Oh MAN.......don’t you HATE those people who start blogs...get into it for a couple weeks then BAM...you never hear from them again.

Like some spoilt kid with a new toy.......sure I've got my excuses.....I’ve had NO INTERNET at home...a hideous setback that is STILL not rectified......don’t even try to complain about telecom in New Zealand.. British Telecom is like the evil monster you meet at the VERY end of a video game after you have already destroyed some tough dragon you believed to be the last one.(already dealt with New Zealand companies)..then all of a sudden you realise that you have to tackle the mother ship with what little shreds of patience you have left......

I'm just not going to go into it but REALLY.....

I’ve also been rather poor....so when i am at a net cafe you can bet I'm doing far more constructive networking/opportunity hunting style things than blogging to you lot.

But here I am and it is WELL time for an update.....

Well I have settled into my new home in Angel, it is a BEAUTIFUL area of London, green leafy trees line the streets, there is a canal running near my house with amazing charming longboats lined along it where gypsy style folk live...they have a boat club even...........there are pubs of all kinds (quaint, organic and plain old English pub) that are dotted all about.......on Wednesday and Thursday there is a little antiques market that takes place along the windy cobbled streets along the main road not 2 minutes walk from my house....and on Saturday there is a farmers market 5 minutes walk on the other side of the main drag where a whole street is filled with amazing produce etc.....

its gorgeous.....and as the sun shines as bright and clear as the N.Z summer I not long left behind...i am thinking of you all.

My life is going fairly well...I'm all settled now really, all the various numbers I need are finally sorted......and I have regular casual work in Albemarle Gallery. I'm also doing hospo and bar work to pull in the pounds for the rent, and have gotten into not only more art writing and more exhibition projects but also into music. I've joined a little band and it keeps me busy in the evenings.

I have images to show you...but at the moment i am rinsing some free internet cloud so am unable to post them up...I’m in the 80's and 100ks is a HUGE image to post...

Ill soon show you my house, my friends, my objects I’ve obtained from the antique store, my gallery and everything else I’ve got that’s fast adding up to my new life.

London in the summer is amazing, music, galleries, people flocked to the little squares of green in droves lying around with their shirts off behind the cast iron railings...their multitude and relaxed more animal summer induced tranquillity makes them look like monkeys in cages...outdoor zoos.......the ice-cream man pulls up and they all eat it lazily and drink their beer from the convenience stores...its really quite endearing...we really are spoiled for parks and space in NZ.

-S

Hi All... (above: me and Alex about to hit the town....)

Forgive the lapse.....having no internet at home is like having to function with one hand.......having to walk across the rd with partial site...having to ride a horse to work......ok that last one would be pretty cool.... but the point is things aren’t so easy.....

....I’m in a strange state of Limbo at the moment because I’ve applied for every arts job going, I have around 10 serious application in to galleries, from two different Tates to the Barbican,... and none of them are due to get back to me till very late March early April. In the mean time I have been applying for less amazing jobs...diners and bars.....etc....


... Alex has been brilliant...such a star......but as today is my one month anniversary.....I‘m looking for other places to crash for a week or two .......I don’t know anyone in London but feel compelled to stay close to the city due to all the interviews I’m expecting to come rolling in...


I might decide to go to Bath or Brighton for a while and trawl there?...we shall see... isn't traveling exciting hu?

So...limbo... I’m in Limbo.... It‘s amazing how many choices there are when you start from scratch. The days move SO fast here and If I’m not hunting down work and writing applications I’m visiting the galleries I’ve applied to and making connections with friends of friends...

So....I’ve been in the old country for a month... I remember when I first walked bemused into a supermarket and was disturbed at the way the way there weren’t really any brands other than supermarket brands...Tesco Water, Tesco's toilet paper...Tesco brand Coffee..Tesco brand meat......what the? I felt wrong buying it....like I was joining the Tesco cult.....but now Its just the way it is..... I am used to the fact that I have to place pound coin into the shopping trolley so I can use it during my shop then get the pound back by locking the trolley back in place......Everything is bolted to the floor and chained to the wall in London!!!!

