what's the point
i walked for hours to get somewhere and this was there.
it's a kinetic sculpture thing
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i walked for hours to get somewhere and this was there.
it's a kinetic sculpture thing
gallery closed on monday
i spotted this sign as i exited the gallery after having had a good look round. ooops.
terry stringer, artist
he kindly let me take his photo when we visited his studio recently. he then asked if he could take a photo of our family to return the favour and he did. and it was a good one (much better than these of him). so i might ask famous people to take pictures of me in future.
easel
this was easelly identified
one and other
i don't know about you, but i'm addicted to the One And Other Antony Gormley thing in Trafalgar Square. it's totally excellent and worth checking in at least once and hour
http://www.oneandother.co.uk/
the person who was up there when i walked by last week had a sign about a library
Ascension of Polkadots on the Trees
i don't think this cleaning vehicle was part of the art (that rhymes) but it was jolly good none-the-less-the-same
it's part of this exhibition which i'd love to see. so i probably will
here are two more nearly but not quite the same shots of the same thing
that thing at tate modern
people building it
and people playing on it
weaving
i was in charge of the plastic dibber thing and kezia was in charge of the string thing. between us we created this masterpiece.
odd junk
jane and i went for a stroll round our neighbourhood a few nights ago and found this skip outside someone's house with this quite amazing plastic statue-type thing
i was all for bringing it home, but the phrase "you can't take it with you" jumped in to my mind. but that's another story
still, what an amazing piece of suburban art. skips are good at revealing some of the hidden stuff from behind closed doors ...
henley art trail
this weekend has seen the henley art trail which has been (and still is if you are reading this in the UK before monday evening).
this was our favourite place with gooses and baby gooses and a number of hens, including the one above queuing for refreshments
little people at the gallery
if you don't know about little people then shame on you ! i think it's fantastic. and i just happened to be in london yesterday on the evening of the solo show launch. unfortunately i didn't rsvp and it looked really busy and i had my big camera back pack so didn't go in.
but this on sunday looks fab (although i don't think we're going to be able to make it)
interplanetary
south bank space station
psycho buildings
the girls, jane's mum and me went up to london yesterday to go to the Psycho Buildings exhibition at the Hayward Gallery
we got there for 10am and had no trouble getting on the boating lake which is set up on the roof
the rest of the exhibition was excellent too and i can highly recommend it. we also got in half price thanks to a 2 for 1 offer . And the kids went free. bargain
afterwards we went to look at the graffiti near Waterloo bridge (i'm saving those photos for another post)
Henley Arts Trail
esther, kezia and I went on the Henley Arts Trail yesterday. I didn't take too many photos as it was too wet, and people's art is their copyrights etc.
it really was a great day out. it was fascinating to see the different types of artists and see their studios. everyone was so nice and jolly.
so, all in all, another great bank holiday weekend activity !
Roger Molloy
i bumped in to famous artist Roger Molloy in Brick Lane selling his wares. he's a chap who is living his art and doing things properly, making ends meet in a pay as you go kind of way. we had a quick chat, i bought one of his pictures and we went our separate ways. well, i did. he stood where he was and continued his activities. what a nice chap.
art
we went up to london to see the crack in the tate modern and the exhbition in the bargehouse. it was very good.
bargehouse
there's a great exhibition of things at the Bargehouse art gallery in london until the end of the month. i loved it so much i'm going to go back at the weekend.
updated: website here
affordable art gallery
affordable, but to whom ?
upper class graffiti
this is on a wall tucked round a corner from farringdon station
i spoke to some builders who were unloading some stuff from their van just next to it. they said they'd never seen it before.
it's jolly nice.
caged bird
i walked past this just a few moments after i'd seen the original (without wings) in the National Portrait Gallery. the bars are probably poignant on various different levels.
dismantling Louise Bourgeois' spider
when i walked past tate modern yesterday they were dismantling Louise Bourgeois' spider.
it was interesting that the egg sack was the only recognisable thing
there were lots of leg bits everywhere
and it looked nice with the sun rise lighting st paul's in the background
lying there it looked like some science fiction thing with its dormant eggs waiting to hatch
of course it would have been easier to catch it in a giant jar and throw it out the front door
or perhaps flush it down the plug hole or chuck it in the thames
the invisible mural
i consider myself pretty observant, but i failed to properly notice this mural despite working by it for over 4 years. i popped back for a meeting yesterday and 'spotted' it !
the picture i left behind
over the summer i carried a couple of pictures everywhere i went to hang on handy hooks if i ever came across any. there was one in a holiday cottage we went to so i left it there. as seen here.
