(Above Image taken shortly before seeing Kerry Tribe's "Critical Mass" performance. IT. WAS. AMAZING)

Already one week in and I still can’t get over the fact that it’s November already. This year is flying by far too fast, and this past week has also vanished. Other than wasting one evening debating with myself whether or not to finally give in to that LinkedIn invitation that’s been sitting in my inbox for over a year now  (in the end, I decided it can wait a while. Even I haven’t looked at my CV in about 2 years, so making it public wouldn’t exactly be a wise decision) Other than that, I guess there’s been some elements of productivity so far. 

After being somewhat underwhelmed by this year’s Turner Prize at Tate last night (apart from Price and Noble...my money’s on the latter getting it), I wandered into the Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Gardeshow, which actually blew me away. When I left school, I spent a couple of years volunteering at an institution which has a pretty fine selection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings in their collection, so I thought I’d became immune to the wonders of Brett, Millais and Rossetti. Once you look at a painting about twenty times it starts to numb your senses a little bit, don’t you think? Anyway, I was absolutely astounded by the entirety of the exhibition. Not just the paintings, but the tapestries, drawings and beautifully crafted busts of nineteenth century figures. By the time I’d reached Pimlico tube station I found myself fantasising about an alternative life where all I’d wear is emerald green and amethyst dresses, whilst dancing around in the woods to Greensleeves. And my hair would be a dashing shade of gingery sienna, obviously.

Moving swiftly on, Thomas Schütte at the Serpentine is worth a look into if you find yourself in Hyde Park any time soon. As is Hollywood Costume at the V&A, I think Dorothy’s Red Slippers get sent back to America soon, so catch them while you can! (If you can get a ticket that is, the exhibition was packed when I first went in...)

I should probably point out here that I don’t usually don clothes that I wear during an install to a private view, but I went straight from work (via Whitechapel Gallery’s bookshop to invest a good £20 on a Mel Bochner catalogue..) to Benjamin Murphy’s show at Hoxton Art Gallery which was … pretty interesting. Everything was covered in black electrical tape (55 entire rolls of it, apparently), it was crazy. I guess in addition to the usual free booze, some artists have taken to distributing limited editions to certain people as a means of encouraging them to make a purchase or alternative investment. Unfortunately, I am poor. But I quite like the edition, nonetheless:

Murphy’s biographical statement goes something like this:

Benjamin Murphy is a manchild from Yorkshire who likes to frequent the ladies’ section of Primark. He likes to draw on other people’s property with electrical tape, creating something he likes to call ‘art’. This method of creating something people can point and gawp at, is more ecologically sound than putting a cow in formaldehyde and chopping it in half.

Well, I’ve yet to hear someone criticise Hirst’s works purely for not being ecologically sound. Before drinking the remainder of my bodyweight in beer that evening, I went along to KE-EM’s exhibition at Long White Cloud which is just on the Hackney Road, entitled A Chain of Wooden Mountains. There was a brilliant atmosphere that night; I am definitely making a return visit to their café to sample the banana & bacon French toast. Yes, it sounds so wrong it might just work. Yum.

Oh, and I’ve found out that my sister has started her GCSE in Art, which undoubtedly is making me a tiny bit jealous (I had to endure 2 years of compulsory Business Studies, and opted for French rather than Art…). I think Seurat and Signac have become her idols as of recent weeks judging by one of the many clippings I took from her sketchbook: