Firstly, belated birthday wishes to my blog which was a year old on August 9th 2013. I had been meaning to post a birthday blog, however, sometimes living life is just as important as writing about it.
Today, I had an amazing day out visiting the Saatchi Gallery in London. I have been meaning to go there for a while now and today I finally made it, perfect really seeing as they currently have a Paper Exhibition running until the end of September. The Saatchi Gallery is such a light, airy and relaxing space, allowing you to get up close to the art displayed in its spacious surroundings – it even allows you to photograph the art (something that I always feel slightly guilty doing – however not guilty enough not to do it today!)
I walked into an exhibition of my dreams and there was much more to see than I had first thought. My favourites were Dominic McGill’s Muqaddimah (2009-10) created using graphite on paper:
as well as Yuken Teruya’s paper trees hand cut from paper shopping bags. They are amazing and right up my street!
These mind-blowing creations are displayed at ninety-degree angles, becoming peep holes for one viewer at a time. I could have spent all day just looking at these.
There were also some odd looking creations (no surprises there really!) In the words of my hubby, ‘It’s something children could create at school, just on a larger scale.’ (And in this case, I’d have to agree with him.)
After looking at the other two exhibitions, ‘New Order: British Art Today’ (which wasn’t really up my street) and ‘Red Never Follows’ (HUGO’s twentieth anniversary – yep you’ve guessed it, reflecting the HUGO BOSS brand, which had some interesting installations), we popped into the gift shop, where I had a good root around before picking up a souvenir mug (I know the kid is still in me) and a couple of brightly coloured postcards.
Hubby and I then stopped off at Patisserie Valerie in Duke of York Square to enjoy some brunch. I have to admit my poached eggs on toast were displayed in an interesting way that would not have looked out of place as an installation at the Saatchi Gallery:
Is it just me, or are you thinking the same thing…?
We then had a mooch in the square and stumbled upon the Mary Quant London Shop, which immediately reminded me of my Mum, who has still got a Mary Quant cosmetic set from the sixties on her dressing-table! I popped in for a browse and have to say that I saw some reasonably priced cosmetics and fashion accessories. It’s worth a stop off if you happen to be in the area. I did purchase some brightly coloured nail varnish for myself (and for someone else who I cannot yet name!) which was exquisitely wrapped by the friendly sales assistant.
All in all a wonderful day spent being a culture (whoops, I mean ‘paper’) vulture.
The Crafty Juggler 