Different trains and more on “The Big V”

Yesterday, we caught the train into London to see the Anish Kapoor exhibition at the Royal Academy (which was wonderful – but not for me as mind-blowing as the Hayward Gallery exhibition in 1998). Hugo and Xavier sat opposite me sharing the headphones of an iPod. The train into London was excessively bumpy but the one back was very smooth – which is why the drawings are so different to each other. I think the best place to sit must be in the middle of a train carriage not the ends.

And anyone interested in the Big V project I ranted about previously, I felt I just had to draw attention to some highlights in one of the comments which came from someone who commissions public art for a living and put it far more effectively than I did:

CVs please guys? who are these people and why are you demanding to be allowed to place your piece of junk on a piece of publicly owned land? put it in your back garden…

…the way public art should and is working in other cities is this; the council writes and sets out the artists' brief in accordance with what the public have first of all requested. artists then respond with their ideas, and members of the council, fundraisers and public representatives all formally discuss and select a successful bidder. this is not happening here; we are being dictated to by the artist, who is telling US what WE need; this relationship is the wrong way around: it is the artist who meets the public's demands, not the other way around.

…the idea of a 'V'? COME ON! please try harder, this is not a GCSE art project. it is neither interesting, engaging, cost-effective or what the doctor ordered