Grad

Grad is a new Russian art gallery that has opened in Fitzrovia, showing art from both Russia and the UK.

They had a very interesting recent exhibition about Russian-made tourist posters from the 1930s.  The posters were in glass frames so there is a bit of glare in my pictures but you still can get an idea of how the posters looked.

 A poster aimed at German tourists

 A proposed design that was never made into a poster at the time

Two poster emphasising Russia's cultural achievements

These posters were contrasted with how Russia was portrayed in internal propaganda.  The two styles of posters were very different.  In the external tourism posters the beauty of the landscape was emphasised and a romanticised vision of glamorous women and fast cars was shown.

Internal propaganda focused on spreading the communist message. Images of planes were used in a purely military sense.

An external Russian tourism poster, aimed at the French market, featuring a plane 

An internal poster featuring images of planes.

These two posters use images of planes.  In the first poster the viewer is positioned at the same height as the plane and is able to view the whole of Europe.  The internal propaganda poster show the plane above the people looking up at it, literally cutting them off from the skies.

A though-provoking exhibition.

Blue Lagoon

Blue Lagoon is a Thai restaurant in Haymarket that participates in the Taste Card scheme, hence my visit!

Not much else to report really. Tasty Thai food in a non pretentious setting, which is as much as anyone can expect from the West End.

N is for Nigeria

Another dinner with the dining group, this time at a Majestic, a Nigerian restaurant in Brixton.

Overall eating at this restaurant was quite a somewhat chaotic experience. 

None of us had any idea what Nigerian food was like so we didn't really know what we were ordering.   The waiter made sure that he took our names when he wrote down our orders so that he could just call the name out 'Starbuck's style' when he brought the food.

We were quite a large group and our orders ended up being taken in two turns, so that our food arrived at quite different times.  Fortunately, my meal was one of the first to arrive.  The name system hadn't made it out into the restaurant with the food so it was a bit of a free-for-all trying to figure out whose food was being brought out.

 We had this mysterious palm wine, which was actually non-alcoholic.

A Nollywood film kept us entertained in the two hour wait between arriving in the restaurant and the food arriving.

My meal. The sauce was super spicy!  I forgot to write down what it was though!

Our meal was accompanied by live music which was quite loud but entertaining.

Romanian and Russian shop Bruce Grove

I don’t think I’ve seen any exclusively Romanian shops in my world tour of London until heading up to the Tottenham area.  But I have to say that London is so huge that really for all I know there are loads of Romanian stops in parts of town that I’ve never been to.

Culture in Defiance - Continuing traditions of satire, art and the struggle for Freedom in Syria

There is currently a fantastic exhibition of 'art as cultural rebellion' from Syria being shown at Rich Mix on Bethnal Green Road until 23rd November 2013.

Key themes of the exhibition are nonviolent resistance and the power of culture.  As one of the artists states "You can actually deal with everything that is scary through laughter."

Some of the images in the exhibition were very scary and powerful.  Definitely worth checking out.

 Photos by Muzaffar Salman, a photojournalist who has worked for Reuters and the AP

 Hama 30 by Khalil Younes

Alshaab Alsori Aref Tarekh (The Syrian People know their way) - Anonymous Poster Collective of 15 Syrian artists and  activists.

By Yasmeen Fanari

By Khaled Barakeh

New Crackers

New Crackers is a rather curiously named Lebanese deli on High Street Kensington.  I thought I'd include it because it sounds a bit like a nightclub that the guys from 'The Office' might go to on a work night out...

Mex Fest

-This weekend was MexFest, a celebration of all things Mexican in London from music to food.

I went along to an exhibition at Rich Mix but I think I got there a bit too early, as I think there was supposed to be kind of soundscape later in the day.

There were a few nice photos of Mexico nevertheless so here they are.

  Cenotes, Yucatán

 Day of the Dead, Michoacán

Light from the Middle East New Photography at the V and A

No photography was allowed in the Light from the Middle East exhibition unfortunately, but it was a great exhibition of the work by 30 artists from around the Middle East.

 

More information about the artists and the exhibition can be found on the V and A website: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/exhibition-light-from-the-middle-east-new-photography/about-the-exhibition/

Dolls Never Die

Dolls Never Die was an exhibition last year at the October Gallery by Benin artist Gerard Quenum. The exhibition consisted of a series of sculptures made from recycled materials and dolls.

Neapolitan Music at the British Museum

Back in May the British Museum had a Roman event in the evening.  Strangely though as well as things you might expect from a Roman themed event (such as a centurion and a Roman style street) there was also this guy playing tradition Neopolitan music from the 19th Century!  So I thought I'd blog him. Why not?