I haven’t even told you about the play I went to.... I hopped on train to Leister....it’s in the middle of England but that doesn’t stop English people. ..they just have this excellently ordered national rail service...you just get off the tube, jump on an ‘overland train’ sit comfortably for 45 minutes and BAM your in the middle of England....just like that.

Leicester is beautiful… the cobbled streets, the brick, the ancient buildings, the winding alleyways and lampposts....I went to the Curve theatre to see my favorite actor, Marc Warren do his thing in a play called The Pilllowman. It was a strange dark comedy...very black comedy about a writer...the script was REALLY hard going, monologues and story telling … a mix of gritty realism and child-like musing...but Marc of course pulled it off.... The play was a little immature I thought....it gave too much away, finished things off too well and relied SO heavily on delivery as the script was DIFFICULT… it also went into the lives of less prominent characters at the detriment of the plot line...has a lot of unnecessary symbolism... but all in all it was good.....the ideas in it were very inventive and Marc was brilliant, really brilliant...so was the actor playing his brother.....it had a lot of psychological depth too.....

anyway like a TOTAL fan I went and bugged him for an autograph and photo after the show… he kindly obliged........then I had a 2 pound pint in the quaintest pub I could find until my rail ticket was ready...and zipped back to London Town…. That was that...it would have taken more time to get into a car...drive to Auckland central and get a park under the Aotea centre.

Me with Marc Warren....you only get one chance to look cool in these kinda photos.......alas.......

I've also been to Trafalgar square and the National Gallery...it was incredible...I saw a self portrait of Rembrandt...just there on the wall..... huge sprawling paintings…..figures emerging out of darkness….portraits of incredibly rich inbred royals….their lips defectively tucked neatly above their chins……tiny paintings with more detail than a mural the size of a wall could contain...... religious usually and of course……(I thought often of you Lucy...and Link)....a Lion sits, each of his hairs painted with a single brush hair…. Staring with my foolish 21st century eyes trying to contemplate that the painting I am looking at isn’t a prop…it’s a thousand years old……

I was MOST impressed by the colours…I part expected things to be faded…maybe they were before restoration…but the colours! The blues,….azure, amazing…the rich blood red…folds of glorious materials as vibrant as a light infused pixel on a screen……the blood of Christ spilling out of the ancient brushwork… if the blood really spilled forth I would have had to wade through it… The beasts and the myths.. it was amazing…my eyes began to burn with the intensity and the noise of it all…I’ll have to go back to see the second half of the collection…

I am thinking often about home, of course, especially my family…my friends…my Depot, and my Satellite, all my artists and my Mark….sat there steering Satellite into the future…my Harvey….

I’ll write more once grounded…..

xx-S

pending.....

Hi all....

I am currently without internet where i'm staying...so when i'm paying for internet its all business I'm afraid...

will catch you up shortly.....still visiting galleries and famous London sites...still looking for work....now looking for a place to live...

xx
-S

GENERIC TOURIST....

O.k so loathe as I am to photograph 'englishy London' stuff and post it to you...

I have some friends and family that want to see some generic out and about in London shots....

For all my English friends, photographer friends and beloved art bitches: view at your own risk...

I've been up to a fair bit... I went and checked out the Green Park art scene first... saw White Cube (one of them)... it was fairly unwelcoming and the artist prefers to display (and paint) his work upside-down (I believe he's been doing this since the 70's so for all you scoffing 40 somethings; don’t look at my generation)

It was quite decent show by artist Georg Baselitz... the scale he was able to get loose gestural drawing on was impressive and the contextual side had alot of depth. They seemed like intimate sketches but they were huge. It has like Greg Page meets Heesoo kim...
......trawling the art scene, as I do, I am finding the artists here are interested in similar concepts and ideas our Satellite artists are... (I am biased toward Satellite exhibitors of course). Echoes of Mica Still's palate and content can be seen in Sebastian Brajkovic's work at The Carpenters Gallery, the intuitive painter Frank To discovers shadowy figures in his dark rich paintings much like Tina Frantzen...(I prefer Tina's work).