another one went on my parent-in-law's wall and they didn't spot it for a few weeks. once they found it they took it to jane's sister's house and secretly left it there. i've not heard anything since. (about it). not sure if they've found it or just chucked it in the bin. or perhaps i'll get it back as a surprise xmas present.
art on wheels
even street ambassadors (tramps) need hobbies. there's at least two in london who make a habit of collecting huge amounts of carrier bags full of stuff and transporting them round london in trollies. it could actually the same chap come to think about it - perhaps he's had a shave and removed all the white paint from his coat.
anyway, quite poignant i think. chap with nothing (we assume) dragging all his found belongings round town in a cumbersome and visually striking way.
makes you fink dunnit.
tate modern spider
the lovely big spider outside tate modern
tate modern floor gash
i wasn't sure what i'd make of the new turbine hall exhibit in tate modern. but i thought this was fantastic.
you should go for a look-see
the funkypancake courtesy art project
in my job i go to a lot of meeting rooms in different places, and i've increasingly noticed that many of them have picture hooks which aren't used for anything. it happens in pubs and cafes too.
so, i thought, i can knock up a few funkypancake photos in frames and hang them up (and leave them there) when i see them.
yesterday was my first attempt, but i think i chose the wrong venue. it was a trendy bar and i just left the picture on a windowsill. when we went through to the dining area a waiter walked through with the frame and said "do you want this or shall i throw it in the bin". so i took it back looking a bit sheepish.
but i shalln't be put off. Balham obviously doesn't understand art. it's gone back in my bag for the next proper opportunity (and i'm going to stick to wall mounting in future)
the new tate modern turbing hall exhibition ?
the slides have gone - so what's next ?
unguessable ?
any ideas what's going on here ?
strange wirey arty thingy bob
click for big
elton's photo art
here is our friend elton. officially 'funnier than even you and me daddy' according to kezia.
he's developed a very fancy way of turning old unwanted photos in to new pieces of art.
here he's kept the bracken but added a fantastic fire-ball effect
here are his magic materials
and here are two examples of his creations:
before
and after
if you'd like elton to turn one of your old photos in to art, you can send them to Elton, at Betty Tigers, 78 Infirmary Road, Sheffield, England, S6 3DD
Elton asks that you make a donation to your favourite charity and in return he'll 'convert' your photo and send it back to you (if you include a self addressed envelope).
this is funkypancake exclusive so send them to him !
after the sugar cubes went
they've cleared away the giant sugar cubes in the tate modern and have a few exhibits at the moment which are great to look at
mind the handles
curiouser and curiouser
a few weeks back i had exactly 10 minutes to spare before a meeting so i stood still and just looked at the big mound of sugar cubes (or whatever they are) in the Tate Modern. After a few minutes you start noticing some of the details, like how they big piles 'spill' on to the building structure, and how some of the piles have order.
after a while it nearly turns in to a Where's Wally book of obscure angled blocks. "where is the slightly crooked up-ended one" etc
huge donkey
i didn't post this from last october either.
one thing leads to another
kezia won some glitter in a bran tub at her pre-school winter fair. bran tubs are funny things. it would be good one time to have a few live hamsters and gerbils living in one. everyone would enjoy that.
anyway, kezia and i then went home and she made this glitter picture which she insisted i photograph to post on the blog. so here it is
this was a test
this big bit of paper was taped to the floor outside the tate modern a few weeks back. few people obeyed the instructions. initially i didn't but then returned and did. this was noted by two observers who chalked a line on their counting chart.
tate modern
photo by esther
we had a family outing to Tate Modern yesterday. We originally were planning on seeing the Jeff Wall photos, but on the way esther spotted a Rousseau painting on a Bakerloo tube station (at Charing Cross?) and she said she had learnt about it at school. So we went to that exhibition instead which was very good.
photo by kezia
esther and kezia had little computers which they wore round their necks which explained what all the pictures were about and showed little graphics. it's all very modern and not like museums we suffered as children (sorry mum if you are reading this!)
photo by kezia
we also did some photo practice in the turbine hall of the Rachel Whiteread construction which still hasn't been knocked down (though i noticed some of the base blocks are now glued to the floor)
photo by kezia
kezia and daddy
kezia drew this lovely picture of her and me. i love the toes and fingers. i'm on the right.
bournemouth fence curious
mermaid with funny arms
yellow polka dot bikini
red sunglasses
jellied eel
ice-cream
rachel whiteread in the tate modern turbine hall
there's a new giant construction in the turbine gallery at the tate modern. i visited for approximately 4 minutes on the way to a meeting near by and got these photos:
it's nice to see such a giant thing, which appears to be quite flimsy. i really wanted to swing my work bag in to one of the mountains to see it it would all fall down (but i decided that was a bad plan - especially as by that time i only had 2 minutes left of speed-art viewing.
