Patricia Frischer: London Letter Part 1, Oct 2017

Every approximately 18 month, my husband Darwin and I go to London. I report on a combination of food and art, the two great loves of my life after Darwin.

A little table top design of my own making

Part 1

Crystal China was our first meal out. So much fun to see different things on the menu like pigs ears and chicken feet. I forgot how good those prawn crackers are that are all puffed up. We had lamb sliced into tender bits with green onions and a whole dish of gai lan (my favorite green veg) plus salt and pepper tiny spare ribs. I took the leftovers and added rice and some parsley and lemon smoked mackerel two days later and it was pretty fine.

Orange origami at Crystal China

Our first foray out in the car, we went back to a favorite restaurant in Clapham as we wanted to meet with our fellow freeholder and also with our tenant. Newtons has changed hands many time and it not now even called Newtons but I had my 60^th birthday there and so have fond memories as the layout has not changed that much. It is now called by its address 33 Abbeville Road. We had scallops with tiny braised beetroot and red currents decorated with the sweetest little pansies. We followed that with a so so duck breast but wonderful mushroom sauce. And so why not have a lemon tart for dessert. Since we split all the dishes and portions are much smaller, we did not have left overs.  

Darwin and I finally went walk about. We found Lidl (pronounced Liddle), a very cheap store that has tried to go a bit up market since I lived here.  They have imported food and a line called Delux so it was fun to shop and find bargains….white anchovies, crusted brie with lodenberries, fresh duck breast (Darwin cooked them with teriyaki and hoisin sauce), red pesto, foccocia with goats cheese and sun kissed tomatoes and the afore mentioned smoked mackerel with lemon and parsley.  Then we walked down to a big Tesco and it was such a trip to see all the African shops with a huge numbers of barber shops.  There were no women on the street at all which was a bit creepy especially as I had on a dress with bare legs. There were masses of men sitting at café and in so many barbershops that I lost count. It turns out that these barbershops are really like social clubs, soapboxes, advice bureaus: London’s Afro-Caribbean barbershops are amazing community hubs. I thought they were fronts for some kind of nefarious activity, but it was just a different culture. You can feel you are in a whole different country just walking down a street. Some restaurant menus had no food I recognized at all.  I can’t wait to go back and try some, but maybe during the day.

Figs and Pomegranates

Little gift boxes of wild mushrooms

This is lettuce not wrapping paper

I had to ask a friend...it is celeriac 

olive and cheese bread sticks

Just past Tesco, we found the most wonderful sculpture by Peter Logan, the kinetic sculptor. Our first trip to the Borough Market will be one of many this month. We found so many wonderful tempting displays of food but only bought one of these fabulous olive and cheese bread sticks, some lovely Spanish cheese and biscuits, red tapenade which is always a favorite of ours.  We got a glorious packet of very special ham for Peter who has the same birthday as Darwin and so he invited a whole group to EV TAZ restaurant for a meal to celebrate. He told us we are the guests of honor!  And they were all so friendly and kind to include us. A huge about of Turkish food and some lovely wine was consumed. You didn’t actually have to have a piece of jewelry by his brother Andrew to get it, it just seemed that way.

birthday dinner at EV with Peter Logan, I am on the right and Darwin is on the left

Peter Logan kinetic sculpture on Old Kent Road

We made it this first week to see some art…surprise, surprise. And it was a very good start with a fabulous trio of shows at the very impressive White Cube.  For those of you who don’t know this space it is three big white rooms and lots of open hall space and some hidden offices set in a large courtyard off Bermendsey Road. Cerith Wyn Evans had one large neon work which was my favorite. There were three small shiny black circles on one wall  which reflected the light and I am presuming this was on purpose and did give the work a little extra something, but just seeing these lines of light suspended in the space was a joy. 

When you walked in the room of objects by Ann Veronica Jannsens it almost look like they were by different people, but a bit of study and you knew it was all about illusion caused by light reflections and glass. It really pulled you in to look and try to understand how each affect was caused. It was nice to see these first two shows that were purely visual with not a lot of social content.  