Sebastian's work was very cool; incredibly beautiful pieces, so playful despite the precision... the overwhelming perfection, the SKILL and the DETAIL.....the images on the site don’t do them justice (of course) the poisonous colours of the thread... and provocative animal forms in the stitch work were amazing (medieval mythological animals). He made cast bronze furniture appear to bleed and fall..... like Dali's clocks but SO much better....


It hasn't been all art....I've walked through Hyde Park on a misty morning, watching people ride horses... (albeit to see Serpentine Gallery) .....

I've had a street vended pancake with lemon and sugar (as the gods intended) in the west end, I've haggled a Camden Market vendor from 30 to 10 pounds for a jacket, I've been to the Piccadilly Markets on antique day...

I've seen the Ritz, had my shoes shined, visited the the Royal Academy (no I couldn’t afford the Byzantium exhibition but look forward to it once employed) and had ALOT of AWFUL coffee..............

....The people in this town know NOTHING about coffee. It’s ASTOUNDING!!! It’s like they never got the memo: They always burn it, it's never smooth and creamy, the froth is always bubbly (when you CAN get a cappuccino) its watery, HUGE and they have never heard of a flat white. (you WARNED me Fran..)

I'm finding all these bazaar traditions my English father carried with him make sense now... for example who carries a handkerchief in N.Z? (with your exception Dad and Lynn)... they are NECESSITY here....your cold nose is SO oft runny. The whole thermos phenomenon makes sense too......you NEED a hot drink here after 30 mins of being outside...

Anyway I hope you enjoy the generic images (below). As far as my 'progress' goes I have (after MANY pains) transferred my cash, I've helped out at a dealer gallery opening, introduced myself around, found some valuable contacts and applied for several interesting positions (not that I'm in a hurry... I'm having a brilliant time)...

PICTURE TIME:

The Ritz.....in the Mayfair area...yep...

the one that costs 2000 dollars if you land on it with a hotel......

Getting on side with the local authorities.....they'll never suspect me now...

THIS is Kings Cross Tube station...there is always all this industrail caging and wire in the tubes....I bet all the first year art students here go CRAZY for it.....

Speaking of the tube this is a view from my ride home to Central Finchley..... it aint all buildings and undergrounds...

A highlight to my city art tour....a giant wall of generations of ripped off posters at the Camden Tube station....I know you'll appreciate this Harvey...It was beautiful.

Me VERY jettlagged at the worlds end..... I was scaring small children and animals with those dark circles

This is where I'm staying... I call it 'Me with Kitchen'

and.....signing off... thanks all. till next time.

xx

-S

Hi all. ....wish had time to write to everyone separately at the moment.....but i REALLY don't. Thank you for the letters and the amazing red Depot book and the cards....

(for people who didn't know me reading this.....are you wondering if I'm just making up all these people who care about me?..)

So straight down to the important stuff...

Friday night here is quite impressive.... Alex and I got off the tube at Camden last night (by the way... the tube is not huge and confusing, it is incredibly well organised, and well labeled....you would never see anything so sensible in NZ ever) and there is this big crowd of people gathered around these guys freestyle battling....they had mikes hooked up to a little generator (like this tiny baby generator)....there was a DJ spinning on the street with these little portable decks. .... it was awesome.... everyone knows rap sounds better with English accents... maybe French would be the best though....

The pubs are OLD and COOL...not like....designed last month with old furniture to look cool.....ACTUALLY cool and old. The architecture is of course amazing....all these art Nouveau curves and brick, brick, brick....(yes I had to look up how to spell Nouveau)..

I never thought I'd find a city where you walk into a pub and the first guy you strike up a conversation with can make intelligent comments on Jonne Donne and Commodore 64 gaming! ...

Thank bog for Flight of the Concords.... they REALLY upped our game over here....other wise its just 'lord of the rings'..no real street cred there....

My flat living is going O.K...I am wary of outstaying my welcome of course.... I'll just chalk it up to karma and have a bunch of you fools come crash on my couch when I get established here....

