I Finally Find Computer Access

So, I've been in London 5 days. Hard to believe. So much has happened, I don't know where to start.
Barton met me at the airport, took me by tube to the RCA for a whirlwind tour and then to his flat to meet his flatmates. They have a wonderful 5 bedroom place right by the canal in East London - Hoxton I think is the official name of the district. They have a small kitchen, bathroom, storage room and 2 bedrooms on the main floor and a living/dining room and three bedrooms upstairs. I think it used to be shops, or a storage facility. When I figure out how to get me photos downloaded and on here, I will post a photo. It is great having four roomates, Jeri, Chloe, Hayley and Tom. They are all kind, cheerful and helpful and have made my settling in a lot easier. It reminds me of my younger years when I lived communally, only I think these folks are a bit better behaved. Hmmm, only time will tell. Believe it or not Chloe, Tom and Jeri are all celebrating their birthdays today!
Barton left bright and early Sat. morning and has written that he made it safely to Calgary.
Jeri took me to Broadway Market on Sat. which is just a short walk down the path along the canal. We ended up having lunch in a pub and later that night I met Elizabeth Lemoine, an old ACAD classmate of mine who has been living in London for 13 years, and we had dinner in a pub. Do I see a pattern here? (We had Leffe Belgian beers, which were delicious! Had one for Wally, as he requested!)
The most surprising thing was that at the market I ran into the only other person I know in London, Dallas Seitz. He just walked up to us. Jeri was shocked! At first when she saw him looking at us she thought he was some weirdo. And then again today I ran into him at Brick Lane and I was shocked. Maybe he is stalking me! Actually, he said he lives close by and so it's not that unusual that we should run into each other.
I went to Brick Lane looking for silk. Those of you who have been to my studio know that I can never have enough silk. Brick Lane is an old lace and textiles street and still has many stores selling cloth and many good curry restaurants. It is also interspersed with interesting book stores, coffee shops, bakeries, etc. I felt like I was seeing one of the most interesting parts of London. Would love to go for curry there sometime. It is also where Jack the Ripper did most of his murders. Don't tell my mother or she will worry!
I discovered, after running into Dallas, that the Whitechapel Gallery was just at the end of the street and around the corner, so I went there and took in the two shows. Will write about them another time. I carried on from Whitechapel to Petticoat Lane (these Brits really know how to name their streets, don't they?) There is a street market there and I was told, more fabric shops. The fabric shops there were mostly from Middle East and South Asia, reminiscent of the fabric stores in Brunei that Suzi took me to when I was there. Lots of beautiful printed patterned fabrics as well as embroidered fabrics. They sell them in 5 meter lengths, just like in the Sari shops I frequent in Calgary. They range in price from £40 to £450! Not exactly what I was looking for, but beautiful to look at. The street was full of vendors selling everything from watches to clothing to towels to fruit. How I love the market! My favourite thing in any city I visit is going to the market.
The Royal College of Art is situated right across the street from Hyde Park. Across the street in another direction is the Royal Albert Hall. Down the street is the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Museum of Natural history, the Goethe Institute, and many other museums. Lots to explore. So little time. The Cirque Soleil is performing at Royal Albert Hall. I think Jeff Wall is showing at the Tate. And apparently Janet Cardiff has one of her walking tours in a Gallery somewhere near Brick Lane. Funny to come to London and find so much Canadian art. More than we even see in Calgary.
Everyone at the RCA has been very friendly and welcoming, but as they are well into their semester they are all in full gear and very busy. I am sitting around gawking while everyone else is running around looking productive. The Printmaking Studios have the same things that most studios have except more of it in a smaller space. My studio space is as small as the undergrad students' studios at ACAD or UofC. I met Jonathan today, who came on exchange to Calgary last year. He enjoyed that immensely, and hopes to return to Canada with his Canadian girlfriend when he completes his degree this summer.
They have a fabulous visiting artist program at the RCA. Unfortunately I missed Ken Tyler last week and missed the class trip to the Venice Biennelle that took place last semester. But I did hear Dick Jewell speak yesterday and that was very interesting and entertaining. I wasn't familiar with his work, but he does a lot of photographic work using found images, anything from discarded photo booth pictures (he made a book of these as an RCA student many years ago, which sold out immediately) and has done some album cover art and posters for bands such as Madness, Peter Gabriel and several reggae bands. His films were quite interesting too, several based on Raves, Breakdancing and eccentric people.
As in any new country there are things that I find peculiar. Of course the cars travel on the "wrong" side of the road and that is more disorienting than I would have expected. Not only do you have to look right for oncoming traffic (or left,if you're in the middle of the boulevard) but when I get on the bus on the wrong side of the road from what I am used to, I am still jarred when it starts moving in the direction I don't think it should be moving in! The Brits say Loo instead of bathroom. They all seem so cheerful and have a sing songy way of speaking. They must think us Canadians are terribly dry, serious, perhaps dull and boring.
I can see the Tube will get monotonous very quickly, as the Metro has for Amber in Montreal. Today I was on a train and we had to disembark because it was being taken out of service and then when we got on its replacement, after a few minutes of sitting there, they decided to change to terminal it was going to and so we all had to disembark again. "PLEASE WATCH THE GAP" "DON'T LEAVE ANY BAGS UNATTENDED" "PLEASE REPORT ANY SUSPICIOUS BEHAVIOUR" are all being constantly announced in the tube stations. They are very packed in the morning and you can barely get on, as are the buses.
Enough for today. I have had many other adventures, and feel as though I have skimmed over what I wrote about but am tired and have to get some dinner.

