4. Art, Walking, Orange Wine, and the Unmasked. 5/8/22

Began today walking and taking tube to the 180 Strand Gallery to see the Future Shock exhibit: a series of  subterranean spaces transformed through various forms of immersive digital technology, artificial intelligence, and some kind of 3D mapping—all with electronic music and lasers. Each space was handled differently and they represented the work of many different artists from across the globe. It was mesmerizing, as well as disorienting… and the content was definitely unclear. Frankly it was like a light show rather than art making a statement about the future which is what it purported to be. Seemed like a lot of escapism and contemplating one’s navel rather than being at the forefront of real ideas. But that’s just my humble opinion. On the other hand Finn seemed to like it—the bright colors and the motion, I suppose. We bid farewell to Hem and Finn who went off to a birthday party; Mike went back to the hotel and Emma and I hopped on the tube and headed to Broadway Market to get some lunch. 

We had several small plates and ‘orange wine.’ I’ve never seen that on American menus—it’s made from white wine grapes and as I understand it, the grapes skins are not removed as they are in typical white wine production and the skins stay on for weeks or months. It’s an organic non-fermented wine. It’s very dry and also pretty strong, but tastes good.

After that Emma left for home and I took the bus back to Shoreditch. And then it was time for dinner.

We met up with friends we hadn’t seen in about 20 years, since they moved from NY to London. It was good to reconnect and hear about their work and their kids (one of whom is already at the university). 

And then we headed to the hotel to pack… we’re off to Geneva tomorrow.

Finally for those who have asked: Covid is just not a thing in London or the UK… any more. No masks anywhere (??) No checking of vaccine information. And our friends said there is virtually no reporting on the news or in the press about numbers of Covid patients or positive tests. They said they went from daily reports to no reports. People we know here are all vaccinated, but they too are shocked at how behavior has totally changed. That’s it for today. Stay healthy.

Fern