Claire is...

Another successful Lady Date, and an educational one too.  We started at The Barbican for the Magnificent Obsessions: The Artist as Collector Exhibition. http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery/event-detail.asp?ID=17071

It was very interesting, some artists I knew to be collectors such as Martin Parr and Andy Warhol but others I had no idea like Peter Blake who collected many curiosities and elephants and Dr Lakra’s record collection.  It makes me not only want to collect everything but curate it all wonderfully.  I particularly liked Sol LeWitt’s almost obsessional photographing of items and collecting them together in grids. 

After this exhibition we had no plans so consulted the Time Out app to see what to do next.  We found that the Wellcome Collection had two interesting exhibitions and both were free.  The first one was Forensics: The anatomy of crime. http://wellcomecollection.org/forensics.

This was an interesting overview of crime scenes, investigation, morgues, detection and conviction.  This was my first visit to the Wellcome Collection and I was impressed.  The reading material they offered in the queue was really well designed and truly interesting and I think the way they combined hard science with art was highly inspirational.  If I come home with a newly found artist to study I am a happy girl.  I came away with a few. Angela Strassheim and Taryn Simon were the stand out artists for me in this exhibition.

The next exhibition was The Institute of Sexology. http://wellcomecollection.org/exhibitions/institute-sexology

This exhibition, most interestingly, starts with a survey, which changes every week.  This also includes a board displaying the thoughts of people from the previous week.  This exhibition is very interesting, it maybe asks more questions than it answers but I think that is what makes it such a successful exhibition.

By this time we were a little hungry so we made our way to Dalston to Voodoo Ray’s for pizza. http://voodoorays.co.uk.  They sell by the slide and they are huge.  I had buffalo mozzarella and the one with all the meat.  That was really filling.

By this time it was time for cocktails.

The first place to try was Satan’s Whisker’s in Bethnal Green. http://satanswhiskersblr.tumblr.com. Then to The Alchemist in Aldgate. http://thealchemist.uk.com/bevis-marks.

We did want another cocktail here but Rebecca couldn’t decide which one and it would technically be against our rules so we went onto somewhere else. Our last stop was to Shoreditch and Lounge Bohemia. http://www.loungebohemia.com.

A more extensive review of the cocktails to follow.