Category: This & That

Seeing Double

Phoebe and Lydia Lake are artists. They’re also identical twins, which means they know a thing or two about symmetry. So last year, when they were 20 years old, the Tate Britain decided to film their first encounter with one of the museum’s most famous holdings, The Cholmondley Ladies, painted sometime around 1600-1610 by an unknown artist. An inscription describes the ladies as members of the Cholmondley family (pronounced “Chumley”) who were born on the same day, married on the same day and “brought to bed” (gave birth) on the same day. Continue reading “Seeing Double”

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The Monument

This Monument designed by Sir Christopher Wren was built to commemorate the Great Fire of London 1666 which burned for three days consuming more than 13,000 houses and devastating 436 acres of the City. The Monument is 202ft in height being equal to the distance westward from the bakehouse in Pudding Lane where the fire broke out. It took six years to construct, 1671-1677. The balcony is reached by a spiral stairway of 311 steps and affords panoramic views of the metropolis. A superstructure rises from the balcony and supports a copper vase of flames.
Continue reading “The Monument”

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The Pursuit Of Happiness

This linocut print by Gail Brodholt shows skaters at Canary Wharf Ice Rink in Docklands participating in a festive communal ritual, chasing the glide, defying the cold and celebrating one of the many and various forms of slipping and sliding collectively known as winter sports.   Their sinuous arabesques on the ice are contrasted with the checker board grids of the architecture.  It’s Brice Marden versus Sean Scully.  It’s snakes & ladders.  Tis the season to play board games.  Happy Christmas.

Frames of reference