Categories: uncategorized
Date: 09 August 2008 22:49:16
Went up to London today for the Courage anniversary service. This only being the second Courage thing I've been to I'll direct you over to Auntie Doris to tell you all about it. What I would add to what she is written is a word of thanks, without the support and encouragement of people like AD and others my journey would have been v. different.
Anyway, before I ended up at the Courage service I took advantage of being up in London to do the Tate Britain , which I hadn't visited for a while. Using the ever handy membership card I wandered into "The Lure of the East: British Orientalist Painting" exhibition. Have to say it really wasn't what I'm into, but was v. taken with a couple of pictures. Firstly Lady Teresia Shirley (unknown artist before 1628), which showed an English lady in beautiful dress with rather odd fob watch and totally out of place pistol. The pistol, particularly, looked so out of place that the picture had a kind of Banksy feel to it, i.e. a very pretty picture which had been subverted to make a point.
The second picture that really got me was "For Sale:Slaves at Cairo" by Jean-Leon Gerome (aout 1871). This was a really powerful picture which had been produced in the late 19th century to highlight the fact that despite slavery being illegal sex slavery still existed. It was, therefore, basically a v.early stop the traffik type picture. It reminded me that our ideas about modern problems, and modern approaches aren't necessarily as modern as we may think and that our responses aren't as new as we would like to think.
The exhibition also had an interesting computer generated timeline / map that flowed between 1683 and 1920.
After looking around the exhibition I decided to get lost in the building for a while & got back to my roots with the Constable room and the Nature and Landscape room (which contained both Constables and Gainsboroughs). My dreamy side came out when I waited a while by John William Waterhouse's Lady of Shalott (one of my favourite pictures of all). Then before I left I looked around the BP British Art Displays which contained some really interesting work by Wolfgang Tillman. Whilst some of his work was explicit in nature it is done in such a way that it takes the sex out of potentially sexual content and shows that a body is simply that, a body. This modern art area of the Tate Britain also contained a stunning Tracey Emin Blanket entitled "Hate & Power Can Be A Terrible Thing". I know she's not everybodies cup of tea, but I do have to say that I think alot of her stuff, this included, is stunning.
So all in all a really great day as I prepare for an emotional week which will include my last Sunday morning as a regular at HBBC, the 2nd anniversary of my mums death and AS / A Level results day.