A Fri-yay

Time to jump forward in time a bit, to Friday a couple of weeks ago, which is still back in time, but not as far back as all my recent posts. D & G, my old work friends, both had the day off, so we decided that we should have a day of culture. We were to spend the day in East London, and D showed me this crazy looking building she had spotted the evening before. And having just googled it I’ve learnt that it’s Nobu Hotel. How very swish. The actual rooms look nowhere near as interesting as the outside though.

Walking down Brick Lane we walked past this building and the tiled ‘Mayfair’ caught my eye. “Must’ve been a cinema back in the day” thought D. She was right.

This fool knew that we were going to a gallery and on to other things, but I needed to do a bit of ‘getting ready for winter’ shopping, so I felt a bit like a pack mule with my two bags (you can only see the shoulder strap of the other one here). I also dressed way too warm for the day, in fact just remembering that has given me a hot flush this very second…

Soooooo, we went to Whitechapel Gallery to see the Theaster Gates exhibition and great it was too. The initial exhibits where a selection from the ceramic collection at the V&A that Gates had chosen for the exhibition.

An amazing looking tool that Gates makes bricks with. It almost looked like a sculpture. I guess you could argue that if you put any object in a gallery, it looks like a sculpture.

D’s friend K came with us too, and here they both are, not looking at what was in front of them at all, haha.

Walking up to the second floor of the exhibition we had to try out this ‘social sculpture’ (not by Gates, can’t remember who it was by), which was built so whenever people sat in there, their knees would touch.

From two ladies with knees touching to two heads with necks joined together. I’ve wanted to see Theaster Gates’ art for a while now after having read about him in Will Gompertz book ‘Think like an artist’. Gates has over the years put the money that he has made from selling his art back into the community in Chicago’s South Side, where he lives. He’s been buying up derelict properties, turning them into cultural community spaces for everyone, but in particular for local residents. You can watch these YouTube videos and find out more here and here. I really admire his way of thinking, and all that he’s done.

So let’s look at some of what pays for his community projects. These pots had been glazed or covered in tar, and the inside was filled up with it too. The scent as you stuck your nose in it was tar-iffic.

So many cool huge ceramic objects in this room. We were really in awe.

Finished with the exhibition, we walked down the road to catch the overground. I had to excuse myself at one point to walk over to take this.

And seeing this guy squashed against a shop window like this made me very happy.

We got off the train in Haggerston and walked along Regent’s Canal.

And around Broadway Market for a little bit, in search for a something hot to drink and sweet to eat. This place didn't make the cut, but had great light.

Bellies full, we walked back along the canal, and these coots seemed to be squabbling over something.

“Run Forrest, run!”

This little doggie just missed the action.

G, K and D, ahead of me - rhymes yo.

Canal abstract. We were actually walking to our next cultural stop of the day, but that’s a whole post of its own.

All in all, a great day, where we felt like we were on holiday, doing only nice things as one does when away. Even just waiting for the train back home looked good.