It has been a brilliant day. I have been exploring London with fellow student, Sarah Rilot. We visited AVA in Islington where Kate Mccgwire is having her first solo show. Huge beautiful installations of feathers and smaller delicate works were on display. Kate has been using lead with feathers to incredible effect. The show is on until January and is well worth a visit. www.allvisualarts.org
After delivering a commission to the classy offices of Vogue House we nipped in to see Sue Webster and Tim Noble’s show opposite. Their self-portraits are so clever and imaginative. They never fail to impress.
A quick trip to Soho proved revealed the ‘Museum of Curiosities’ on Bateman Street. This is great for my research as I am now looking into displaying my wax pieces in a kind of Wunderkammer. The dark walls and the brightly lit pieces remind me of spooky rickety old houses. Very Dickensian – which, I suppose is partly the point. The staff were so friendly and really open to chatting with us which was so refreshing seeing as our next port of call was decidedly frosty! www.pertweeandersongold.com
Cork Street followed after a little nose at the jewellery stores in Burlington Arcade – lovely. We dropped into a gallery that shall remain nameless. Initially we were welcomed in and the assistant was very friendly. The girl then introduced us to the proprietor who was a little snotty. Still, she was ‘friendly’ and shook our hands as we introduced ourselves. She began to tell us about the show and then asked us what we did. ‘Oh, we are students’ came the reply. Snotty lady responded in a heartbeat ‘Those programmes are ten pounds and you can’t have one of those business cards – those are for my PR clients alone!’ Friendly! We left rather promptly after witnessing her saccharine sweetness directed to two businessmen (they arrived in a swanky Bentley). My mother was once flashed at and the flasher told her to ‘never judge a sausage by its skin.’ I like to stick to that motto – you never know who you are dealing with so BE NICE. I might have several Bentleys parked in my drive!
National Portrait Gallery was very busy so we were only in there for half an hour. We then visited South Kensington to see Tony Cragg’s magnificent sculptures. I have seen these as scaled down versions but when they are set on such a large scale they really are something to behold.
Check out these shows and get off the beaten track. The smaller independent galleries seem to have so much to offer.
