today----i met an artist.
after another boring seminar (this time on the highbrow interest in the study of autographs, particularly of j. hayden), i was invited to the pub by some of my classmates, however i declined because i wanted something substantial. my friend said, "you should go to planejts orgaifjd." not quite understanding at first i said, "what?" she repeated, "planet organic." i said, after a pause, "oh yeah. i know that place. good food. i think i will."
i don't know if what i ordered is of any importance but it was some vegetarian lasagne, steamed broccoli, brown rice, and a bit of roasted potatoes. not bad for £5.50. it was pretty good, actually and all organic.
i sat at one of the tables against the windows so i had a view of the street. i sat alone but not for long. a young blonde woman walked over and asked me if the seat was taken across from me. afterall, it was a table with three chairs and i was sitting alone, huddled in the corner.
naturally, i told her she could sit down. she looked like she was in her mid-thirties and she was really quite a beautiful woman with soft features that sort of said youthfulness but also gave off a sense of serious intensity that made me feel as though she was a very intelligent person.
it took us a while before we managed to say anything to each other. i mainly looked up and gave her a cheek-full-of-food kind of smile which i tried to hide with my hand. eventually though, i brought up the weather.
"it's been pretty cold lately." it is a relief to know that the weather is more universal than the so-called "universal mores" i learned about in sociology 101.
from there it was smooth sailing. i asked her what she was doing in london, how long she had been here and how she was liking it. as it turns out, she is an artist from austria and she has been here just little over a month. she was in the area because she was going to the library to do some research for a class called "how to write a phd" at birbeck college. she said she was trying to get back into the theory of art, which i found interesting.
i told her that i was studying ethnomusicology and she asked me what that meant. i explained to her that it was a "cultural study of music" and she said, "ah." but i was more interested in the fact that she was a painter. i have never really known a visual artist before so i was really interested to learn about her perspectives on art.
at first, i thought of the right questions to ask. i didn't want to ask one of those questions that non-musicians ask like, "what genre do you write?" or "who is your favorite classical composer?" stuff like that. so instead i tried to word my questions so i came across at least thoughtful, "do you paint in a particular style? or follow a sort of way of painting?" luckily, she didn't seem to think my question was a silly question and she responded that she worked basically in contemporary art. she then explained more of her process, or rather approach to her paintings.
she says she goes to different art galleries and takes a video camera. with that she records what she sees and then later on plays them back and finds what she likes and then takes that and puts it in her paintings. i thought that was really great. she was taking other peoples ideas and making them her own.
we had a nice conversation about art galleries in london and mentioned that i was doing a write-up on an art gallery when i had no real experience with contemporary art. she told me about a gallery where her works are and also told me that i should go to the east end or white chapel. apparently it's a big artist area and there are just rows of galleries. it is an area of london that is mid-way through gentrification and for a moment we lamented the fact that the bangledeshis and poles living in the area would eventually be pushed out of the area, however we concluded that it was just something that just happens. especially since, i think we both realised at that point that it was likely that we were both people who make gentrification happen because we were the types of people who would move into an area like that.
in the end i took down her name and the name of the gallery where her work is currently on display. you can see an example of her work here: http://www.wilkinsongallery.com/pastexhibitions/06steckholzer/info.html and also http://www.meyerkainer.at/exhibitions/ex_steck.htm
she left without ever finding out my name and we did not exchange contact information. it was nice just to be strangers passing the time over a quick meal.
i don't know if what i ordered is of any importance but it was some vegetarian lasagne, steamed broccoli, brown rice, and a bit of roasted potatoes. not bad for £5.50. it was pretty good, actually and all organic.
i sat at one of the tables against the windows so i had a view of the street. i sat alone but not for long. a young blonde woman walked over and asked me if the seat was taken across from me. afterall, it was a table with three chairs and i was sitting alone, huddled in the corner.
naturally, i told her she could sit down. she looked like she was in her mid-thirties and she was really quite a beautiful woman with soft features that sort of said youthfulness but also gave off a sense of serious intensity that made me feel as though she was a very intelligent person.
it took us a while before we managed to say anything to each other. i mainly looked up and gave her a cheek-full-of-food kind of smile which i tried to hide with my hand. eventually though, i brought up the weather.
"it's been pretty cold lately." it is a relief to know that the weather is more universal than the so-called "universal mores" i learned about in sociology 101.
from there it was smooth sailing. i asked her what she was doing in london, how long she had been here and how she was liking it. as it turns out, she is an artist from austria and she has been here just little over a month. she was in the area because she was going to the library to do some research for a class called "how to write a phd" at birbeck college. she said she was trying to get back into the theory of art, which i found interesting.
i told her that i was studying ethnomusicology and she asked me what that meant. i explained to her that it was a "cultural study of music" and she said, "ah." but i was more interested in the fact that she was a painter. i have never really known a visual artist before so i was really interested to learn about her perspectives on art.
at first, i thought of the right questions to ask. i didn't want to ask one of those questions that non-musicians ask like, "what genre do you write?" or "who is your favorite classical composer?" stuff like that. so instead i tried to word my questions so i came across at least thoughtful, "do you paint in a particular style? or follow a sort of way of painting?" luckily, she didn't seem to think my question was a silly question and she responded that she worked basically in contemporary art. she then explained more of her process, or rather approach to her paintings.
she says she goes to different art galleries and takes a video camera. with that she records what she sees and then later on plays them back and finds what she likes and then takes that and puts it in her paintings. i thought that was really great. she was taking other peoples ideas and making them her own.
we had a nice conversation about art galleries in london and mentioned that i was doing a write-up on an art gallery when i had no real experience with contemporary art. she told me about a gallery where her works are and also told me that i should go to the east end or white chapel. apparently it's a big artist area and there are just rows of galleries. it is an area of london that is mid-way through gentrification and for a moment we lamented the fact that the bangledeshis and poles living in the area would eventually be pushed out of the area, however we concluded that it was just something that just happens. especially since, i think we both realised at that point that it was likely that we were both people who make gentrification happen because we were the types of people who would move into an area like that.
in the end i took down her name and the name of the gallery where her work is currently on display. you can see an example of her work here: http://www.wilkinsongallery.com/pastexhibitions/06steckholzer/info.html and also http://www.meyerkainer.at/exhibitions/ex_steck.htm
she left without ever finding out my name and we did not exchange contact information. it was nice just to be strangers passing the time over a quick meal.
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