so, I arrived at the meeting point at 1:58 for the tour that started at 2. our guide was a middle-aged, somewhat nerdy looking, but extremely kind man. and there was one other middle aged woman, who told me she's on this tour because she had just taken a trip to Syria. so there i was waiting for the middle eastern art tour with the guide and one other middle aged woman. a few other people joined the tour and they were all much much older, but i kinda liked it that way. our tour guide made a point that not all art from the geographic area of the middle east is necessarily "islamic," hence the change of the name of the tour from "treasures of islamic art" to "art of the middle east." in fact, a lot of the pieces he showed us were very utilitarian and secular. also, the loose term "middle east" on this tour is not limited to the area we currently know as the middle east, but it extended all the way to spain and morocco, and included sicily and also india. the tour covered middle eastern art from about 1000AD to present day.
colorful animal miniatures from mogul india around the 13th century.
popular tile work that adorned the walls of mosques and other interior spaces. these weren't floor tiles for most interior spaces had carpet on the floor.
glass lamps that would hang in interior spaces. on the far right lamp, you can see arabic scripture written in blue on the neck of the vessel.
a few things i learned about islamic art. 1. a lot of it involved scripture, which is where the highly esteemed art form of calligraphy comes in. 2. human or animal representation is rare because it was thought that only allah could create living forms. 3. since human/animal representation was not allowed, most of its decorations are floral, or abstract or geometric patterns.
then after the 45 minute tour, i explored the gallery a bit more on my own, then joined another tour of assyrian reliefs. on the tour I saw some familiar middle-aged faces who were just with me at the middle eastern tour. guess these tours attract a certain type of people. however, there were many more younger people on this tour, even students who were younger than me.
the assyrian kingdom was the first great, and one of the largest, empire in the history of the world. it started about 4500 years ago, and it was centered around current northern iraq. assyrian art is mostly in the form of relief sculpture that adorned the interior walls of royal palaces.
assyrian king in a chariot hunting lions, which was the ultimate symbol of his power and authority. the king is always shown with his bow and arrow. these hunting scenes shows him conquering the natural world. apparently, one of the kind killed 467 lions in one year!!! craziness.
look at this poor lion with arrows puncturing him. it's about to collapse as blood gushing out of his mouth.
more dead lions.
i really enjoyed these daily 45-minute free tours of different sections of the museum. they have one for pretty much all the geographic area or time period exhibited at the museum, so i think i may try and go on as many of these as possible.
so on my walk back home, it was raining and it made me feel slightly miserable. and i came into my room and realized i didn't want to spend thursday night just sitting on my computer. so, on a whim, i decided to go see if they have available tickets for tonight's show of samuel beckett's waiting for godot, starring......Ian McKellan! so I took the tub to picadilly circus, and luckily enough they had spare tickets! in fact, the student tickets on the day of the show are SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than they are otherwise. i had seats in the "stalls," or what we call "orchestra" seats. they usually run for 50 pounds, and I got mine for 20! and my seat was excellent!
the performance was BRILLIANT! i was originally quite nervous about going to see the play without having read it before, but tonight proved to me that plays were in fact meant to be seen as a performance before people started studying them as texts. i was super jealous of the people who read waiting for godot at exeter, and finally I know the play now!
ian mckellan was incredible as estragon. he effectively conveyed the character's physical pain and desperation, but also his innate light-heartedness. there was also great chemistry between estragon and vladimir, as with lucky and pozzo. originally, i was so keen on extrapolating the "dhm" of the play and tried to approach it so academically that it was hindering my enjoying the play. so, i relaxed and enjoyed the production for its humor, acting, and treatment of the play, and that made it much more enjoyable. in fact, that allowed me to better reflect on it after the show was over. waiting for godot really highlights the thin line between tragedy and comedy, reality and fantasy. i really didn't expect the play to be as funny as it was.
the one thing that almost ruined the play for me was the guy sitting next to me. clearly, he was only there because his girlfriend dragged him there, and he was as impatient and fidgety as the 5 year olds i saw earlier at the british museum, whining to their parents. during the performance, he leaned forward and rested his head on the empty chair in front of him, and his girlfriend had to pull him by his sweater to get him to sit up straight. then during half-time, he was complaining how the play was boring, the humor juvenile and not "academic" enough. then, his girlfriend consoled him by saying something even more disturbing. "but honey, plays were meant to dumb and uneducated people." wtf, that's partially true but not for waiting for godot. the humor was intentional to contrast the underlying misery. then at one point, he argued that sienna miller was a better actor than ian mckellan. so, clearly he doesn't know what the heck he's talking about. he ended the night by rudely and immaturely refusing to clap at the end of the performance.
what's so fitting about waiting for godot is that I'm currently conducting a small research project on the influence of irish impressionist painter Jack B. Yeats (brother of even more well-known W.B. yeats) on Samuel Beckett. apparently beckett was greatly interested in art, and particular admired fellow irish Jack B. Yeats.
so yup, i was particularly proud of having a very "british" day today, when i almost spent most of the day in my room.
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