Taylor Wessing Prize at the National Portrait Gallery

London has billions of museums, ok maybe not billions but it does have quite a few and they always seem to have amazing temporary exhibitions. Last Friday I wanted to do something more with my day and I decided to have a look at the Taylor Wessing Prize photographs at the National Portrait Gallery. All of the images are breath taking as well as thought provoking. Through the beautiful photographs you gain a tiny bit of insight into the people's lives, and the photographer as well. Some of the images can be scaring, but most of them just push you to try and understand the person in the image for a few minutes. 

Sadly it was really crowded when I went so I didn't get to enjoy it as much as I hoped. I would have loved to linger in front of every image at least twice. Once to soak in their story and the second to admire them. If I could see the show again I would probably go on a weekday morning where the number of people in the space is lower and it feels like it's just you and the person in the photograph. 

Overall, I loved it, I feel like it was the perfect way to end my week. The entrance to the show costs a mere £4 and you can probably stay in there and stare for hours. These portraits stood out to me so much that I didn't want to browse the rest of the gallery incase my memory started to lose the photos from the show. 

I'm very excited for their next temporary exhibition starting on the 6th of February, Bailey's Stardust. 

Here's the website for the National Portrait Gallery: http://www.npg.org.uk/

Red Hot Exhibition

A few weeks ago I went to see an exhibition at a gallery on Redchurch street. The exhibition is called RED HOT. After seeing a little blurb on Time Out about it, I decided to find out more. The artist (photographer) Thomas Knights noticed the common stigma in the UK of making fun of red heads, stereotypically known as "gingers", specifically the "ginger" male. Bullying towards red headed people is seen very often in British culture especially. As a girl with red hair, I felt like I had to go see the show for myself.

When walking in all the walls of the gallery were covered in photographs of these red headed men. Each image had a little quote next to it, explaining either a bullying experience they lived or a joke, or a statement of inspiration. While reading through these short reflective statements I started to realise that I had been bullied too. When I was 13 I was in the school play and an older student asked me (in a very arrogant tone) if I dyed my eyebrows, because my hair was red and my eyebrows were brown. At the time I didn't even think about the possibility of dying my eyebrows. But I think this experience then lead me to dye my hair black the following year. I think now is the time to say, my hair isn't flaming red, my Italian ID card says my hair is "auburn". And in the past few years it has been getting darker and darker because I don't have time to be outside much in summer. 

This exhibition however made me proud to be different, and it made me notice that having red hair is special. The show genuinely touched me, but I think anyone else could have enjoyed the show too. Hopefully it will become a well known exhibit and tour around the world with more and more images being added to the collection of photographs. 

Here's the show's website if you want to explore more of what I talked about: http://www.redhot100.com/

Elementree

My friend Charlotte with her class organized a catwalk show displaying key pieces from the first year of their degree. The group of students study Jewelry and Silversmithing in the Artistic department of London Metropolitan University. The show was put on at Islington Metal Works, a sort of bar/warehouse near Angel tube station. Tickets were 5 pounds, and there were people queuing outside when I arrived. Everyone was given a souvenir ticket, which had the show's logo on it "Elementree" where the "t" was an image of a tree which Charlotte had drawn.

The show was in one room, and the bar was in another, where the work shown would later be displayed for a closer look. There were 3 black podiums for the models wearing the clothes to stand on, and several white benches facing them. Both rooms were decorated with many strings of fairy lights, creating a warm and welcoming feeling when walking into the rooms. 

The show opened with a woman doing the trapeze and then switched into different music as the first few models walked out. I loved seeing each piece on a person, because often it is hard to see where the artist would place the object they created. These are some of the pieces I liked the most.

Overall, I had a really great evening, it was nice to talk to people who created an event, because its linked to my future career. And it was nice to be surrounded by people who have visions and think through visual things. I genuinely miss that. I wish I was invited to more events like these. 

Here's the website for the show: http://elementree.info/

Lichtenstein

On Tuesday the 16th I went to the Tate modern to see Lichtenstein's work. I really enjoyed it. I played a game with myself to see where there were flaws in his patterns and designs. It was nice that they divided the rooms by the different movements in his work. 

There was a room for landscapes and another on "art about art" which had pieces done in styles similar to other artists of his time. The exhibition took about an hour and a half to walk through. Some of the rooms were too small to see the works well especially because his pieces are all extremely large, so I didn't get to feel the full power of many of the pieces. 

His style was very repetitive and after seeing a few displays the interest of the viewer was a bit lost. I think his work would be shown well integrated with other artists of his time. The exhibit costs 12.20 pounds for students and about 15 for others. I don't know yet if I want to become a Tate member or not.

Below there's a picture of me with pop art make-up on based on Roy Lichtenstein's work.

David Bowie Is...

On Tuesday I went to the Victoria and Albert museum to see the new David Bowie exhibit. It was really interesting, the displays were somewhat interactive and some of the displays had screens that changed over time.

The exhibition was sponsored by Gucci and Sennheiser. Sennheiser supplied audio devices for each visitor, the music or audio track would change depending on where you were standing in the gallery and which display you were looking at. Some of the tracks were just David Bowie's songs whereas others has clips of him speaking at interviews.

The collaboration with Gucci allowed there to be several displays showing the clothes he wore on stage when being his different alter egos. There were clothes from each of his tours. The Alexander McQueen union jack coat and the first outfits he wore as Major Tom, and Aladdin Sane. Each of Bowie's characters showed a different part of who he was and is. My favourite segment of the exhibit was the explanation Bowie gave on why he made an album in Berlin and what Berlin meant to him. He focused on the fact that Berlin made him lose himself and find himself at the same time. Having been to Berlin before I understood what he meant, especially because of all the historical context in the city.

I really recommend you go see it. It does cost 9 pounds for students and 14 for people without a student card but its worth it. He was just such an influential person, especially in the fashion and music world, it would be a shame to miss out.