Spent the morning
with the group for a visit to meet with five artists at
Cockpit Arts. Cockpit is a large warehouse filled with
small studios that are rented to 160 artists for what sounded like very
competitive rates. It is run as a private
not-for-profit and the two women who met with us first were responsible for
fundraising and marketing respectively.
Artists of any age can apply for studio space and they can keep it as
long as they'd like. For example Jane
Adam, who's a well known jewelry designer (her work is now in the contemporary
jewelry collection of the V&A), has had a studio there for years. We split into two groups and my group met
first with a charming woman who makes leather jewelry (I bought a necklace and
bracelet) named
Tania Clarkehall, then with clothing designer Justin Oh formerly of Yoji
Yamamoto. Upstairs we met a jewelry
designer, weaver and - I know this will sound terrible but it wasn't - a woman
who makes birds of different fabrics.
Actually the birds and the artist were incredibly charming. I inquired about a hummingbird but at a cost
of 200 pounds I demurred.
After
lunch in the neighborhood the group headed off to visit an antique textile
dealer. Neither Ferris nor I were
feeling terribly great so we opted out.
But on our way to the tube stop I suggested we try to find a gallery
Ferris wanted to go to that's in the northeastern part of London. We didn't know exactly where it was and I
wasn't eager to try to find it tomorrow when the forecast is for rain. Today's weather is perfect - gorgeous, sunny and mild - so I don't mind getting a little lost.
As it turns out we had little difficultly finding the gallery Rivington
Place. The very modern building looks
like it's dissolving into little cubes that are flying away. The
architect of the building is hot young British designer David Adjaye (who by the
way, designed the interior for our most recent SITE Santa Fe Biennial). We saw a very interesting exhibition called
Entanglement: The Ambivalence of
Identity. Then we added one more stop than
we probably should have at White Cube gallery on Hoxton Square to see Elad
Lassry's newest photographs and sculptures.
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| Rivington Place |
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| White Cube Gallery |
By the
time we got back to the hotel we were exhausted. Slept for an hour then rushed out the door
for an even more rushed dinner at delicious
Moti Mahal which is half a block
from the Drury Lane theater where we saw War Horse at 7:30.
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