things change, and things stay the same.
walking the streets of london, it feels like i never left. each day i carve a memory into a new road, and the next day i can follow them further into and around the city, and always with some reference point to fall back on.
upon arriving at heathrow, i made my way in and north to my friend sam’s flat in camden to drop off my clunkier bag and catch up. we ended up walking around soho and the city, chatting about relationships and typefaces and anxiety. we stopped for some (rather pricey, but very good) ramen, and then sam headed out for a meeting. i spent the rest of my afternoon wandering through westminster and lambeth into my old stomping grounds in southwark.
it had been raining lightly off and on through the day, but soon after i took this photo the sleet and lightning pushed me in off the streets–back into the tate modern. not much had changed in their free public displays, but it was wonderful to wander through again. it was especially interesting to see how differently i saw several pieces now as compared to six months ago.
by the time i left the tate modern, it was around half five, and the storm had let up a bit. i took the tube back to camden and stopped in a waterstone’s before collecting my bag and heading into whitechapel to get checked into my airbnb. i hadn’t spent much of any time at all in whitechapel last trip, but had been in essentially all directions surrounding it–now, the puzzle begins to come together.
i arrived and was checked in and settled by 7, and spent the evening in (see above: the evening skyline from my room, on the ninth floor). by the time i fell asleep about 8:30, i had been awake for over 26 hours straight. i slept so deeply that it almost didn’t feel restful.
thursday morning arrived, and i had a wonderful (and slightly strange) breakfast consisting of tea, a danish, and a very poshly plated chia seed and fresh fruit… compote? porridge? i’m not exactly sure what to call it, really, but it was good! better than it sounds, definitely!
i wandered through splashes of sun and drizzle along the thames, and this time found myself at the tate britain a different gallery, despite the similar name and ownership. this particular tate (the first to have been established) has just opened an exhibit i have been looking forward to, and which was one of the particular things that brought me back: van gogh and britain. the gallery was packed full of people, including what must have been several school field trip groups, and my arrival and around eleven was early enough to squeeze me into the three o’clock exhibit admission slot. if there’s one way i know how to whittle away time, at least, it is in an art gallery.
the tate britain is much more like a traditional gallery, focusing primarily on painting and classical sculpture, but still fascinating. i’ll spare you the details of about three hours of art exploration and skip to the juicy bits:
it was so exciting to see so many paintings and sketches by van gogh gathered from so many places around the world for this exhibit; several, including starry night over the rhone and sunflowers (1888) i had seen already (and was very happy to see again). the real magic, however, came in the organisation of the collection: only about 1/3 of all works shown were by van gogh himself. alongside his paintings were collected a great number of prints he owned (some his own personal copies, some facsimiles), paintings he studied, and paintings by later artists which he had influenced, organised around his personal and professional timeline during and following the three-year period when he lived in britain. what it amounted to was a surprisingly comprehensive look at his life and legacy.
you all know my feelings about vincent van gogh, and i’ll leave it there.
i left for another brief wander before meeting a few friends at the loading bar in dalston, a gaming-themed bar packed with board games, arcade machines, and consoles of all eras. i won dramatically in mario kart 64, and lost dramatically in super mario party. i caught the train back late, feeling pleased to have caught up with some people i’d met before, and met several who i’d only talked with online before.
i went to sleep thursday night knowing that i had two days at egx rezzed games conference ahead of me, and plenty more people to see. i slept very, very well.
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