It's been hectic over the last couple of weeks. First there was The Age of No Retirement festival and on its last day, October 1st, I took part in one of the conversation labs led by Caryn Franklin MBE and Professor of Diversity at Kingston University. With a number of highly committed speakers and a public that showed equal commitment to the idea of disrupting current narratives around age and ageing it was indeed a memorable day. More about it here, in a piece I wrote for HuffPostUk.
Then I worked on revamping my website which was a little outdated, it's looking much better now. I am getting more adept at creating websites, it cannot be a bad skill to have! Always striving to improve...
And now the GREAT news. Last night I finally found a way of watching Velvet the Spanish telenovela to which I have become hopelessly addicted after discovering it on Netflix. Season 4 is only just being shown on Spanish TV and will not be available on Netflix until next year but I can watch it every week here and it is a genuine site, one where you do not have to give your details and one which is not virus bearing. Of course I have to watch it in Spanish, but I can understand it. Mind you, I have become pretty addicted to The Collection too, now shown on Amazon Instant Videos. The first couple of episodes was not so good but now the clothes have taken centre stage, which is what interests me. And they are gorgeous. I will discuss The Collection in a forthcoming post.
Finally, after reading Alyson Walsh's post about giving your brain a rest, I went first to a salsa class (I am into Ballroom and Latin at the moment), as I don't believe in body and mind being separate, so I always have to do something physical in order to relax, then off to Tate Britain. It was the last day of the Pablo Bronstein's dance installation in the Duveen gallery and am so glad I caught it. It was quite breathtaking. And since I was at it I even went to have a peek at the Turner Prize nominees. I will go back, I need more time to take it all in. It is at times like this I am really happy to be a member of the Tate, I know I can go whenever I want at no extra charge. I found the works very interesting. One by Michael Dean was reminiscent of Ai Weiwei's Sunflower seeds except that it was smaller and rather than seeds there were coins. It consisted of £ 20,436 in pennies, the amount that the goverment states is the minimum two adults and two children need to survive on for a year. Wishful thinking! But the work was striking.
Michael Dean's installation
I have a friend who is very unmoved by modern/ contemporary art. I keep on telling him it is not about beauty, it is about challenging the viewers and their preconceptions. But some people will keep on asking the question 'is it art' expecting some reassurance on 'eternal and classical values'.
Did the 20th century never happen? It would seem so...
Micheal Dean's work was very moving, I totally got it. Let's hope the judges will get it too.
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