Thursday 22 November 2012

A Sunset and Badbrook Hall


This is my drawing from last weekend’s Secret Artist (in fact, a slightly different version of it).  In something of a departure, it does not feature a pun. 

Modern Leisure
Like all members of the truly leisured classes, Algernon Swift has no idea what leisure is: he’s busy all the time (whether it’s thinking about Sumerian grammar, sourcing the finest cod roe, writing an inventory of remembered smells, or wearing in a new pair of shoes).  
Reverend Hawker, in turn, struggles with the concept of modernity.  What’s modern, he says, changes with each succeeding age, so really there is only a succession of moderns (just as there is only a succession of present moments).  The trick is to choose a modern that suits one.  He decides to plump for what was modern c. 1850 and, adjusting his starched collar and straightening his cape, congratulates himself on being a very modern man indeed.
So it is with no little irony that Hawker and Swift find themselves transporting the Hawker’s Pot suitcase (along railway tracks in the dead of night, through snowy fields and under the noses of sleeping dogs) to bring it to an art fair called Modern Leisure at Badbrook Hall in Stroud.
The Hawker’s Pot suitcase will be here at the opening on Friday November 30th 6-9pm
then Sat 1st/Sun 2nd and Sat 8th/Sun 9th Dec 10am – 4pm
Please come by, if you’re in the vicinity!
(Badbrook Hall, Bath St. Stroud GL5 3BZ, or: across the road from the Star Anise café.)

No comments: