Always watching...

I watched Hugh Jackman’s song and dance routine on you tube on Monday with Daisy. I think she is officially in love. I had to beak the rather sad news to her that he was already married. I do love the fact that she likes such old fashioned entertainment though. I must confess that I too was rather smitten and may have to kick the ever increasing girth of Russell Crowe into touch! Strange my love of Antipodeans!
I finally caught up with Mad Men via the wonderful bbciplayer. What a triumph of style of over substance. Stunning to look at but where is the plot? I love the fact it is set at the time I was born. Did people really drink and smoke that much at work? I remember it was OK to drink at lunch but not throughout the day.
High on my list of ‘must see movies’ is Three Monkeys however finding a cinema to see it is proving very difficult and I am determined to inject a bit of culture into Emin’s life. We normally only see films that we can take Leyla to but I have decided that maybe some ‘us’ time is in order. Emin did try to sidetrack me with the suggestion that we see The International. But once I had ascertained that the lead role was Clive the vampire of the movies Owen (Sucks the life out of every film he’s in) I decided against the suggestion.

I enjoyed Linda grants piece in the Guardian today, especially this

To shop with no intention of buying anything is to immerse yourself, for a few hours, in fashion. We civilians don't go to the shows; we have no access to the ateliers. We will never own a Hermès Birkin, but we can look, feel, experience. This is an actual Balenciaga dress. You come close to the source, the origin of what fashion is, the mutable mysteries of time and pleasure, the whole crazy changing world of style with all its moods and excesses and sudden surprises. For shopping is not necessarily the point of going to the shops. It's a meditation, a frame of mind, a therapy, a balm for the troubled soul

I went to Selfridges last week and lovingly caressed most of Marni ,as well as various others, I go for ideas of shapes and textures. You cannot possible glean as much from the pages of a magazine that you can by just looking and feeling. I had gone specifically to buy a pair of harem pants from Toast. I thought it was time to try a new silhouette, dress out of the box so to speak. However they made me look like a comedy clown so I meant to take them back yesterday but forgot to put them in my school bag, so having carved a couple of hours of free time I was left with amusing myself by going to see the incredible Hussein Chalayan currently on at the Design Museum

What is it about that walk along the river? Seriously that whole area must have its own micro climate because whenever I walk along that path I feel like I am being sliced in half. It was freeeezing.

The exhibition was worth the torture. It was awesome I have been to many fashion exhibitions but this one was the best. This is not just fashion; this is fine art with a capital F and should be in a gallery. Everything from conception to cloth to cut was displayed to perfection

I then walked back along the river to the Tate Modern to catch up with the new Roni Horn exhibition. It was a very gentle show and gave me hope as she is such a mercurial artist she is not easy to categorise. The show mixes up paintings, drawings, sculpture with photography. I often wonder when artists vary so broadly the media they work with whether it dilutes what they are trying to say, so it is always good to see someone who mixes it up and works in a range of media.
I get as much pleasure from painting as I do from taking photographs what frustrates me is that I get so little time to paint. Photography is able to satisfy my creative itch because my fractured day is able to accommodate it. Painting needs a continuous slice of time which I do not currently have. It reflects more pertinently my mood, which changes like the wind so colours I mix one day I cannot use the next.
The exhibition left me a little cold. I found her paintings a little repetitive and her photography sterile, apart from her amazing Still Water (The River Thames, for Example). 1999. 15 offset lithographs of the river Thames.
Based on annotated photographs of the river Thames, they are a tour de force and more so for being exhibited in a space directly opposite the river. It is worth seeing the exhibition for these alone.

This is not Roni Horn but Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster. not my cup of tea, but impressive all the same.