London Trip

This was a pretty amazing day, putting aside the drizzle at night, the soaking just before leaving London and the horrible humidity inside the bus while wearing drenched clothes on the journey back (oh, and getting wedged in-between an underground train's door). The highlight was...well there were quite a few things I really enjoyed that day. Let's just start from the beginning. After arriving at Russell Square, we all set off to look for certain galleries that may be of interest. The group split up when the Muji lovers realised it was time to spend a lot of their student loan on amazing japanese goodies. I, unfortunately was one of those poor souls; having said that, I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Alex seemed to be having trouble deciding whether or not he wanted to buy a watch from the shop, and only after we left and taken the tube to the opposite part of London did he realise that he regretted not buying his beloved watch. So, the day turned into a mission to look for Alex's long lost love. We ended up trekking it to 4 different Muji's (I must say, that are is only 9 Muji's in London, and we went to 4! 4!!!).

Of course, we didn't just spend our day looking for existing Muji's in the capital. We did do some productive art student things. For example, we visited the Royal Academy of Art. On the day, there was an exhibition called 'Wild Things' by Epstein, Gaudier-Brzeska and Gill, which showed a number of sculptures and drawings which somewhat reminded me of the Star Wars Droids. Most of the sculptures had a sexual fantasy about them whilst others put a contemporary spin on traditional sculpturing. This exhibition had a sense of historical meaning and took us back to 19th century art.

We next visited another exhibition at the same gallery which had a huge contrast with Wild Things. It was Anish Kapoor's show and it was amazing. I must say, I found his work much more captivating. I think this was because it was an exhibition which got the public to participate in it. Like in one room, there were these huge mirrors, which were all different from each other. The idea was for the viewer walk up to it and see their reflection in different ways. There were installations in the walls, on the walls, around the walls, anything you can think of. It was such a visually interesting series of work, I was very much inspired and in awe of how Kapoor manages to capture the public's attention.

After lunch at Wasabi, we walked around a bit to see London's christmas lights (insert searching for Alex's Muji watch here). We then stumbled across the London Graphic Shop which was packed with hundreds and thousands of art materials one could only dream of having. I managed to gather up a few pennies to buy a couple of Letraset...sets. I guess I shouldn't have spent so much in the first Muji store we came across...We then took a trip to Carnaby Street to look at the shop displays. (insert searching for Alex's Muji watch here) These were surprisingly interesting and there were a large variety of styles and compositions in each window.

We took a quick trip to John Lewis which had amazing christmas decorations. Trying not to get too side-tracked by the amazing shiny, bright lights, we travelled back towards Russell Square for Paula Scher's lecture. This was amazing, which was again, surprising. I thought it was going to be another one of those boring lectures you get from an artist, but she was truly inspiring and light-hearted.

Things she's done, and tips to take in:

1) Blowing up size of objects to fit with the theme.

2) Taking newspaper headlines and filling up a calendar- how information can become art.

3) Typography and architecture regeneration.

4) Use of typography on different planes to create interest and 3D image.

5) Drawing something from memory- her maps of America.

A few photos including Anish Kapoor's sculpture, installations, a few shop window displays and inside John Lewis: