Handbag Heads

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“Handbag Heads” by Bruce McLean, 2004
Hanover Street
London, May 2023

“Handbag Heads by Bruce McLean can be found outside 1 Hanover Street. This bright and striking sculpture was the first piece of art the Crown Estate commissioned in 2004. Gaining international recognition for his work in film, theatre, paintings, ceramics and prints, McLean was an excellent choice as the first artist to have work displayed on Regent Street for the public.” (Art on Regent Street, The Crown Estate)

Le tre sorelle

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“Le tre sorelle” (The three sisters) by Antonietta Raphaël Mafai, 1936
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea
(National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art)
Viale delle Belle Arti
Rome, May 2019

“Le tre sorelle (The three sisters) is a theme she often returns to. The concrete version, now in the Galleria Nazionale in Rome, was exhibited with the title of Composition at the Sindacale of 1937. The group consists of the portrait of her three daughters: Miriam, the oldest, reads. Simona and Giulia listen. They appear as a single body, a generative nucleus, a gemmation.” (The Only Authentic Italian Sculptor, La Galleria Nazionale)

Plaza del Duque

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The Plaza del Duque de la Victoria
Casco Antiguo
Seville, September 2023

“Plaza del Duque de la Victoria, known simply as Plaza del Duque, is located in the Casco Antiguo district of Seville, Andalusia, Spain. It has an area of 1650 m². In 1892, a bronze statue of the painter Diego Velázquez, the work of Antonio Susillo, was placed on a pedestal. It is an area with hotels, cafes, clothing stores and shopping centers. It is common for there to be a market with stalls selling crafts, leather and textile products. It is a taxi and bus stop.” (Plaza del Duque, Wikipedia)

BBQ Club

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BBQ Club, Jimmy's Pop Up
The Queen's Walk, Lambeth
London, May 2023

“It’s always a risk launching your Summer Pop-Up in May and when I arrived at Jimmy Garcia’s latest on the Southbank, it seemed like that risk may not have paid off. The weather could only possibly be described as apocalyptic, only one thing was for certain, we weren’t going to be playing any lawn games anytime soon. If you’ve never heard of Jimmy and his Southbank venue you may wonder why I’m even mentioning lawn games. Every year the team here go above and beyond to transform their space into the most unusual, interactive and, yes, instagrammable pop-up around. There’s been fondue, igloos and now it’s the turn of ‘Life’s a Picnic’. Launching last weekend the team here promise the chance to soak up the rays in their own riverside patch at Southbank Centre, playing classic British outdoor games such as croquet and Swingball, whilst indulging in a special BBQ Club hamper, packed with alfresco goodies. As always with the Jimmy team, there’s also the sit-down dining area which marks the return of the more familiar BBQ Club – an interactive seven-course tasting menu with big green egg BBQs installed along a long row of benches.” (The BBQ Club at Jimmy's Pop Up, About Time)

Gisleni monument

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The lower part of the Gisleni monument
Santa Maria del Popolo
Piazza del Popolo
Rome, May 2019

“The tomb of Giovanni Battista Gisleni, an Italian Baroque architect and stage designer who worked for the Polish royal court during the years 1630–1668, is probably the most macabre funeral monument in the basilica. It is set between a wooden booth and a stone half-column on the right side of the counterfaçade. The memorial was designed and installed by the architect himself in 1670 two years before his death. The upper part of the monument is a stone plaque with a long inscription and the portrait of the deceased in a tondo which was painted by a Flemish portraitist, Jacob Ferdinand Voet. There is a painted canopy supported by angels on the wall. The lower part is more interesting: a skeleton is peeping through a window behind an iron grill. The sinister, shrouded figure is facing towards the viewer with his bony hands clutched on his breast. The stone frame of the window is decorated with a coat-of-arms and two bronze medallions. The left one shows a tree with its branches cut but sprouting new shoots and containing a caterpillar spinning its cocoon, while the right one shows the metamorphosis of the caterpillar into a moth. These are the symbols of death and resurrection. The inscriptions convey the same message: In nidulo meo moriar (‘in my nest I die’ i.e. in the city of Rome) and Ut phoenix multiplicabo dies (‘as a phoenix I multiply my days’). There are two enigmatic inscriptions on the upper and lower part of the monument: Neque hic vivus and Neque illic mortuus (Neither living here, nor dead there). On this tomb the skeleton is not the personification of Death as in other Baroque tombs but a representation of the deceased (the transi image) on his way towards the resurrection and due to this ‘death became a symbol for life’.” (Santa Maria del Popolo, Wikipedia)

Capela de São João Baptista

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Capela de São João Baptista (Chapel of St. John the Baptist)
Igreja de São Roque (Church of Saint Roch)
Largo Trindade Coelho
Lisbon, April 2019

“This chapel (Capela de São João Baptista) was commissioned in 1740 by King John V. Upon completion, it was said to be the most expensive chapel in Europe, funded with the gold and other wealth that flowed to Portugal from Brazil. The designs and material were assembled under the direction of the architects Luigi Vanvitelli (1700–1773) and Niccolo Salvi (1697–1751). Vanvitelli modified his original design according to drawings sent to Italy by architect João Frederico Ludovice (1673–1752). Hundreds of different artists and craftsmen worked on its construction. It was assembled in the Church of St. Anthony of the Portuguese (Sant'Antonio dei Portoghesi) in Rome beginning in 1742. Consecrated by Pope Benedict XIV on 15 December 1744, it was sufficiently finished that the pontiff could say Mass in it on 6 May 1747. In September of that year, Manuel Pereira de Sampaio, Portuguese ambassador to the Holy See, saw to the dismantling of the chapel and its transport by three ships to Lisbon, where it was reassembled in São Roque in what was formerly the 17th-century Chapel of the Holy Ghost. Reassembly was overseen by Francesco Feliziani and Paolo Niccoli (or Riccoli), along with the Italian sculptor Alessandro Giusti (1715–1799). The assembly of the mosaic panels depicting the Baptism of Christ and Pentecost were not completed until August 1752, two years after the death of John V.” (Igreja de São Roque, Wikipedia)

Wahaca Southbank

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Wahaca, Mexican street food
Southbank Centre
Belvedere Road, Lambeth
London, May 2023

“Built from eight recycled shipping containers and arranged on two overhanging levels on London’s Southbank, Wahaca is serving up their famously fresh award-winning Mexican street food. Get the taste of Mexico to go with their mind-meltingly delicious burritos, tacos and salads available from the Mexican Street Kitchen parked up alongside the river.” (Wahaca, Southbank Centre)