One of the joys of living in London is that i can mosey about galleries at a leisurely pace rather than having to gallop about in once-a-month gungho extravaganzas as when visiting from the country. I've been trying to get to more of the smaller trendier places rather than just the big name institutions but, that said, have caught some really cool exhibitions at both types of venue in the last few weeks.

Gagosian put on a very nice show Giacometti/Serra/Fontana/Twombly - all sculptures in metal, with a rich diversity of styles from Serra's brutal minimalism to Giacometti's organic expressive almost grotesque figurines. I met this Argentinian architect and had a jolly fine old yarn which extended into a 90 minute coffee after the gallery closed.

Anthony Gormley is a bit of a British icon and certainly the creator of some, so his exhib at the Hayward opened to great acclaim. MJ and I like to keep our fingers on the pulse so were dutifully queueing up on the opening weekend. It is good - see it. The box of smoke is "the new tate slides" - very interesting and fun:

More little man statues - this time all over the Festival Hall and various neighbouring buildings rather than a beach in Lancashire.

The Unknown Monet at the RA with Freja was very splendid, and an excellent opportunity to rant on at length about the Musee Marmottan and the last Monet exhibition i saw which was at the Neue Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, oh you really should get there, it's an iconic building, that's right James Stirling, the same chap who did the Judge Institute, blahblahblah... Surprisingly Freja put up with me for long enough to go to the How We Are, photographing Britain exhib at the Tate Britain - very interesting.

The following day i maintained my role as selfproclaimed mr zeitgeist by catching the hoxton square half of the Damien Hirst exhib - he is very opportunistic but good to see continuations on his earlier themes. The guy in the fluffy dog costume hat streaking across Hoxton Square afterwards was pretty funny too.

OK so i've been a bit off task blogwise. I shall make amends. It seems like blogger is being a touch more cooperative in uploading photos which had been one of the sticking points for moi in recent months, but i shall focus on regular bitesize snacks with limited picturage.

That said, here's me on my first day at work in London:

It's a cool job - a staunch, yet vigorously welcomed, contrast to the rarified cloisters of bucolic academia up the M11, or indeed down Anzac Parade. It's mainly about Excel, which i incorrectly thought i had some idea about how to use in late March.

Other news, in increasing order of importance:

Went back to Sydney (again, for three days this time, ouch) and gave a speech. If you thought the pic above was pretty silly, try this on for size. As an added bonus, i got to see Vero distinguish themselves for probably the last time in the BRW triathlon :

Loving London life: the buzziness, the morning rush, feeling like you're right in thick of it, sunny afternoon beers outside City pubs, hunting out trendy art galleries in dodgy industrial estates, the laaate night bottleshops, the mix & unpredictability. Back into running so have been exploring the burbs round us; haven't mastered commuting, or indeed "routines", yet so have been exploring the train, tube and bus timetables from 7:20 to 10:30 am.

Living in Souwf Lundun with these champs:

They're talking on the "telephone" to the "magical aliens" orbiting the "moon". They like to do that sometimes. I do too.

And, Maarinke's moving over in August which will be fantastic - i can barely wait.

So that's about it - i shall endeavour to maintain a more consistent stream of ramble over the next few months than i have the previous.

Tate Tracks

Only just online today, here's the latest (and best, I opine) installment in the Tate Tracks series of musical pieces created for and inspired by artworks at Tate Modern: Union of Knives "Four Seasons" after Cy Twombly's Quattro Stagioni

Have a listen.

Air Travel: The Only Way

I'm writing this one from the BA lounge at Heathrow - in a far more salubrious, i.e. sober and not sunburnt, state than my last outgoing flight from here - with an hour to kill before my flight. Normally this would be spent reading the economist amongst the hoi palloi and eating some crisps. But not this time - i'm now reading the economist amongst the club world travellers and eating sandwiches - complimentary ones - and drinking wine. Coogee, Darlinghurst and Newtown, here i come - this time in some degree of style. See yer soon!

