duty, in the canteen or elsewhere. Unfortunately, maybe for this reason, the work was not bought by the collection after they commissioned it but was eventually donated years later. The women do indeed look rather independent and forceful, no doubt a terrifying prospect to the establishment at the time.

The exhibition also included work by later woman artists including Linda Kitson who documented the Falklands conflict and was onboard the various non-military ships which were used to transport troops to the area. (Women at this time were not allowed on proper battle ships). Her incredibly quick fire sketches, obviously done on the spot whilst observing the action, give an amazing sense of the energy of life onboard as well as the more off-duty exploits of the soldiers:

My memory has gone and lunch hour is approaching so I will leave you poor bored people with that for now but while I’ here and have your attention (although I almost certainly don’t by now) please check out this amazing BBC/Public Catalogue Foundation resource now available online. ALL the oils paintings in EVERY public collection in the whole of the UK will be on there by the end of next year which is over 200,000. At the moment there are about 62,000 only but it’s really well worth a look at and is lots of fun and you can contribute by tagging images which will eventually be used as a way of searching and categorising the paintings on there. I have put it on the page for Evelyn Dunbar but please do take a look:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/search/painted_by/evelyn-mary-dunbar

That’s all folks and fingers crossed for the weather improving. There is too much cricket going on that’s the problem, the gods are mistaking it for a rain dance.

Week 38: Summer Exhibition and Hungarian Photography/Royal Academy

Hello all and welcome back once again to my crappy blog. This week, thanks to my friends highly useful press pass, I visited 2 shows at the Royal Academy, one of which I didnt even know was on – oops. The first was the Summer Exhibition. Now, everyone knows the Summer Exhibition is a load of crap and in fairness I haven’t actually paid to go and see it, well ever now I come to think of it, but I have still been to it more than I have probably been to the Turner prize in the last decade or so which isn’t great. This years show wasn’t as awful as some I have seen in the past, there were only about 5 dog paintings for example and actually I think most of those were (wildly popular) prints and drawings, which are somehow less repulsive than the oil versions I have seen there in the past. I did get quite annoyed by the general pretentious falsity behind it though – each room supposedly being ‘curated’ by a different artist/Royal Academician around some theme, when for the most part a theme clearly wasn’t there. I mean seriously these guys get to pick a few pictures to hang in various ways in one wall from a massive pile of crap in some warehouse somewhere. Don’t try and claim anything else, this is not a normal show. One of the boards claimed that a particular room was dominated physically and thematically by a particular large painting, but then went on to admit that there were other paintings in the room which didn’t really fit with that theme, and then some that did. Well bloody great thanks for that RA! There was also one room where we were informed only sensitive, thoughtful and intelligent people would appreciate the hang and if you didn’t like it then that meant you weren’t intelligent sensitive or thoughtful, which clearly means I am not intelligent sensitive or thoughtful. Oh no, you’ve made me feel really bad about myself now RA. The word twat springs to mind when encountering curators like that.

However, there were some nice pics in there when all is said and done. There was a cool one by Cornelia Parker (something to do with flattened teapots, I don’t know):

A couple by David Mach which I quite liked, also my friend works as an assistant for him so she probably made them:

These 2 called work and play by Chris Orr which were quite fun:

Loved this one by Simon Leahy made of newspaper called Library (hell of a lot of collage knocking round this year it seems to me which is definitely a good thing, love a bit of collage!):

Keith Typson’s Deep Impact was clearly a winner and got me very excited about the John Martin show coming up – nothing like a bit of apocalyptic fun for all the family:

I don’t usually bother to look at architecture exhibitions, well we all know my feelings about jumped up builders, but I actually really enjoyed at looking at all the little models for unbuildable buildings. I love guessing how much money they spent on specifically designed artfully distressed metal information plaques etc. I was looking at photos on the wall and really liked one of Shi Ling Bridge made from a ‘shell lace’ design by Tonkin Liu and Ed Clark, or someone, and then I turned around and realised they had a big model of it in the middle of the room:

