I thought I would include a few things from the Tate B that I wandered past after the main exhibit I wanted to catch because there are so many lovely things (and I think I want to make a video of the Leonora trip, and that will take a minute…). This piece was actually in Now You See Us, but I wanted to highlight it. It’s on that edge between horror and fascination. Poor pie. But it’s also a record of a performance piece on sound and language. The text which may be a bit small to read:

This sculpture relates a two-day performance Finn-Kelcey made with two magpies in the window space of Acme Gallery, London in 1976. Finn-Kelcey spent her time in the space talking to the pair of magpies, offering them food and objects. She commented: ‘I wanted to talk about the potential for another language, apart from the existing one that we tend to feel is the only one… and through that talk about a potential for women having a voice’. This reflected a broader attempt by women in the 1970s to challenge the centrality of an authoritative ‘male voice’.

Old faves, Pauline Boty, Bridget Riley, Pre-Raphaelites, BLAST! futurists, Ithell Colquhoun and of course, lunch in the members room to let all the art sink into my brain. One of my most treasured indulgences of recent years is my Tate membership. I have actually used it enough to feel (per my Midwestern upbringing) that I have ‘got my money’s worth’ but it’s also made it feasible to do things like see the Yoko exhibit twice. That’s richness.