K.A. Laity's Blog, page 3

Transitions

I think I need to give Leigh Bowery the multimedia approach, which will take a bit longer so here are some transitional moments from the Guild Hall Gallery: the Roman Amphitheatre and a few from the permanent collection. From Grimshaw to Grayson Perry is a big leap, I guess. Then I wandered along because it... Read More

Evelyn de Morgan

This day devoted to iconoclasts, some quieter than others but all fascinating. I began with the one I knew the least about, Evelyn Pickering de Morgan who was on display at the Guild Hall Art Gallery. I know I ought to have made my way to the Guild Hall at some point (if only for... Read More

The Eyes Follow You Around the Room

I’d not been to the National in some time and it was hot and I was tired from running around London already that day so after a nice lunch (peh!) in the crypt at St Martin’s I crossed the road to see some old favourites. Title many of you will know was taken from this... Read More

Abstract Erotic

Random bits first: the mosaic tunnel, which I learned about on IG; Gatsby is a musical now because everything seems to be turned into a musical with unmemorable music I dunno maybe it’s good but I doubt it. And Oscar: impossible to just get Oscar; there were even more people when I passed by him... Read More

Christie’s Mysteries

I had a little fun exploring some lovely books I haven’t a hope in hell of ever getting thanks to the auction at Christie’s. Hopefully some of these will end up where the public can admire them and not just insufferable rich misers. Radix malorum est cupiditas, as we all know. Pretty books. And another... Read More

Londoning

I neglected to take any pictures of Frannie and me in The Lamb, but we had a fine time and good catch up before she jetted off to Italy to see family and I stayed in sweltering London (admittedly less sweltering than Italy). Much to show you but I have to get it organised so... Read More

Matinee: A Damsel in Distress

Sometimes you need to cheer yourself up with a little hoofin’ and laughing and ingenue romance. As I did the other day thanks to iPlayer. A Damsel in Distress was just what the day needed: Fred Astaire, George and Gracie in London where a most youthful Joan Fontaine has fallen for an American and of... Read More

Kantele in AMP

I’m delighted to be part of the latest issue of the American Museum of Paramusicology’s journal writing about the mythical harp of Finland, the kantele. I’m always happy to take any chance to talk about the beauty of this traditional lap harp and its legendary beginnings as the jawbone of a pike. But wait —... Read More

Sounding Line – Mella Shaw

Sounding the alarm of the precarity of everything at the McManus: Mella Shaw’s Sounding Line installation offers an unsettling reminder that we are killing the world. Her immense white ceramic sculptures — modelled on the tiniest of inner ear bones of whales — attach to thick red ropes through which sonar pulses run. The same... Read More

Witches, Devils & Theatre of Cruelty

I was talking with Chloë about keeping track of reading, which I do badly, my memory palace not being what it used to be when life was more regularly paced. I bought this novel by Jane Parkhurst (Nancy Smith?) back when I was first diving into Isobel Gowdie a few years ago, but this one... Read More