This is color changing powder blown onto the floor of the gallery

Danian Ortega was in the largest space and at first impression it was too cerebral for me. But on close inspection each diagram was almost silly phrases laid on complicated diagrams or related to the objects all around. It was hard to know which came first and I rather enjoyed the absurbist.

photo especially for Kaz Maslanka

The saddest part of this report is that all three shows are on for the whole time we are here so we will not be seeing a fresh show at White Cube before we leave. But they are in Frieze this year, so we shall be seeing more.

We discovered the Maltby Market on Rope Walk, also walking distance from us, and it turned out to be a just like a scene from Harry Potter.  A very grey day, in a landscape of council housing, and then you suddening turned the corner of a little alley and it was teaming and steaming with food carts. We choose potatoes with cream, cheese and ham, but the selection was huge. Umbrella and streamers gave it a festive feeling. 

A quiet street in London with wild mushroom growing near a tree trunk. I made this snap on the way back from Maltby Market. 

Flash Forward at Oceanside Museum of Art

I have been instrumental in arranging a NCAN meeting at Oceanside Museum of Arts (OMA) taking a look at the challenges we have to meet and opportunities available in 2018 and beyond in the art in San Diego. My special area of expertise is obviously visual arts and I do spend a considerable amount of time thinking about this subject. 

There is a group of shows at Oceanside Museum of Art called Healing Journeys: Veterans and Artist Unit which I think is a perfect example of the future now. The Arts and Culture community is going to be called upon more and more to advocate for social issues. To do that effectively they need to be able to collaborate and aid intersections within the community. They also need to provide a meeting place for those wishing to come out from in back of their computers. That audience is increasingly wanting to do more than look, they want to have the making experience. OMA demonstrates all these qualities and that is why they are considered effective leaders and why there relevancy is assured. 

Learn more at: 

Flash Forward: North County Arts Network’s roundup of future cultural events, trends, predictions, visions and directions.
Wednesday, July 12, 2017 from 9 am to 11 am
Oceanside Museum of Art
704 Pier View Way, Oceanside CA 92054

Flash Forward: NCAN’s roundup of future cultural events at Oceanside Museum of Art on Wednesday July 12, 2017 from 9 am to 11 am. Industry leaders in Visual Arts, Theater, Music, Dance and Spoken Word will make overview presentations in their particularly area of expertise. The emphasis will be on sector directions in 2018 and beyond. Come and learn what the future holds and become part of the intersections in North County between all the arts. There will be updates on the Arts and Economic Summit and news about the revised website plus a chance to network with colleagues before and after the presentations.

Hosted and Moderated by Maria Mingalone, Executive Director, Oceanside Museum of Art

Visual Arts: Kerri Fox, Vice President, Marketing,  New Children’s Museum, President of the SD County Museum Council
Theater: Chris Williams, Associate Artistic Director, North Coast Rep
Dance: Emily Miller, Director, Performing Arts Workshop
Music: Naimeh Tahna, President, Encinitas Friends of the Arts
Spoken Word: Danny Salzhandler, 101 Artist Colony/Full Moon Poets

Meaning In Bronze: May 27–October 8, 2017

Veterans works with the VetArts team (started by Stephen Dilley and aided by Mark Jesinoski with instructors Kevin Larson and Scott Hickey) to re-create their faces. Casting in bronze is laborious process which calls for strength and dexterity and concentration. This makes it particularly suited to veterans. I found their statements very moving, but just seeing their faces was compelling.  

Work by the instructors was included and they are veterans themselves and used the medium to communicate complex issues.  

Kevin Larson

Scott Hickey

Scott Hickey

Ted Meyer: Scarred For Life: May 27–September 17, 2017

Ted Meyer has connected with survivors of wars, accidents, and mental and physical health issues by layering paint on top of the skin, rubbing it to record the actual contours of the scars left by these incidents. Not only has Meyer embellished the resulting marks on the paper, but photo of the survivors with their stories in their own words makes a strong visual statement.  

Coming up is one more exhibition in this series: A Time To Heal: July 29–October 8, 2017. A small group of veterans wrote letters to themselves, reflecting on hardship and healing during workshops facilitated by artist Trinh Mai at the museum. These letters have been incorporated into the “war wounds” that participants created using various materials.

But there is another exhibition by Michelle Montjoy that also demonstrates community involvement in  making art. River from March 25–July 9, 2017 is a small show which documents the participation of people who, using large table top looms or finger crocheting, contributed to a visual conversation by knitting or crocheting, braiding or knotting a form using old t-shirts.  

