December has been rather taken up by travel, family visits and Christmassy things, hence a bit quiet on the blog front… Well, nothing like another event to get me to focus again on Tangled Yarns! I’ll be giving an artist talk at the Gallery later this week, focusing on the stories behind the works in the show, particularly the social costs of the textile industry then and now. Meanwhile, I got a few pictures from the “Torn Justice” launch event mentioned in the previous post – Christmas decorations and all…
Another bit of great news about “Torn Justice”: The Mayor of Waltham Forest, who attended the launch event, chose an image of one of the works for his 2014 Christmas card!
Finally, a couple of images from the opposite side of the globe: I was lucky to get a chance to visit Ai Wei Wei’s current exhibition @Large on Alcatraz. I’d seen, and liked, quite a lot of his work over the years but this is my favourite yet, I think because the exhibition site – a former high-security prison – is so chillingly appropriate for the theme of the exhibition: a memento for human rights defenders standing up (and being jailed or worse) for the freedom of expression. And he couldn’t even visit the site – how frustrating this must have been. Politically engaged art at its best; go see it if you can.
