House

I decided to take myself off to an exhibition, and in a fairly random manner I selected USA Today, the Saatchi show of Young American Artists at the Royal Academy. This was billed as a show to rival the impact of the Sensation exhibition back in the 90's, but it wasn't all that. Interesting though, and plenty big enough - but a lot of it left me feeling empty and uninvolved. 6/10 perhaps, if I'm feeling generous.

Afterwards I stretched out on the grass in Green Park and ate lunch. A bit of sunshine and the deckchairs come out - and a little man runs around trying to collect £1.50 off the unsuspecting tourists who are hapless enough to sit down upon them. How they protest - and there is much arm movement and general gesticulation. Bloody money-grubbing English. Londoners sit on the grass and look on. I watched the various attempts the ticket-man made to explain to non-English speaking tourists that in London you have to pay to sit down for two minutes, before inevitably they would get up and walk on.

Onwards to the library and a solid four hours of studinglyness. Feeling very swotty, I tottered off to my lecture entitled The Nation comes from the Nursery. We looked at mid-Victorian genre painting and went on to discuss the impact of patronage and then the relevance of Rachel Whiteread's sculpture, House. I remember this when it actually stood off the Mile End road and I used to pass it on the bus on the way to the barbers in Bethnal Green. I recall the artist on the local TV news on the day the sculpture was demolished, calmly attempting to explain to smug media hacks and misguided local residents that it was never intended to be permanent, and the destruction was symbolic of the nature of the work. Mmm.