Animals, Nice Fish and Angels - 19 November 2016

"The very earliest cave paintings reveal that humans have cohabitated with animals for millennia. Yet the relationship is fraught and contradictory: we simultaneously mythologize, venerate, sacrifice, and exploit those who are not of our species. This paradox suggests that our connection with animals might be more complicated, and far richer, than commonly thought, and that the distinction between human and animal is not at all clear-cut."

 

The opening paragraph of the press release to the wonderful Animality exhibition at the Marian Goodman Gallery and this picture seems quite appropriate. 

My life here is lived without animals at present and it is seriously lacking for that reality.

 

 This exhibition was wonderfully curated in this light airy space with room to stop and contemplate. 

 

And be amused - by a ring of cats ..

And an interview with a cat by Marcel Broodthaers. Apparently it didn't go that well. As you would expect.

Back out and a meander through colourful, cheerful, busy Carnaby Street,

This random shot really caught the spirit of the street and how are those cheekbones!

This mural is called The Spirit of Soho and is dedicated to the people of Soho. It shows St Anne presiding over local dignitaries. Her skirt depicts the map of Soho with other London landmarks. It's quite recent - 1991 and restored in 2006.  I didn't know this but as the clock strikes the hour the actress winks at Casanova, Casanova responds by blowing kisses back to the acress and Karl Marx sips Coca Cola!  I'll have to go back to see that.

Then the main reason for the day out - A theatre production of Nice Fish with Mark Rylance at the Harold Pinter Theatre.

 

This is a very strange play - but hilariously funny. Not very long, it revolves around a pair of ice fishermen in Minnesota and a few other strange characters. It's charming.  Even sitting up in the gods, it was charming.

That's how close I was to the ceiling and there are the gods.

The days are so short now that after a matinée you come out to total darkness and there were angels everywhere! Just beautiful.

London was heaving as usual on a Saturday night and the new night service doesn't extend to the Bakerloo line yet, so I hopped the tube and headed on home. A good day out.