Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting exhibition at the Design Museum organised by the Royal College of Art Design Age Institute looking at initiatives which might help us live, work and socialise into our 70s, 80s and 90s. The show presents 10 projects with a small display on each. There was a mix of the inspiring which I’d like now and the weird. A couple were poorly explained and I’m not sure what the inclusively designed bank was offering that was any different. Of the inspiring I liked this work Station designed to be put in retirement homes which would actually be good in any flat. I loved the smart inner soles which connected to an app and analysed your gait to help with balance. Can I have them now? The best thing in the show was a link to sign a petition being run by the Institute calling on government to introduce a minimum design standard for packaging as in a survey people identified consumer packaging as the most frustrating household item in need of redesign. I don’t think that’s older age ...

Eclectic exhibition at the Royal College of Art full of ideas and inventions.   This was the graduate show for the MA courses in design and included products, textiles and design engineering. It was really well laid out with a display by each student along with a postcard with their details on, a real showcase of ideas and talents. There were some solutions for things which shouldn’t really be a problem. Quite a few people looked at issues around excessive phone use with an invention to power gadgets using a phone to complete a circuit to stop you using it plus a place to put your phone when you come home. Maybe putting it down or switching off is the more obvious idea? Some problems were quite sad and around lack of space in homes so someone had invented corridor furniture as that was the one shared space in shared houses. I did like a kitchen in a box by Yu Li, pictured here, which provided a hot plate, pans, cutlery, sink drainer etc in a box.   I loved a sh...

Nice exhibition at the Royal College of Art in Kensington of work by Ian Dury done between 1961 and 1972. I had come across Ian Dury as an artists in the Peter Blake exhibition at Pallant House and wanted to see more so I was delighted to see this exhibition advertised and even more delighted to fall on it by accident after a trip to the Serpentine Gallery! I was struck by the quality of the drawing in the worked and loved a portrait of his wife from 1971. The pop art aspect of the work seemed to be parodying   1960s soft porn. I loved the use of sequins to provide a texture and glitter in the background of the work. A slightly Klimt like effect. I was interested to see that he had done a lot of illustration work for magazines and I loved his William the Conqueror and Harold from 1966! Review Guardian