We went to Camden market this sunday (the 17th) into what i call the most intrinsic and enveloping shopping experience i’ve ever been in. We had primarily checked out spiddelfeilds shopping stalls and complexes but we were holding of our cash until i had made it into camden market. Upon getting there, i have to say that one of my priority visits would be to Cyberdawgs.
Cyberdawgs is what happens when a rave becomes a retail spot. We came across this spot with Large, shiny robots on each side of the entrance. the entire store is lit in just black lights (with several colored lights here and there). I’ve picked up a scrolling marquee LED lit programable T-shirt there, something i will definitely be wearing in my DJing performances.
Monday was a Missed trip to London due to G-rawd getting sick. Nothing serious, but enough to make him think the day’s run into London with all of us wouldn’t have helped out. Tuesday was a day for us to meet in the classroom, as well as display our Art in a Suitcase Projects. Alot of people made effort to bring art school projects with them, while others made art based in England and created installation works. Mine consists of a collage of records, tapes and related paraphernalia with a tape recorder of actual collated sounds in a basic way. the tape, while playing, is meant to being the listener everywhere from gleeful childhood memories to fear of mechanical failure.
Wednesday was our trip to cambridge, in opposite route to our usual trips to London. We first embarked on the Kettle head Gallery and House of art. One part featured works from a collection of artists that would bring art into an everyday context. even every seemingly “decorative” piece on the tables we actually original works of art. Titles are eschewed here for reasons of detering from classification and even rank of artists in the house. this really distilled the art gallery experience down to a more comfortable atmosphere, though i found the lack of titles and even names of artists to be quite frustrating, just in case i were to like a particular type of work and couldn’t do my own researching on them.
The proper gallery had a very small group exhibit of work. The show was called “Material Intelligence” and featured video work, installation, mixed media, sculpture and more. a favorite of the show was work by Matt Calderwood. Both his installation “Untitled” and videos were very striking and “untitled” was bound on playing with items fitting into a space. Between two concrete walls were plastic crates, gloves, a crowbar, wineglasses, tennis balls and one yellow sweater. Calderwood’s work exhuberated, with me, an instantaneity of constructing a piece with a set parameter and making it stand between two surfaces without support from the floor. Take that, cut-up chair mobile, painted plastic with identification issues and Bottled water “look at the colors” bag and tape artist.
After that show, we headed though the busier parts of cambridge to get to our visit to University of Cambridge. Our tour guides were Mavis, a charismatic old woman with a great personality and the other one, no sure of her name...she was more polite but wasn’t as interesting as mavis. Mavis started off a part of the group with a rant against alot of installation based, concept work she would see at the Tate modern. Most of her rants included the use of works with tampons in them and she grew frustrated in understanding and appreciating them. Little does she know that it’s also a pain in the art world, as well. God love ya, Mavis!
Cambridge is celebrating it’s 800th year in operation. it stated in 1209, just a few years short of Oxford’s start, apparently. A majority of the campus is based on a medieval styling, but that didn’t stop us from running to a Norm Foster Designed building. that’s right, the Faculty of Law building is one of the campus’ newest structures with the most prominent of UK contemporary architects. We also checked out the Kings college chapel, a very beautiful chapel with stain-glassed windows featuring many stories from the Old testament. The tudors were the ones to create the building, but it took a good 60 years before a finished building was made available for worship. featured also on that day was a singing prayer service with the all-boys choir. it was okay. I’ve described the music to gerard as great background music to the chapel’s style and design.
After that prayer service, we then went Punting along the canals in Cambridge. The punts are specifically, yet traditionally designed for safe and easy riding on the canal. We each took a turn steering and pushing the punt with the large stick. it was easy to maneuver, but it also got hard to do and very fast. The trip alongside the Backs (or the other sides of campus buildings) was very beautiful and the sunset was a good match for the evening of punting.
did i mention i had picked up some vinyl records in Cambridge? one street stall had a very large selection of used records. I picked up the New Order Singles “Blue Monday”, “Round and Round” and it’s parent album “Technique”! too Awesome!
Thursday was a day off for the most of us, while a select few went to see the UK-popular Chelsea Flower Show. I wasn’t that interested in Garden Design, as i’m mostly satisfied with the trees we have around old harlow.
Friday, we went to stop at tottenham hale to stop by Kings Cross station in London. This is a station made most popular by the recent Harry Potter film releases. I have seen none of the films, so the sight probably wasn’t as “Spell-bounding” (forgive me on that pun) as for fans of the series. The station was mainly a precursor to a more modernist style of building that we would see in spots like the Barbican Center. We then went to see St. Pancreas station (i’m calling it St. Pancreas because that’s what i think it is - don’t get grossed out, ok?). St. Pancras was built around with the rise of modernity, so we saw a station using less victorian adornment and more geometrical and linear design aspects. St Pancras was also a Eurostar train station, being part of a line railway going across europe. it also housed the world’s longest champagne bar, for those trips to paris where decadence and romance could happen.
can you guess who has been re-designing parts of the station? if you said norm foster, you’re correct!! 50 Points!
We then headed to the Foundling Museum, where it had been a hospital and orphanage in the brunswick square part of london. Many children and women were welcomed to make the place their home during the later 18th century and the industrial revolution. The place even went to help 1/5 of displaced children during this time. Also, the Foundling museum started Art gallery collections in Britain.
After that, we visited the British Library. Completed under the 30 years of regard in 1997, it houses well over 300000 KM of bookshelves, with every british publication being housed within. We would go on our own ways after seeing the library, with 12 of us going out to dinner to St. Martin’s Spice, an indian restaurant nearby trafalgar square. it as Sarah Willett’s Birthday that day, so we decided to take her to her first indian cuisine experience. Hope you had a Happy Birthday, Sarah Rose!!
Saturday, we went into london to go see the Tate Britain again for the presentation painting exercise numero-deux. I was chosen to work with Jenny D this time around and we did a pretty good job summating John Singer’s Sargent’s Painting “Carnation Lily, Lily Rose”. Before stepping in, we also got to take a look at the Chelsea school of fine arts. Gerard also told us of Central St. Martins and the Royal College as possibilities for our future studies after the BFA. I would certainly look into some of these schools, but that will have to wait for another time, im too busy getting through these courses i’m taking now!
After that, we went to check out Oxford Street, London’s largest shopping area. Saturday shoppers were plenty on the streets and made for exploration of the place really difficult (we’re talking shoulder to shoulder, “i can’t see the concrete of the street” walking). though i managed to pick up two tees at this place called “Bershka” for reasonably cheap. We then strolled towards the Soho District, an area that was riddled with prostitution, black and gay neighborhoods and even recently an Asian community. alot of oppression left on these minorities throughout london found comfort and solace in the neighbourhoods and public areas like soho square. the area had some really great record stores there, so i was all over them!
Sunday was a day off, a day in the park, to be exact. I’ll be heading into london tomorrow and will try to cut off this habit of leaving the log entries for the ends of the weeks ( i think it will save me that chunk of time having to type out 1500+ words in one night - whew!).
okay i’m gonna go publish this and use pictures, too. cheers!
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