Diary Of A Resting Thespian Pt III – Visual

Hubble Bubble’s assortment of pre-Christmas eye candy

Just to follow up on the great Vivienne Westwood shoe display (as reported in my first column), the good news is that Selfridges has now opened a new Shoe Lounge. Hot tip coming ... for works of art on the heel-and-toe front, check out the shoes by Chau Har Lee. A girl who grew up on a council estate, Lee, who finished her MA in shoe design at the Royal College of Art only last year has already scooped a few awards and is widely hailed as the UK's most promising shoe designer.

Is shoe design art? Not sure but it is a good enough excuse to check out Lee's creations (apparently now gracing Kate Moss's tootsies). Head down to that lounge and put your feet up: preferably a well-heeled foot, or possibly Lee's heel-less high concept orange creations.

I am sure most people are aware that the great Gauguin is on full display at the Tate Modern, a place which always worth a visit even if it is just to hang out in the building or browse in the sprawling, inspirational art shop (hot tip coming, check it out for Christmas presents, also the V & A gallery shop). There is also a chance to do some choreography at the Hayward Gallery with their current show (until January 9th) Move: Choreographing You.

A museum round-up seems timely and I spotted a couple of interesting exhibitions that I have in mind for rainy days with my eleven-year old. It looks like it would definitely be worth the journey to the magical and eclectic Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green, E2 to see Cut It, Fold It, Build It With Paper, an apparently 'mesmerising' display of paper architecture. An American, Robert Freidus, collected more than 20,000 model kits and the V & A has displayed many of these here ranging from the fairy tale Russian Church of the Saviour in St Petersburg and the Eiffel Tower to tiny African huts and elephants. All that creativity from a flat pack with tabs! Magic !

For lovers of Jimi Hendrix, there are a few more days (ends November 7th) to see the exhibition of Hendrix artefacts at the Handel House Museum, 25 Brook Street, London to commemorate the 40th anniversary of his death. It includes the Flying-V guitar he played at the Isle of Wight Festival.

Finally, given that we are in that ghoulish Halloween and Guy Fawkes time of the year, check out the British Museum where it is currently displaying the Book of the Dead, a collection of spells written on papyrus that the Ancient Egyptians had put in their tombs and hoped would help them get into the next world. They believed that the heart was the seat of emotions, the intellect and character and thus represented the good or bad aspects of a person's life and that their heart would literally be weighed on scales against a feather (their symbol of 'what is right') at the gates of the next world and that if the heart did not balance out with the feather, then the deceased would be banished to non-existence and a grim fate, devoured by a strange and terrifying beast, part-lion, part-crocodile, part-hippopotamus!

TFN
Hubble Bubble