After this little surprise, there's another. Kind Londonist have used another of my pictures (see below) to headline their post.
Pancake Day at Saatchi - or not.
It's Pancake Day today. At first, I wanted to catch at least one of the several pancake races happening around town today, but even the prospect of pancakes did not motivate me enough to step out into the gray mistiness of today. So I had a pancake lunch indoors (once the thought of pancakes strikes, I generally do not stop until I have ingested some), and decided to go to the posh and pretty Duke of York Square in Chelsea instead, where I have spent many a fine weekend lately. Prettiness generally doesn't fail to banish gray misty blues for me.
Barely had I begun to click, that a nattily dressed security guard complete with a tiny wireless earphone and a finger stuck to it came running up to me and (suprisingly) politely requested me to refrain. Asked why, he said it's a privately owned estate. Which it is, indeed, except it's a shopping estate open to all. Whether or not that meant I could not click, the grayness had permeated my being, and I did not feel like arguing. I did manage a shot of relatively posh litter, though! Hah.
click on pictures to enlarge
NOT a dirty beer can.
Then I turned my attention towards the Saatchi Gallery, which was anyway part of the original plan. Unluckily for the natty guard, the Saatchi Gallery sits in the Duke of York Headquarters, which although a part of the Square, is a separate institution. The grounds of the HQ outside the gallery generally have a life of their own, and my camera was amply rewarded with at least two groups of art students visiting the gallery today with their instructors, (which also meant too many teenagers inside the gallery, but oh, well...) the usual book readers and time-passers, the genuine art lovers, the clueless strollers, schoolchildren from a neighbouring school at football practice and the odd passer-by.
The gallery itself has a new exhibition on. Called Unveiled: New Art from the Middle East, the title is pretty much self-explanatory. I found it an eclectic mix of different genres and different media - some impressive, some that did not quite appeal to me. I especially loved the work of Wafa Hourani and Laleh Khorammian, both, for their intricate attention to detail. I did not click pictures because a) I didn't think the pictures would do justice, especially to Laleh Khorammian's "Eden - 1st Generation", which had me riveted for at least ten minutes; and b) because I was too engrossed to remember to click!
Some other impressive works and general scenes around the gallery though, were clickable. Some of the common apparent themes that I could read through the works were war and destruction and the status or rather the lack thereof of Muslim women in Middle Eastern society.
Some other impressive works and general scenes around the gallery though, were clickable. Some of the common apparent themes that I could read through the works were war and destruction and the status or rather the lack thereof of Muslim women in Middle Eastern society.
Kader Attia's 'Ghost' - an aluminium foil installation of Muslim women in prayer - certainly the most popular exhibit
Diana Al-HAdid's'All The Stops' - 'impossible architecture' made of cardboard, wood, metal, plastic and paint
Halim Al-Karim's ghostly triptychs - Lambda prints covered with silks - very powerful and very disturbing depictions of his personal experiences in the Gulf War and his observations of the horrors of Middle Eastern conflicts today. I clicked the last picture with a person in it to bring out the ghostly apparitions of his prints.
And a couple of gallery scenes
An evening well-spent (and better spent indoors when the outdoors are so dreary.) Though if this dull gray weather continues, I think I'll be forced to abandon this blog and go into hibernation. Wake me up when the sun is out.
Photo of The Day / Caption Contest
How funny does this look?
The good folks over at Londonist have picked my photograph from my previous post as Photo Of The Day and are running a funny caption contest on it! I'm doubly pleased by this - one, of course, because they picked a picture by me; and two, because I'm quite a patron of wittiness myself and would love to see what people come up with. So please hop over and unleash your funnies on them in the comments section.
Also, if you live in London and don't already know about the Londonist, I strongly recommend adding them to your bookmarks - it's an excellent collaborative resource for what's going on around town - the quirky, the eclectic, the strange and hidden side of London that the newspapers won't tell you about.
Hop over now!
Hop over now!
One Month
I only just realised that this blog is one month old today. Wow. Seems more like three to me, somehow. That's 30 days, 13 posts, 126 photos (yes, I counted), close to a 1,000 visitors and a very valuable stash of feedback and discussion. I've been having a really good time doing this, even though when I started, I wasn't sure if anyone would be interested in my pictures and stories at all.
Thank you!
While I indulge in more visual flânerie, I'll leave you with a... ahem... funny set of pictures from Valentine's Day that I clicked at South Bank. Someone took advantage of the low tide on the Thames and cashed in!
Thank you!
