Found Magazine

I popped in to The Photographer's Gallery and came across this cool exhibition by Found Magazine. The idea behind the magazine is pretty simple. They collect things that people have found such as letters, photos and all sorts of objects. There's an entertaining mix of wierd, hilarious and beautiful stuff. You get to see snippets of stranger's lives and it's fascinating! I don't think the exhibition is there anymore but check out the website at http://www.foundmagazine.com/

The Overture

I went to this really great event earlier this month at the Southbank Centre. It was a weekend celebration welcoming back the Royal Festival Hall after a couple of years of restoration. It was full of cultural entertainment celebrating art, music and dance. And it was completely free!

My favourite part of it was getting drawn on the wall of memories. Once these massive pieces of paper were filled, they were used as decorative pieces around the Southbank Centre. It's a fun way of recording the event for both the organisers and the public who attended. There were also some amazing floor paintings that you could watch being created. They were copies of masterpieces but given the location and the fact that they were like street performances gave them a contemorary twist.

I was dragged along by my friend Chris (he's the guy with the ginger beard who's drawn next to me) to see a folk singer called Frank Turner perform. I didn't know what the event was about but so glad I went along. Events like this make you appreciate London and all the cultural things that you can do and see.

Surreal Things: Surrealism and Design

This exhibition at the V&A museum is fascinating. It shows how Surrealism transformed from an art movement into the commercial world of theatre, film, fashion, interiors, architecture and advertising during the 1930s. Most of the pieces are truly bizarre, such as Salvador Dalí's famous Lobster Telephone and Oscar Dominguez's silk cushioned Wheelbarrow. There is an ongoing sense of wit and fantasy throughout the exhibition which I love. The highlight for me was the final section on advertising and magazine design. Some of the old covers of magazines such as Vogue and Harpers Bazaar are real works of art and so different from the typical magazine covers we see today. With work from artsists such as Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, René Margritte and Man Ray, to name but a few, this exhibition is a real treat for any art and design lover.