Sculpture Victorious at Tate Britain

It was a nice day, but chilly, so with things to do in town I decided to reward myself first with a walk through Pimlico to the Tate to see an exhibition I wanted to see, Sculpture Victorious.

 I like sculpture as an art form. This exhibition hasn't had good reviews, but this is largely due to the continuing bias against the Victorians. Essentially its a fashion thing, and modern art critics can't cope with Victorian art because its so well executed. And attractive. And politically incorrect. Instead of being produced by someone who represents diversity and can't paint draw or model, but has an idea, here are artists, almost all white and male, who are incredibly skilled craftsmen who can use a range of materials to produce strikingly lifelike images. Not a pickled sheep in sight. 

So here is a sample, in bronze...

 in silver...

 Minton porcelain

 

bronze and marble...

 this statue from the House of Lords (one of the barons who forced King John to sign the Magna Carta) is in zinc

 marbles of Queen Victoria

 This marble of a veiled lady is well just showing off

This huge bronze (inlaid with jewels, enamel and mother-of-pearl) sculpture of Queen Elizabeth and King Philip of Spain playing chess with their respective fleets is just stunning.

This wooden piece is a tour de force to rival anything by Grinling Gibbons.

And this is painted cast iron.

Tate Britain has a wonderful collection of British Art now very well displayed in the modernised galleries

But without losing its Victorian grandeur.

As I say, it was one of those nice Spring days, with bright blue skies, but dark clouds just threatening. Making  for a little drama in photos.

The Nether

Well the award for bravest and most original theme for a play should go the American playwright of the Nether.

Its set in a dystopic future where the real world sounds to have deteriorated horribly, but people spend more time on the internet (now called the Nether). What makes this so original, and brave, is that the whole play centres around an investigation into child abuse. But its not real child abuse. Its totally imaginary abuse. The man under investigation has built a an internet sight that is incredibly realistic into which adults come to visit and meet children. But the children aren't children at all. It is all a matter of on-line role-playing. So the little girl, Iris (superbly acted by the way), is actually a 65 year-old man.

What we are supposed to take from this and ponder upon is whether this sort of thing is harmless, since no children were harmed in the process, or even exist. Indeed, maybe this is beneficial because, as the main protagonist makes clear, if he has to act out his fantasies in reality then there really would be harm caused.

A word of praise too for the wonderfully imagined set. The play takes place across a desk which is supposed to be a computer screen. The real characters sit either side of it.

 However, then we switch to the Nether World, which is projected onto a white screen behind in a swirling image which then becomes reality as the screen opens up in the middle to revel the internet site with the internet characters, played within a mirrored forested box. You have to see it.

But is it really a play? That is the problem for me. It was an interesting debate on an interesting subject matter which raises real issues which are becoming increasingly relevant as technology improves. As computer graphics improve, all this could become real - abuse available without anyone being abused or even photographed. But there just wasn't enough drama to make it a theatrical experience for me. Not enough happens.

Zoe Lyons, Damo Clarke and Brian Higgins

Friday night is comedy night at the Fox, but being Good Friday a slightly smaller crowd than normal. Indeed I could only find Thibault to go with me. And that as it turned out meant we saw rather a lot of each other as we sloped off to the pub together after work on Thursday night. And then after a couple of pints decided to go for dinner. And after dinner, we went for another pint. One of those nice evenings when one is enjoying oneself so want it to continue beyond its expected length, which we tend to do by going for another drink. Funnily enough the same happened the following Thursday with a rather larger group of us after a leaving drinks for one of our colleagues going on maternity leave. Again we didn't really need another drink, but half a dozen of us still went on to the nearby Piano Bar, just because we were enjoying each other's company. That's nice (if not necessarily for our livers).

Anyway, back to Good Friday at the Fox. I only knew of the headline act, Zoe Lyons, so a bit of a journey into uncharted waters.

First up was a Scottish comic, Brian Higgins. He was actually rather good. A bit lacking in material I would say, but good delivery. Particularly nice routine about his wife going into labour. A very Glaswegian comic - fair bit of drunkenness and the self-deprecating view of a Glaswegian, confident he knows everything when he knows little. This was expressed in knowledgeably explaining all the technical terms relating to childbirth, but getting them all wrong. "And they introduced the baby" (rather than induced, that sort of thing. Well it was funny when he said it.

Which was more than could be said about Damo Clarke, an Aussie who filled the middle spot. Very weak.

Zoe however was better than I had seen her in panel shows on TV. Its a different skill set really. She really took the night by the scruff of the neck and charged through the routine. I wouldn't say brilliant, but certainly good enough for us in the back of a pub in Palmer's Green.

A weekend in Oxford

A weekend in Oxford is always a pleasure.

The prime reason for this visit was my old College Law Society's annual dinner. A Friday night black tie affair. The nicest part of it to be honest is meeting new people, which dinners are often great for as you may find yourself sitting with someone you have never met before. And so I did, a law graduate from Australia. We just happily chatted through the entire dinner. Simple pleasure.

Drinks after wasn't that interesting until I and my mate John were about to leave, whereupon we got chatting to a group of drunken first years. Any earlier in the evening and they wouldn't have felt right approaching us old fogeys and we wouldn't have felt right trying to chat to teenagers. But at that point, well we just got on very well for half an hour or so. I really would recommend alcohol as a drug of choice.

Before the dinner I met up with my friend's son and his girlfriend for lunch. Leo is at Oxford in his first year, so this was my first chance to catch up since he had gone up to Oxford, and my first chance to meet his girlfriend. Obviously, having known Leo since he was a baby I feel less self-conscious to chatting with that teenager!

Saturday I spent with my friends who live in Oxford. A bit of a grey day, but Oxford is sufficiently picturesque that even on a grey spring day its worth photographing.

 After lunch we headed into the Ashmolean for a brief visit to an exhibition within the plaster cast gallery, this of copies of Ancient Statues, but painted as theyt believe the originals would have been. Very eye-catching.

In the evening we all went to a gig. In Tingewick Village Hall. Now given my last gig was at Brixton Academy, its fair to say this was a bit of a culture shock. Indeed as we were coming into the village we went passed the village hall as I had dismissed it for a scout hut. One can get a feel for the plae when I say it was unlicensed, but one could just pop in between the Hall and the pub across the road to get a pint in a plastic glass. And a very inviting pub it was, with great beer. Wish it was my local.

There was a support act, a very nice trio of Americans who were literally getting about on tour with the aid of local buses.

Headline was Bill Kirchen, someone who one could definitely put down as a veteran. He is in his sixties now, as is his band I guess. An American rockabilly artist (a doppelgänger for Woody Allen) who seems to survive on touring. How one can make money touring venues like this I don't know. But its rather nice to know someone can.