Morgyn Edwards

My mother has gone back to the USA for a week or so and left my step-dad and I at home on our own. This is a bad thing to do as we both get bored very easily and my mom somehow manages to keep us all entertained. Without her this weekend we have been struggling to find something to do so we didn't end up sitting around the house and playing video games all day. So we went to Sountbank and wandered around.

At the Festival Hall they had a food market on selling all sorts of yummy things so we got a beer and looked around before deciding to have seafood for lunch there. Paul got a whole boiled crab. It was messy, but very entertaining to watch. I tried a bit, and it had been boiled in a crab boil similair to one my family uses in America but not as spicy or strong tasting so you could still taste the meat. It was very good.

It didn't look quite so pretty when we were done with it.

After lunch and much washing of hands, we walked down the river with ice cream watching the people. We stopped occasionally for a pint or cocktails, so  the 20 minute walk to the Tate Modern actually took around 4 hours. We discovered a new gallery called The Wapping Project Bankside on the way, which had some exceptional work by the photographer Jeffery Stockbridge from his 'Occupied' and 'Divine Lorriane' projects. Stockbridge won the Taylor Wessing portrait Prize last year but this exhibition was mainly showing the urban decay of his home town of Philidelphia. Paul and I found a few pieces we wouldn't mind owning, but as mom isn't here we can't purchase anything yet.

Here are a few other photos from the wanderings.

 

I've always liked Damien Hirst work, if only for the fact it creates so much discussion about art and what art is. My favourite pieces of his were the animals in formaldehyde. Specifically the piece ‘ The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living’ as it is something which cause a lot of debate between my friends and I.

 

Photo by Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images

Now Hirst has been one of a series of artists asked to 'ink' volunteers for the forthcoming magazine ' Garage' and has produced a tattoo of a butterfly on the  labia of a girl, which  has been photographed and will be on the cover of the first issue (with some censorship). Amy Fleming, writing for the Guardian states the collection of work is meant to symbolise ' The works play on notions of who owns the art and what it's worth, while referencing tattooing's popularity reaching saturation point.', to me it's more about looking at the idea of people who claim that their ' body is a canvas', if it is a canvas then who is the artist? The person whose design the tattoo is? The tattoo artist? And if you consider your body a canvas are you objectifying yourself? Can a body become a private, living gallery?

Garage Magazine featuring Damian Hirst's tattoo. Photograph: PR

Joao Silva was a member of the Bang-Bang club, who were a group of four photographers that photographed the townships in South Africa during the Apartheid. In October 2010 he was with American troops in Afganistan he lost one leg below the knee and one leg above the knee. He recently spoke to the about the experince and the NY Times have transcribed and condensed the talk on their website. It's a really inspiring read from a very grounded photographer.

Joao Silva: ‘This Is What I Do. This Is All That I Know.’