I also went to a casting call today to be an extra in a film about John Lennon....it meant I travelled all the way out to west London. It is VERY pretty....green parks and windyish roads and gardens.....cobbled lanes... and all the brick! (of course).

There were people on the streets with little carts selling flowers and sausages...HEAPS of salami and kransky...weird...what an impulse buy.....'here I go walking to the store and whats that? gotta buy a massive salami stick!!!'

For those of you who have been a bit cut up about my not having a return ticket........ I'll tell you a story... when the ancient Greeks sailed to war and landed on enemy shores the first thing they would do is turn around and burn their boats so all the men would know the only way home is to fight and win, returning a few years later with bounty and honour. That's a bit like me with my one way ticket. Its not a goodbye forever. (don't check that fact on wikipedia....ok? take it as a paraphrase if I'm wrong)--

this is such a book club huh? where are the photo's?......

-S

First entry....

Hi all, (pic of me and my uncle Roger during my airport goodbyes.... he came all the hellway down from Kaitaia to see me off and drove me to the airport. legend)

Things are going well, my friend Alex is looking after me, I have a warm place to stay and Alex and Jay (his gorgeous flatmate) are putting up with me in their flat....

I have been keeping the house to say thanx. 30 hours on a plane.. crazy crazy time.... weird sleep patterns.... flying royal brunei so got blessed by Allah about a million times... they sure love to prey. The food was brilliant.. I really don't know what everyone is complaining about. I had stopovers in Australia....(major security, nice airport), Brunei (Malaysia...tiny weird airport...saw the sun set on these huge black hills....its SO lush there and booze is illegal), Dubai (Arabic place...beautiful airport it was too dark to see outside) and then to London....6.30 am... my friend came out on the tube to pick me up... kept timesing the price of everything by 3 (NZ currency is a joke) so wouldn't buy a coke....

The one thing I loved about flying was the clouds.... they were incredible... now I know why they call them the heavens.... huge billowing sculptures spiralling into the sky....you fly past them, these giant amorphous shapes........amazing frosty cotton....so SOLID looking......so WHITE. All amass and rolling into each other....greys and silver but frozen in time as you pass by. Touched by white hot sunlight and bathed in azure.... just so beautiful.... London is brilliant... the water comes out the tap chilled....and I can wear all my boots again... my coats... MY HAT (await photo for those of you who havent seen this hat) potos will come soon....promise....

Alex is being very kind to me....when i got here i crashed all day then woke up still tired at 6pm at night... be took me for a breakfast burger and some nutritious breakfast pints of beer.... they were haagen something and tasted like bananas.... I wasted no time in getting myself sorted. In my few days here I have applied for, interviewed for and am being sent my National Insurance Number, got a U.K cell number (07768704021).... a bank account.. applied for several jobs doing extra work on films etc...(good easy cash while job hunting) and this coming week I'm looking up real jobs, researching the galleries they are for, visiting them etc....

I have also spent a bit of time standing around like a half wit at the supermarket trying to figure out what everything costs, what everything is and why jif turned into cif...

I've bought a copy of the Time out paper in London(thanks Paul, Sue and Jas) reading up on the art spaces getting my head around it, booking in openings of import. Trying to spend as few pounds as possible! London is amazing....I was just walking down to the shop and there was this old church and graveyard...just sat there all ancient stones and cat iron twisted gates...a giant crow was piking through a plastic bag....crows are HUGE they walk like dinosaurs. Its was like something out of Poe....except for the plastic bag...but that's London, ancient meets modern.

Cant wait to see the art spaces!!! you look up whats on and its like Murakami, Messager, Richter,....not to mention all the regular collections...and the big shows on Picasso etc...... Alex wants to take me out to see the night life too, come sat I will have earned it! Miss you all, Glad I have thermals and jacket and hat...when the sun (big grey ball of light) goes down it gets COLD. I love it though.-- -S

In the beginning...

Hi all,

This is a blog for my friends....I'm nothing if not efficient, so I thought I'd keep you all updated at once using the wonders of cyber space.

I will be heading of for the U.K in 2009 and this is how you can check in on my travels, trials and hopefully tribulations.

More to come...

Cheers
-S