61...AAF Hampstead and La nuit blanche

Lara arranging stand

Back to Brighton this weekend and had to pop up to the prestigious new Affordable Art Fair on Hampstead Heath as all my small sculptures had sold at the private view and I had to load my trusty trolley up with more and hot foot it up to renew the display.
This fair is a well known international franchise but this was a first one in this location. It looked great, spacious and light with a really well curated collection of artists and galleries. It was busy and buzzy and I spent a happy couple of hours looking around. While I was there, Lara (my agent) sold the last Little Artichoke on the stand, and the lady who had bought it over the phone, came rushing round to pick it up, and bought me a lovely artichoke that she had seen for sale at a  local greengrocers, what a lovely thought.

Pheonix installation

This week the clocks went back, and in Brighton to celebrate this fact we have a white night. It is only 3 years old, but is already becoming a hugely popular event, and the streets were packed. I think this started originally in Amiens, France...but has spread to other French and British cities.

Dolly mania

H and I wandered around the streets enjoying all the different shows. Here we saw a couple of funny Dolly Parton trannies belting out her most popular numbers from balconies above the crowd...everyone was dancing. We also popped into the alternative (everything in Brighton is alternative!) village fete where I joined in with some Jive lessons.

Audience at Sallis Benney theatre watching clubbers on West Street

Later we joined an audience at the art college theatre who were watching an experiment run by the noise abatement society with a member from the 80's group The Human League. They were playing ambient music from many speakers situated in West Street in Brighton and filming the results while simultaneously streaming them back to the theatre. There was a body language expert there who was giving us the low down on how people were reacting to the music, and discussing whether it was changing behaviour. West Street is not a place where you would casually wander on a saturday night, it is full of very high spirited, often quite drunk youngsters who are out for a dance, a laugh and maybe a bundle....it has ever been so. So it was funny to watch the reactions to the ambient music all around them, and certainly it all seemed relaxed, clubbers and police, while we were watching. Maybe this idea could spread and calm down saturday nights in city centres?

Open market party

On the way home, we popped into the local fruit and veg market and found a full on party with DJ's and art installations. It was great...really good music and atmosphere...with a typical alt Brighton crowd. Plenty of ghouls and zombies having a bit of a dance.

Knitted bollard cosy

When we finally headed for home, we saw a row of bollards that someone had thoughtfully knitted some cosies for.......