Author Archives: yamey

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About yamey

Active author and retired dentist. You can discover my books by visiting my website www.adamyamey.co.uk .

Self portrait as a stack of books near London’s Barbican

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THE ARTIST ANDREW Salgado was born in Canada in 1982. He graduated at Chelsea College of Art with a Masters Degree in Fine Arts. He lives and works between London (England) and New Brunswick (Canada). Until 28 June 2025, there is a wonderful exhibition of his imaginative, colourful paintings at Beers gallery in Little Britain, close to the Barbican and Smithfield Market.

The exhibition has the artist’s chosen title “Self-portrait as a Stack of Books”. Several of the paintings on display and one sculpture portray books. Salgado is an avid reader, and he says he has been influenced by some of the authors he has read. Whether they contain books or not, his creations are intriguing and hint at confused imagery of dreams. As to the artist’s intentions in the collection of works at Beers, the gallery’s hand-out noted:

“Asking Salgado about the intentions, symbolism, or directive in this collection of paintings – because it’s obviously ripe with his (now) trademark imagery – he becomes deferential, ambiguous, and almost evasive about everything from idea to technique, to presentation, and even the compelling title piece: a rare venture into sculpture which seems – whether through its books or its chair, or its uncanny, discombobulated human parts – to reference the paintings and even the act of painting itself. But also books. Words. Memory. Fallability. That head at the apex is glass. It’s his.”

It is right that the artist is evasive. He leaves the enjoyment of interpretations of his works to the viewer, and that is admirably democratic.

If you have not come across Beers gallery already, it is always worth visiting their exhibitions. The works they display are often joyfully colourful and never dull.

A capsule in time in London’s Kensington Gardens

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EVERY SUMMER, THE Serpentine South Gallery in London’s Kensington Gardens hosts a temporary pavilion in its grounds. Each year, a different architect is invited to design a pavilion. And the chosen architect must be someone who has never before had any of his or her buildings constructed in England. This year, the chosen architect is Marina Tabassum, who was born in Bangladesh in 1969.

A Capsule in Time

Along with her associates, her architectural practice (Marina Tabassum Architects (MTA)) has designed a capsule-shaped pavilion, appropriately named “A Capsule in Time”. The long axis of the capsule is aligned along a north/south axis. Most of this lovely, airy structure consists of series of parallel hoops between which there are sets of angled panels made of a tinted translucent material. The walls of the pavilion have benches along their inner edges. It is not a continuous construction because there are two wide gaps between sets of parallel hoops. One of these is aligned with the clock tower on top of the Serpentine South gallery. At each end of the capsule, the hoops decrease in diameter to form quarters of spheres. Within one of these, there is a counter where refreshments are available. One of the design criteria for the annual pavilions is that they can accommodate such a counter.

In the last few years, I have found some of the pavilions to be disappointing aesthetically and architecturally. This year’s most satisfying effort by Marina Tabassum is the best Serpentine pavilion I seen during the last five years.

In the style of Adam at a town in Suffolk

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I HAVE VISITED Bury St Edmunds, a town in Suffolk, many times since my childhood in the 1960s. However, it was not until June 2025 that I first stepped inside the town’s Athenaeum. Located in the heart of the town, this edifice began life in the 17th century. It was converted into an Assembly Room in 1714, and then in 1853, it was modified to become the Athenaeum. Today, it is used for special occasions, such as weddings.

The highlight of its interior is the ballroom designed by Franciss Sandys, who died in the 1820s. .The barrel-vaulted ballroom is the full height of the building. What impressed me was that its beautiful stuccoed ceiling resembled the kind of ceilings designed by the great architect Robert Adam (1728-1792).

A pub with great food in Dedham (Essex)

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WE ENJOY ROAMING around rural England. However, eating in country pubs and restaurants can often be a bit ‘hit and miss’. In June (2025), we visited Flatford Mill in Essex, which has important connections with the artist John Constable and his family. We stopped to buy a drink at a refreshment stall, and asked the young man serving if he could recommend a pub where we could get a good lunch. He told us that The Marlborough in nearby Dedham was good; it is his ‘local’. He said that we should try their shepherd’s pie.

A short drive brought us to Dedham, and The Marlborough was easy to find. Situated on a corner plot almost opposite the parish church, the pub is a half-timbered edifice built mainly in the sixteenth century. Originally, it was built as a clearing house for local wool merchants. Inside the ground floor of the pub, there are many old timber beams to be seen.

Despite it being a hot day, I ordered the shepherd’s pie, which was truly excellent. It was accompanied by beautifully cooked carrots, parsnips, and cabbage. My wife ordered chicken parfait, and that tasted superb. The staf were friendly and the service was impeccable.

I am grateful for the recommendation we were given. Later, when mentioning how good it is to various people we met in Suffolk and Essex, they all knew of the pub and held it in high regard.

