This fantastic project, titled ‘Spring Autumn’, features grandparents and grandchildren (from China, Malaysia and India) swapping clothes. I love how the series explores intergenerational ties and differences, and societal tradition and change, through such a playful and affectionate lens. By artist qozop — visit the photographer’s website here.
I really like this project by artist Gordon Young, ‘Wall of Wishes,’ created for Bristol Brunel Academy in 2007. Public yet intimate, simple yet moving; it provides a wonderful kind of imaginative ‘scaffolding’ for the school as a community.
Discovered via visual poetry, images & following description from Young’s site:
“All those involved in the school, from pupils and teachers to cooks, cleaners and builders were invited to dream up wishes which were then carved individually onto slabs of marble and installed floor to ceiling in the entrance atrium. Ranging from unashamed wishes for material objects to poignant emotional pleas this work harnesses the dreams and aspirations of the school and its community.”
Just got home after nearly a month of travelling with the family.
Visiting Paris this time was quite different from my previous trip about three years ago. Having learnt some of the language this time round, I felt less like a tourist who was only there to stay for four days, and much more like a newly transplanted international student trying to get my bearings, soaking in every single linguistic tidbit with a mixture of wonder and bewilderment. I eavesdropped (sans guilt as only language students can! :P) on every nearby snatch of conversation, savoured every street and shop sign, read the backs of sugar packets and seatbelt warning labels… I was almost sad to leave Paris for Rome when the four days were up.
Anyway, here’s where a great jumbleclutter of pictures begins.
We took the Eurostar from London to Paris. London was lovely (though drizzly as ever), not least because this was my first trip back to England since graduating from secondary school, and I got to see some fabulous old friends. —St. Pancras is a remarkable train station, warm yet grand:
London’s pre-Olympics atmosphere isn’t anywhere close to the overdone frenziness of Beijing leading up to 2008, but there are still a few prominent signs here and there
Paris’s Gare du Nord, where we ended up, is a bustling area, and has a very high Rumoured Pickpocket Index: we got warned about theft in the area by various enthusiastic strangers three times. It has quite a cheerful vibe in spite of it, and plenty of streetside cafés.
The Centre Georges Pompidou, a modern & contemporary art museum/cultural centre, is where we spent all of our first afternoon.
Here’s its distinct backside
The quirky fountain to the side of it
and the front
One of my favourite things about many European museums is the sheer number of very young children/school groups (some of them barely walking steadily!) you can see in them, interacting with, learning about, or just taking in the artwork.
How amazing to see perplexing and mind-bending artworks like these in person at such an early age. Maybe a bit like reading a great book that was too ‘old’ for me when I was a kid? — I didn’t ‘get’ it and might have been confused, but I felt expanded and exhilarated by the connection anyway.
The work of this photographer, David Goldblatt, had a wonderful focus on the amazingly diverse textures and shapes of everyday life
A creative take on steel fencing
I wasn’t quite sure what to make of this one
…and they weren’t quite sure what to make of me
Snapshots of the East Side Gallery, originally painted in 1990 to commemorate the falling of the Berlin Wall. Taken summer 2009.
I was aware there was restoration work going on, but it was odd to me why stretches of wall were being completely destroyed??
alice & the city 