Parking

Today was an event I helped organize called Parking.

Here is the description from our materials: a temporary, autonomous project in a London park organized by MA Fine Art students at Chelsea College of Art and Design. Artists were invited to do projects that consider the context, address the public as audience, and respect the park. People did all sorts of things from performances, to installation, to events. We created a map for the event:


It is the 20th anniversary of my Dad's death so I wanted to do something around that, sort of a memorial/ritual of sorts that wasn't too sad. So I decided on....Bagels! A Sunday tradition in most Jewish homes, or just Long Island homes for that matter. Instead of just handing out bagels you had to give me a stone for a bagel and add it to a pile of stones.









Explanation:
Stones: Jews don't bring flowers to graves, they bring stones, which symbolize eternal life (they don't die like flowers and are "circular" like the life cycle. Also, grave stones were not always used, sometimes a pile of stones is/was used to mark graves.

Bagels: Trading a bagel for a stone is remembering but also celebrating, to me. True we eat when mourning (Jews eat on all occasions!) but it had more of a picnic feel than a mourning ritual. Also, Bagels remind me of Sundays growing up and they are round, like stones. Lastly, I wanted something to be ingested during it. I have been reading some psychoanalytic theory that prompted this idea. Basically it is said that a person in mourning suffering from 'object' loss can suffer from "melancholic cannibalism" in which the person has fantasies of eating the object (object = other) that was lost because it is better to destroy, digest, eat, than lose the person. A bit dark, I know, but I bet you're not surprised.

Newspaper: My Dad read the newspaper on Sundays and it is also a favorite thing of mine to do: sit around on Sunday and read the paper and chat about it. I couldn't get a New YorK Times in paper form on a Sunday (apparently you can get it on Mondays, naturally) so the observer had to do (thanks Rebecka).
Rebecka making a face due to something she read:



Since it was my first time doing something like this I think I was a little shy about it. I didn't really want to include strangers, which was my original thought. Lots of people passed by, dogs tried to eat the bagels and take the stones, even a kid tried to play with the stones and Rebecka accidentally gasped at him. HIlarious. Also, it was cold out and not picnic weather, as you can see from the dark pictures. In my mind the rocks were bigger and the food spread was more elaborate but in reality it was a little make shift. It worked out nicely, my friends were there and then we went for an alcoholic ginger beer and baked camembert. So overall a good day.

Hampstead Heath, my new favorite place in London:

It was the WURST trip ever.

By wurst, I mean best.

The German words that got me through the trip:
Wurst: Sausage
Kunst: Art
Bitte: Please
Danke: Thanks.
Weisswien: White wine.

I just got back from a great 5 or so days in Berlin. A big group of us from school all went to Germany for a gallery weekend taking place in Berlin from Friday to Monday. There were a lot of openings and galleries stayed open on Sunday and Monday. It was mainly an art based trip but you can't avoid history in Berlin, which makes it a charged and really interesting and exciting place.

We spent Friday wandering from opening to opening, drinking beer, chatting, and marveling at the great gallery spaces and cycle lanes on the sidewalks.



Saturday we walked all over and went to around 100000 galleries. Sat in an amazing garden restaurant for lunch.



Sunday Nat, Mark, Carla and I rented bikes for the day and set out to see some Berlin sites- Holocaust Memorial, The Reichstag, etc. The Holocaust Memorial was a highlight (below). As was Natalie on her bike (she was a bit apprehensive since it had been a while and may have crashed into a man within five minutes. That was the only incident :)





Reichstag:


Wiessbiers by the river Spree:




Monday we were on a museum mission and on foot due to rainy weather. Happy couple:



We saw Frida Kahlo and Olifar Eliasson exhibits (both were excellent), had bratwurst and pommes "rot-weiss" (red and white: fries with ketchup and mayo) for lunch, then went to the Guggenheim to see Wangetchi Mutu, down the road to another show, then to the Jewish Museum. It was a long but great day. Natalie and Mark set off to have dinner and Carla and I napped. Our last night in Berlin was a literal snoozefest! But for a good reason at least. Maybe it was the nitrates.



Tuesday was our last day. Natalie and Mark had earlier flights so after a long walk in the park (Tiergarten) we said goodbye and Carla and I headed a little outside the center of the city to see another memorial. It was a former train track were 50,000 Jews were shipped off to concentration camps from. It is small and quiet but worth the trip. The edges have the dates and places that the train went, along with the number of people it carried.



