London Part 2

A City of Culture –

I’ve visited London on numerous occasions but this time was different because it was with the specific aim of visiting art galleries and museums. My visit to the capital last week was a business trip. This week I was helping my colleagues to escort 30 students around a number of museums and galleries. Following is an account of my time there. I have also documented some of the most amazing artworks at a number of leading galleries.

Day 1

View from the Ibis Hotel near Earls Court

Our first day was spent travelling. Just like last week I travelled from Paignton to Paddington with one change at Newton Abbot. However it very nearly didn’t happen because a train broke down near Paignton. This meant that we were almost an hour late. Therefore we had to get a later train from Newton Abbot to Paddington. Sadly because of the delay we lost about 2 hours and arrived around 9.00pm instead of 7.00pm. Above is the view from my hotel room window. Although it was a later than planned arrival, we dumped our bags and headed out to find somewhere to eat.

We wound up at a Turkish restaurant near to the Ibis Hotel where we were staying. I had a delicious meal (see below), then we all headed back.

Turkish chicken pieces with yoghurt sauce

Day 2

Our second day was really ‘full on’. We had to be at the Saatchi Gallery by 10.00am, as we had both a tour and a craft workshop booked.

Saatchi Gallery Entrance

The Saatchi Gallery

Our workshop at the Saatchi Gallery was very interesting. We were asked to produce collages in the style of a famous artist. I chose Picasso. Unfortunately just as I was really starting to enjoy the task we had to wrap it up as time was short. Below is my unfinished ‘masterpiece’.

Mosaic made at the Saatchi Gallery

The New Black Vanguard

Following our ‘dabble’ with collage we were escorted upstairs where we were introduced to the ‘New Black Vanguard’ Exhibition. This exhibition left me absolutely ‘blown away’. There was something truly magical about each moment in time that had been so carefully crafted. The composition, creativity and the technical quality of the photographs was simply stunning on every level.

Below are some examples and excepts from the exhibition.

Studio Response (#3)

After visiting the ‘New Black Vanguard’ exhibition we were then free to wander around the gallery. I found the ‘Studio Response (#3)’ exhibition particularly interesting. Here is a small gallery of some of the works. I have added information after each piece where I had it. Please excuse any omissions. I thought it was better to display the images without information rather than not display them at all.

The Millennium Bridge Chewing Gum Art

After leaving the Saatchi Gallery we headed off to the Tate Modern. In order to reach the Tate Modern we needed to cross the Millennium Bridge. I had heard about the chewing gum art by seen there.

The tiny images painted onto discarded chewing gum are designed by artist Ben Wilson. The chewing gum becomes compressed between the metal flooring of the bridge. Ben Wilson uses this discarded waste as his canvas. I decided to shoot some of these minsters artworks and I compiled them into a small gallery below.

The Tate Modern

The Tate Modern is an amazing place! It is one of my favourite London galleries and I have visited a number of times now. Below are a selection of works from November 2022.

Réquiem NN -2006-2013 – Juan Manuel Echavarría, with Fernando Grisalez

This was both a powerful and moving installation in both the figurative and literal sense. The story behind the piece reads as follows:

“Each of these prints captures two moments, months or years apart. They show graves in the cemetery of Puerto Berrio, a town on the banks of the Magdalena river in Colombia. For decades, the site has been the resting place for unidentified bodies found on the shores of the river. They are rescued by the villagers of Puerto Berrio and buried in the town cemetery. They are known as ‘NN’s ‘Nomen Nescio’ or ‘No Names’. Echavarría spent years visiting the site, gaining trust and permission from the community. Through his lens, he preserves and records this act of mourning, which he sees as a form of collective resistance. In some cases, families from Puerto Berrío have renamed the deceased with names of loved ones who also lost their lives in the country’s more than 50-year-long civil war.”

The Box?

I was so excited to see this exhibit I completely forgot to find out the artist(s) behind it? One of my students referred to it as ‘The Box’ so I have used that as it’s impromptu title. Please be aware that this may not be its real title. I looked up the piece on the Tate Modern inventory but I sadly didn’t manage to spot it. However it is a truly amazing installation. I would love to know the creator and also the software used? I wonder if it was Touch Designer, which is the program I’m trying to learn. Please enjoy the video I shot below.

Tate Britain

we really did have a ‘full on itinerary’, which was fantastic! This was down to my boss who we know as Pav (Pawel Psymanski). I really feel he deserves a special mention here. He did an amazing job of organising everything especially under difficult circumstances and tight budgets. Had I been tasked with this, I would have struggled.

Our next stop of the day was the Tate Britain. Below are some excerpts from the Bill Brandt exhibition which was on show there. Bill Brandt is one of my favourite photographers, so it was a real treat to see his work ‘close up and personal’. The little hairs and dust scratches on the prints reminded me of my time as a young art student 30 years ago. In art college I used to work away in the darkroom, blowing dust from my negatives to reduce imperfections on my final prints. Back in those days we had professional photographic retouchers. They were a ‘dab’ hand with a paintbrush and could get rid of imperfections by a process loving known as ‘spotting’. Our digital equivalent today can probably be likened best to Photoshop’s ‘spot healing brush’. I guess maybe this is where it derived its name?

Bill Brandt

Day 3

Everyone was in agreement that as we were enjoying ourselves so much an extra day would have been great. Unfortunately, here we were on our last day already! We had three galleries/museums to visit namely the ‘Victoria and Albert Museum’, the ‘Serpentine South’ gallery and the ‘Serpentine North’ gallery.

The Victoria and Albert Museum

Below are some images I shot around the museum. I found the architecture there both beautiful and inspiring.

African Fashion

Inside the Victoria and Albert museum was a massive exhibition celebrating the talents of Black fashion/textile designers. I love African art and design, so I decided to visit. The show certainly did not disappoint. It would be great to see more of this kind of design. I feel there’s something quite magical about the blend of strong patterns and colours. Hopefully retailers and fashion buyers will ‘pick up’ on this hidden gem and include such designs in their forthcoming clothing ranges.

I shot a wealth of images while browsing the African exhibition, but unfortunately I have run out of disk space. However I am in the process of upgrading my account and migrating it to a better hosting package. For this reason I am only including a few images from the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Serpentine galleries. I will be revisiting this post to update it, once the upgrade has been completed and I have unlimited disk space.