Cathy's Art Diary

Strange display at the Imperial War Museum looking at two exercises involving British troops in 2015 the fights against Ebola and Isis. I say strange because with the Isis campaign it is still ongoing and it seems far too soon to comment on it in the dispassionate manner required of a museum. Each topic was dealt with in a similar way with an AV display, a great set of photographs and some interesting objects. The section on Ebola was fascinating and it was moving to see things which had belonged to the troops which went out. I loved the ingenuity of an improvised devise called a tippy-tappy for washing hands made of a water container on a stick! In the Isis section I loved the pair of boots donated by Major Stephen Brooks with a list of where he’d served on the sole of one. Closes on 13 November 2016  

Interesting exhibition at the Imperial War Museum looking at the work of political artists Peter Kennard. Like another show I’ve written about tonight this exhibition reminded me of my university days in the early 80s as many of the images came from magazines and newspapers of that time. I’d never thought about the artists behind them before and had just assumed they had been created by the papers themselves. The works from this time were collages of images grouped to me a political point. These were displayed in a great archive room with had original collages on the wall with copies of the ways they had been used in a display cabinet in the middle and in flip displays of posters. Other rooms concentrated on various projects. I loved one which combined “The Reading Room” from 1997, which consisted of lecterns with smudged faces on the financial pages of newspapers, with Newspapers from 1994, again using the financial pages but this time with drawings of hands clawing at th...

Nice exhibition at the Imperial War Museum contrasting images of war from above and underground. The theme was a little contrived but it was a reason to show some great images. It also gave a chance to draw in more up to date images and not just to use First and Second World War pictures. I loved the Richard Carline which greeted you as the first work. It showed Damascus from the air and combined a detailed image with wonderful zig zag fields with wisps of clouds moving across it.   I liked Paule Vezelay’s picture of a barrage balloon in which she say surrealist shapes. I loved a hang of Francis Dodd and Ravillious pictures of inside submarines together as both artists included a lozenge shaped window one looking in and one out. Modern works included pictures of drones as birds a good video installation at the end by Bashar Alhroub, a view of a market he had moved as a child in Palestine which was now cover with mesh to keep out things being thrown in from a...

Fascinating exhibition at the Imperial War Museum about photographer Lee Miller’s work in the Second World War. The title was clever as the subtitle could either apply to the fact the pictures were taken by a woman or that the majority of them were of women. It was a really well organised and presented exhibition and I love the fact that it included paintings of her by Roland Penrose and Picasso. There was also good use of objects and it was very moving to see her cameras and clothes from the time. I loved the first section on her work in Britain. Some of it seems a bit quaint now but they were powerful and subtle images. I loved a fashion shoot of a coat with leopard trim against a map and next to a as hat stand of tin hats and ARM helmets. The show talks about the role of fashion magazines in the war not just to show clothes but to educate and encourage women. I also loved an image of an office worker in the British Red Cross HQ taken off a landing looking down and inclu...

Interesting exhibition at Wapping Hydraulic Power Station of new portraits of women by Annie Liebovitz. There were some lovely images and I liked the way they were presented. The first section gave a quick overview of other pictures of or about women she had done and it was nice to see the picture of Virginia Woolf’s writing desk from Monk’s House. The main section just showed the new pictures with the descriptions off to one side. This made you look at the pictures without always recognising the sitter and then go back and see who they were. It made you think about the person and their setting and had an equalising effect. On the other three sides of the gallery were big screens, two with changing displays and one with her new portrait of the Queen. My favourite images included Doris Kearns Goodwin reading an a study, Sheryl Sandberg curled up on a desk chair, a beautiful picture of Russian model Natalia Vodianova against a huge architectural horse sculpture in a dress of...

Event on Westminster Bridge to mark Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January 2016 during which Clare Twomey gave out 2000 ceramic spoons she had made. Each spoon bore the words “If humanity is in our hands it needs” and different word to finish the sentence. These were based on a survey she had done on the same bridge the year before asking the public for their views on what humanity was. She had made spoons following a conversation with Nisad Šiško Jakupovi, who survived the Omarska concentration camp during the Bosnian War. During his time in the camp he and other prisoners had carved spoons out of wood with a piece of glass. A spoon is a universal tool. I went into work early to cross the bridge and try to get a spoon and I was successful. As soon as I climbed the stairs up on to it I bumped into people handing them out. Sadly I’d picked the opposite side of the road to Clare herself but as it was around 9am she was surrounded by news crews. I thought this was a lovely...

Small exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery of new work but Rugman. I’m afraid I found these too like the posters I might have had on my walls at University on the early 80s so I found them a bit retro and stylised rather than new and cutting edge! The commentary says they “explored the relationship between mankind and the natural environment” but I’m afraid I didn’t get it! They were female figures with tattooed figures with birds’ heads. I did like the gold circles and discs behind many of the heads giving a nod back to early religious painting and the muted colours but I’m afraid I didn’t connect with them. Closes on 2 February 2016.