Three London Weekends

So here's what i got up to, in approximately chronological order in London over three weekends in Jan and Feb:
British Museum - French Drawings
Photographer's Gallery - 3 exhibitions
Beef bourgignon courtesy of Superchef Meehan (K)
A much-vaunted brekky at Chelsea Bun w MJ & Ali
V&A - architecture exhibition about residential spaces
Serpentine - Murderme Collection (Damien Hirst's personal collection)
Design Museum - exhibs on Design in 20c Britain, up-n-coming designers and the guy who designed, amongst other things, the V&A symbol for the V&A Museum
LSO concert at the Barbican
Rochester Big'n'Tall - finally somewhere that i can walk into on my giant elephantitus feet confident that i shall not be laughed out when i ask for size 15 loafers.
Russian Winter Festival - a whisker underwhelming
Bloomberg Space - also...
Party in Earl's Court with the old manics crew from UWA
Estorick Collection - futurists, Morandi, exhib on war propaganda posters in Italy
Sotheby's - saw the art going on sale in the Impressionists and Modern Art auction last week, which collectively raised a cool £400m
Yum Cha in China Town - with the art club, always an interesting mix
Sir John Soane Museum - mummy caskets, Turner paintings, Soane's RA lecture architectural sketches - quite a combo
Partying in Shoreditch - it's the only place to do it you know dahling, Mayfair and Knightsbridge have become soooo predictable
Tate Modern - they're amping up for a monster Gilbert and George exhib which hadn't opened yet, but it's always nice to have tea on the terrace... the members terrace...

And that was that.

The Grand Northern Tour

Went up to Cumbria to visit Kieran and his family over New Years and having shelled out £78 for a train ticket to Penrith was determined to make the most of it. (Still) Up at the crack of the prepenultimate dawn of 2006, i jumped on the train to Birmingham. Went to the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery in search of Burne Jones and was suitably satisfied and impressed. Socks knocked more off though by the Barber Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Birmingham - it has a fabulously dense high quality collection - one of the best I've seen in England. Back on the train to Penrith, then picked up by Kieran's dad and on to Broughton via Cockermouth (the Wyalkatchem motto, "strange name, beaut place!", could probably be applied here). Authentic and tasty hotpot with black pudding for tea then out "for a couple of quiet ones" in Cockermouth that evening, a convivial ale with the owner of the pub turned into convivial shots of Sambuca with him and about eight other people he knew, and so on and so forth to the local nightclub... Come closing time, I had to find my own way home as Kieran had found his way to someone else's home.

After getting up the following day, we used the remaining 40 minutes of daylight to stroll about both the Little and the Great Broughtons. Saw some sheep and the river Derwent. Lakes District tourism next day: Keswick, Ambleside, Cumberland sausages, Jennings ales, Grasmere, Kendal mint cake, Windermere, Keswick slate, Lake District from Above, what more could ya want? My only retrospective disappointment is that we didn't make it to Egremont, home of the World Gurning Championships, but then again they're on at the Egremont Crab Fair in September - will def try to schedule next visit to coincide! NYE in Cockermouth - sauced - rockin! 200 tonnes of fun!

Went to Manchester to stay as, having been there previously, i kinda knew my way round ish already. Most of the city was pretty dead, being a Monday 1st Jan, so for dinner I set out on a pilgrimage to The Curry Mile of Rusholme in search of the best kebab I've had in the UK, as discovered by one G. Turner and I one Friday night in August 2005. Rusholme was pretty busy (in a strange echo of the bombscare incident of my last trip there, there were at least 30 police out) but, of the 50 or so kebab and curry joints open, none appeared exactly as I'd remembered. After a few moments of reflection on the futility of trying to recapture past experiences and solid interrogation of a spruiker about how they cook their bread, i settled for a double kobeda kebab at the West Bank. It was literally about 12 inches long, double-barrelled, liberally accessorised with olives, pickles, onion, chilli and garlic sauce, spicy, saucy, substantial. Past experience not recaptured (couldn't have honestly been without Grant there) but in many ways adequately substituted. And definitely worth walking 5 kilometres for.

