Weekend in London July 2016 - Artnight
Sometimes
it all just comes together and you think to yourself ;
“Yep, Im in
the right place , right time…”
Friday - The weekend started in the most unexpectedly haunting way. Going through Pimlico and over Vauxhall bridge, I saw two platoons of WW1 soldiers crossing the road. They were part of the Battle of the Somme commemorations, and I felt like I had witnessed ghosts from a 100 years ago, returned to the streets of London from which they had departed for France. They were immaculate, the uniforms were superb, the haircuts and mustaches were spot on, even the pipes they were smoking gave it all a ring of authenticity Ive not witnessed before. The vision stayed with me for days.
Friday - The weekend started in the most unexpectedly haunting way. Going through Pimlico and over Vauxhall bridge, I saw two platoons of WW1 soldiers crossing the road. They were part of the Battle of the Somme commemorations, and I felt like I had witnessed ghosts from a 100 years ago, returned to the streets of London from which they had departed for France. They were immaculate, the uniforms were superb, the haircuts and mustaches were spot on, even the pipes they were smoking gave it all a ring of authenticity Ive not witnessed before. The vision stayed with me for days.
Saturday - We were
walking down The Strand at about 10.45pm, rushing to get round as many events
as possible at the inaugural Art Night with the ICA. We started there on the
Mall, watched some tango on the steps outside , while people dressed as rabbits
wandered between the musicians and dancers-Brit artist Linder was paying homage to Jacques Demy's Donkey Skin apparently. The main draw
was Turner Prize winner Laure Prouvost event at Admiralty Arch, just round the corner. The
queue wasn’t too bad, but the ever helpful info guides told us it was fully
subscribed and we had little chance of gaining entry without a ticket.
“Ooooooohhhh
“ the crowd cried.
“Aaaaaaahhhh…”
then
“Ooooohhh”
but more high pitched, Italians were screaming in frustration….
I couldn’t stand
to watch the Germans win another penalty shoot out and plunged back into the
heaving mass of boiling humanity in the street. But the noise just went on and
on. The rest is history.
We got into
the incredible, semi-porno event at Two Temple Place by Alexandra Bachzetsis
entitled Gold. A woman dressed in gold acts out a strange series of porno moves
to a camera , positioned stage right. Then a screen is erected and we see what
was being filmed, accompanied by banging disco and techno beats. The sexual
lyrics..”The boys like my milkshake..”etc are written on bits of paper, which
she systematically shows to the camera and then screws up and flings away. The
whole thing was arresting, puzzling, and
im not sure how great it was as a piece of art. Yes women's bodies are
sexualised and objectified in rap and other pop music. Is this news ? Hmmm.
The great
thing about the event was it went on well into the next morning, some events
not ending til 2am. And they had manged to stage them in some fantastic
locations. We also popped into St Mary le Strand church, where a film of film
titles was being shown along with a soundtrack.
“Whats the
music ?” I asked the artist, Jennifer West .
“It’s from
Liquid Sky “ she said.
“OMG, I
remember that film…sort of sci fi female avenger living off mens orgasms?”
“Yes,
something like that…”
What a
great event, and I rediscovered a long forgotten low budget 80s classic. London
is where its at, sometimes.
