The Colourful World of WALALA X PLAY

Last month I took a trip to Greenwich with a friend to visit a very fun installation: Camille Walala's WALALA X PLAY at NOW Gallery.

 

 

WALALA X PLAY is a small maze of mirrors and colourful, patterned spaces - a bright and slightly bonkers space to get lost in and help you rediscover the joy of play.

You might well have seen pictures of this installation popping up in your social media feeds - it's proving so popular that you now need a (free) ticket to visit, and you get just 15 minutes in the space. 

We were lucky to visit a few days after it had opened, and (after a rather overexcited school group had left) had the installation all to ourselves...

 

 

 

The combination of all the different patterns, angled walls, and mirrors creates an almost dream-like effect as you wander through the space... it's such fun! It reminded me a lot of Yayoi Kusama's mirror rooms: a simple idea but a joyful, almost magical thing to experience.

 

Of course, with all those mirrors and Instagram-friendly patterns this place is selfie heaven! I don't usually take a lot of selfies but I couldn't resist snapping a whole bunch of silly mirror pics... 

Whether you're interested in the installation as art or just as a zeitgeisty Instagram playground WALALA X PLAY is well worth a visit. It runs until 24th September and is free to visit, but make sure to book a ticket well in advance (especially if you're visiting at the weekend). Oh, and remember to wear nice socks because it's a shoe-free zone!

Oxford in the Springtime, Part One: Christ Church Picture Gallery & the Ashmolean

Time for a Nice Day Out flashback! Today I'm sharing some photos from a trip I took to Oxford this spring.

I always try to squeeze as much as possible into my day trips to Oxford, it's such a beautiful city and there's so much to see. My first stop of the day was...

... Christ Church Picture Gallery, which is housed in a purpose-built building within the college grounds. If you visit the whole college you'll pass the gallery on your way out but if (like me) you just want to see the art, you enter via the rather imposing Canterbury Gate at the back of the college...

... and the Picture Gallery is right there, on your left (complete with bicycles, of course, like every other building in Oxford!).

This gallery is one of the many, many places I'd probably never have heard of or thought of visiting if it weren't for my Art Pass. I waved my membership card, paid my discounted entry fee and proceeded to get rather absorbed in the gallery's petite but wonderful collection of art which I was lucky to have almost entirely to myself for most of my visit.

After that dose of peace and quiet and culture I headed back out into the busy city. There are so many interesting buildings squished together in the city centre - with famous sights and fascinating architectural details everywhere you look.

 

I popped into the Museum of the History of Science for a quick look round...

... then headed to the Ashmolean (Oxford's Museum of Art and Archaeology) to meet up with Polly for a cuppa and some more sightseeing.

I couldn't resist stopping to take photos of this churchyard I passed along the way - there were so many bluebells, and all the colour of the spring sky! So lovely. 

The Ashmolean is amazing, and free to visit (apart from special exhibitions). Whether you spend a few minutes there or many hours it's always an absolute joy, and the cakes in their cafe are very tasty (this is a very important part of the museum-visiting experience!). 

We checked out the Architecture in Miniature exhibition (very cool tiny versions of famous Oxford buildings), strolled through some of the other galleries oohing over all the interesting things, then had a cuppa and some cake before heading out to do some more exploring.

I'll share what we got up to (along with lots more Oxford pics) in Part Two, sometime soon! :)

UPDATE: click here to read about the rest of our day. 

A Short Walk along the Thames: Tate Britain to Westminster

Last week my mum and I took a trip to the Dulwich Picture Gallery to visit their Astrup exhibition. This was excellent - so many gorgeous paintings and beautiful woodcut prints, and all by an artist I'd never heard of until this exhibition was announced.

You can watch a short video about the exhibition here and read about a previous trip of mine to Dulwich here.

After viewing the exhibition, visiting the shop and having a quick look round the main gallery (I especially love this painting in their collection) we headed back towards central London for lunch. A short train and Tube ride later and we were at Tate Britain - they do very tasty lunches here and it's always nice to have an excuse to pop in and look at the art!

