Alone with the pots
Woken by cat yowling at the door of my room after a hot night. I fed her and got ready slowly. Odd being in the room of a great friend without them in the house.
I decided to swerve via the V&A to see the British craft pottery exhibition. I queued up outside and joined a lot of beautifully dressed Chinese women going in as the building opened at 10 am. I asked an attendant where the exhibition was and was told that it was closed as the 4th floor was too hot. It does have a lot of windows up there but that did seem very fussy. He asked if I’d come specially and I said I had and I was a member. So he offered me a ten minute visit if someone could be found to take me up there. A young woman appeared and guided me in.
The room, which was quite small was full of pieces by British Studio potters, I knew of quite a few of them, Lucy Rie, Bernard Leach, Edmund de Waal, Alan Caiger-Smith whose work is such a part of Great Dixter. But the most striking and the ones I had come to see were the works of Vicky Lindo and her piece, The Dead Dad Book. Stunning colours amongst the other pale-y earthy pieces, they told the story of her father, a Jamaican gardener who disappeared from their village in Devon when she was 8 and who they found out many years later lived as a recluse and died in a wood in Ireland. They were haunting and so full of love. I don’t know if you can read the words on the jug I’ve posted but they were all the lovely things she remembered of him.
Another art work I have to save up for! The V&A have bought the whole of this series which is good.
Into the office where it was incredibly hot, we had a social lunch of upscale salad and then late afternoon I walked down to meet V at the Green Room where we had a simple dinner before going to see Ros in Inter Alia at the National. She was blindingly brilliant and we managed a quick drink with her and some other friends of hers before legging it to the 1030 home.
Lovely day - hot and sunny, too hot at times but lots to think about.
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