Istanbul, it's all about the food

The first time we stayed in Istanbul we struggled to feed ourselves anything remotely edible, this time it was hard to stop eating. The difference was all in the area we stayed in. If you stay in the old part near the mosques you will be subjected to tourist pap and little else, unless you are on an unlimited budget. This time we were located away from the tourist attraction, more centrally where local people lived and worked. The difference was immense, with amazing cake shops and copious cafes selling a far broader range of traditional foods, not just kebabs but casseroles and soups and salads.
We were spoilt for choice.
We also discovered that in the smaller cafes you could order small plates like tapas and have them brought to the table and top up as and when, until you were full, the most expensive plate came in at around £3.50 so hardly busting the budget. In fact we spent very little by using public transport and eating this way.
My favourite cafes were out of the main fray down side streets, where the locals eat, and the locals all seemed to eat out, there appeared to be no such thing as a packed lunch. My favourite time to photograph was just as they were getting ready for lunch, the calm for the storm.

I started to seek out the smaller cafes, with their slightly retro air and hotch potch interior design

The really urban cafes would have bags of bread on each table to help yourself to, and best of all a sink or hygiene wipes to clean your hands before and after you've eaten, real Turks only use a fork plus bread to eat with! Looking back at the photographs this is something I would like to have spent longer on photographing.

Everything is washed down with tea, copious bucket loads of tea, it's consumed throughout the day, I missed more than anything the chance to have my food with a glass of wine, not a single drop passed my lips all holiday, I can live without it, but I must confess I find life a little duller.

I See You See I

The captions I placed around the object, I decided one statement would not work as I wanted to lead the viewer around the pieces one by one.

This was really a work in progress, I would have changed the scale of some of the pieces had I time, the small copper coloured maquette I would have liked to make in copper rather than a photograph, but I gave it 7/10.

The Pantone card was a last minute addition, I found it in my pigeon hole with a thank you note from the Head Teacher for a recent presentation. I like the fact that he 'gets' me ..Cool but quiet. I love grey as you know so I felt this worked with the whole. I think the only other item I would have included was a small painting, but I was worried it would clutter rather than enhance.

So I felt acquitted but the stress truly I cannot convey to you how hard I found it, not least because having prevaricated for days, the very day I was ready to print the printer broke down, I nearly followed, but I think the sheer unadulterated misery on my etched across my face transmitted itself to the IT engineer and miraculously he called another engineer who fixed it by lunchtime. Then it was all hands to the deck and my assistant prepared it for me whilst I mentored another member of staff.

It was then a quick dash to the studio to put up the work and grab a coffee.

Although the idea of Identity I thought was quite trite, it did seem a good way to meet the other students some who are here from Singapore, Brazil and Israel! As I was talking about the piece I realised just how much though t I had put into it and having looked at the other students work I realised that actually the irritation with the theme was my blinkered outlook not their choice of theme.

The work of some of the other students ranged from brilliant to a bit sixth form like obvious. Some were happy to open up, some were very cagey. It was an interesting night and I was able to stay off the drink which can you believe was Chardonnay. Who the fuck still sells that stuff?

Roll on the next project.

The view from here

Imagine it is a lovely crisp autumn day, there are people spilling out of the nearby catholic church and I have arranged to meet Daisy and Kitty so we can take Daisy shopping for jeans. Our final destination is GAP for obvious reasons, but I had though that maybe we could look at some cheaper jeans in New Look first.

So I am standing on the corner gazing at this view with the sound of birds singing, the sun warming my face, waiting and thinking life is good, all was calm.

I then saw Daisy's face and I knew we were in for a rocky ride. She looked thunderous, still smarting from putting on weight over the summer, the idea was to buy some larger jeans so she was more comfortable. The weight gain has become the elephant in the room, it poisons the atmosphere wherever she goes, whenever we meet.

I am waiting outside the changing room and when I look inside she is just sat with her head in her hands, I get irked and she cries, really really cries. I cry really really cry. I have not cried for ages, (OK not like this anyway) I am not sure if I will ever stop.
It transpires the source of her current mood swings is some kind of contraceptive implant, she hates it, it is poisoning her moods and welfare. She had tried to have it removed but was told it was too expensive. I have given her a week to demand its removal before I start phoning and making very big waves.

After a group hug with Kitty the air cleared and we walked to GAP, Kitty wove her magic and 2 pairs of jeans were purchased. Daisy was happy...ish.