After looking round all this stuff we went upstairs to see Eyewitness: Hungarian Photography in the 20th Century which is a really rather good exhibition showcasing the work of photographers such as Brassai, Robert Capa and Martin Munkácsi. Now, I am painfully ignorant when it comes to photography, I am in all honesty a bit of a bloody snob about it – I genuinely believe if you put any crappy holiday snap in a shiny light box all blown up on a white walled gallery it’s going to look good. I’m not saying I don’t think there are some incredibly talented photographers out there practicing, I just think it’s really easy to fake it as well! Anyway, these guys were undoubtedly the real deal and I guess it is kind of amazing that all these incredibly talented and influential photographers all came from the same part of the world, and how unfortunate for them it should be Hungary in the first half of the 20th century!

In the early years of the century Hungarian artists such as Rudolf Balogh worked within the Magyar style which aimed to represent the quintessentially agrarian, timeless picture of Hungarian society. They produced solid, eternal looking images, the noble peasant sort of stuff. In fairness some of it was beautiful.



The exhibition did, if I remember rightly, spend a bit of time at the beginning discussing why it was that here was such an outpouring of exceptional talent from this small country at this point, but it didn’t go much beyond discussing advancements in hand held cameras and the rise in popularity of photo magazines and the desire for photo journalism in the press. The thing is though wasn’t that the case everywhere? I don’t really get why it was Hungary who lead the way so much at this point, maybe it was just coincidence?

Anyway, along came the First World War of course which resulted in Hungary losing something like two thirds of its territory leading to huge poverty, overcrowding and then of course the rise of fascism. From then on most of the photographers fled, first to Germany and Paris, and then in some cases onto London and America. The work of Laszlo Moholy- Nagy particularly stood out for me at this point. The photographer was clearly experimenting with the new, smaller cameras and exciting view points and perspectives, very the shock of the new:



I also really enjoyed the work of Angelo who seemed to be doing similar things:


Brassai of course buggered off to Paris where he sucked up to the Parisians so much he could never leave and produced many posters for 16 year old girls bedrooms:


André Kertész went to New York and apparently felt very lonely when he was there, ho hum.

Munkácsi also went over to the states and somehow got roped into fashion photography and was so influential he is hailed as reinventing the medium. His experience with sporting photography transformed the medium with his ability to capture movement and form to create a totally new look. He started off for Harpers Bazaar:


Despite all of this the real star of the show was undoubtedly Robert Capa, the things this guy must have seen?!? His 'Death of a Loyalist Militiaman' and the ones showing the Normandy landings define our understanding of war:

I could do about 8 pages on this stuff but I don’t have the time sorry – stay classy xxx

Week 37; Osterley Park and House

Morning all and happy sunny Monday – this must be at least the 3rd this year right?? Bloody English summertime – and I’m sure I’ll be complaining it’s too hot by tomorrow. I guess the British climate matches the mentality.

This weekend (in lovely weather) I tripped out of London to stay with the delightful parents near a place called Chertsey which is by the Thames, West of London. As well as the usual excess booze we made a visit to Osterley Park, a National Trust property that I have been meaning to visit the entire time I’ve lived in London but despite it actually being on the Piccadilly line have never actually made it… So it took 2 people travelling across the country and setting up camp practically outside the place to make me bother to journey there, pretty poor. Anyway, the decade it took for me to get there was definitely worth the wait as it’s a really lovely house.

The house was originally built in the Tudor era and the red brick façade which was then remodelled by the great Adams retains much of this initial design influence. The gardens still have a specific Tudor walled garden when they grow flowers in colourful rows to decorate the house. The house was bought by the Child family sometime in the 18th century to be used as a pleasure house and they enlisted Robert Adams to remodel the interiors and the entrance portico. How bloody fab to have a pleasure house up the Thames that you could sail to upon a weekend. Like Chiswick House, also used as a summer residence, the house feels as if it were designed for summer living with cool airy rooms decorated, for the most part, in the classic Adams pastel pallet, perfect for hot afternoons in no doubt suffocating formal wear.

