Chinese journalist

I spotted this Chinese journalist doing a broadcasr on Regents Street during the Olympics and took a quick photo.  London was full of journalists, games makers and sports fans for a very hectic fun-filled month.

Stage and Twist

Stage and Twist was a Tate Modern exhibition by two artists: Polish artist Anna Molska and Romanian artist Ciprian Muresan. Their work sought to highlight collective experiences in a post Communist era.

 This video installation of a greenhouse filling with foam whilst a man walks around it with a whip was my favourite thing from the exhibition.

BG Max

I am a big fan of Chalga, a style of very cheesy Bulgarian pop music epitomized by artists like Azis and Andrea.  So I asked a Bulgarian colleague if she could recommend a place in London that plays Bulgarian pop music.  She let me know about BG Max in Hornsey, North London.  

I've been to BG Max twice now and it was empty both times.  But the music was brilliant.

Contemporary Japanese Photobooks

Japan has a culture of creating beautiful photo books and the Photographer's Gallery displayed 200 of these in a recent exhibition.

Qualitat Aus Osterreich

I broke my rule of not going to chain shops for this one but these tasty Austrian sausages were so good I decided to feature them in my blog anyway.  I picked them up at the Waitrose on Edgware Road.

Kim Beom at the Hayward Gallery

Kim Beom's exihition at the Hayward Gallery is one of the strangest I've seen.  I seem to recall that the installation below was the artist reciting a poem to a stone.

Another installation showed a group of tool sitting in a classroom watching a video of the bottom half of a teacher's face giving them a lecture on the nature of their tool existence.  All very odd.

Museum of the World

The Southbank Centre hosted a 'Museum of the World' for the Olympics which included an Antarctica world passport delivery bureau where 30 000 facsimile Antarctica world passports were being issued. 

A booth has been set up so you could have an official photo taken for only 20p.  There was even a guy sat at a desk within the art installation to stamp your newly acquired passport.

Outside a giant world map was being slowly completed out of LEGO. A long line of children and their parents were patiently waiting to receive a base plate and instruction to build their small section of the map.

Beautiful Things

The South Africa house in Southbank showcased arts and crafts created in South Africa.  Each of the designs were set against an unusual background, for example a bed of straws or a base of kitchen sink plungers.

Beadwork made by Kwa Masha Arts.

Tableware by Ceramic Matters.

Chair created by Haldane Martin, a contemporary furniture design company based in Cape Town.

These little creatures are called Shwe Shwe Popis and they are are characters created by children at the African Children's Feeding Schemes, Malnutrition and Rehabilitation creche in Zola, Soweto.

Handicrafts created by Kunye, created by Alison Coutras in 1995.

Cushions created by the embroidery initiative Kaross.

Beirut Street Food

The Olympics saw a whole host of pop-up events appearing around London.  The Southbank was an even busier hub of activity than usual.

Yalla Yalla was a Lebanese pop-up restaurant serving tasty wraps and refreshing watermelon juice close by to the Hayward Gallery.

 

Little Lamb

Little Lamb is a Chinese hot pot restaurant in China town.  You choose up to two bases for your hot pot sauce and then you decide what vegetables, meat, fish or seafood you would like.  Then when the food arrives you cook it yourself in the boiling hot pot.

I had a tasty lo kat herbal tea tea drink.