It was First Thursday in London, so many of the galleries had previews and openings. I met up with Florent and company on Old Street in Shoreditch (sort of like the LES or Williamsburg in NYC with that pretentious hipster kid crowd that think they’re so deep and unique by all dressing alike in their skinny jeans uniform). We walked down Calvert, around Arnold Circus and down Club Row to what looked like an old school where there was a gallery preview on the top floor.
The twilight sky over Shoreditch:
I know, they look like pieces of meat hanging in a freezer, but they are some sort of synthetic skin-like materials stretched into different shapes:
Strange cones spinning round and round:
These wall surfaces were really breathtaking:
I must have stared at this one for 10 minutes writing a little fantasy story in my head about it describing a moment for my alter ego superhero Nix:
There were also two cool video pieces and we befriended the artist who made them. The one was just her striking every match in a book of matches, but since the scene was completely dark you just got the intervals of the flare and then her blowing the match out. Really well down. The other was of her scaling walls and gates and bridges in London from the moment of her running to the structure to be scaled and following through until she reached the top of the screen frame, then cutting to another structure, and so forth looped.
I met more of Florent’s friends and we went over to Arnold Circle to the gazebo on top of the hill where there was some strange installation piece going on with a green light and odd sounds from a rock-like structure in the middle of the gazebo. It was a chilly night so we decided to walk over to George & Dragon, one of their gay bars where we tried to dance but it was too crowded. So we walked down the street to The Joiner’s Arms where there was far more room to get your groove on. A late late night. I learned what the saying “eating is cheating” means as I had skipped dinner that night and went straight into the drinking. Though it is common come end of the night to stop for a kebab before heading home. I was surprised their Tube stops running so early. In fact I was surprised at how small and dirty their Tube is compared to NY’s and how it really isn’t designed to carry the number of people who now live in London.
Coming up…even more art! The Turner Prize finalists, Tate Britain, the Serpentine Gallery.