London Town pt 2!

Our third and last day in London saw us exploring Eataly, where I wanted to eat  everything and got excited over getting the last two bottles of Mole Cola. As I munched away on my tomato focaccia we made our way to Spitalfields Market, where I enjoyed some
yakatori for breakfast and picked up a porchetta roll for dinner (which was enjoyed on the steps of Saint Paul’s). Our next stop was Brick Lane for some frankincense, I totally fell in love with this district, it still holds all the charms that you could once find in Carnabury St and Soho before they were taken over by developers and gentrified. I would recommend on visiting this area on a weekend by passing Spitalfields and instead heading to a wee indoor market where the food stalls will have you salivating and struck with indecision over what you’ll eat first. Head down stairs to discover the Aladdin’s cave of retro clothing stalls and, best of all, a record stall (my purchase was Jayne’s Addiction). This area is full of retro shops and appears to be quite creative. If you love graffiti then this area is a sweet shop for the eyes. Unfortunately the bagel shop had a huge queue so I didn’t make a stop, which I later regretted.

We then hopped on a bus heading to Saint Pauls, to walk across Millennium Bridge and back into the Tate to see Capturing The Moment. Highlights in this exhibition was Miriam Cahn, Das Shöne Blau, this painting was calming in appearance but closer inspection was very harrowing, as you realise it’s two migrants drowning. The way that the bodies are elongated and appear to merge with the water has a haunting appearance. Another artist and painting that I found captivating was Jana Euler, the painting was one of nine paintings in their ‘Great White Fear series’. This is a very realistic painting and from a distance I thought it was a photograph. I loved standing in front of this painting studying the technique used and gained some ideas for my own artworks. Afterwards I headed to the shop in the hope I could find some relevant books for art history, receiving so excellent help from a member of staff and recommendations I purchased two books. The first being “I Was Raised On The Internet” ISBN: 978 3 7913 5802 4, I haven’t read this one yet but looked like it might be relevant. The second book is “Goodbye, World! Looking at Art in the Digital Age” by Omar Kholeif, ISBN: 978 3 95679 309 7, so far I have read the chapter “Looking at Art after the Internet”. I have found this chapter interesting, especially where the author discusses intellectual property, copyright, and appropriation by others using social media and the internet. After the Tate it was then time to collect our bags and head home to rest.