An African Photo Show

Yesterday I spent the morning at home, trimming and neatening in the garden -- cutting old dead flower stalks, trimming the lavender, pulling up old asters, just making things neater in general. (Believe me, the overall impact is minute.)

My main goal was to deal with the dahlias. I guess I'm not lifting them this year because I am unmotivated to do so and I don't have a box for the tubers or any newspaper or other supplies. So it looks like they're staying in their pots for one more season. I trimmed the ragged tops off, pulled any weeds and stashed them in the shed, where they will overwinter. Job done. I guess I can always repot them in spring.

Then, after MORE TURKEY at lunch, I decided to go experience some culture. I went to the Tate Modern to see the exhibit "A World in Common: Contemporary African Photography." It featured photographers from all parts of Africa, Morocco to Lesotho, Mozambique to Senegal, working with an interesting mix of styles and materials. There were found historic photos from South Africa (which you know I liked, given my interest in old photographs), collages, mixed media installations and artists working with portraiture using religious iconography, trappings of royalty like thrones and crowns, and traditional African masks.

I was quite fascinated by this piece, "Will I Still Carry Water When I Am a Dead Woman?" by Wura-Natasha Ogunji. It's a 12-minute video of the artist and six other women, dressed in similar jumpsuits and hoods, laboriously dragging gold-colored bidons of water around the streets of Lagos, Nigeria. It poses questions about work, womanhood, resource availability, poverty and other issues and I found it riveting. I sat down and watched the whole thing. It was interesting to see the reactions of people on the street, from laughter to puzzlement.

If there was an overall theme to the show, it was how contemporary African artists are using the medium of photography to reclaim their land, heritage, spirituality and culture after centuries of colonialism.

When I emerged from the show in the late afternoon, the setting sun was casting an orange glow on the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral across the river. "Bellissima!" exclaimed the Italian tourists walking behind me.

I crossed the Millennium footbridge, where I was happy to see...

...that many of the works of chewing-gum art by Ben Wilson have been preserved. The bridge was recently closed for a couple of weeks to enable a deep-cleaning, and I'd read that the gum art would be a casualty of that process. But apparently Wilson arranged to preserve many of the miniature artworks, which he painstakingly paints on hardened, discarded chewing gum left by pedestrians.

I wonder if Sehnaz said yes to Tafayel?

I caught the tube home from St. Paul's and, back with Dave and Olga, finished decorating our indoor avocado tree for Christmas. I went all-out this year, putting up not only the Christmas lights but hanging ornaments as well. Photos to come!

I also brought in our tender plants as we had frost last night. They can probably all go back out today, but we're supposed to have sub-freezing temperatures next weekend so we'll be back on that merry-go-round for the next few months.