Barcelona November 07

More photos - Mas fotos
When it was time to visit our Barcelona office again on the 23rd of November, Marisol & I contacted our extended family in the area and they all made a special effort to join us for lunch on the Sunday, (actually Tio Yayo used his seniority to override all other attempts to pay!!) and what a marvellous day we spent together.
I believe everyone is preparing a pilgrimage to India!! ;-)

Cuando surgio otra oportunidad para reunir con la oficina de la empresa en Barcelona la semana pasada, Marisol y yo nos contactamos la familia en la ciudad y todos ellos (Tio Yayo y May, Victor, JoseJuan con las familias) hicieron un esfuerzo especial para reunir el Domingo siguiente para pasar un dia divino incluiendo el almuerzo. (Tio Yayo no dejo pagar a nadie, desde aquella vez que nos peleamos para pagar los taxis, yo siempre recuerdare como Tio sacaba los billetes como pistolas). Marisol leo las manos de todos y espero que disfrutaron.
Creo que todos estan planeando un peregrinaje a la India!! ;-)

Meet Uppinder & The Maglev train - Shanghai October 2007

Here is a video of the Maglev train ride from Shanghai's Pudong Airport to the city centre! Takes all of 7 minutes to go 25 KMs and reaches speeds of 430 KM/Hour.
Hang on to your seats!!


And if thats not enough excitement for one day, Uppinder from Sydney had to be in Shanghai the same week as I.

Seoul, Korea its October 2007

Lucky for me, an extension of the trip to Shanghai to Seoul gave me a weekend to do some sightseeing, and JC from our office volunteered to take me to the Korean Folk Village, that is popular with tourists and the Koreans alike.
MORE PHOTOS : For a full set of photos click here

Below is a video of the Korean Folk Dance known as Hanguk Minsokchon

Stop & Search

Well , well! Can you believe it? I got my first Stop and Search in London a few days ago.

Marisol & I were accompanying Susil who is a photographer/lawyer, who has offered to make a video for the SAL group (Spanish Artists in London) which includes Marisol. We had a pile of bags and equipment, and we were setting up a shot opposite the Parliament buildings in Westminster. Along came a couple of police and gave us a hard time. In the end they filled in this form, which I am going to frame. And I have no trace! thank God.
You will node that my IC code is 4 and the SDE code is A1
You can figure out all this mumbo jumbo for yourselves, from the pictures of the forms! :-)

Cosa Nuestra Dinner # 5

Geoff arranges the latest (Oct 5) Cosa Nuestra Dinner at La Mancha restaurant in Putney, London.
Only seven of the possible thirteen members are present. We have a stand in for Bill, who had to attend to urgent family business. Its the Bag which contains Bill's dinner :-) Bill ordered many tapas, and a portion of Paella. Hope it all tasted good Bill!
Great meal, good wine & strong sangria, and even better the Caipirina(s) at Bill's afterwards.

identidad.es - A major SAL exhibition in London

More photos - Mas fotos

On the 13th of September saw the Private View of the latest SAL (Spanish Artists in London) exhibition of which Marisol is a member. This was when the SAL artists totally took over (invaded!) the Instituto Cervantes in Eaton Square, London. I am proud to say that I am listed as a Sponsor of this exhibition. We will soon have full information on the SAL website.

There were about 300 people at the exhibition notably the Spanish Ambassador and his wife, many of our dear friends and artists from the London Biennale. Needless to say the artwork was excellent, and here to spark your interest are some pictures of Marisol's main pieces. My favourites being the stairwell installation called 'Between Two Worlds' and the drawer installation titled 'Tia Maru'. All the banisters of the stairwell through four floors are interconnected with an artery that starts from a dress representing Marisol, and the drawer, when opened, reveals Tia Maru, you can see and hear her laughing.

I recommend you should see this if you happen to be in London in the next two weeks!