Many of the rooms still retain the original furniture which Adams also designed and you can see his signature motif, a bulls head, (or was it rams head ??) on several tables he designed for the rooms as well as fireplaces. The Eating room was particularly lovely with intricate plaster moulding done in beautiful shades of pale pink and blue – the sort of room you would happily die in!

Another fabulous room was the tapestry room, although you would get a hell of a headache being in there too long. The tapestries were designed by Boucher and done by the Gobelins factory in Paris, although I am assuming they were ordered from pre-existing tapestry designs as opposed to actually commissioning the guy. If I had decided to design an 18th century interior where money is no object I guess I would expect a bit of rococo loveliness as well!!

Continuing the trip through 18th century tastes is the Etruscan dressing room whose beautiful painted decorations were hidden for so long by soot from fires and gaslights that it was covered in black and totally forgotten. It was only when restoration work took place and they decided to clean the walls that they found the design hidden there – and how totally gorgeous. After the resplendent lavishness of the state rooms including the tapestries this is like a beautiful calming rush towards the French revolution. As much as I LOVE LOVE LOVE Neoclassicism I wish it wasn’t so forever bound to decapitation tough. Anyway this room was purportedly (i.e. according to Wikipedia) inspired by the Etruscan vases in Sir William Hamilton's collection, illustrations of which had recently been published.

The gardens were also very nice. We particularly liked the Temple of Pan which was bigger than my flat times two and was clearly used as a shagging shop. This was a pleasure house after all… The Garden House was also lovely.

Other interesting highlights of the trip were seeing them setting up some of the rooms and a marquis outside for a wedding, VERY NICE, and seeing the bride arrive which is always a terribly exciting opportunity to gawp gawp gawp. Also apparently they recently filmed interiors for Bruce Wayne’s mansion for the new Batman film in some of the rooms and changed the décor from yellow to grey for the occasion apparently. Anyway definitely worth a day trip from London on the Piccadilly line for this one. Ham House and Hampton Court next time!

Week 36; ICA, RAH & Serpentine Outside and In

Morning morning all and welcome back to my blog! Despite the tide of death sweeping across the world this weekend I had lots of fun, which is clearly what counts. As for culture it was all a bit of a passing whirl but some was definitely seen and despite drunkenness still counts alright!!! So, to begin with I spent a night dancing to 90s classics at the ICA bar. Going in and out for a smoke I walked past part of the Pablo Bronstein: Sketches for Regency Living, and although I may not have seen any of the galleries I’m sure viewing the below still counts as a cultural experience:


I liked it anyway, it’s all about the proliferation of Regency architecture across London as the first mass produced architecture, or something. I’m not really sure to be honest but who doesn’t love a bit of Regency architecture??? I mean living in London you kind of have to otherwise you would go crazy but at the same time I think the monotonous dusty dryness of Bloomsbury is totally suffocating and a generally unpleasant place. I guess thinking about it it is indeed exactly the same experience you have walking through a Barrett style housing estate, everything is unreal and dead feeling – which I think is what the artists is going on about at some point, possibly. Anyway I would definitely chose a bit of late Georgian stucco in central London over horrendous faux-mullioned windows in Yate! No doubt I will never get the choice though alas. They were very pretty drawings anyway.

After recovering from too much free wine on Saturday I arose at a very civilised hour on Sunday morning and made it over to the Royal Albert Hall to take part in a recording!! Ok that sounds slightly more exciting than it in fact was as I didn’t get to actually hear any music but I did get to have my makeup professionally done which involved having it SPRAYED ON!!! (I had forgotten to bring any with me, or in fact wash my hair which is pretty damn scabby and not sure I quite fitted in with the surroundings, was particularly shaming when the make up artist asked what I had bought with me to wear!) Also more importantly I got to go into the RAH and sit in a box which embarrassingly I haven’t done the whole time I have been in London. Really must go and see a Prom or something at least at some point, everyone I know keeps graduating there. It looked smaller than it does on TV, but what doesn’t?


