Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting outdoor exhibition at Canary Wharf looking at the importance of clean water to women’s health focusing on Malawi. The display, sponsored by WaterAid and the Wimbledon Foundation, consists of tender photographs by Laura El-Tantawy exposing the emotional toll of pregnancy, childbirth and childcare without clean water and decent toilets, each with a short commentary. I think this display is doing the rounds and has already been next to Tower Bridge last year.

Quirky outdoor sculpture exhibition in the Marinaressa Gardens in Venice of contemporary work organised by the European Cultural Centre. This is the sixth time this show has happening in line with Biennales and I have seen art least one before and they are always fun. The first garden I came to had a mix of artists. I liked Karen McCoy’s structure made of hazelnut branches with things growing inside. Also   Vivianne Duchini’s interlocking horses’ heads and  Naja Utzon Popov’s work referencing the Australian bushfires. The second garden had large, bright, angular animals by Richard Orlinski which dominated and brightened the space. Who doesn’t love a giant red gorilla! Closes 27 November 2022  

Interesting outdoor exhibition at Coal Drops Yard at King’s Cross showcasing the winners of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture 2022. There was a fascinating mix of projects including quite a few domestic ones. I was slightly annoyed by a library which was praised more for its sustainability than design as a library. The most moving winner was a cemetery in Tunisia for migrants who wash ashore built by migrants that survived. The awfulness of it took my breath away. It was a nice idea that the display boards were mounted on benches but the downside was that if people sit on them, you can’t read the commentary properly which surely is the point rather than providing a bench. Closed 17 July 2022  

Charming outdoor exhibition from the Now Gallery of photographs by Mah Rana exploring what jewellery means to us. This consisted of large-scale pictures around the gallery’s window space each showing a Greenwich Peninsular resident with a quote from them explaining the jewellery they are wearing and what it means to them. These were lovely clear images and some of the descriptions were very moving. This is an ongoing project with a website www.meaningandattachments.com .

Interesting outdoor exhibition in St James Park to mark the centenary of the end of the First World War. This used lovely photographs by Michael St Maur Sheil of the landscape affected by the war to talk about issues raised by the conflict. It was beautifully arranged so that as you looked along the displays you saw a line of the pictures but each was accompanied by excellent explanations of each of the areas of the war and common themes it raised. I thought I knew a lot about the First World War but even I learnt new things from this such as the fact that the plastic surgeon Sir Harold Giles who worked at Sidcup to rebuilt men’s faces was a cousin of Sir Archibald McIndoe who did similar work in the Second World War with pilots injured by fire. Also that the Save the Children Fund was founded in 1919 to raise money for children in Central Europe and the Indian government lent Britain money to fund the war. This was the last in a series of touring exhibitions. I rememb...

Interesting outdoor exhibition in the Royal Academy courtyard by the Royal Photographic Society to mark the International Year of Light. The show looked at how data can be displayed in different photographic formats. It defined light as “a wave moving through the electromagnetic field present throughout the universe” and talked about how we can use light of different wave lengths to exploit its ability to carry and record information.   OK I’ll admit I didn’t always understand the science but some of the images were fascinating and beautiful. My favourite picture was the one in the photograph which shows data from three space missions mapped onto globes. I also liked the x-ray picture of people kissing by Hugh Turney and of chocolate shells in an infrared heater.

Really good outdoor exhibition in St James Park of photographs by Michael St Maur Sheil of what First World War battle fields look like now. Michael is a photo journalist and a battle field guide. The photographs were really beautiful and it was fascinating to see the scars which can still be seen in the landscape. My favourite was one of Tyne Cot cemetery in the snow and there was a fabulous one of trees reflected in water in the base of a German artillery turntable. However the exhibition was much more than this. Each picture had not only a commentary on the scene but also succinct pieces which built up to a really good history of the war. As a First World War geek   it had something about everything! You think of a subject within a couple of stands you’d find something! It also showed aspects of the war which I had not known about such as the fact there was fighting in Kenya. There were also nice piece on yellow background telling the stories of local people. T...

Outdoor exhibition outside London City Hall of photographs by Nigel Milllard of the life and work of the RNLI. I spotted this was on from the twitter feed of the RNLI at the Tower (@TowerRNLI) and was pleased to pass it while walking between galleries. I always like to see this sort of outdoor exhibition and watch how people interact with it. There was a nice mix of portraits, seascapes and action shots showing the work of this organisation and I particularly liked a picture of a boat being built and one of rescuing a crew from the Fastnet Race. The pictures easily held their own against the fabulous backdrop of Tower Bridge and the Tower of London.