Click here to see the invitation - Click here to view the Press Release
Marisol's Website
SAL Website



Español
El 13 de septiembre vio la vista previa de la nueva exposición de SAL (Artistas eSpañoles en Londres) de que Marisol forma parte. En la exposición los artistas de SAL tomaron totalmente (¡invadieron!) el Instituto Cervantes situado en Eaton Square, Londres. Estoy orgulloso decir que soy listado como un 'Sponsor' de esta exhibición. Pronto tendremos información repleta en el sitio web de SAL.

Había acerca de 300 personas en la exhibición notablemente el Embajador Español y su esposa, muchos de nuestros queridos amigos y artistas del Biennale de Londres. Innecesario decir que el trabajo artístico fue excelente, y aquí ven algunos fotos de obras principales de Marisol. Mis favoritos que son la instalación de hueco de la escalera llamada 'Entre Dos Mundos' y la instalación de cajón titulado "Tia Maru". Todas las barandillas del hueco de la escalera por cuatro pisos son interconexionadas con una arteria que empieza de un vestido que representa Marisol, y el cajón, cuando abierto, revela Tia Maru, y se puede ver y oírla reír.

¡Recomiendo que ven esta excelente exposicion si estais en Londres en las próximas dos semanas!

Laredo, Spain - Batalla de Flores, Fireworks!! - August 2007

Last week of August saw Marisol and I in Laredo for the end of summer festivities. Manjeet & Almu were also there from Madrid and Pirre came over from Palma de Mallorca. Great to catch up with family friends and the Batalla de Flores (or the Battle of the Flowers) that Laredo is famous for.
Ultima semana del Agosto, Marisol y yo estuvimos en Laredo, para las fiestas de Batalla de Flores. Tambien visitaron Manjeet y Almu desde Madrid y Pirre desde Palma de Mallorca!

See all the photos here(pinchar aqui para ver mas fotos)

A video from the procession of the Batalla follows. Un pequeno video de la Batalla.

Rags in the Wind II - Magic , Graz, Austria

"Fetzen im Wind II - Magie" Graz, Austria

A picture of my submission for the exhibition in Graz, a turban with the Sikh Greeting inscribed on it.
WaheGuru Ji Ka Khalsa || WaheGuru Ji Ki Fateh || Guru Gobind
Title of the work - Magic of Guru Gobind

Also the Invite to the exhibition. Notice the work shown the background!
Art Directors of the exhibition - Christine Kertz in Austria and Enzo Marino in Italy
More Information about the exhibition Here

Randomless - Shoreditch Gallery - Shiro Osseiran

Went to see this exhibition at the Shoreditch Gallery called 'Randomless'
Artist is Shiro Osseiran
Interesting concept randomless(ness) - i guess some kind of order.
Marisol & I met several friends including Marko, David, Rosemary, Jill, Jo, Richard & many others.
See Shiro explain 'randomless' under my videos on the right
Exhibition runs to 31 August, 5 Hoxton Market, London.

Longshore Drift - Brighton Beach - August 4

Once again the annual Longshore drift event organised every year by Katie Sollohub, took place at the Brighton Beach, and as we have accustomed, another gorgeous day was given to us, and this year the event organised by Marisol & Marko, was very enjoyable occasion indeed. Althogh several notable LBs were missing, the occasion was made memorable by some participatory performances.
Marisol gave us 'Talisman made from natural objects from the seabed', where people found stones or other objects which had holes in them and Marisol made a talisman to be worn as a necklace. As the evening fell Marisol held a very moving 'powering the talisman' ceremony to enable all the talismans so that they would work for the wearer.



Marisol also held a 'Language of the Fan' class, where several ladies (Loli, Susan, Elaine and Marisol) played out a series of phrases such as 'I love you', 'I am married' etc. for the delight of the audience.


Meanwhile, I - Arvinder, held a series of Oracle consultations, where anyone could ask a question to the I-Ching, and tried to interpret the results. To my surprise several very rare hexagrams were obtained as answers among them the perfect six solid lines hexagram 1, The creative (Elaine) and one thrown by Katie which contained 4 changing lines. These are rare.
A memorable event and a perfect day.
And someone flew a plane and drew a heart with an arrow going threw it in the sky in front of us!

Here are some photographs and there are some videos from the event on the right among Arvinder's Videos.