Archive for October, 2008

It’s amazing – and unfortunate – that it doesn’t happen more often that when traveling on business I have the opportunity to meet up with friends and colleagues beyond those directly related to the business at hand.  This week in London to visit Justgiving Towers, I made time to have a pint with M, who is now part of DMG, although he’s not the M.  Nor the one from the Bond movies, for that matter.  We visited the Perseverance in Lamb’s Conduit street, a name I never get tired of saying and typing.  And then we got hailed on which ruined my Diwali plans for sinus-clearing curry in Brick Lane.

I had a second chance at curry when La Doctorante – in UK for some study and excavation – agreed to meet up for Indian food.  We went to M’s recommendation, Cafe Spice Namaste, near the Tower Bridge.

It was definitely a departure from the Indian food I’m accustomed to in the USA, apparently featuring several regional styles and Parsee food, too.  One of the dividends of colonialism, I suppose.   We had Tarkari No Patio, a Parsee vegetable dish with pumpkin and red masala, and Bamboo Shoot, Enoki Mushroom & Chickpea Xacutti, a Goan dish that’s traditionally prepared at monsoon season.  A nice Viognier and some roti and chili cheese garlic naan rounded out the meal.  The dishes were not terribly photogenic, but were very tasty.  The Xacutti was labeled as spicy, but it seemed to us that the Tarkari was the one with sinus-clearing power.

Walking back to the tube, we spied a chunk of the old Roman wall of Londinium near the comparatively modern Tower of London, and I almost broke an ankle tripping on the rim of a giant sundial.  Oops.

In any case, keep me posted on your travel plans.  Especially if you have a good expense account.  You never know when and where we might coincide. If you’re a social media fancypants, you might use Dopplr for this. I don’t often remember to update my profile, but it’s worth a shot.

With this weekend’s Photographic Resource Center auction, my personal photo auction season ended, not a moment too soon for the budget.  As I had suspected, the season’s poor economic outlook was in evidence at both Woodstock and Boston events.   Bidding was a little hesitant, and although it only takes two bidders to make an auction, some bargains were definitely available.  Both events were no less fun and exciting, and I got to meet or catch up with many artists and collectors.

Usually I gravitate towards black and white photographs that have some abstraction or obscurity to them, some mystery added by the photographic process and not explained by a simple recording of the scene.  This time I found something completely different, Chromosomes, a digital C-Print by Kevin Van Aelst.

I don’t often go for the conceptual.  After all, once the idea is stated, who really needs the work?  OK, chromosomes look like gummy worms or vice versa.  Now what?  But there’s something about this piece that really makes me happy.  I’ve been assured that Van Aelst is a rising star but I wouldn’t have bought it just for speculation.  Maybe its the intersection of food, photo and science.  See more of Van Aelst’s work on his website.

In not totally unrelated news, a friend brought this to my attention a while ago: a company in England is offering prints made from a cheek swab of your very own DNA.  Clever, and rather attractive in an abstract way.

You send in a swab and then choose a variety of color and style options and get your print in the mail.  Perhaps demand for DNA was slow or the public’s tolerance for swabbing was low, as they also offer somewhat less invasive lip and finger prints.  I wonder what other body parts or chemicals could be turned into artwork?

I visited the hip South of Washington Street (SoWa) arts district Accompanied by some good people from the DeCordova and gallery buddy L for the YMOD gallery walk.  There was a similar event on Newbury Street in the Spring.

We began at the 450 Harrison at Thayer Street complex with Gallery Kayafas, Bromfield Gallery, Kingston Gallery, OHT Gallery, Samson Projects, Soprafina Gallery and Steven Zevitas Gallery.  The Thayer Street alley itself was decorated with some timely guerrilla art.

Nearby were also the Laconia Gallery and Boston Sculptors Gallery, and the crew wound up the evening at Rocca for some snacks and drinks.

It would take several posts to describe everything I saw, but I’ll devote some extra space to the work on view at Gallery Kayfas because Arlette and Gus were such gracious hosts.  Kayafas has just moved upstairs from their prior location and approximately doubled their exhibition space.  They have three shows running now: Robert Knight, Bruce Myren, and “Ahh, Italy,” a group show of images of Bella Italia.

Knight, whose current body of work, “My Boat is So Small” investigates the spaces we inhabit and the stuff we keep there, was good enough to give a brief gallery talk and answer some questions.  He photographs people’s homes and is always looking for subjects, so get in touch.

Bruce Myren showed a completely new body of work, The View Home, as well as a trio of tripychs from his markers series.  The View Home shows each of Myren’s residences photographed at an angle directed at his current home, along with the duration of his habitation and the bearing and distance.

In the interest of disclosure, you should know that Bruce is a friend of mine and my tonsorial inspiration.  He also has an upcoming solo show at the Danforth Museum in Framingham where you can see his Markers:Memory work.

The small show of photos of Italy included classic images by Mario Giacamelli, a set of 1891 photogravures of Venice, and more contemporary work from the likes of Nick Nixon and Eric Lewandowski.

Also of note, Rose Olsen’s subtle translucent geometries on wood panels called Just Colors No Curves at Kingston, and Randy Garber’s What You Already Know – prints with intricate verbal and typographic themes – at Bromfield.

We ended the evening with drinks and appetizers at Rocca, a stylish italian place next to the galleries.  Despite a minor mixup on what was vegetarian and what was not, we filled up on tasty finger foods in the engaging company of the other gallery walkers.  Plus, I must give kudos to the alert valet who recognized me coming out of the restaurant and fetched my car without even asking for the ticket.  Wow.

The folks who think the bible is a fairy tale have come up with their own stranger than fiction scenario.  The British Humanist Association has raised over 100,000 pounds (far in excess of their original goal of 5,500) to fund something called the Atheist Bus Campaign which will buy ad space on London buses proclaiming,

Ok, disclaimer and attempt at flame prevention time.  This is an incredible feat of online fundraising.  The comments and discussion generated are pretty entertaining.  Props to the humanists and atheists for asserting themselves in the marketplace of ideas.  It’s their money, they can do what they want with it.

So…  what in the holy name of Richard Dawkins are they thinking?  If you had a $200,000 media budget (or even $20,000) to get your ideas out there, would you spend it on bus ads?   For people claiming the high ground of logic, reason and science, these atheists are putting a lot of faith in some of the least effective and most unquantifiable of marketing methods and a self-congratulatory message that’s hardly going to win anybody over.

I know lots of smart marketeers read limeduck. What would you do with a wad of cash to promote atheism?  Viral social media campaigns?  Street teams?  Direct mail?  I’m off to London next week and maybe I’ll catch one of these buses and get some good ideas.

Mysterious marks on a red line seat cushion.

A new form of tagging?  A Rosetta Seat?  Bad upholstery adhesive?