Capital Culture

I have seen loads of fantastic exhibitions in London over the past couple of months. I'm not able to be there all the time so I try to see as much as I can when I am. One of my favourites was Disobedient Objects (til 1st Feb 2015) at the V&A museum. It looks at the role of objects in affecting social change. I LOVED the Barbie Liberation Organisation; watch this short video - hilarious.

This tree in the V&A courtyard went from yellow up to beetroot and looked beautiful against the red brick.

I also loved: Egon Schiele at the Courtauld; amazing nudes, virtuoso drawing until 15th Jan 2015, Rembrandt at the National Gallery til 18th Jan, late Turner at Tate Britain til 25th Jan: all these guys were radical in their day. And Constructing Worlds at the Barbican Centre; fantastic photographs of amazing architecture and environments, until 11th Jan 2015.

I wanted to live in London since I was about 12, I thought that's where it's all going on, I still do and it's easy to dismiss the provinces; to be honest - by my demanding standards there isn't remotely enough going on in the Plymouth area, so I was thrilled to see Light Fantastic, a projected light spectacular in the city recently. Hats off to Illuminos who created it, enchanting. Below is the facade of the beautiful but derelict Palace Theatre with ever changing moving images and sound collage on a loop.

This gave us time to walk to another site, the Eddystone lighthouse on Plymouth Hoe.

This piece was simpler,  to suit the tower and so beautiful on a clear night by the sea. Both pieces incorporated historical snippets from the locale cleverly put together. Look out for Illuminos - they work all over the country and it's a treat to see really great public art.

And I took this photo of the Palace Theatre 3 years ago - check out the buddleia, must be like trees by now. I remember seeing a pantomime here when I was young, Aladdin I think with the late great Irene Handl. I wonder if the building really will be saved and used again for something.