London, Day #26

Tuesday

I just did the math and I will be in London for exactly 30 days!

Wow.

Today was very different from yesterday. The day started out alright, my mom was to arrive midday, and I was very happy about that. But then my second train stopped two stops before I had to get off and was stalled for reasons they did not know, nor did they know how long it was going to stay there. This is my consequence for leaving the house a bit too late today. I basically ran to school from Bond Street which is further than anyone with asthma should run, but I made it on time with enough time to get some water.

We had one short lecture by an artist, Nadia Berri, she does some interesting works herself, but I also really enjoyed her lecture style. She talked about postmodern art and I found it to be very interesting. Especially the following works.

Clamor, Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla, 2006

This is a sculptural work that encases many instruments used by bands, and they are set to play at certain times so that the sounds are basically fighting with one another. The video is not the best quality, but it is worth listening to for the sounds. Can you imagine walking into that room?

Kytes Tree, Gabriel Orozco, 2005

Up/Down (1), Raoul de Keyser, 1998-2009

This work is an example of provisional painting, it's a process by which the painting is worked on for years and years and the artist does not necessarily have a finished "point" in mind. The works usually have many layers of paint, and the unfinished appearance can be deceiving.

Afterwards we went to two galleries in the West End, Stephen Friedman Gallery which had a show called "All that Glisters," and featured artworks that mostly used reflective or shiny surfaces. I particularly liked a work by the artist Tara Donovan, seen below, where she uses pins, yes pins, to create her very minimalist piece.

Then we went to Hauser + Wirth to see the Matthew Day Jackson show "Everything Leads to Another." His work is very interesting, you probably know him best from his rainbow-colored skull displays. My favorite work in the show was this sort of "rust painting" of his. It was really fascinating, It looked like a calotype.

Dymaxion Contortionist (After J Heikes), Matthew Day Jackson, 2011

Then we continued on to artists studios on the south bank which were interesting, but after a while it was really difficult to stay in this huge space (Split up by many artists), so I left a bit early with a few other women. One artist that we did get through is Jane Lloyd. It is very late and I wish to write more about her work, but here is a drawing and here is her website.

Between John and I, Jane Lloyd

Then I went home and met my mom. Today I took the bus and the national rail service to get home, so much faster than the tube. I'm very excited that my mom is here, we ate dinner at Wagamama and then came home and she helped me pack a box of stuff to send home (mostly papers, books and tea).

More tomorrow. xoxo

London, Day #25

Monday

This isn't going to be as good as the first time I wrote it an hour ago and then it went and deleted itself before I could post it. Oy I am so mad right now. Sorry. Momentary lapse. I'll just try again.

Today we had lectures as usual. I cannot believe I am almost done. I have a week left, a slide exam and an essay to write.

Our first lecture was on monumentality in art. Some of the pieces we talked about had to do with their size, others had to do with the greatness of their meaning, but really mostly size. We discussed many of the pieces that have been commissioned for the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern. These are all site-specific works to an ENORMOUS space. One of my favorites was by Olafur Eliasson who does really incredible works that circle around environmental issues.

The Weather Project, Olafur Elisasson, 2003

We also talked about other works, like that of Martin Creed, who does interesting enough works, but sometimes his work doesn't mean a whole lot to me. The link over his name is to a trailer of a documentary made about him. He's a really quirky and funny guy, and you should watch the trailer, and if you can get a hold of it, the short documentary as he is really hilarious.

Our second lecture was by the woman who I don't like very much, but she mostly showed videos (including the documentary of Martin Creed), so that was a nice change of pace from her.

After the lectures we went to the Hayward Gallery to see the Tracey Emin show. Please do not look up Tracey Emin's work until you are finished reading this blog post. The show was really interesting, but also really overwhelming. Tracey Emin had a hard life. She was raped at the age of 13, and that somehow turned into a series of sexual encounters for her until she was about 15 years old. I'm unsure of whether or not her rapist is revealed in any of her works, but I could not find any information. However, because she gained this sexual freedom at such a young age, her works as an adult deal with extremely adult senses of sexuality. Sometimes her work is vile, other times it is sweet, and sometimes it's utter crap. It sort of just depends what you're looking at, how much you know, and how much you are willing to take in. Most of her works take a lot of time to understand, they sometimes contain hand-written elements that are difficult to read, but integral to the meanings of the works. I will attach my favorite piece from the show (which is unlike most of her works), but I will tell you this: it is an embroidery of a penis, so if you are at work or your kids are looking over your shoulder that is on you.

Beautiful Penis, Tracey Emin

*Please note that I took this photo from an image in the exhibition catalogue.

As I said, some of her work is extremely vile, so if you want to look it up, you can, but please know that I've warned you and you may get overwhelmed after looking at just one piece, so don't come complaining to me.

After the heaviness of that show, I was excited to meet a new friend for a glass of sangria and some tapas. We had a lovely long chat and then I went home, and went to bed.

So sorry for the delay of this post, now that I've written it twice, I'm glad it's no longer Monday.