Traveling through England

I flew from Ghana to England via Turkish airlines. The flight was uneventful. I was a bit worried because I’d read a few articles the day before about dreadful turbulence on flights that caused injuries to a few people.

I landed in London late in the evening so I crawled into bed at Prince’s Square Hotel in Westminster. When I woke up in the morning, I realized the neighborhood was quite nice and near Kensington Gardens. I have a knack of choosing hotels last minute and somehow finding ones in the most perfect locations. I booked this one when I landed at the airport in London right before I called an uber.

I spent my first full day in London at the Tate Modern Museum. I was captivated by this work by Edgar Calel (b.1987, Guatemala) It’s an arrangement of real fruits and vegetables placed on large rocks arranged on the gallery floor. It honors his ancestors from indigenous communities who nurtured the land. In this work, he wants us to consider changes, harm that is threatening those communities. I suppose it connected after feeling close to the land in Ghana.

This triptych by Joan Mitchell stopped me in my tracks. I’m usually not swayed by abstract art but this one made me feel something.

The gift shop at the museum was large and well curated. If it wasn’t for my limited luggage space I’d probably bring all these books home. I appreciate museum gift shops for their ability to present art books you didn’t even know existed. There’s no way the algorithms could serve you the books found in museum gift shops.

I decided to leave London to go explore Brighton. It was on my mind to visit there because I’d taken on online figure drawing class based in Brighton and most of my classmates had mentioned how artsy the town was. It’s definitely artsy and edgy. People here seem to bark at conformity and choose more colorful, expressive ways of showing up. From what I can gather from my 48 hours here. It’s a beach town and a working class, artsy town.

The buzzing street is North Lane. It’s lined with independent shops, cafes and vintage shops. I’d hope to see the galleries in town but they were all closed. So I strolled and people watched mostly. I found most of the town people very welcoming and kind. Pride flags everywhere and signs about inclusion in almost every store. Servers and bar attendants called me “love” and “dear”. And the local stores carried black hair care products which is sometimes hard to find in Europe. AND the hotel bathrooms had wash clothes (iykyk).

I had fun messing around in the Photomatic shop taking photos while it rained outside.

I stayed at the Artist Residence Hotel, a quaint hotel with sea views.

I had planned to visit Bath, another countryside of England but the rainy, gloomy weather that arrived on my second day in Brighton gave me a taste of that depressing English weather I’ve heard my British cousins complain about. It’s not the typical rainy day that I associate with staying in and reading a book. This version doesn’t cue cozy vibes, it cues the dreary blues so I headed back to London to figure out my next move.

I booked another stay at the Prince’s Square Hotel and decided to do a gallery art tour. I walked to the galleries which was through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park which was a lovely walk. I went to all three Gagosian Gallery locations in London. The best showing was the Ghanaian artist grouping of Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe, b. 1987, Kwesi Botchway, b. 1994, Asher Tawiah, b. 1995, David Doku, 1987

That’s it for now. More recap on England to come.