foxes and hothouses

Now I just have one day left before I start my first-ever full-time job! There are other exciting things on the horizon too. Right after I finish work on Tuesday, I have a blind date, which is something I’ve never done before. All I know about this person is their gender (girl). At least my first day at work is based in the home office, so I don’t have to dress for both occasions in the morning (in which case I guess a black dress would have worked just fine, really). Also, on Wednesday my first article for the Ulkopolitist should be published (on the future trajectory of coal investments in Southeast Asia). I haven’t written anything formal in Finnish for years, and it was quite eye-opening - I really need more practice..

I have spent the last few days walking around various parts of London and getting acquainted with my new midi keyboard. On Thursday, I went to see the Audrey Beardsley exhibition at Tate Britain. I really like his illustration style, and it was especially interesting to see his work in a larger context. There were some Utamaro prints on display to demonstrate the influence ukiyo-e had had on Beardsley, as well as exhibits illustrating Beardsley’s impact on many later artists, including art nouveau figures and 1960s pop artists.

Just outside the museum, there were loud protests against Tate’s decision to lay off a large number of their lower-paid employees, despite the fact that the organisation received a substantial bailout from the government and many of the top-level staff remain egregiously well-paid. There were more protests nearby, as XR/climate activists were camping in Parliament Square. I think the camp had already been in place for several days at this point, and the square was fairly empty and quiet, but there was still a large police presence.

Rejection note: Since July, I have been submitting some recent writing to various publications. Today I received the first 2 rejections, and many will surely follow. One magazine rejected a handful of poems without any personalised comment, while another declined a short story with a little bit of feedback. They said ‘we were struck by the power and lyric of your writing, especially the imagery, including the recurring image of the photograph of the window. However, we found ourselves wishing for moments that could step back a little from the trauma of the encounter for a longer perspective, giving the piece more emotional breadth’. It has been a really long time since I’ve asked for/received any criticism on my writing, so this was very interesting. Of course it’s not nice being declined for lacking emotional breadth, but still I am very happy they took the time to give me something tangible I can work on. I think it is good to confront rejections with an open heart & mind, without taking it too personally. I am mentioning it here to practice just that.

Back to recent explorations.. another afternoon, I walked through the Bunhill Fields burial grounds on my way to the Barbican conservatory. There was this little fox chilling on a gravestone, jumping every time an autumn leaf fell down on the ground in front of it.

Saturday was the first day of the London Design Festival, which I’ve taken as an excuse to go look around new areas. I took the train to Stratford to see one of the key installations: a hothouse filled with tropical plants that wouldn’t normally grow in the UK. However, it is estimated that by 2050, the climate here will be warm enough for each of these plants to grow outside without any technological assistance.

Although it was the opening day, the area was very quiet, and nobody else was there to see the installation during my visit. Much of the festival is being held online, and it’s clear that people have reduced interest/ability to come see events in person. I am still glad there are some on-site exhibitions. If there is another lockdown, I might well be stuck at home with nowhere to go, so I need to stock up on new sights now.

I spent this afternoon in Walthamstow. There were some design exhibitions, and it’s a place I’ve been wanting to visit anyway. It was a very hot and sunny - I was glad to seize one of the last opportunities this year to wear a nice summer dress (not that I have any pictures of it). Going to new stations/places just to walk around and see something new is an activity that reminds me of living in Tokyo. I really like it, it suits someone like me who is happy to just wander around with my camera and headphones (although sometimes it is healthy to remove these filters and try to experience things directly, if something interesting does seem to be going on).

Walthamstow is known for being the home of William Morris, and I really want to go visit the museum devoted to his life&work at some point (maybe in the dead of winter). Today, I stuck to the temporary exhibitions that were spread over the area. These included an archive of 80s/90s radio and rave posters organised by Rendezvous Projects as part of the design festival, exhibited both at an audio repair shop and a large brewery/venue. Apparently Walthamstow was a big centre for ‘pirate FMs’, as the many high towerblocks in the area were perfect for broadcasting. Around the turn of the decade, more than a dozen radio stations were on the air. I got a zine which contains QR codes to hear recordings of these radio programmes, and I’ve had a lot of fun listening to them back home this evening. It’s not really my kind of music for the most part, but I like the feeling of being in a time capsule. You can also simply listen to the recordings through through their website if you’re curious.

In another place, an artist called Vasu was requesting people to complete some writing assignments. The objective of her project is to create storybook houses, like the one below (by a Rajasthani folk artist who has inspired Vasu). It was really nice to sit down and write on the provided prompts for a while. Afterwards, I walked through more sunlit streets and felt like listening to JA Seazer for some reason.

The station was almost completely empty this Sunday evening. I got back and listened to these old radio programmes and proceeded to dance around on my own for a good while (to different music). It seems this mini heatwave will continue for a couple more days, and I always feel like dancing in hot weather.