British Library and art lust

The British Library is a beautiful building and the grounds outside are lovely as well. There's also a science fiction exhibit going on that I was too tired Friday to properly appreciate but I did peek inside. And it was lovely to nap in front of. So much to do in London, I am clearly only going to scratch the surface. My reading went fabulously; so inspiring on so many levels. And Sh! has so many gorgeous sex toys, plus I got to see a certain lucky audience member get a few (okay, more than a few) flicks of a very loud whip, not to mention erotic art and sexy lingerie and they treated me better than I think I've ever been treated at a reading, giving everyone bubbly (champagne) and cupcakes and me a harness and dildo and lube and, even better, a bag! A bag is clearly the way to my heart.

Many other amazing things about the reading another time. There was much cupcaking which I will post about at Cupcakes Take the Cake, but of course. I got to see Lena Chen and Rachel Hills for a very brief moment, and Lena helped me fix my phone so I can actually use GPS. Had one of those "I'm proud of myself" travel moments when waited for trains at Piccadilly Circus that put a crowded L train to utter shame, having shoved on what looked like twice the amount my hipster neighbors manage to squeeze in. I was there with 2 grocery bags of a dozen cupcakes each and my 3 bags waiting and waiting (we were right near a very touristy area and where Pride had let out) and then I decided to just go a different route and 3 trains later I was at Old Street and found Sh! and Hoxton Square. Fabulous!

Off to visit friends in the country today and plot out final two days of art-going. I did manage to get to Soho Square but finding Kirsty MacColl's bench would've taken quite a lot of waiting as a huge Pride party was going on inside. The three art exhibits I most want to see are A Girl and Her Room by Rania Matar at Mosaic Rooms (info below), the Jamie Reid exhibit at Isis Gallery and the Tracey Emin exhibit, Love Is What You Want, at Hayward Gallery. More on A Girl and Her Room:

The Arab-American photographer brings her award-winning series of images, A Girl and her Room, to the UK for the first time. This series features intimate photographic portraits of teenage girls in their most personal space, their bedroom.

This project began by Matar photographing her teenage daughter with her friends. She soon realised the girls were very conscious of each other in the way they behaved and represented themselves when together. From there emerged the idea of photographing each girl alone in her personal space, where she would give a more honest representation of her personality.

Matar took as her subjects teenage girls from the two worlds she experienced herself as a teenager and a young twenty year old, making this project very personal: the Middle and the United States. She became fascinated by how girls face similar issues at that age, regardless of culture, religion and background.

Matar comments: “In my images I hope to portray the chasm between childhood and adulthood and the young women straddling it, sometimes as rebels, sometimes as young ladies aware of their newfound sexuality and very often still as children. Being with those young women in the privacy of their world gave me a unique peek into their private lives and their real selves.


it wasn't just out of cupcake duty that I visited my third Johnny Cupcakes store...or bought an overpriced but fun t-shirt as a souvenir of my trip (not a Hello Kitty one, which they sell at home, but a special JC London one that's only sold in the store here)