More of Michelle Montjoy's work can be seen at the entrance and when ascending and descending the main staircase. Ms. Montjoy is currently in the New Contemporaries exhibition. You have until Aug 4 to visit and vote for your own choice of New Contemporaries emerging artists nominated for the San Diego Art Prize. There is a second reception for this show on July 8 from 6 to 9 pm at basileIE + CMCuratorial in Barrio Logan. San Diego Visual Arts Network who produced the San Diego Art Prize is putting up a cash prize for the public choice award but you have to be present at the venue to vote with your smart device. at www.sdvan.net/app. Here are links to 

The New Contemporaries 2017 Catalog is now available for download.

2017 New Contemporaries SD Art Prize Picked RAW Peeled by Patricia Frischer

I matter

I am a busy person. I don’t like to waste time or effort. I am also a person worried about funding cuts for the arts. So I gamely signed petitions, wrote emails, and even made the occasional call to help those trying to save the status quo for the NEA, CAC, SD Commission for Arts and Culture and the City of Chula Vista City when asked. But I was truly surprised when I learned that these efforts really helped. What I did not know is that there is a formula that converts every contact into a ratio. So each email, for example, represents 10,000 voters in the state. That makes a big difference to me. I like knowing that my time and effort is not wasted and that these seemingly small acts are relevant and can result in changes.

The City of San Diego passed the 2018 budget. It reduced the cuts to San Diego’s arts and culture funding from 31% to 3.5%. While less than ideal, this much smaller budget cut is great news for keeping most programs intact and minimizing job loss. This news comes from Rise Up for the Arts.

PLUS: the Chula Vista City Council voted unanimously to support a budget compromise that keeps the city's Cultural Arts program, and other important city programs, intact. The council’s action averts the potential layoff of 10 – 15 city employees, and other cutbacks, that would have eliminated the positions of the Cultural Arts Program Manager, the Marketing and Communications Manager, an Economic Development Specialist, two Code Enforcement officers and more. Thanks to Patricia Aguilar, Chula Vista Councilperson for this great update.

PLUS, PLUS: Grants totaling $15,032,837 have been awarded to various nonprofit organizations statewide this year by the California Arts Council. A total of 1,076 grantees will receive state grant funding for their work spanning the Arts Council's 15 unique program categories, benefiting California's students, veterans, arts educators, at-risk youth, formerly incarcerated individuals, underserved populations, and communities at large.

PLUS, PLUS, PLUS: it appears that the NEA and Public Broadcasting will not now be cut if the congress holds strong on these matters.  

At the American for the Arts Conference held in San Francisco this month, there were many wonderful sessions and they are all available via their YouTube page. I liked the presentation during Art and Politics in the Trump era by Sofia Klatzker,  Executive Director of Arts for LA in charge of art advocacy in Los Angeles.  I found her to do list for local action very concrete. She advocates for each community to declare an arts day, arts week and then arts month. Get out and do candidate surveys and post them online and then hold candidate forums in association with the league of women’s voters. Work to make non-profit art sites into polling places and add a performance or exhibition on the day. Do briefings about what is occurring and build local coalitions to mobilize when needed. And most importantly activate the youth. She has an 8 month training session that culminates with an advocacy project of their choice. And there is a program where volunteers actually walk young voters to the polls with slogans like “I matter”.

Finally, we are seeing many artist that are being activist i.e. artivist. Don’t Shut Up curated by Linda Litteral produced by FIG  (founder Anna Stump) is at City Gallery AH314, San Diego City College  (1508 C Street, SD 92101)  with an opening reception on July 8 from 5 to 8 pm and a panel discussion July 13 from 6 to 8 pm, and an artist talk on July 20 on 5 to 8 pm. Female-led art and activism  focused on raising women’s voices on an assortment of issues is featured. This exhibition includes an activist quilt featuring 40 blocks from all over the United States including San Diego. The opening reception will also feature a political postcard writing station by Lori Lipsman and spoken word performance by poet Stacy Dyson. This event runs until July 26.

