May begins with May Day, the first of the bank holiday weekends I tend to forget about over the winter. Being more into blossom than rioting however, I would rather use the May Day holiday to ‘bring home the may’ or maybe twirl round a Maypole.
Although ‘bringing home the may’ refers to the traditional country practice of bringing home some flowers of the hawthorn tree, you could try a guided walk on the 4th of May led by Sir Charles Willink, on Hampstead Heath, where the May blossom can be seen in all it’s glory. Flora of the Heath is at 2.30pm, courtesy of the Hampstead Heath Society. If you are feeling brave, you might be able to summon up the courage for your first dip in the ponds, which open for their summer season that day. If you miss the heath, you could indulge those hankerings for spring colour at the Chelsea Flower Show, on the 20th -24th of May (and you don’t have to be an RHS member).
The Magical World of Donna Maria’s Maypole (world record holders for the longest running maypole, 2007) is offering two 2 hour workshops in May followed by refresher workshops and performances in front of audiences at events at the Goodliffe Hall, Highland Road, SE19.
There is more rain in May than April apparently and so head indoors for a coffee in Blossom Square next to Tower Bridge, in the new pavilion by DSDHA before making use of Museums and Galleries Month (MGM 08). Discover London Trails, are 15 'Insider Guides' or trails for MGM. At the heart of each trail are London’s smaller museums and galleries (there are about 100 of these). New for May this year is the Innovations trail at the John Soane Museum. Soane incorporated the latest technical devices into his house at No. 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields and at the time some of them were truly innovative. The trail explores these innovations, which will highlight aspects of the house such as the movable 'planes' designed to display his paintings, or the 'stream-lined' design of the furniture.
The Louise T Blouin Institute, another smaller gallery, is presenting a retrospective exhibition called Richard Meier: Art and Architecture. The exhibition is an exploration of his sculpture, collages, drawings, photographs, furniture and product design over 45 years.
If you have never seen the Pipers London Model in the Building Centre on Store Street (the model is huge and includes proposed schemes too), now is the time and while you are there you can have a browse through the NLA gallery. Currently showing is Des Res an exhibition of new London residential architecture where you might notice seven interesting projects by an up and coming young architectural practice, Duggan Morris Architects…….For English residential architecture from a previous generation, try Artful Practice: Architectural Drawings by Richard Norman Shaw at the Royal Academy.
For the architects love affair with chairs, Austrian artist Hans Schabus’s installation in the (free) Curve gallery in the Barbican Next Time I’m Here, I’ll Be There ‘explores ideas around fictional journeys as well as the transient nature of public space’, with chairs…..
Not enough proper architecture yet? There is always Critique Of The New: Questioning The Legitimisation Of Newness Through Technology, an AA Phd Symposium, Friday 2 May. Enjoy! |
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