Quick trip to Miami for a one night charitable auction* of Sam’s photography during Art Basel Miami Beach
* In association with V&M, Curve and SHFT
Two nights and very little time to sight-see – Miami is fascinating and I will be back.
Thanks to airbnb.com I landed wonderful accommodation on Staten Island in a vintage American Arts and Crafts home with a terrific young couple as landlords. Commuting to work each day by ferry introduced me to the calming effect of bracketing busy days with waterborne journeys.
For all its incredible high points, like any big city New York can also feel draining and lonely – a city of perfect teeth and frayed nerves.
The Met draws you in… you lose track of hours as centuries come into focus… and… you forget to take pictures!
Some of the most exciting – and constantly updated – displays of fashion, art and design in New York – freely available 24/7 – are the Bergdorf Goodman Windows on 5th Avenue. This is what they looked like at the end of July this year. Apart from the wonderful window designs the bright red calfskin boots from Celine (also available in a pump) caught my eye – totally impractical of course but nonetheless, simply beautiful.
My trusty Canon S95 – snap shots in NY.
…under a rising Thames – it’s only a matter of where the waterline will stop rising.
Michael Pinsky a Scottish artist has made a brilliant statement about climate change threat delivered with quiet insistence. A series of London landmarks have been illuminated with blue rings inviting visitors to look forward to the level of the Thames in 3012, a worst case projection for a thousand years from now.
The story is covered in a post on the BBC’s website
Pinsky said: “As a child, I grew up near a reservoir in Scotland.
“On particularly hot summers, when water was in short supply, the level of the reservoir would drop revealing the spire of a church, the highest point of a village which was submerged for a secure clean water supply.
“This image of a submerged bell tower has stayed with me ever since.
“If we do not prevent the predicted effects of climate change from occurring this will become the prevailing image of London, towers and monuments encircled by an ever-expanding Thames.”
The installations, presented by Artsadmin and LIFT, were set up on 7 February and will be up until 4 March.
London, it is clear, will need to morph dramatically to survive, as it has done over centuries. But before the rising North Sea gets us there is a small matter of a global recession.