Tate Britain doesn't have the flash of its younger, bigger sister Tate Modern but it's free to visit and has some wonderful art (including many of my all time faves)... and the building itself is pretty nice too.

As it was a nice sunny afternoon we decided to walk along the Thames to Westminster and catch the Tube home from there, as I'd (shockingly) never walked along this bit of the river before. It turned out to be a lovely little walk and (like so many places in central London) absolutely jam packed with history.

We both admired this interesting-looking building... which Google informs me is the headquarters of the Security Service, MI5! The MI6 building is just over the river, too.

 

A little further along the road you come to Victoria Tower Gardens, which are home to a very decorative memorial.

The Buxton Memorial commemorates the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire in 1834. It was originally located in Parliament Square but was moved to Victoria Tower Gardens in the 1950s. There are also a couple of interesting statues in the park, including one of the suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst.

 

You get great views from the park of the Palace of Westminster (home to the Houses of Parliament), after whose looming Victoria Tower the park is named.

 

 

Looking up river you also get a great view of Westminster Bridge and the London Eye.

The Palace of Westminster probably needs no introduction but it really is a fabulous building, all Victorian Gothic splendour.

 

 

 

Westminster Abbey - just over the road - is similarly impressive. When I mentioned to my mum that I'd never been to the Abbey she was positively appalled, so I guess we'll be planning a day trip there sometime soon!

At the far end of the Palace there's the Elizabeth Tower with it's famous clock and the bell, Big Ben, which chimed three as we were walking through the park (Bong! Bong! Bong!).

The whole area is swarming with tourists, of course (most of whom are all trying to get a selfie with the clock in the background!) but don't let that put you off.

The buildings are truly wonderful in person (so much detail!) and whenever you see Westminster on the telly you can think "I've been there!" (not gonna lie, I find this hugely satisfying when I spot places I've visited).

All in all, a very nice end to our day out!

A Royal Park, Two Royal Colleges and The Royal British Society of Sculptors

Way back in November, I met up with an old friend from Uni whom I'd not seen in about ten years. It was so nice to catch up and have a good old natter.

We popped into the Kioskafé to check out their truly awesome selection of magazines (my goodness, I could spend so much money in this shop!) and to buy a coffee for him and a cuppa for me...

...then we headed to nearby Kensington Gardens, which was looking pretty gorgeous in the bright autumn sunshine.

We stopped off at the Serpentine and Serpentine Sackler galleries to see their (then) current exhibitions. The art at the Serpentine galleries isn't always to my taste, but they show such an interesting mix of things and all for free! They have a great shop, too, with great selection of art books and creative magazines. I always pop in when I'm passing.

On the other side of the park, we visited the Royal College of Art which was hosting a rather fabulous Crafts Council exhibition of contemporary jewellery. The exhibition was only on during November but you can read a bit about it here if you're interested in that kind of thing.

Then, just round the corner and opposite the Albert Hall...

... we visited the Royal College of Music museum, which was delightful. I was going to write about how great this little museum is and how it's free and quiet and so close to all the big, famous museums in South Kensington that you really must visit it sometime if you're in the area... but it turns out it's now closed for redevelopment, until 2019!

In the meantime, you can tour some of the highlights of the collection in this online exhibition.

After visiting the museum, our walk continued past lots more splendid buildings...

... to one particularly special building I'd wanted to visit for ages: the Royal British Society of Sculptors.

Apparently they have a gallery with regular exhibitions here, but it was the building itself I was interested in - or, rather, the fantastic sculpture that's been installed in a gap at the front of it:
 

Pretty cool, huh?

Quirky things like this are such a joy!

I feel like a bit of a weirdo every time I've mentioned this building to friends visiting the area - "a really cool building" doesn't have quite the same on-paper appeal as an exhibition or other "proper" attraction - but it's well worth a look if you're nearby.

Aaah, London. Always so many interesting things around each corner!