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05/16/2004: "Where It's At"

We spent Saturday once again consuming art in London, after previewing Egypt by looking at the "Cleopatra's Needle" obelisk stolen by England in the 19th century, now mounted along the Thames. First we saw the World Press Photo expo, a show of award-winning news photography. I especially liked the nature shots: a clean Icelandic salmon fishing pool vs. a dirty British Columbia salmon farm with a close-up of sea lice in a salmon eye; volcanoes in Kamchatka; an amazing storm photo of Chicago. There were many other pictures from Iraq and Liberia and elsewhere in the world as well, many featuring burn victims.

Then we went to the Saatchi gallery, which shows works from the artists who made news a few years ago with the "Sensations" exhibit in Brooklyn with the sheep in formaldehyde and the paintings featuring elephant dung. Besides these pieces, there were a few by Ron Mueck, who makes amazing polyester resin super-realistic reproductions of people at various scales, complete with individual arm and leg hairs and veins under the skin, and Duane Hansen, who had life-size reproductions of people who you would have initially thought were just visitors to the museum. One room featured 34 African tribal carvings, but when you look closely you see that they all have in them somewhere the golden arches, or a bag of french fries, the head of Ronald McDonald, etc.. Another room was simply three feet deep in engine oil, except for a little walled-off area you could walk into to see the reflections.

Then the "Time Out" magazine suggested there were a bunch of galleries at the Bethnal Green tube stop in the East End, so we went there. They were mostly OK, but one was exceptional. It consisted of three steel sculptures which looked completely random -- just lots of junk welded together, making no sense at all, except that a light was being projected on them from a specific direction, so that each one cast a completely non-random image on the wall. A friendly woman at the gallery from Finland told us that the street we were on, Vyner Street was "the center of art" in London, where all the best stuff was being produced.

Then we had dinner with Frank Colcord, who took us to an excellent pub/restaurant two blocks from his house in the middle of a residential neighborhood.

Today we walk around London some more, then head to Heathrow for the red-eye to Aleppo. There might not be as many Internet cafes in Syria and Jordan, so we may not post as often, but we will when we can.