While I indulge in more visual flânerie, I'll leave you with a... ahem... funny set of pictures from Valentine's Day that I clicked at South Bank. Someone took advantage of the low tide on the Thames and cashed in!
click photos to enlarge
And these were the chaps responsible for it. They attracted quite a crowd!
Back soon with more.
Covent Garden Market: Of street performers, antiques and touristy hordes
One wouldn't normally associate Monday evenings with fun. But if you are in London and not inclined to giving into typical Monday blues (and are not too bothered by throngs of tourists), you could wander over to the Covent Garden Market, the colourful piazza where a market has existed since the 1600's.
Since its history is so interesting, I'll touch upon it briefly here. If history is not your thing, you could skip straight to the pictures below. The Covent Garden Piazza hosted one of the most famous fruit and vegetable markets for over 300 years - from the 1660's (post the Great Fire) through to the 1970's - by which time, the market had grown into a shabby, congested nightmare. The greengrocers were moved to Nine Elms in Battersea (south London) and the market was closed down for a few years but reopened with great celebrations in the late 1970's. Over the years it has regained its original glamour and colour, although now it is known for its street performances, its central courtyard, its dedicated vendor markets (Apple and Jubilee) and the high profile lifestyle stores and pubs that outline the Piazza.
When I walked in yesterday, I was struck by the sheer number of people there on a late Monday afternoon. There were lots of tourists, no doubt, but there were also a suprising number of Londoners around. (Recession?) Hordes were glued to street performances. On James Street, the main street that links the market to the Covent Garden Station was this Indian 'magician', whose glib humour was keeping everyone more entertained than his trickery. While I clicked away, he suddenly noticed me, stopped mid-sentence and gave me a 'pose', which shook the whole crowd with laughter (including me, which explains the camera shake).
There were other performances going on in the main square and in the central courtyard (which is reserved for classical music performances). I've heard that Covent Garden is the only licensed street performance area in London, but I'm not sure this is true, because I've seen street performances at the South Bank at other times.
And then there was the Antiques market, held every Monday in the Apple Market in the main hall. I'm not sure how many of these are real antiques but you could find a bargain here if you looked hard enough. It was so crowded that most of the time, tiny me and my big camera were jostled around and I could only manage a few un-blurred pictures.
Not everyone who was there was part of the shopping, eating, selling, performing frenzy though. I spotted some souls who had managed to create their own isolated islands in the middle of all the bustle about them.
By the time I got to Jubilee Market though, it was nearing 6PM and most of the stalls had wrapped up their wares. So now you know - if it's the antiques you're interested in, take the whole day off. No more bluesy Mondays, either way!
click on pictures to enlarge
Since its history is so interesting, I'll touch upon it briefly here. If history is not your thing, you could skip straight to the pictures below. The Covent Garden Piazza hosted one of the most famous fruit and vegetable markets for over 300 years - from the 1660's (post the Great Fire) through to the 1970's - by which time, the market had grown into a shabby, congested nightmare. The greengrocers were moved to Nine Elms in Battersea (south London) and the market was closed down for a few years but reopened with great celebrations in the late 1970's. Over the years it has regained its original glamour and colour, although now it is known for its street performances, its central courtyard, its dedicated vendor markets (Apple and Jubilee) and the high profile lifestyle stores and pubs that outline the Piazza.
A large part of the architecture is still original, restored and added to at various times, in its long history. The central Piazza itself is the largely-original structure constructed in the 1630's by Inigo Jones.
When I walked in yesterday, I was struck by the sheer number of people there on a late Monday afternoon. There were lots of tourists, no doubt, but there were also a suprising number of Londoners around. (Recession?) Hordes were glued to street performances. On James Street, the main street that links the market to the Covent Garden Station was this Indian 'magician', whose glib humour was keeping everyone more entertained than his trickery. While I clicked away, he suddenly noticed me, stopped mid-sentence and gave me a 'pose', which shook the whole crowd with laughter (including me, which explains the camera shake).
And then there was the Antiques market, held every Monday in the Apple Market in the main hall. I'm not sure how many of these are real antiques but you could find a bargain here if you looked hard enough. It was so crowded that most of the time, tiny me and my big camera were jostled around and I could only manage a few un-blurred pictures.
Not everyone who was there was part of the shopping, eating, selling, performing frenzy though. I spotted some souls who had managed to create their own isolated islands in the middle of all the bustle about them.
By the time I got to Jubilee Market though, it was nearing 6PM and most of the stalls had wrapped up their wares. So now you know - if it's the antiques you're interested in, take the whole day off. No more bluesy Mondays, either way!
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