Well, last Friday mamma, myself and Kezia all went on the ole trains to the Royal Academy of Art to see the Anish Kapoor exhibition.
The train journey was a little bit fraught, thanks mainly to the train strikes. The train we were on had to stop and turf us all out at Kentish Town due to an electrical fault, so we had to dash kezia out onto Kentish Town platform in the rain and make a run for the small bit of cover that is provided ... and then mash ourselves onto the next train with everyone else. The person on the tannoy system did say "If you see anything unusual, please report it to the station manager" and just as she finished saying it we saw a train driver walk next to our broken and stationary train. We did consider reporting this as our "unusual" sighting, what with most of them probably being sat on their backsides at home watching Trisha but thought both the flippancy and irony would probably be lost on most first counties train staff.
Anyway, once we had negotiated the upper levels of train journey we then had to do the underground. This part of the journey was actually pretty good - the only downside being the rather slippy tiled circular staircase that is at the exit/entrance to Picadilly Circus tube. We burst out of the underground and back onto the main streets of London like a pair of banshees - mum demonstrating some masterful moves with the pushchair (have you ever seen anyone nearly go backwards up an escalator on her bum whilst frantically grabbing at the handles of a Quinny?!) and both Kez and I were all hot and bothered in our sling!
Having got this far with the cunning use of the London Underground map we suddenly found ouselves in the unknown. Getting to Picadilly Circus was one thing, finding where the academy was turned out to be something else altogether! We got directions from a lovely young man who was giving away the Evening Standard and set merrily off, enjoying the crisp autumn air and the feeling of London near Christmas time. We crossed the road as dear mamma was certain that a church she could see was right next to the academy - if by "right next to it" she meant about a minute's walk further down and on the other side of the road, then she was spot on!
When we (f
inally) arrived at the academy we were greeted with our fi
rst Anish Kapoor sculpture. Metallic balls all placed one on top of another so that they look like they are suspended from the sky downwards. Simply stunning. And rather breathtaking when it's the first thing you see.After walking round this and appreciating the beautiful architecture that is the Academy of Art, we poddled our way into the gallery itself. Cue 30 mins later (loo stops required for the entire party) we emerged victorious and entered the exhibition. And it was lovely. Anish Kapoor at his finest. Now, if you don't like Anish's work (oh yes, first name terms now!) then the exhibition probably wouldn't have floated your boat, but mum and I loved it. He had pieces there that were all about pigments - in really solid reds, yellows and blacks - there were pieces of sculpture that were mirror based; there was an entire room of mounds of kind of clay worms in grey, black and red clay; there was a piece that was like a giant curled up worm with a glittery red end that was rather like a mouth; a beautiful piece of metalwork that took up an entire room in the gallery and then his new pieces - all to do with red wax ...
Now, no wonder people made such a fuss about the fact that Anish had been given the entire Academy to present his work in - the only artist in living history to be granted this honour. They are going to have to do some serious redecorating following his wax pieces. One of the pieces was an enormous canon that every 25 mins fires a large cylinder of wax through a doorway and onto the wall behind, so that it leaves a splash of red wax on the wall and the cylinder falls to the floor in pieces, some of the quite large and these pieces are slowly creating a mound in front of and in the doorway. The bangs of the canon firing were really loud and did make Kezia cry the first time she heard it! But good old Kez doesn't stay fazed for long and soon the mini crisis was over before it had really begun!
The other piece of wax art is a very large block of wax as tall as the rooms which is set on rails and it slowly moves through three gallerys, pushing its way through the doorways and leaving wax splashes and smears as it does so, because the wax is slightly too large for the doorways so it is moudling itself to its surroundings. This piece is so large that it actually prevents access to the three galleries that it is in, but you can view it all the time from it's surrounding galleries and if you watch the coving you can just about see the block move. It takes approx 90 mins for the piece of wax to complete one journey from one end to the other.
So essentially these two pieces of art are always evolving - this week they will both look different to how they looked when we saw them, although the mechanics surrounding them remain the same.
So, with all the excitement of the art exhibition to talk about and some goodies bought from the gift shop the three of us had a traditional afternoon tea in the restaurant and it was seriously yummy!
And before we went home, as we were passing it on the way to the tube station, we had to have a brief sojourn into Fortnum and Mason - oh yes darlings! Actually, it is full of what looks like really awful tat! chuck
le. But it all costs a small fortune. More gilt rubbish than you could shake the Queen at! They did have some nice Crimbo decs up, and the windows outside were all done in the theme of Swan Lake. Put us right in the festive mood!On the way back home we caught up with the boy, who had the good news that he had work secured for December so we all had a cuppa coffee whilst we waited for the train and felt rather pooped but happy when we all arrived back home that night!
Needless to say we spent the weekend just pootling round the house and getting some of our energy back again. :D
So next weekend it's a girly catch up during the day for Emma with her old friends from Sixth Form, and on the Sunday it's back to London again to take Kezia round the Rainbow Warrior - get in!