Next day, cultural ambitions fully and heartily realised. Joe Colombo: Inventing the Future exhibition at the Manchester Art Gallery (exhib organised by Vitra Design Museum which i'd visited - on the outside at least - when in Basel), and checked out some of the PreRaph faves too. MetroLink out to Salford - it's a pretty groovy set-up out there - will be great when its grooviness spills sufficiently far east towards Castlefield and they can connect via some kind of a grooviness-rhizome - to The Lowry - Greater Manchester's own Guggenheim Bilbao and tribute to the great LS. Paintings very nice, some fab photos, interior design a little OTT. Back to Manc Picc then train to Liverpool. First stop, the Walker - by its own admission, the national gallery of the north. It is significantly bigger and its collection (certainly that on display) notably more prolific than those in Birmingham, Leeds, Nottingham and Manchester. I haven't been to the Laing or the Graves. In my geo-econo-politico-historico-cultural musings, I couldn't help wondering why that is the case. Is it a coincidental fact, down to the particular admirable actions of one Andrew Barclay Walker? Or is it symptomatic of some deeper industrial/economic/social/cultural forces in action? One possibility that sprang to mind is that Liverpool's prosperity predates that of Manchester and Leeds somewhat due to its position as a port (inasmuch it has arguably been open to outside influences). Moving into the Victorian era, the period during which civic pride and motivations for self-improvement collided and colluded to make the public museum a popular pastime for the bourgeoisie and mandatory accoutrement for every bourg, the scousers were probably better equipped than the mancs or geordies (leeds residents don't have an amusing slang name - seriously check the link: it's some vitriolic funny s--t - look up dff (a varitable plethora of definitions) and cock block for more guaranteed laughs - how far this cultural musation has slidden) to step up to the mark.

Right-o, where were we? Next stop the Open Eye Gallery (which is quite near where Kieran and I drank at least 10 "Seven Sins"-themed shots (envy was good if a little heavy on the chartreuse) EACH whilst conviving with some charming scousy popsies in matching white cowboy hats (not too many dffs iykwim;)) for a Phillipe Chancel exhibition DPRK - a series of fascinating photos from North Korea, one of which was in the Photographic Portrait Prize finalists at NPG. Then down to Albert Docks to the Tate: supercoolkitschy John Armleder installation, Patrick Caulfield, Lowry in Liverpool, Jake and Dinos Chapman: Bad Art for Bad People. The Chapman brothers are extremely clever: the contronting often physically revolting nature of their works made me realise for the first time that art doesn't have to be beautiful to be worthwhile. I hesitate to say good because as they saliently highlighted, with their sculptures of young children with erect phalluses instead of noses, art can't be judged as "good" or "bad", only as "oohgosharentwecleverweknowthatartdoesnthavetobebeautifulheresabigdickhahahaandanotheronecockscockscocksandnazishahaha" or "nodicksinvolvedwhatsoever". I feel genuinely enlightened, if a little jealous - they've earnt themselves more money, fame and alleged repute applying their obvious skills in draughtsmanship and devotion to craft to making cynical, often repulsive, crap than most of us will doing anything else, good, bad or otherwise. The Richard Serra's assistant skit in the rubber glove video was pretty funny though. "Considered as a whole the brothers' work appears to be concerned with what might be described as the redundancy of liberal humanist notions of the redemptive value of the work of art, as well as notions of transgression, which might, by virtue of its 'canonical' place in art theory, be considered equally redundant." I was forced to purchase an architecture tome at the bookshop to redeem and renew my view of creative contributions to the world and a 4pack of Caffreys at the Spar near the train station to redeem and renew my view of life.

