20. Ottobre 2011: London Telecommunicating

This morning I walked around Bloomsbury for a bit (where our hotel is) and then headed to the British Museum. I was buffeted by tourists while trying to get a look at the incredibly underwhelming Rosetta Stone. I thought of my twin neighbors back home when I laid eyes upon the cool science gadgets like the astrolabe from the Enlightenment period. There was also an incredibly interesting preserved corpse that someone in that age had tried to pass off as the corpse of a mermaid. It is, in fact, two corpses—a monkey and a fish—surgically attached to one another so that they resemble a mermaid when all of the fur falls off of the monkey. The things people do for money, oy. I moved through the Egyptian mummies. I have always been fascinated by that burial ritual as well as the colors and designs used on the sarcophagi. I stumbled upon a mini exhibit on the metal and making of the London 2012 Olympic medals. Very neat!

I mentioned before that museums in London are free which means that they get crowded rather quickly. So I headed towards Covent Garden. I suppose I didn’t really know what Covent Garden was, though somewhere in the back of my head I assumed that it was a garden of sorts. I was pleasantly surprised when I came upon this quaint little market. It was a tiny famer’s market and art fair rolled into one, bordered by little shops liked Thornton’s Chocolate and Whittard’s Tea Shop (free samples!). I gazed at some wonderful artwork, bemoaned my student budget once again and then headed towards Muffinski’s for a mango and dark chocolate muffin.

Upon leaving the muffin house, my attention was captured by a street performer with a wonderfully low class British accent. He juggled knives and seven balls until finally roping three strapping young men into helping him hold up his incredibly tall unicycle while he climbed on top of them to mount the seat.

But on to serious matters—it was time to conquer the Tate Modern Museum. I anticipated staying in this museum for an hour or so until moving on to gaze at the beauty of London again. I ended up staying for the duration of the afternoon, mostly in one exhibit. I moved slowly past pieces by Rothko, Monet, Pollack and Dali. I loved gazing at Diane Arbus’s controversial photography of a “different side of America,” including people with Down Syndrome, homeless people, tattooed people and other supposed outcasts. But the exhibit that truly captured me was by Taryn Simon entitled “A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I-XVIII.” Each work was comprised of three frames. The first frame was comprised of deadpan portraits. The next frame listed the names, ages and locations of all of the portrait subjects as well as several paragraphs describing how these portraits were related. Each group of portraits was connected to a cause or social event. The next frame contained pictures or documents that more generally related to that cause or social event.

 These causes could be anything. There was one about albino poaching that is common in certain African poaching, connected to a family in which the albino gene runs. There was one about the supposed body double for Saddam Hussein’s brother. There was one about the family of Heinrich Himmel—this one really caught my interest. The portraits were of Himmel’s living family members (if anyone refused to be photographed or could not be photographed, their place in the sequence was simply left blank). The first two paragraphs talked about Himmel’s involvement in the Holocaust and that he had been charged as guilty of crimes against humanity at the Nürnburg trials. He denied that he was guilty all the way through the trials. It wasn’t until the last paragraph when they mentioned that Himmel had shown the seven letters of resignation that he had given to Hitler, all of which had been rejected. It gave me an idea of a different perspective on one of the most widely hated men in history. Can you imagine being related to this man? Knowing all of this and needing to decide what stance to take. Will you forget about the fact the your relative may have actually been imprisoned in his job and try to make amends with any Holocaust survivors or anyone who approaches you about that particular side of your family history? Or will you try to defend your relative, knowing that you will probably be more hated for that? I would be curious to find out more about this case. Indeed, I would be curious to find out more about many of the causes exhibited by Simon. Like I said, it was my favorite exhibit.

I realized that I need to run and meet my friend from Knox, John at Russell Square and ran to the Tube. We wandered around Bloomsbury and he showed me his school for the term, University College of London. We each had a gourmet burger (they were having a student discount night) and then headed to the Blue Lion with some of his friends and roommates. We chatted about the philosophy behind photography has evidence over an IPA. The bar closed so three of us headed down street to a pub called Calthorpe Arms and I had the best alcohol beverage I have ever tasted: London Ale. It’s a dark ale that goes perfectly with discussions about politics and the death of Gadafi.

 After some of the best conversation I’ve had since arriving in Europe, the three of us wandered over to the Senate House which is the building that Hitler intended to make his London headquarters, which is why it wasn’t bombed during the Blitzkrieg. And one can see why Hitler would have loved this ominous building. The geometry and the way it looms over everything around it make it the perfect grounds for intimidation.

On that happy note, they dropped me off at my hotel and bid goodbye to some of the coolest people in Europe. A wonderful way to end a wonderful trip! The next time I arrive in London, I will not be leaving so soon.