Istanbul

Coming back to work on Monday I cried, not because Istanbul was so great, but because I just wanted to knuckle down and get on with my own work, I have finally grown up and now think more about creating the image rather than obsessing about my own image. When I say I cried, I did not actually sob, more a tear escaped. The pressure has piled on this week, extra marking coupled with having to evidence planning on a daily basis rather than half termly. On top of that I have to now mentor 2 more teachers. Curiously I do not mind this but it has already seeped into my available time, and the pressure of all this work plus getting ready for my sale at the end of the month has started to keep me awake ..just a little.

Istanbul, wouldn't want to live there, we both decided we love the city but not the crowds. The traffic and constant thrum of car engines combined with the constant hooting of horns on top of buses belching out clouds of noxious crap, really was a struggle.
Plus the earthquake opened up a can of worms, did you know 70% of the buildings in Istanbul have been constructed with no planning regulation? Since the other 30% are probably mosques, it's a sobering statistic, so we found ourselves drawn to walking the banks of the Bosphorus, which I constantly kept calling the 'river' Emin berated me each time. For mile upon mile you will encounter nothing but fisherman, which kept Leyla entertained.

As did the plethora of cats, they are everywhere, I mean everywhere, often mingling in the parks with feral dogs, who are so passive it was hard to believe they were not trained.

We only crossed the bridge to the old town once, I wanted to revisit this mosque, which in the courtyard has the most beautiful tiled wall, as it's by the sea the gulls swoop across the sky line and one afternoon this amazing sky appeared behind the mosque opposite.

I confess I have forgotten the name of this mosque below, we went unintentionally whilst looking for a museum, previously it was partially closed for renovation, but now here it is in all its glory, I really loved it because it's painted inside not tiled, the colours used are beautifully subtle. There is still a lack of intimacy about the large cavernous spaces but at the same time they do inspire a certain awe.

And so to Bebek, the area we gravitated to the most, it was Leyla who kept wanting to climb up to see what was there, we found some huge houses protected by barbed wire and this stunning view. As always we hypothetically shopped for real estate and decided here was where we wanted to be, quiet with stunning views.

Emin shocked me by saying he preferred Berlin, but I could see why, it's less frenetic and I for one really missed the contemporary art galleries. They are here but impossible to find, believe it or not the Istanbul Biennial was on yet there was no mention of it anywhere, no one knew where it was, it was so frustrating. Plus the weather stayed relatively dry, if very cold meaning it seemed churlish to languish inside museums all day.

Back home I found an interview with the organisers who stated the the lack of publicity was deliberate!! WHY? How is that something to be proud of? The city was heaving with tourists none of whom would get the chance to see some really interesting art work. I doubt the locals knew about it either, certainly none of our au-pairs had heard of it.

Some people are seriously stupid and those organisers were right up there.

Just down the road from here was a museum called Sakip Sabanci Muzesi

It was originally a house owned by one of Turkey's rich cotton merchants, the house was given to the university to stop it being sold off by his heirs, it was an amazing mix of fifties architecture and traditional Turkish antiques, the real bonus was an amazing exhibition of Sophie Calle's photography and video instillation's undertaken with the local population, it made the holiday for me plus Leyla and Emin both enjoyed it too.

I am now going to York for the weekend, to see my beautiful daughter, who has taken the day off work to go shopping with her cash rich sister!!

I have just re-read this post, so bloody boring I've lost my humour mojo, sorry.

Frieze Art Fair

Tony Swain

Walid Raad

Michael Bauch

Dayanita Singh

Frieze Art Fair

Sandra Gamarra

Lucy Skaer

Harm van den Dorpel

Andrew Kerr

Yuko Someya

This last one I would have bought it was so beautifully delicate.

Eva Kotatvoka

Last year I posted a photograph I'd taken of this artist's work, a small piece tucked away around a corner. This year she was deservedly given a whole stand, it was the very best stand in the whole show, she is a real inspiration to me and I credit her with guiding me from the flat surface to a more thoughtful instillation approach to mt photography.

Yes I am back.

No I was not squished! Although sobering fact of the week, 70% of building in Istanbul are built sans permission and with no planning regulation, big gulp.. Next time we will stay further up the coast, but I digress. I am slightly anal in that I like my blog to run in sequence, so although I have an Enormous folder of images to trawl through I am spending the week on art for you instead.

Another reason is that have you noticed that when you do your job well you are then expected to not only carry others but train them too, without any extra dosh. That is my lot this week, lots of extra work, on top of putting together my first art presentation next Wednesday, preparing for my first sale at the end of the month.. unpacking then repacking to go to York on Friday.... I have to remind myself to breathe sometimes!!