When the reason for travel is the experience of the journey; when the destination is both fluid and dynamic; the adventure begins as soon as you leave the front door!
An enforced scheduled flight change had forced a nights accommodation at Heathrow and opportuned an afternoon and evening in the city of London. We love to walk in the city whenever we can. It is often quicker, healthier and far more enjoyable than bus or tube travel. Google Maps on a smartphone is an incredible free tool for finding your own way. We get to decide which terrain to traverse and nearly always choose the green spaces and leafy avenues.
This time, from Paddington, we headed across Hyde Park in the direction of the Saatchi Gallery at Sloane Square. The autumn leaves were stunning against the bright blue sky. The Lakeside Café on the eastern shore of the Serpentine was beckoning as we neared Hyde Park corner, so we just had to drop in there for the best and cheapest tea, coffee, view and service in central London. Families were compelled to feed the birds crumbs of cake, which resulted in a deluge of pigeons descending on the vacated tables in clouds of frantic wings.
Anastasia Samoylova’s exhibition Adaptation, at the Saatchi Gallery, proved to be the perfect visual companion as inspiration for our journey through the urban landscapes of the southern sunshine States. Part of the introductory text read:
Through her work, Samoylova juxtaposes the fragility of the natural world against the backdrop of capitalist irrationalities, unearthing long-term political dissonances.” And “Samoylova’s discerning gaze reveals a deep concern for the environmental imbalances that disrupt our lives.”
It failed to textualise perhaps the most obvious which was the uplifting joy the viewer experiences when engaging with the a colour palette crafted into her compositions.