i doubt everything is ever going to live up to the weather project in this space, but this will do for now !
sand sculture 2 days on
2 days later
sculpting behind bars
this chap was in a caged area doing some sand sculpture.
it was quite impressive (click for bigger version to inspect detail)
triangular art
random thing on a bollardy thing near Goodge Street station
father's day cards
i've got about 300 photos back logged ready for blogging sometime, but i should have a bit more timely with this, which is kezia's drawing for me for father's day last sunday.
i'm on the left and she's on the right. apparently she drew our heads then panicked as she didn't know how to draw bodies !
i just love how kids photos can be so expressive.
esther's art
esther has recently developed a more subtle approach to painting. note the bold triangle surrounded by whispy blue bits.
she calls this piece "two clowns getting married".
zimmer
if i ever go back to the brussels art museum i'm going to track down this delightfully random painting and get a better picture of all of it (rather than just this man in a zimmer frame)
modern art
here is a close up of the sign of the brussels modern art museum.
under construction
here is jane in a belgian art gallery considering whether this was an exhibit. by the time we'd finished our visit they'd moved this stuff out the way so it wasn't.
sometimes art is so difficult.
no oil painting
some splatty oil painting in a belgian art gallery. worth clicking on to enjoy the coloured moonscape
dali and big ben
dali melting clock and big ben big clock
click for big
strange easter art
esther made this fantastic easter art thing at school
click for big
discovering art
i walked past this piece of board on the floor and a few steps later i stopped and went back to it.
i thought it looked a bit like the back of a cheap picture frame. so i took a photo of it undisturbed then gently lifted it up and leant it against the wall.
who would have thought such a [insert your own adjective here] picture would be left lying in the street.
head in a box
someone taking a picture of a girl wearing a cardboard box outside liverpool street station.
strange sounds
if you haven't been and seen the tate modern Nauman exhibit i'd recommend a trip. it's not quite as dramatic as the sun but still worth a trip.
odd art thing
a strange flashing thing dangling from a shop. that's art that is.
pointing the finger
here is a giant pointing finger floating in the sea in Stockholm.
painting
kezia finger painting:
esther's painting;
esther's vegetable vehicle (driven by her (my) little poney):
spinning cellotape in front of strobing television
this is actually quite cool. walk down charing cross road and look out for it in a window.
reflections
here's an interesting thing. it was a reflection on the road from the sun in a name plate on an office.
my first thoughts were that it was a crown with a cross on top. aha i thought. It's Jesus - golden crown, the cross etc.
but then i noticed the legs of the person and it looks more like someone arriving at the top of an escalator, or someone on a running machine.
what do you think it looks like ?
spotlight on water
an empty gallery with a bottle a mineral water in a spot light. nice.
dead bird as art
there's an empty room in the tate modern at the moment which is art. that's my kind of art.
but in the window space was this dead bird (taxidermied i assume). interesting that it should turn up the same day as the dead cat .
and, as always, i passed the Slough dead dog in a box today too ...
cat head in formaldehyde (sort of)
as you may know lots of Saatchi's art got accidentally burnt in a fire in a storage facility. Many of this was stuff by the YBA (young british artists).
the most famous of the YBAs is arguably damien hurst, famous for his shark in formaldehyde. esther thouht she'd have a go at that and produced a cat head in a little pot of water.
is this the first piece in the new 'even younger british artists' movement ?
this is the art
remember the pallets i thought might be art because they said they were an art exhibition ? i sent an email to jeremy lim because his address was on the poster.
today he emailed me back and i popped in on the way to the station this evening.
the art was in fact downstairs next to the pallets (so it wasn't a street installation afterall). the show was on the theme of 'bags' and there were some really good exhibits by some students (a really nice bunch)
here is a photo of the make-shift gallery. not a great photo but i was intimidated by the proper artists there.
many thanks of jeremy to inviting me to the closing night of the show (and for the drink)
is this the art or the packaging ?
i passed this on the way to the station this evening. it's a load of pallets (you know the things you use to carry heavy things about on lorries) and was outside a non-descript building with seemingly no art establishment connection.
chances are it's just the packaging, but it could be the art itself. you never know these days.
here is the sign (click for big version to see why i was confused):
if it is the art then it's ironic because it's called "bagged" but is actually pallets. if it's not then it should be the art.
i'm going to email the email address on the sign and see if they can tell me. i'll let you know.
update: full story here