blog d'europe

Friday, April 1, 2011

camden markets

my friend from back home, harriet, has been down in london with me for the past few days, and naturally one of the first places on our itinerary was.....

camden! camden! camden! crazy, huge, incredibly fun open-air & indoor markets in london. it's been here since the early 1970's and the stalls stretch right across camden lock village, camden lock market and camden stables market...so it's quite easy to get lost. hattie and i started weaving our way through camden stables market, unable to resist stopping every few seconds to have a poke around the different stalls.

it's true what they say - you can quite honestly find anything your heart desires here in camden.

as many of my friends will tell you, i have a weak spot for jewellery - rings, bracelets, necklaces, the whole lot. i spotted a silver ring with a deep indigo stone embedded in it, and it took all my willpower to put it back down.

aside from jewellery, there are also a heap of stalls & shops selling vintage and retro clothing, antiques, fabrics, music, organic food, art, and novel household things...as well as everything else under the sun. we came across melted beer bottles transformed into clocks, or else reshaped into glasses...dreamcatchers of all shapes, patterns & sizes...artists in the process of making ink prints...old lp's turned into clocks... the list goes on.

after several hours of wandering (and, yes... spending), hat and i made a bee-line for a cute pizzeria. we ultimately decided on a delicious parmesan, rocket & cherry tomato pizza. it was so good that we had no choice but to get another...

moving back through camden lock village, we passed a dozen different food stalls selling delicious, exotic food. lining the regent's canal are a bunch motorcycle seats overlooking the water. hat and i chose instead to sit on the water's edge (might've accidently put my foot right under the water....what of it) and watch the canal boats moving slowly through the locks. definitely the best way to pass a warm, late afternoon - with a picturesque backdrop to watch the sunset. today was one of those rare days that i remembered to bring my lomography fisheye cam with me, so i was able to lock away some memories onto film...which i probably won't reveal until later this year, in paris.

there's no doubt about it, i will definitely be back here before i leave london. camden has this really edgy, exciting & lively feel to it that you can't miss while walking through the winding lanes of market stalls.

in any case, after a whole day at the markets - we still didn't get around to seeing everything! good excuse to come back...

"dreams are today's answers to tomorrow's questions"

a sign at chesham tube station. combined? really?

tate modern

those infamous london storm clouds rolled across the sky this morning (it was only a matter of time..). rather than stay outside, i decided to duck back inside the tate modern and release my inner indie. jokes aside, i actually love this art gallery. i've been here several times before, the last time being (well, not including yesterday) december '09. as i mentioned in my previous post, the gallery used to be the bankside power station. this closed in 1981, and was re-opened as an art gallery in 2000. it now forms part of the 'tate group' - together with the tate britain, tate liverpool, tate st. ives & tate online.

the closest tube station is st paul's, so it was a nice stroll over the millenium bridge to get to the tate. a funky and fittingly modern bridge, you prob recognise it from the beginning of the 6th harry potter movie..

despite the exterior of the tate being aesthetically unappealing (aka fugly), the artwork inside is incred. it houses some of my all-time favourites, such as warhol, duchamp and picabia, as well as a heap of others i'd never come across before.

with a focus on modern art, the nature of the works are often controversial and aim to question the definition of art. (as i'm writing this, painful memories of writing my studio arts exam are flooding back). i had to have a laugh at one piece; 'untitled artwork' by baldwin & ramsden - it consisted of a bare, gesso'd canvas with a mirror fitted on its face. essentially just a 3D mirror, this piece apparently 'confronts the viewer, questioning the long-held notion of painting transcending reality'. yeaaah, or it gives gallery visitors an opportunity to fix their hair...

there were quite a few pollock pieces, such as 'number 14' and 'summertime: number 9a'. he has a really unique way of developing his large-scale works - laying his canvases flat on the ground then spilling, throwing, flicking and draping industrial enamel paint onto the surface using sticks, basting syringes, his hands, brooms and ladles....as well as a tonne of other random objects. click here for a vid showing him & his work.

each and every one of these pieces has a story behind it...so i could be here for hours. instead, i'll love you and leave you with a bunch of my favourite works found at the tate modern.

profitez-en bien,