Galleries & Museums

I have gone to four galleries and one museum since I have been here and none of them are ones I was looking for. I'm just walking down the street...and there they are, beckoning me to come in. I love it! They are all free, but have donation boxes clearly displayed with a suggested donation (£1-2) What a great environment for nurturing a cultured society. I was in the Science Museum today (which is enormous by the way) and thinking how great this free admission is for families. Instead of spending a great deal of money and trying to cram everything into one day to get your money's worth, you can wander in, see a little bit and come back another day.
The Serpentine Gallery is in Hyde Park, a huge park right across form the RCA. I took a walk over to the park on Sunday, when I took a practice run to the college via bus and train to see if I could remember the route back that Barton had shown me. And there was this little building in the park and I saw it was the Serpentine and I had heard of it so I went in.
It is quite a high traffic and public gallery, but they seem to exhibit shows that are contemporary and make the public think a bit. They have a fabulous bookstore. Two Norwegian artists, Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset were exhibiting "The Welfare Show" They had totally reconfigured the inside of the gallery to create a series of corridors that went around the centre of the gallery. I had to ask the attendents after I had spent some time in there what the gallery looked like before they did this. Then it turns out that my friend Dallas, works at the Serpentine setting up shows and so when I ran into him the second time he told me more about the construction, which of course will be deconstructed after the show (in the true spirit of Postmodernism!)
When you enter the gallery through swinging doors, you are confronted with a large sign, painted in white letters on a black wall, which reads "SOCKS AT WOOLWORTHS £1.25 A PAIR" In front of that and under a round skylight is a wheelchair with a helium balloon attached to it, entitled "Birthday 2002" It looked very forlorn and vacantly unhappy, not very celebratory as one would expect a birthday to be.
Travelling down another corridor you encounter a bank machine in the wall. On the floor in front of the bank machine is a sleeping baby in a cloth bassinette. This is titled "Modern Moses". When I first saw the baby I had to look quite long and carefully to determine whether it was alive or not. I watched others for some time. Many people didn't notice the baby and just glanced at the bank machine as if it was normal for there to be a bank machine in an art gallery. There were many families there so I am sure some people thought that someone had just set their baby down and were close by. Mothers looked concerned, fathers made jokes and children stared fascinated. "Is it alive?" was the most common question.
Travelling down another short corridor are two doors. One has a small window and glows pink. When you peer in you discover a small round table with a microphone on it and two chairs. A pink neon sign behind it says "The Welfare Show". This ironically brings a smile to most people's faces.
At the end of the corridor is an open space with 7 chairs set around the 3 walls. Security guards in full uniform are sitting there. They look up as you walk by. They guard nothing. I feel guilty, even though I haven't done anything.
Around the corner from there, is a tri-vision billboard. I know this is what it is called because the sheet I picked up at the start of the exhibition tells me the titles and materials. "This space can't be yours" is written in a different place on each side of the sign as it turns.
Across the corridor from that is a large window facing into a room which is in the centre of the building. The room contains a small version of a luggage carousel of the type you would see in an airport. On it sits one bag, going around endlessly. A set of concrete stairs with a hand rail protrude from the back wall, running up to an exit door. The stairs are broken halfway up and the rubble lies on the floor underneath them. Title? "Uncollected"
At the end of this corridor is a waiting room with a ticket dispenser on the wall, chairs along one wall, a plant in the corner and a LED clock reading 0:00. You can sit on the chairs, which face an exit door, but you can't go through those doors or take tickets from the dispenser. I sat and watched. The real security person, who wasn't in a uniform, had to keep reprimanding people. This one was entitled "It's the small things in life that really matter, blah, blah, blah, blah."
You enter "Interstage" via a pair of swinging doors with small round windows. This corridor holds two hospital beds outfitted with white sheets, pillows and comforters. A woman lies on one bed with her back to you facing the wall, her eyes blindly staring into space. Is she alive, dead or catatonic? There is a handrail along the wall opposite the beds and swinging doors at the other end.
Going through these doors brings you into "Go, Go, Go" a dancing pole with a round base lit up by flashing light bulbs. A mop lies across the steps leading up to the pole with a bucket, rubber gloves, and a "Caution Wet Floor" sign nearby.
This brings you back to the beginning of the exhibit and of course you can keep going around and around as many times as you like, which I think is their point. There is a funhouse quality to the show, but the subject matter is very serious. In thinking back and describing all these pieces, I have realized better how they fit together as a comment on our society and issues of poverty, healthcare, social policies and public spaces, as the artists intended.
The titles of each section are very important and give the viewer clues as to what the piece is about, and by going through a couple of times, you notice more and more things. The materials, objects and surroundings are so common, one tends to just glance at them and walk past, almost feeling like there is nothing there. At first it seemed like a quick read, but now after having some time to think about it, I believe there is a lot more there to absorbe than one gets from an initial reading.

Figuring out the Blog

Thanks to everyone for their good wishes. The way I have this set up is that I get an e-mail when you comment. Some of these e-mails are labelled anonymous or have your name when I receive them and tell me I have a new comment. Those ones I have the choice whether I post them or not. (just to keep out the riff-raff and/or personal comments) Some of the e-mails I have received have your name and my e-mail title and I can't post them. So I have just now posted the ones I could. Isn't this great? A learning experience for all of us! If anyone is blog savvy and can explain it better, please let me know. Have to go and finish packing!!!!

This is the beautiful studio space I am leaving behind
with the work I did this semester.

This Is A Test

I am in Calgary, frantically trying to get everything done to leave on my adventure to the Royal College of Art in London tomorrow. I am posting this message to see if it actually works and am hoping my friend Freela will respond and let me know if she can post to this blog too.