Category: Travel

Postcard from London, England: From conquer-phobia furniture to man-skirts

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Above: Interior of The Design Museum

A basement space in the Victoria & Albert Museum was the first home to Boilerhouse, a showcase for modern design that outgrew that space and another subsequent one before transforming the 1960s Commonwealth Institute into today’s The Design Museum on Kensington High Street. The most striking feature of the post-war modernism landmark originally designed by RMJM is its tent-like parabolic copper roof. The dramatic interior rehabilitation of it was completed in 2018 under the direction of John Pawson.

Exhibitions change, but I’m going to mention two. The first is “Antifurniture,” handsome wooden sculpture designed by performance artist Fyodor Pavolov-Andreevich and BoND Architecture to engage interaction, to invite one to “inhabit” the works. By “one,” I definitely mean someone other than me. Among the phobias the artist strives to help combat are agoraphobia, atychiphobia, demophobia, gelotophobia, acrophobia and basophobia.

Sometimes when we feel overwhelmed we may ignore the problem before us and metaphorically ‘bury our heads in the sand.’ This reaction can cause anxiety and encourage us to avoid the problem; Rock-n’-Desk, however, invites you to confront it.”

Fyodor Pavlov-Andreevich
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Postcard from Palermo, Sicily: Phillips’ passion for collecting left me entranced

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Above: Detail from “Curriculum Vitae XI,” Tom Phillips

The muses visit children in disguise with shrouded gifts ~ Terpsichore gives her a skipping rope ~ From Clio he receives old stamps of far forgotten colonies ~ Darkly to me Apollo and his team present the pnuema ~ the creative spark ~ all strife of art inside a filing clerk.”

Excerpt of text on Tom Phillips’ “Curriculum Vitae XI”

Last spring, we almost missed what emerged as our favorite museum in Palermo. Palazzo Butera was newly opened. Although we passed by it often, we didn’t see it in any guidebook or even resources online.

Word art by British artist Tom Phillips (1937-2022) so captivating it demands you stop in your tracks to slowly digest every morsel of poetry within each piece. But how could I absorb them all when we had a whole museum ahead of us?

The amazing part of this is his process. Most of his “Curriculum Vitae” series is composed in iambic pentameter, a form of traditional English poetry with ten syllables per line (Yes, I learned this through labels.). Yet, they are written, or carved as it were, somewhat on the fly.

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Postcard from Oviedo, Spain: Things that matter along the streets

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Above: Souvenir display in a shop window

Mass-manufactured souvenirs might be tacky, but they often serve as indicators of what distinctive symbols a community values. Assigned positions of prominence here are replicas of the pair of treasured bejeweled crosses from the Cathedral, the ancient ones recovered and repaired following a brazen 1977 theft. And the beloved Virgen de la Esperanza (Hope) from Capilla de la Balesquida across the plaza.

And then there is apple cider. Almost a religion as well. The ritualistic way to pour cider is to hold the glass at waist level and pour from above one’s head, essentially aeration. Obviously, a talent best left to the experienced waiters circling within the sidrerias, which are far from difficult to locate. You are supposed to down this serving immediately before it goes flat and then wait patiently for a server to stop to pour another glug from your bottle. The cider has about the same alcohol content as standard American beer.

And there, completing this cherished trinity, perched front and center in the window, is Mafalda. Argentinian Quino created the wise-cracking six-year-old girl, usually with a smile on her face, to voice satirical criticism of her enemies: Fascists, militarists and, for some strange reason, soup.

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