Emma and Nick arrived by 11am from Brighton and we went on down to Tontine St. Nick seemed impressed with the way the mural had come out in the end. A lot of people around - a huge buzz around teh harbour and Old High St. Bumped into Emily from from the Creative Foundation who was covered in paint and clearly pissed off 'someone's poured a can of paint over the mermaid - I've just been cleaning it'. Then went into the Visitors Centre and bought the Strange Cargo Guidebook. A fantastic collection of local people's memories, favourite spots, bit's of urban myth and so on - a guide to the town by the people of the town. And only a fiver.
Saw Katrina (Uni head of Art) - she seemed impressed with the mural and with the whole Triennial. Then went over to watch the fountain (sorry - 'interactive water feature') - kids were running around in it getting wet - lots of peopel all around wtching and enjoying themselves. Looks like this is going to be a great success. Should bring families down - kids love it - a bit of harmless rebelious fun, and if families come down then life will be restored to the area. Tony Pye (Chummy's seafood) seemed really pleased with it a few days ago - having seen it in operation my guess is that his expectations have been met.
Bumped into Phyllis and a few others from the FAC. Further on saw a couple of friends from Sandgate - Lynette and Clarissa, and then a bit further on Tony Diver in his get-up just going to or from his boat.
I'm not sure about the bits of work that are in teh harbour - the heads on sticks things. Other people seem to like them though. The mermaid is good. And Emily had done a good job of cleaning her up - although the rock she (the mermaid) was sitting on had paint on it - but I guess that won't come off easily. The mermaid has feet, and is a cast of a local woman with a 'normal figure'. She's not a stunning idealised beauty, but a fairly statuesque mother-of-two. A real woman. Sat on a rock facing the open sea. Again she seemed to be well appreciated by most of the people there - although presumably someone didn't like her.
A slow meander back and up the Old High Street into many of the newly opened shops and galleries - some clearly temporary - followed. Interesting large photo of the pilot control tower in one gallery. Wierdness in another. One Triennial piece was 'Boutique Kosovo' a shop that had traditional Kosovan costumes hanging on racks as if on sale in a top-end boutique. Some of teh stuff was beautifully made - interesting to see it in such a setting. I've seen a few older people in Albania wearing similar clothing back in 1996 and 2006 - it's not often that you see people in traditional garb.
I then went and collected my friend Lorna from teh station and when we came back we had a look in 'Space' gallery at the realist paintings of Charlotte Harris and Leigh Mulley. Beautiful stuff - I was never that sure about teh idea of realist painting, but I am getting to like it. Especially of the more banal objects - a bunch of spring onions or sweets - that sort of stuff.
Went to Googies for lunch. It was mental there. We didn't get food for about an hour and a half - clearly not their best day for service, but they were frantically busy. I later discovered that most of the cafes in the area sold out or were so busy that they couldn't cope with the numbers. James, my tutor for the mural project and also for art history and contect was there, had a quick chat with him.
After lunch we wandered back down the Old High St, and along Tontine St where we had a look at some of teh galleries and work spaces. We also went into the Brewery Tap where there was an exhibition of furniture made by students at K College (formerly the South Kent College). Beautiful stuff, and Nick it clearly got Nick intersted in looking at furniture making courses.
Bakc home for a cup of tea and a rest, before getting changed and walking down to Rock Salt via teh Grand (to see one of the Triennial decimal clocks) past the Colour of Water (where we played with the colour wheel to try and find the colour of the sea), Barking Rocks (from 2008 Triennial) and a bit of window shopping at Johnny Cotter's gallery. I got talking to someone about murals and she suggested mexican patterns and cave-art...
Rock Salt was great. Fantastic food, and great service (had heard mixed reviews - so it was good to see that the problems seem to have been sorted). Freshest oysters I've ever had, beautifully cooked turbot, and a light and fruity 'chocolate fondant with sea-buckthorn sauce'. Including wine and service, it all came to £45 a head. Which for the quality of the food was good value I think. Definitely recommended.
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