Tate Modern and Tea at Claridges July 9th, 2007

so yesterday i took the tube down to tate modern and saw the dali and film exhibit. what a wonderful museum! so many favorites - a couple of them are shown here - but i saw magritte, miro, matisse, klee, pollack, picasso, koons, warhol, duchamp's fountain..just to name a few. the installation picture is by jannis kounellis - untitled - and literally it is stuffed birds and then drawings in charcoal. the painting is by francis picabla - otaiti and he was inspired by the pin-ups of the 50s - i look forward to learning more about him. there was a film that was on small tvs throughout one of the galleries - it was inspired by a time the artist was walking with a gallery curator and a dog suddenly ran in front of him and tripped him. on each tv, a different view was shown of the incident recreated - one had a camera on top of the dog's head so you could see his ears, hear his panting and see the world at his level. another one showed the view from up the street so you could see the dog run in front of the man and then he trips. as he gets up and walks towards the camera, there are other dogs hanging around when suddenly, one mounts the other one and they start having dog love - it made me laugh out loud. another film was by rivan neuenscwander and cao guimares and shot just after brazilian carnival - it shows a bunch of ants carrying pieces of confetti back to their anthills and in the background there is a clicking noise that is created by dropping matchsticks on the floor. it was beautiful. i was fascinated by "meat joy" which features a performance artist film from the 60s that shows a bunch of people writhing around and then chicken meat gets dropped on them and they put it in their mouths and the song in the background is "lollipop" - definitely look it up. as for the dali exhibit - it had a few of his works and each gallery was organized by each period in his life - when you got to the gallery about his film work with luis bunel, they showed two films they made together - l'age d'or and un chien andalo - they are mezmerizing! i had to buy the dvd and will have a showing at home upon my return. well worth the 25 BP. i took pictures of the millenium bridge which is a pedestrian bridge across the thames - you can see st. paul cathedral in the background. last night a co-worker arrived from chicago so we went and had indian food - her first time. unfortunately, she wasn't wild about it but i loved my meal, as usual (i could live on indian food but i think my stomach would disagree). today, i went for afternoon tea (5:30) at claridges to meet with TB - she's the woman who owns the other house here - and had the best time. she is so interesting as many european woman are, and so completely charming and fun - we are going to have dinner some night which i am very much looking foward to. and i might add that you haven't lived until you've had actual devonshire clotted cream - it's utterly divine! it's a good thing that i walk so much and get exercise or i might return ten times larger.