We cheered up with a pint at a local beer garden afterwards. And a last wurst for the road at Curry 36, apparently a Berliner institution. So I only had two official wursts but enough meat to last my pseudo-vegetarianism for quite a while! It was wurst every bite. Okay, no more wurst jokes, I promise.

Plus 5 for Chelsea's Photo Department

Reality Check or Reality Bites or Living on a Prayer.

Instead of writing about my interm show (translation: the show you do half way through your course), I thought this would be a good time to do an interm blog entry. It has been about 6 months since I left New York, ie I am half way through my course. Reality does bite a little bit in some ways (doesn't it always?), but other things besides school are better then they were. For instance, as much as working is not that fun, I have an income. Woohoo! Plus 5

I am appreciating London more. The weather is getting warmer, the sun is out once in a while, and the markets are amazing. Seeing and experiencing more of the city with visitors was a plus. It does have a lot to offer (Plus 10) it is just harder to find (literally- have you looked at a map of London lately? Its like someone drew some lines on paper then put it in a blender and based the streets on the result). Minus 5


I miss New York, obviously, but less often and less badly than I did. Plus just 1 because New York is the best. I don't miss people any less though, that hasn't changed, I am just more used to it.

I have friends here now that I would miss as well, which is a nice feeling. Plus 25
I do spend more time alone here than I did at home and have gotten better at it. Everyone in London is more spread out, so even when you have friends, they may be far away (you think Brooklyn to Manhattan is far, try Hackney to Brixton on a weekend evening. 2 hours). Minus 10

As for school, that is the downer. While after the break things were busier, my program still proves to be pretty lacking in many respects. There is not enough support and no one ever has much of a clue what is going on. I have a draft of my thesis due in a couple of weeks that I have basically spoken to no one about because there is no one to talk to. I could go on and on but I won't. At a recent meeting with external examiners of our course it came out that we all feel the same way, so 1. I am not crazy and 2. We are more motivated to help each other. Plus 5 for now because we have to follow through on using each other more.

I am also still pretty blocked with my work, though am back to painting, which still feels like the right move (medium: CHECK, content: working on it). I just started seeing a counselor to discuss the emotional block who said "I feel like if your course was better you wouldn't need me." Um yeah. Plus 10 for Jane!

Here is the first painting I did here, being coupled with my sofa. It was the most literal interpretation of trauma I could think of- see blog entry art update.


My current assignment is to make one masterpiece. Wish me luck.

With interm show over and visitors gone it is time to get focused. Onward and upward!

For shits and giggles

me: is there a UK version of zappos?
Lee: yes
in your dreams

After 5 markets, 4 visitors, 3 high teas, 2 fish and chips, and 1 Sunday Roast..

My butt has seen better days.

BUT, it has been a great 2 and a half weeks! We went to see a play (War Horse), movie (Alice in Wonderland), to museums (Tate) and galleries (Saatchi and Gagosian), had French, Spanish, English, Indian, and Thai food, went to Hyde Park, and to Borough, broadway, Spitalfields, Brick lane, and Portobello road markets, to name a few things. It was great to have old friends here and show them my life and introduce them to new friends. Plus they brought goodies from home like rice crackers (Jason, save it), Luna bars, blue painters tape, and stila eye liner!

Did I mention we also had our Interm show at school? I am not sure if I have to energy to write about it yet, but I will.

Highlights:
We were sober.
I think I was trying to show that by pointing out that my eyes were open.

Day trip to Canturbery with Crispy Creme:


Christie and I at Portobello on a sunny day (the past two weeks have been horrible weather-wise: surprise!)


Jaime, Camilla, and I went to Borough Market and the Tate Modern:


Abby and I gearing up for Alice in Wonderland in 3D with popcorn for dinner. You can, um, see the reflection in my glasses!

Brunch is not big here.

But Sunday Roasts are. Sunday Roast has some similarities to brunch: it is a long Sunday meal, often including alcohol. However, it is usually later in the day (you wouldn't want beef and potatoes cooked in duck fat first thing would you?) and clearly the food choices are different. It is all savory and no eggs. There are variations (pork roast, nut roast for veggies) and also other things on the menu like risotto. Another big difference is that Sunday roast is more family oriented than brunch. You go to the pub with the kids, and they relax along with the adults and their pints. Its quite nice.

The traditional roast, featured above, is beef, potatoes cooked in fat, yorkshire pudding (a popover like bread), and gravy as far as I am concerned. Bacchus, where Abby, Sean, and I went right around the corner, also added broccoli and a roasted vegetable mash. It was delicious.