Another weekend came and went.
On Friday evening I went to the South Bank to meet my friend Emma.
On my way there I stopped half way through the Waterloo Bridge to admire the views, the light was so beautiful.
The Pestival – an insect art festival – was taking place and there was a lot of activity, outdoor art installations and sculpture as well as a food market.
The Termite Pavilion
I had a quick look around and went to join a very long queue at the Hayward Gallery to see Walking in My Mind, the show ends today and there was a lot of people like me trying to catch it before it’s too late.
I had mixed feelings about the artwork in general but managed to find a couple of gems nevertheless. A Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara created a sweet little house – he recreated his student room full of cute stuff … and a couple of bottles of beer. We could see the room through the windows but were not allowed to go inside, the interior was full of drawings, figurines, books, stuff that Nara collected and got inspired by over the years.
I was looking forward to see Yayoi Kusama’s work who paints polka dots, 25 trees along the South Bank are wrapped in her signature fabric making it look pretty nice. Her inflatable red shapes covered in white dots filled out a mirrored room which should have been a pretty amazing effect but it felt too small for me, I was hoping to get overwhelmed by the pattern. More dotted sculptures were placed outside against a green background and this looked more fairytale-like to me, an impression of weirdly shaped toadstools in a meadow.
The third artist I liked, Chiharu Shiota, created a web of wool thread that filled out a whole large space, inside it giant white dresses were trapped. A slightly claustrophobic space, one might imagine being trapped in the web, but also wandering through it in a mad dreamy way.
We had dinner afterward and it took me a very long time to cycle home, an unknown route made me stop several times to consult the map.
Saturday was a pretty chilled out affair consisting of:
cleaning
food shopping
organising stuff
baking a hazelnut chocolate banana cake, gluten free, almost dairy free and not very sweet, it was good
packing away all of the summer clothing, preparing a new ebay pile and a charity shop bag
cooking gnocchi with vodka sauce for lunch, it was delicious, the alcohol evaporates in cooking leaving a rather nice flavor
watching Remains and the Day which made me want to go to a manor house and walk through wilderness
watching Seven Years in Tibet which made me want to go traveling and eat dumplings
started to watch Elizabethtown on TV but lost interest 5 minutes into the movie and read American Vogue instead
finished rereading Generation X
I am really annoyed with the Royal Mail, there was no post for most of the week which caused a havoc in my routine, no DVD from Love Film (Woody Allen’s Husbands and Wives apparently on its way), no Vogue or ELLE and no Generation A (in fact two copies, one a birthday gift for my friend).
Sunday came and turned out to be nice and sunny however my poor friend got sick so I had to spend the day on my own which I don’t mind at all.
I decided to cook huevos rancheros for breakfast.
Later I headed to the East End, first stop was The Whitechapel Gallery, Live Forever: Elizabeth Payton exhibition is on at the moment. A collection of portraits of friends, historical figures and modern artists in watercolour, oil paint and pencil. Absolutely stunning work, angelic androgynious faces of rock stars like Pete Doherty, Liam Gallagher or Jarvis Cocker as well as icons like Georgia O’Keefe, Napoleon or Elizabeth II.
My next stop was supposed to be a gallery on the other end of Brick Lane but I reminded myself that Truman Brewery holds sample sales on Sundays and sidetracked there. Why, oh why did I go there?! They had a boutique clearance from places like The Cross and Aime, the rails were full of Isabel Marant, A.P.C., Paul&Joe, Olivia Morris (at some point I had her fabulous pair of boots on my feet and contemplated buying them even though they were one size too big but cost only £50, madness), See by Chloé, 3.1 Phillip Lim, Acne, Vanessa Bruno and more, more, more. I tried few things on and ended up buying this Paul&Joe 60s style, slightly A line trench with sailor buttons, a couple of super cute things for my niece at £10 a piece for a top notch French stuff it was a real bargain, and 3 for £10 Nails Inc. varnishes (they even let me swap colors in the pack). I was totally hyper after I left and wondered if I can buy another coat….
I went back to Brick Lane, saw this poster of one of my very favorite books.
Stopped by my all time favorite shop Labour and Wait but was disciplined enough not to buy anything.
Doesn’t this girl look cool?
Headed to Cinephilia to have a look at the Polish film posted exhibition but it was closed. Here are few of the posters.
Clockwork Orange, Blade Runner
The Shining, Breakfast at Tiffany’s
It was time to go home, on my way to the station I passed some street stalls and in a moment of sheer madness bought a box of red peppers for £2.50. I came home exhausted and now have to figure out what to do with 34 red peppers. What was i thinking? Why didn’t I get a small vase instead?
