Whaam!

The Design Museum, London

With my upcoming visiting to London next week looming, I have been trying to get a list together of places to visit while I'm down there. We have a few extra days to explore as we are down for 5 days, with Eco Build only occupying 3 of them.

For me, The Tate Modern is a must. I've never had the time to visit before - as the only other time I've ever been to London was for the same excursion last year, to which time was an issue. I've been looking through their extensive list of permanent pieces, along with the current exhibitions, and have come to the conclusion I may need to dedicate a whole morning or afternoon for The Tate Modern. They have 27 pages listing all their works by Andy Warhol, and house Roy Lichtenstein's Whaam! - something I am desperate to see as it's over 4m long! I remember thinking that some pieces that you have longed to see can be a let down in scale, a particular example of this was Dali's paintings I seen while visiting New York's MoMA. Some of them were post card sized - something you would never assume from images printed in books.

Ai WeiWei's Sunflower Seeds Exhibiton

Ai Weiwei's current installation piece entitled "Sunflower Seeds" is something I want to get the chance to see - as the scale of it seems like something that would be very powerful to see, and have more of an impact than mere images.

Next on my list of places to visit is The Design Museum. I'm hoping to find some kind of inspiration for my current project there, as things have taken a dip in terms of motivation. I always do this - storm into a project like a hurricane and then the calm in the middle comes, and then it's a mad dash to the finish line, but hey - it works.

The V&A is another place I'd like to visit, but I'm not sure if I will gave time to spare. I guess I can use it as an excuse to visit again during the summer - as I do need to spend some time taking in the culture from the comfort of some of Camden's finest bars.

Living in Dundee and coming from Edinburgh means I've never had a real sense of travelling times within a city - so I always assume it to be "no bother" to "pop across town" - although in reality, we could be talking about an hour or more. I suppose I will just have to see how much I can squeeze in - although I'm not in any way fussed to see BigBen or The London Eye. Actually, I'd be quite proud if I never see them, in a kind of anti-tourist type way.