Next am, first train to York. It was good. i walked along the wall, saw the castle, had a nice latte, art gallery (pre-e-etty regional, though an interesting exhibition on "conversation", i.e. genre, i.e., borgeouis nunciness, pieces), good lunch, expresso, town centre, minster, museum, stroll through town, went to evening prayer at the minster, more stroll, book, train home via Peterborough, it has a seriously amazingly cathedral (one can only only get so close at 8 o'clock at night - will have to check out again in daylight hours).

The North - done and dusted.

2006 Roundup

Well that's it for the year. In the spirit of rounding up, here are my pretentious lists for the year (they tend to be what sprang to mind, and in no particular order):

Art exhibitions (post 1900ish)
1. Modernism, V&A, London
2. Giacometti, AGNSW, Sydney
3. Dan Flavin, Hayward, London
4. Albers and Moholy-Nagy, Tate Modern, London
5. Derain: London Paintings, Courtald, London

Art exhibitions (pre 1900ish)
1. Gothic Nightmares, Tate Britain, London
2. Rodin, Royal Academy, London
3. Velazquez, National Gallery, London
4. Constable, Tate Britain, London
5. Goya Etchings, Museo des Bellas Artes, Vittoria

Art exhibitions (contemporary):
1. Venice Biennale
2. David Hockney, Nat Portrait Gallery, London
3. Summer Exhib, Royal Academy, London
4. Architecture at Night, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart
5. Salon de Refuses, SH Ervin Gallery, Sydney

Photography/film exhibitions
1. The Past from Above, British Museum, London
2. Lee Friedlander, Haus der Kunst, Munchen
3. Sam Taylor-Wood, MCA, Sydney
4. Piero Paolo Pasolini, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munchen
5. Photographic Portrait Prize, AGNSW, Sydney

Art exhibitions (overall/misc.)
1. Russia!, Guggenheim, Bilbao
2. Modernism, V&A, London
3. Self Portrait, AGNSW, Sydney
4. Kunst Lebt!, Kunsthalle, Stuttgart
5. Venice Biennale

Art museums visited (pre-1900 collections):
1. Villa Borghese, Roma
2. Uffizi, Firenze
3. Alte Pinakothek, Munchen
4. National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh
5. Lady Lever Gallery, Port Sunlight

Art museums visited (post-1900 collections):
1. Museum Ludwig, Koln
2. Guggenheim, Venezia
3. Neue Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart
4. Fondation Beyeler, Basel
5. Pinakothek der Moderne, Munchen

Museums visited (overall experience):
1. Guggenheim, Bilbao
2. Neue Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart
3. Burrell Collection, Glasgow
4. Tinguely Museum, Basel
5. Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munchen

Churches visited:
1. Hagia Sofia
2. Canterbury Cathedral
3. Cologne Cathedral
4. Blue Mosque, Istanbul
5. Durham Cathedral

Castles/stately homes visited:
1. Newstead Abbey, Nottinghamshire
2. Audley End, Essex
3. Kishiwada Castle, Japan
4. Leeds Castle, Kent
5. Castle Rising, Norfolk

Books read (non-fiction):
1. Felipe Fernandez Armesto: Millennium
2. Edmund White: The Farewell Symphony
3. Pin Yathay: Stay Alive, My Son
4. Niall Ferguson: The Cash Nexus
5. Jared Diamond: Guns, Germs and Steel

Books read (fiction):
1. Alan Hollinghurst: The Line of Beauty
2. Lionel Shriver: We need to talk about Kevin
3.
4. I need to read more novels.

Topics I've learnt the most about:
1. Project finance
2. Climate change
3. English history
4. Dynamic deformation of lattice structures
5. Hedge funds

It's been an interesting year, fair share of ups and downs; I'm looking forward to a bit more strategic/coherent direction in 2007.

Christmas

Disclaimer: Blogger is being slightly uncooperative with regards to the uploading of photos. Accordingly, I shall fill posts with descriptive prose until i've decided whether to adopt a better way of posting pix, move to MySpace or other course of action. More pix are posted on facebook if you're just dying for them.

That said, this year's Christmas celebrations did not yield as many classic snaps as last year so not so much to miss out on pictorially.