Where there was wool there was wealth

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HADLEIGH IS A SMALL town in Suffolk (England). Like many towns in East Anglia, it was enriched by the wool trade in mediaeval times. Evidence of this included magnificent, cathedral-like churches and fine civic buildings. Hadleigh is no exception. Its fifteenth century half-timbered market hall (now a part of the town’s guildhall complex) is on one side of a graveyard that separates it from the south side of the large, fifteenth century parish church.

In one corner of graveyard there is a modern sculpture made of metal (mild steel). It depicts a sheep. Created by Benjamin Bramma, it was placed in the churchyard in 2015. That year, Hadleigh celebrated its rich heritage by holding a festival called “The Year of the Sheep”. As part of the festival, forty sheep were herded through the town.

The sculpture is a fitting tribute to the memory of the creatures that once brough wealth to Hadleigh.

An angel at a town in Suffolk

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DURING THE EARLY 1960s, my parents used to take us to Cambridge, where one of my father’s friends,  the late Cyril Sofer, lived with his family. Often, we spent the night before our meeting with the Sofers at Bury St Edmunds. We always slept at the town’s Angel Hotel that faces the park containing the ruins of the monastery attached to the still existing Abbey.

 

Angel at Bury St Edmunds

This June (2025), my wife and I spent a little time in Bury St Edmunds. The Angel, whose facade is covered with foliage, is still in business. When I used to stay there many decades ago, the bedrooms were equipped with harnesses attached to ropes. These were to enable the occupants to escape from the room during a fire.  I mentioned this to the receptionist during our visit in 2025. She had never heard of these fire escape aids, but then, I stayed at the hotel long before she was born.

 

While looking at the hotel’s facade,  I noticed that the writer Charles Dickens had stayed there at least once. The town figures in “The Pickwick Papers”.

 

While walking in the park opposite the hotel, we came across a sculpture shaped like a teardrop. Placed in 2015, it is a memorial to all victims of genocide.  It also records that 57 Jewish residents of Bury St Edmunds  were massacred near the spot on Palm Sunday in 1190.

 

Brief as was our latest visit, Bury St Edmunds offers many interesting things for visitors to discover

 

Order and chaos portrayed in South London’s Peckham

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THE ARTIST LEONARDO Drew was born in 1961 at Tallahassee, Florida (USA), and now works in Brooklyn (New York City). Until 7 September 2025, an entire, large room at the South London Gallery in Peckham is occupied by a work by Drew, which has the name “Ubiquity II”.

At first sight, the viewer is confronted by what looks like the chaotic result of a big explosion. The room is filled with fragments of wood, some of which is piled in heaps leaning against the walls, and the rest scattered on the floor, on which visitors tread. On closer examination, it can be seen that there are fragments of mirrors amongst the debris, and almost every piece of wood has paint or some other modification on it.

Despite looking like disorganised chaos, it is not. The artist carefully selected each of the fragments, modified them (often with paint), and then carefully arranged them to produce what the viewer sees. He has created the depiction of chaos and destruction in a most careful orderly way. As the gallery’s website put it, Drew:

“… creates reflective abstract pieces that play on the tension between order and chaos. Transforming and eroding materials by hand in the studio, he explores the cyclical nature of life and decay.”

And given what is happening in the world today, this powerful depiction of order and chaos is particularly relevant.

A warehouse filled with wonderful artefacts in east London

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MANY MUSEUMS INCLUDING London’s Victoria and Albert (‘V&A’) own far more items than they have room to display them. The objects for which there is no gallery space to display them usually lie hidden away in museums’ storerooms. Following the example of a museum in Rotterdam, the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, the V&A has created an open access storeroom, where members of the public can see many of the objects that were formerly hidden away from view in the museum’s old warehouses.

V&A East Storehouse, which was designed by the American studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro, opened its doors to public visitors on 31 May 2025. It is in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park near East London’s Stratford Station and West Ham’s football stadium.   We had to queue for about 20 minutes before gaining admittance on a sunny Sunday afternoon. It was well worth waiting to see this incredible creation.

The parts of the Storehouse which are open to the public are arranged on three floors. The upper two are on galleries that overlook the lowest floor. Stepping into this edifice is rather like entering a huge B&Q or Ikea warehouse filled with shelving. However, there the similarity ends. The shelves are covered with an amazing variety of artefacts, ranging from ancient to modern times, and sourced from all over the world. There is also a viewing platform that allows visitors to watch the museum’s conservators working. Another room houses only one exhibit: an enormous backdrop that Picasso painted for the 1924 performance of the ballet, “Le Train Bleu”. It measures 10.4 by 11 metres, and is the artist’s largest known painting.

Without going into much detail, it seems that whoever arranged the artefacts in the Storehouse had a great sense of humour. For example, a twentieth century chair is placed right next to a rococo chest of drawers, and a fragment from a mediaeval church is placed immediately above an early example of a television. Few of the artefacts are labelled apart from bearing their museum inventory numbers. Dotted around this contemporary Aladdin’s Cave of cultural treasures, there are several exhibits with labels that explain various aspects of running the V&A and its curatorial philosophy.

With good transport connections to central London, there is no excuse not to visit the city’s latest fascinating cultural experience: the V&A Storehouse.