Excursions on a London weekend
Another London weekend has passed by, with many typical London activities. Yesterday, after getting up late (the boy meanwhile doing his errands of recycling, shopping at the local grocers, butchers and Italian deli) it was off to the Tate Modern to meet a friend. We drank coffee watching the steely London autumn light and the wind blowing the birch trees, then wandered around a bit of 'art'. I rather enjoyed the little display of Beyond Painting - Piero Manzoni, Fontana and Burri, the latter's sackcloth works being intriguing and quite rich. Then it was off for a pint and then tapas on the Cut, to Meson Don Felipe, where I hadn't eaten for a long time. The Young Vic redevelopment, which I helped design in the competition and scheme design stages, is well uner way on site and it was astonishing for me to see something that I'd made endless models of, and drawn countless permutations, actually take shape in reality. Almost enough to make me want to be a 'real' architect.
Then today was another relaxed day, with a very late, big breakfast and then a trip on the motorbike to the V&A to dutifully check out the Deutschlandscape exhibit and then marvel at a randomly chosen selection of galleries - amazing metalwork, funny sculpture maquettes, and a beautiful wooden sculpture of Venus and Adonis, whose beauty lay in seeing how so many peices of wood had been joined together, almost like a jointed doll, to create a scene working in between semi-relief (the chariot and lovely dogs in a sort of squashed perspective) and full three-dimensionality (Adonis floating upwards).
Tea and cake by the Serpentine (ah, the rituals of English tea, I did rather miss them) and then back home. No church-going, so I'm making up for it by listening to Mozart's Requiem as I type.
Then today was another relaxed day, with a very late, big breakfast and then a trip on the motorbike to the V&A to dutifully check out the Deutschlandscape exhibit and then marvel at a randomly chosen selection of galleries - amazing metalwork, funny sculpture maquettes, and a beautiful wooden sculpture of Venus and Adonis, whose beauty lay in seeing how so many peices of wood had been joined together, almost like a jointed doll, to create a scene working in between semi-relief (the chariot and lovely dogs in a sort of squashed perspective) and full three-dimensionality (Adonis floating upwards).
Tea and cake by the Serpentine (ah, the rituals of English tea, I did rather miss them) and then back home. No church-going, so I'm making up for it by listening to Mozart's Requiem as I type.
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