Blog: The Annual Art And Architecture Adventure

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As I'm sure is clear by now, The Artworks In My Curation and I are WELL sophisticated and are out and about ALL the time looking at art and that and definitely NOT at home watching telly. The idea!

Take this weekend, for example, when we went out for a WHOLE heap of culture. We kicked off with a trip to a new pop up cafe what has opened, a little place that calls itself Pret A Manger. Yes all right, but it was the VEGGIE Pret A Manger what has opened in Soho - it felt rude NOT to give it a go, as it's their experiment in trying new veggie/vegan recipes, and I must say the experiment is a SUCCESS as we ate TONNES!

That done we staggered down the road to the National Portrait Gallery to see the BP Portrait Award. We've been to see this exhibition pretty much every year for AGES, so are qualified to say this wasn't a vintage one. It was OK and there were a couple of good things (I liked the portrait of the Dunkirk Glider Pilot), but nothing was particularly OUTSTANDING. There seems to be even more of that thing where you can't tell if it's a photo or not, which is quite impressive at first but after a while you think "Why not just take a photo?" The HIGHPOINT tho was bumping into Mr D Hill, late of Airport Gurl, who I'd not seen for YONKS.

That done we headed off to distant West London to have a look at The Serpentine Pavilion. We go and see THIS every year too so are qualified to say that THIS one was pretty much the best pavilion EVER. It was AMAZING! It's a WALL of boxes which have been moved outwards to form a sort of curvy church of AIR and BOXES and - well, go and have a look at the architect's website or even better go and see the actual thing if you can, it was like something from a SCI-FI film, but also something that WORKED. A lot of previous pavilions have felt FLIMSY or UNCOMFORTABLE but this was a lovely place to BE inside and to look out from the outside. It's hard to put into words how AWESOME it was, kind of like a modern cathedral, or an ice cave, or space-age flats, or LEGO. Have a look!

Duly impressed we had a quick walk roun the Alex Katz exhibition in the a gallery actual (DEAD good) and the "summer houses" linked to the Pavilion (OK) then wandered through the park. "There's a parrot!" said The Birds In My Spotters' Guide. "There's another one," I said, and suddenly we were SURROUNDED by them. The trees were FULL of bright green parrots which were flying around and LANDING on people all about us, I have never seen the LIKE!

Finally we went and tried ANOTHER new restaurant - Mildreds' new veggie restaurant in Kings Cross, it was LOVELY - before heading home, FULLY cultured up. I think we can safely watch at least THREE full seasons of US sitcoms... I mean, Important Documentaries, before we need to get charged up again!

posted 22/8/2016 by MJ Hibbett

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