Monday, July 19, 2004
Art For Art’s Sake
We wrapped up our trip with Art. Ooooh!
Banksy is a graffiti artist, and I guess many Londoners will have seen his stuff mysteriously cropping up here and there. I was really pleased to see a couple of ‘works’ on our walkabouts. He’s also the guy who did the artwork for Blur’s “Think Tank”.
I think what he does is well cool.
At the Tate Modern, we both liked the “Your Dual Lighthouse Projection” thing, which is one of those conceptual modern pieces that probably infuriates Daily Mail readers. One ‘lighthouse’ is a large circle which you stand or sit inside, surrounded by walls of slowly changing light. It’s part art and part weird-science-experiment, and the changing colours mess with your brain. The second lighthouse is intended to put you straight again. And it’s free, so if you’re in the area, you have no excuse for not checking it out, you cheapskates.
The Edward Hopper exhibition (nine of your English quids) was excellent. And incredibly popular too, even on a Monday morning. His paintings depict isolation, alienation, loneliness - not very cheerful stuff you might think, but there is something very engaging and absorbing about them.
Next we dashed up to the National Portrait Museum, where the contemporary stuff was especially good, I thought. I hereby give you my permission to thump anybody who says that modern artists can’t paint. Check out this year’s portrait competition entries to see for yourself.
I also really liked Julian Opie’s pictures of, erm, Blur again.
The video of David Beckham sleeping, while not exactly profound or anything - just like the man himself - is amusingly inventive.
While we topped up our grease levels in a dimly lit restaurant in Charing Cross, there were two attractive American girls in their early twenties dining in almost silence with a much older gentleman. We decided he was either their grandfather, or a millionaire choosing which one to marry. It could well have been a scene from an Edward Hopper painting - spooky! Or maybe they were just having a very bad blogmeet experience.
Finally, we concluded our trip with a three hour tour of Peckham, which I’m afraid wasn’t nearly enough to do it justice. That will be absolutely top of the list for the next time, I promise.
Banksy is a graffiti artist, and I guess many Londoners will have seen his stuff mysteriously cropping up here and there. I was really pleased to see a couple of ‘works’ on our walkabouts. He’s also the guy who did the artwork for Blur’s “Think Tank”.
I think what he does is well cool.
At the Tate Modern, we both liked the “Your Dual Lighthouse Projection” thing, which is one of those conceptual modern pieces that probably infuriates Daily Mail readers. One ‘lighthouse’ is a large circle which you stand or sit inside, surrounded by walls of slowly changing light. It’s part art and part weird-science-experiment, and the changing colours mess with your brain. The second lighthouse is intended to put you straight again. And it’s free, so if you’re in the area, you have no excuse for not checking it out, you cheapskates.
The Edward Hopper exhibition (nine of your English quids) was excellent. And incredibly popular too, even on a Monday morning. His paintings depict isolation, alienation, loneliness - not very cheerful stuff you might think, but there is something very engaging and absorbing about them.
Next we dashed up to the National Portrait Museum, where the contemporary stuff was especially good, I thought. I hereby give you my permission to thump anybody who says that modern artists can’t paint. Check out this year’s portrait competition entries to see for yourself.
I also really liked Julian Opie’s pictures of, erm, Blur again.
The video of David Beckham sleeping, while not exactly profound or anything - just like the man himself - is amusingly inventive.
While we topped up our grease levels in a dimly lit restaurant in Charing Cross, there were two attractive American girls in their early twenties dining in almost silence with a much older gentleman. We decided he was either their grandfather, or a millionaire choosing which one to marry. It could well have been a scene from an Edward Hopper painting - spooky! Or maybe they were just having a very bad blogmeet experience.
Finally, we concluded our trip with a three hour tour of Peckham, which I’m afraid wasn’t nearly enough to do it justice. That will be absolutely top of the list for the next time, I promise.

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