Desert X: a close by way to see large scale art

For the past 35 years I have been visiting the Palm Springs area to visit and care for my mother. I was always happy to see exhibitions at the Palm Springs Museum and the large group of sales galleries. Although she is gone now I was really happy that the Inaugural Desert X project was launched.  I was able to visit a few of the many major installations in various media by a variety of artists. It ran from Feb 25 and I was able to visit it the last week of April 30^th.

There were 16 different exhibits by both established and emerging artists. It covered area from Desert Hots Springs and Coachella west to the city of Palm Springs and just east of the tram. This entire project was curated by Neville Wakfield.

The website https://www.desertx.org/  is a bit confusing, but once I was able to find the right page and scan all the way down to the map. Then I discovered a place to click to get driving instructions to each of the site. Even with a smart phone, it is a bit of a treasure hunt. And it every site we visited was full of people. That was so impressive as the event was free and so attracted a wide range of people.

There were all sorts of subjects, but we concentrated on the a few that were reflective and merged the sky and earth into the work. It seems so appropriate for a city surrounded by mountains. A favorite was Doug Aikens who pulled off a ranch-style house covered inside and out entirely with mirrors located on Racquet Club Road west of North Palm Canyon Drive in Palm Springs. 

Mother lived around the corner from Sunnylands conference center and gardens which is part of the Anneburg Estate and which has hosted many many world leaders. It is pure mid century and the plantings are sculptural in their design. I had never been there before and it just goes to show that seeing art can open up whole new worlds for the visitor. This was the venue for the Lita Albuquerque installation and  I was able to see many areas that I had never noticed before because of this project. 

Will there be a second Desert X? This first one attracted tens of thousands of visitors and Susan Davis, the founder and board president of Desert X said it could return in 2019. They just need to fund raise but with all the good PR, and the wealth of the community, we have high hopes. 

Doug Aiken: so many fabulous opportunities for photos

Philip K. Smith gave us a whole ring of reflective post and some seem to disappear into the sky, others into the sand. 

Jennifer Boland created a series of billboards that looks like continuations of the landscape

Claudia Comte presented mind bending lines.

No I did not get to see this light sculpture by Tavares Strachan spelling" I  AM "from the sky, but the slots in the ground that were illuminated could be seen on high. 

The Lita Albuquerque women in blue set in a circle of crushed marble was only a memory of the dancers in the performance art that Ms. Albuquerque arranged at Sunnylands. 

You had to descend into a bomb shelter to see this President Kennedy statue by Will Boone.

Robert Pruit displayedlocal  garage sale "stuff" in the museum.

Sharon Guirguis was inspired by pignon structures from the middle east deserts

Richard Prince papered the inside and outside of this remote home with images and objects. 

Jeffrey Gibson  has used the blade of a wind turbine that generated energy in this work. These white blades are seen all over the desert around this area and they I have always found them to look like kinetic sculpture. 

Armando Lerma painted the whole side of a building and this is a detail was a favorite part. 

Gabriel Kuri gave us a sand ashtray on a large scale called the Donation Box. Some coins were also found in the sand. 

Off with the new, on with the old

I wrote of my mother’s passing last month and now I find that I am breathing in the essence of my mother more and more. I thought it would be a letting go process, but it seems that it honors her more to let her be part of me. When we are young we separate from our parents, but as I become more secure in myself, I feel that I now am able to absorb them.

Each item that I kept of my mother's I made a concerted effort to let go something of mine that was no longer needed. Often this was an upgrade, sometimes it was just an edit. But there were also vast quantities of things that went out into the universe. Some to friends and relatives...I now have many girl friends who have a piece of her clothing that they felt was chic enough to give a second life. Jewelry and scarves will go into my annual SDVAN accessory exchange this holiday. A vintage flea market of the Encinitas Friends of the Arts has been given four large boxes of items to sell in July, with the proceed going to a public art project to which I am contributing.  Masses of things went to charity shops for animals or abused women.

For all the items left in the house after this clearing process, we held an estate sale. We made a few pennies but the house is now emptied which is a great lesson and reminder that things are very fleeting. No matter how much we as artist think we are creating for history, the truth is that most of our efforts should be appreciated for the joy they bring in our own life times. My house and my heart are now full. I intend to use what I now have to improve the art I have already made and use up frames and supplies while I am still able. Burn the good candles, lather up the good soap. Live in the moment as much as possible. Now for a nice whiskey with a pickle back.