Hope everyone enjoys the festive time of the year!
Wednesday 25th March 2015
Visit to Cappella Palatina in Palermo, Sicily.
This stunningly golden little chapel is in the same building in which they hold the regional parliament of Sicily, Palace of the Normans.
It is the royal chapel of the Norman kings of Sicily.
Full of beautiful golden mosaic on the every wall and wooden ceiling is decorated with such detailed carvings that could even make you feel dizzy.
Wednesday 25th March 2015
I visited the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo, Sicily.
http://www.palermocatacombs.com/
This unique historical catacombs contains more than 8000 mummies that are lying in repose or hung from hooks by their necks and feet on the wall.
(National Geographic)
In 1599 Capuchin monks discovered 45 friars naturally and mysteriously mummified in their catacombs.
The Capuchins believed that this incredible preservation was an act of God. So instead of burying them, they decided to display the bodies in niches along the walls.
(Telegraph)
The Capuchins slowly accepted more laypeople. Then, in 1783 they decided to accept burial to anyone requesting it.
Since then, thousands of people, especially wealthy citizens of Palermo, men, women, virgins, children, priests, monks and professors are buried in their best clothes.
It was amazing to see many of them were wearing beautiful clothes that weren’t quite decomposed. I was a bit concerned that some mummies’s necks seemed uncomfortably positioned.
It is intriguing that this way of burial attracted many people then.
Sunday 1st March 2015
After the visit to William Blake’s exhibition at Ashmolean Museum, I went to Pitt Rivers Museum.
When you visit there, in the first room, you will meet skeletons of dinosaurs and stuffed animals and birds.
Then the next room is this.
There are many masks,
carved figures
and puppets from all over the world.
This long armed guy has a likeable face.
There are also peculiar shrunken heads and much more to see.
More photos are on here!
https://picasaweb.google.com/112758952304360604698/PittRiversMuseum
Sunday 1st March 2015
I went to see William Blake: Apprentice and Master at Ashmolean Museum.
It was the last day of the show and the tickets were sold out.
The exhibition showed William Blake’s prints and especially focused on his progress and development in print-making techniques.
The contrast of his bold design and composition, and the sensitivity of print-making techniques interests me.
Sunday 22nd February 2015
I went to Wellcome collection to see the Institute of Sexology show.
http://wellcomecollection.org/exhibitions/institute-sexology
This show explores human sexuality and curiosity.
There are artistic, but erotic pictures, photos and objects from all around the world.
You can also observe the study of people’s sexual activities in numbers and graphs.
Wednesday 4th February 2015
I went to see a Japan Foundation touring event: It Only Happens in the Movies?: Short Peace at ICA gallery.
“Short Peace” is an anthology of 4 animated short films directed by different directors including renowned cartoonist and animator Katsuhiro Otomo. The theme of all four films is “Japan” and you will see Japan’s iconic landmark of Mt. Fuji in all of them.
Possessions (九十九) Director: Shuhei Morita
A traveller meets the spirits of abundant broken objects used by people.
Combustible (火要鎮) Director: Katsuhiro Otomo
A short love story of a fire fighter and a girl from a wealthy family. You will also see some historical elements of how the fire was put down in the ancient Japan.
Gambo Director: Hiroaki Ando
A giant white bear protects a girl from small village where all other girls are kidnapped by a red devil. Some very violent scenes.
A Farewell to Weapons (武器よさらば) Director: Hajime Katoki
A saga of men battling against almost-indestructible robots in apocalyptic Tokyo. A fast paced action packed film, which holds the tension until the very end.
It screening was followed by an interesting facts of Katsuhiro Otomo’s work and views of Japanese animations by Helen McCarthy.
Tuesday 3rd February 2015
I went to see Kentaro Kobayashi’s comedy performance “Mr Potsunen’s Peculiar Slice of Life” in Leicester Square Theatre.
Kentaro Kobayashi is a Japanese performer, comedian and artist. He has a comedy duo called “RAHMENS”.
His most famous work is the video series “The Japanese Tradition~日本の形~”.
“Sushi (鮨)”
“Mr Potsunen’s Peculiar Slice of Life” is Kobayashi’s performance piece I saw for the first time. It had the collections of all my favourite visual techniques and collaborations of live and projected visuals.
The performance didn’t have any dialogues, but had lots of Japanese reaction sounds such as “Nnn?” “Ahhh..”. This solo act was supported by a white puppet creature and the story followed Mr Potsunen’s whimsical imaginations.
There were many of his illustrations used in the video and those simple lined illustrations were very comical and pleasing to see.
I thoroughly enjoyed the show!
Saturday 20th December 2014
Visit to the exhibition “Mirrorcity” at Hayward Gallery.
This poster made me want to go and see the exhibition. My initial thought of this show was there would be many photos of mirrored London city. But the actually it was with the works of contemporary artists.
I didn’t enjoy the show very much but I quite liked the drawings by Emma McNally.
Big and very detailed drawings using different hardness of pencils seemed to express some sort of maps.
Very interesting!
Saturday 6th December 2014
I went to Syon Park Enchanted Woodland Walk.
The trees were lit up in all different colours of lighting and looked very dramatic.
It was very cold evening, but about 2 miles walk became enjoyable, when I found some scary trees!
The classical music with a performance of lighting and laser was very impressive!
There were some interactive devices for you to change the colour of lighting or play with shadows.
ANIMATSUDA Animation 