After we were filmed pretending to listen to music me and the delightful Andrew went to see the Serpentine Pavilion and show. Now for readers of my blog, and people who know me in general (I imagine these are one in the same frankly) you will know I am not the worlds biggest fan of the architectural version of wanking in a bucket that is the creation of temporary ‘pavilions’. What the hell does that word even mean? I am going to campaign to have them all reclassified as gazeboes, that would bring those architectural egos down a notch or two. To be honest I’m not a big fan or architects either, the vast majority of them are as dull as powder and although finding it near impossible to talk about anything other than architecture can still somehow not manage to hold an interesting conversation about architecture either. Or in fact design a building that will stand up. An odd situation. Anyway, as if this wasn’t proven over and over again as it is, Andrew gave me an interesting insight into the trouble caused by the various architects they get to do design these each year; their one specification is that they build a space that be used for performances and talks etc – and the vast majority of these architects can’t even bend their massive, useless egos to do that. They therefore cause huge problems every year for the poor curators. Seriously, the one practical requirement they have to meet and they can’t even do that. Says A LOT.

Anyway, the design of this years pavilion by Peter Zumthor, works around the concept of “hortus conclusus, a contemplative room, a garden within a garden. One enters the building from the lawn and begins the transition into the central garden, a place abstracted from the world of noise and traffic and the smells of London – an interior space within which to sit, to walk, to observe the flowers.” Well this is all very well and good if the space in question isn’t rammed with tourists who are barely able to get into the baking hot sun trapped space of the central garden courtyard. The “contemplative spaces that evoke the spiritual dimension of our physical environment” would be a lot more contemplative if they weren’t deeply crowded, claustrophobic and unpleasant. I certainly didn’t feel tranquil and at peace away from the noise and traffic of London, it was like being on Oxford Street on a Saturday in the sales and I wanted to leave as soon as physically possible.
Now, you could argue that that’s not the architects fault – but I do. These spaces are always, always busy in the summer, full of people with push chairs and kids running about, and that should be a good thing. The last Pavilion, although not to my taste, was an incredibly effective space and worked well for its requirements – it was a really lovely place to sit and watch the world of middle class London go by. To design a space which only works when empty, where you can’t push a push chair, where you feel trapped and hemmed in and over crowded, is to design the space incorrectly without taking into account its use or its intention. So I say BAD JOB My Zumthor, next time try sticking your head out of your no doubt enormous arse for a second and realise the space is more important that your egotistical vision.

After that unpleasant experience we went to the gallery proper to see Michelangelo Pistoletto’s The Mirror of Justice. Which was in some ways like stepping out of the frying pan and into the fire in terms of wanting to get the hell away from this horrendous crowd of annoying people. Claustrophobia was really the theme of the day:

“Pistoletto’s exhibition will draw visitors through the galleries, leading them via a winding maze to hidden installations and sculptures. Responding to the architecture of the Serpentine galleries and using an economy of materials, the exhibition will manipulate visitors’ perceptions of space, making them an integral part of the work itself.”

So there we go, a confusing labyrinth; great. The gallery space was united (which I liked, more effective than some sort of retrospective I thought) by a mass of curved corrugated cardboard, which wound around and around everywhere forming narrow passages for the viewer to navigate and occasionally opening into spaces containing mirrors, rugs and in a couple of cases (a tad inexplicably to me) very very large metal funnel type objects. The work (I assume) drew upon various religious metaphors, the journey of the viewer around the gallery in some way mirroring the journey of some sort of self discovery or personal journey. The mirrors were effective, apart from reminding me that I had actually been filmed with hair that skanky, they opened up the space and gave unexpected new perspectives on the work and you as a viewer and contributor within it. It was a nice, if slightly “high art lite” show.

So there is me done for another week. Very much enjoying Sarah Waters Fingersmith at the moment by the way, bit like The Scarlet Petal and the White, although I think some hard core lesbionic action is soon to occur. See you next week kids xx