Wednesday 18 December 2013

West End Art Tour -" I've blogged about this"

West end galleries

Sadie Coles - Kingly st  http://www.sadiecoles.com/press/165 - Urs Fischer



Riflemaker - Beak St http://www.riflemaker.org/s-index - Stuart Pearson Wright



Frith St Gallery - Golden Square http://www.frithstreetgallery.com/

Nordic Bakery - Golden Square



Mayfair galleries

New Victoria Miro - St George st  - http://www.victoria-miro.com/exhibitions/_446/ - Stan Douglas





Blain Southern - http://www.blainsouthern.com/ - Sislej Xhafa
Mattress springs !





Ronchini Gallery - Dering St - http://www.ronchinigallery.com/current-exhibitions - Paolo Scheggi




Vigo Gallery - Dering St - http://www.vigogallery.com/ - Zak Ove









Hedonism Wines - http://hedonism.co.uk/





Didn't manage White Cube - Mark Bradford - http://whitecube.com/exhibitions/ and Kader Attia installation at Whitechapel but both are a bit off this route.


Amanda and Lorna survived the tour just about to go for well earned cocktails.

Tuesday 17 December 2013

Sir Richard Burton - Victorian explorer

Visited the Richard Burton archive at Orleans House gallery on the riverside in Twickenham, as part of my dissertation research.




Stumbled across this rockery in York House Gardens





Started with one of his middle eastern clogs and the label written by his wife, Isobel.



 One of his slippers he wore on his pilgrimage to Mecca as art of the Hajj.



His fencing shoe - apparently he would fence with his wife every morning when he wasn't on his expeditions - sounds like a good new years resolution ...





Gun designed by Sir Richard Burton, adapted to be easily fired from a horse or camel.



Kallitype photos from the album in the archive - he was attacked by Somali warriors in 1855 and was impaled by a spear, the point entering one cheek and exiting the other, he was forced to make his escape with the weapon still transfixing his head  - reminds me of one of my favourite Glen Baxter drawings .










Rules for my guidance as a wife - written by his wife, Isobel 
I like rule 5 - "Be prepared at any moment to follow him at an hours notice and rough it like a man "



"The Pilgrim", from Burton's Personal Narrative (Burton disguised as "Haji Abdullah", 1853)

Wednesday 11 December 2013

Candle lighting and record mould

Success for diamente bird box candle at first lighting.




A stack of four singles, clay structure to enable silicon mould to be poured and set. 


Silicon mould


Bleached beeswax version of stacked singles


Tuesday 10 December 2013

Dissertation research

I cycled from home to college as part of my dissertation research - recorded the journey using the mapmywalk app


See link below for the animated version - click on play symbol in top left hand corner

http://www.mapmywalk.com/workout/444351859#

and click on the 3 D icon in the to left hand corner for the fly-by video version.

I started by visiting Richard Burton's grave in Mortlake





 Stopped at the state of the art recycling and rework centre in Wandsworth


Items for reworking - not sure how you rework a white crocodile ...






 ...and tried to get into St Mary's Church in Battersea .



Headed towards Battersea Power Station




Hoped for a pint at the Cats Back on the way home but it was closed in preparation for Morris Dancing at 5pm.