Went to London on the 23rd, had lunch with some Micromechanics friends, went to a photo exhibition "In the face of history" at my new favourite London multimedia arts venue The Barbican, did some last minute shopping on Chrissy eve then enjoyed roast pork and mulled wine at Tam and Ben's new Fulham multimedia arts venue The Harwood Arms, Xmas day biiiiig lunch (no turkey necks i'm afraid), rode bike via the City, Bankside, South Bank, Pimlico, Chelsea Embankment to Lavender Hill to see out remainder of Christmas with Kylie and Anthony, rode back on Boxing Day via [as above in reverse] except i went past Southwark Cathedral and across Tower Bridge, went to Photographic Portrait Prize at National Portrait Gallery and checked out rehung 19c paintings "Manet to Picasso" at National Gallery - very nicely set out downstairs in Sainsbury wing. Jumped back in the saddle unhindered by additional acquisitions of booksale booty, and rode at breakneck speed along Shaftesbury Ave, Bloomsbury St and Euston Rd all the way to King's X, then, without showing any sign of slowing let alone dismounting, rode right out along platform 8 through to platform 11b and onto the train where I was swiftly and conveniently brought to a halt by a strategically positioned drinks trolley.

Two London Weekends

Went to the Christmas party of the firm I'm joining in April which was a lovely affair - excellent to meet some more of my future colleagues in such convivial surrounds. Following day went to Wallace Collection, saw the exhibition of drawings from Versailles, then to Tate Mod for David Smith sculpture exhib.

Following day, MJ and I went with people from the London Art Club on a tour of several galleries in the East End. They were cool. The galleries, that is. The people were, on average, kinda cool - the organiser James is very cool plus he has a cool bike.

The first place we went to, the Three Dogs Lane gallery, was in an industrial estate, inside a great big rusty building. MJ and I were slightly late and, after receiving instructions by phone ("it's inside the industrial estate on three dogs lane, after that it's really hard to find, there are some arrows but it's really complicated, good luck"), we had to navigate through a series of staircases and corridors til we finally found the gallery. I was reminded of Lynn Barber's article in the observer about how much fun she had as a Turner Prize judge. Describing finding galleries:
"Many of them were shut; a lot were simply unfindable, even with a map. (It is part of the mystique of 'edgy' galleries to hide in warehouses and lock-ups with no visible means of ingress.)"
Molto authentico.

Checked out Vyner St, supposedly highest concentration of galleries in London. "Vyner Street in Hackney is supposed to contain a dozen galleries but even after a year I only found six."

We saw six without looking too hard so i don't know what she was on about. Quite a cool range of exhibitions: best one was pictures of monkeys.

Here's Vyner st on a slightly more appealing day. Pretty unassuming.

The next week we had a Micromechanics end-of-year dinner - not too Christmassy (i.e. at a curry house) but most enjoyable.

Back to London the next morning with the culture-vulture A-team. First stop British Museum.

Saw an exhibition "The Past from Above", spectacular aerial photographs by Georg Gerster of archaeological sites all around the world. Great to be able to see the photos of the sites then go downstairs and check out artifacts from many of them also.

Went to Somerset House to see Courtald Collection, then over to the East India Club to reminisce about the last days of the Raj, what what. Here the chaps assemble for a group portrait photogram - all boys, because girls aren't allowed - and rightly so.

Went to see The Mousetrap - longest running play in the West End (and holder of that title for some 35 years now). It's worth seeing for that reason, and not many others. The guy behind us snoring loudly in the first half evidently concurred. Concluded evening with trail of debauchery leading from Clapham Common to Hackney Town Hall via the Tower of London and St Katherine's docks.

Went to the Rodin exhibition at the Royal Academy, one of the best exhibitions i've been to this year - and quite a few real works of art ;) too, before heading home (via Sainsbury's in Angel as i'd left things a little late for the early-closing shops of rural Cambridge) to cook a dinner party: Thai crab and prawn salad, Moroccan lamb shanks with lemon, olives and couscous.