A visit to an exhibition.

It's only January 18th but I'm already behind with my blog posts. Thank goodness I didn't make any new year resolutions as I would have broken them already! Last Sunday, 11 January, John and I went to an exhibition at the Tate Modern in London, showing the work of Emily Kam Kngwarray. We managed to get tickets on the last day.

Emily Kam Kngwarray (1910 - 1996) was an Aboriginal Australian artist from Alhalker in the Sandover region of the Northern Territory. Her paintings are very powerful and they gained her worldwide attention. She is considered one of the most significant contemporary painters of the 20th century. I had seen pictures of her work and found them fascinating and i was excited to see them in person. She practised in batik and painted on canvas.

This was the information at the start of the exhibition.

There was also information about names and languages.

This first picture was titled Awely and painted in 1989  using acrylic on canvas.

Here is a photo of the artist.

 The paintings are based on Dreaming and here is some information to explain what it is and what it means to the Aboriginal Australian people.

This piece was one of her early batiks. This one is on silk

and this one on cotton. Both pieces are untitled.

In the next room there were several batiks on display.

The next picture is of her first painting made in 1988-9 acrylic on canvas and is titled Emu Women. 

The following are my favourite pieces on display. I didn't take photos of the titles

A close up of the long length of batik in the next photo

These pictures made me feel very happy. Listening to the people around me I found they felt the same way. The exhibition was very large and I have shared just a small number of the pictures and batiks. By the time we finished we were tired and needed refreshment so we headed to the cafe for coffee.

As we walked back to the station I looked back and took a photo of St Pauls Cathedral across the river. The views of the cathedral dome are protected and no taller buildings can be built that may block the view.

We had wanted to visit Southwark Cathedral, which is near the station on the south of the river but being Sunday there was a service about to take place, so we decided to go home instead.  We'll find time to fit in a visit some time this year. 

I have a few plans for today, I want to make some bread and an apple tray bake, I want to fit in some more stitching on the frog quilt, finish the baby cardigan do some sorting in my sewing cupboard. The list goes on and on so I know I wont get it all done but a girl can dream.

Take care

Lyndsey