Turner Contemporary Broken Again, and some other musings on today’s visit to Margate.

Today was my third consecutive visit to the Turner Contemporary art gallery in Margate where at least two of the exhibits in the Rosa Barba exhibition have been out of order.

Photography is banned in this exhibition and frankly I couldn’t be bothered to draw it again. My understanding is that two million pounds of public funding are required to run this gallery for a year.

Half of this funding comes out of the Kent County council purse and therefore out of our council tax. I am beginning to wonder if this is something I should complain to the council about, like a blocked drain.

There were fewer people in the upstairs galleries where the Carl Andre, William Turner, Rosa Barba exhibitions are than I have ever see, although this may be a coincidence.

When I first visited this new exhibition I reviewed it, see http://thanetonline.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/carl-andre-and-rosa-barba-at-turner.html and have been back again http://thanetonline.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/carl-andre-and-rosa-barba-at-turner_10.html and again http://thanetonline.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/everything-you-always-wanted-to-know.html

Frankly it is very difficult to criticise both modern and contemporary art but this is not a good collection of exhibitions, the Turners are not really works of art but Turner’s lecture illustrations, the Andre is a bit of a hodgepodge of his works and looks like what was available rather than what would have been chosen and the Barba both doesn’t work because the artist has chosen a medium beyond her ability and because it is intrusive – noise and flickering light – to the other exhibitions.

My reason for being in Margate related to delivering children and collecting them from The Winter Gardens, so I took a few pictures of the inside of the venue.

After this cream tea at The Walpole Bay Hotel.

Computer Bug at The Walpole Bay Hotel and the Brutal Car Park, a Distorted View of Margate.

Having left Margate Museum I continued my journey in Margate http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/laptop910a/id10.htm museums tend to leave us in need of some refreshment.

The paintings in Margate museum had stimulated my artistic senses but unfortunately the car parking had run out.

This made it impossible to dally among the charming old buildings.

No worries though as I remember once asking a council officer what he thought was the most iconic building, his response was the multi-storey car park – I think he may have designed it – not sure if the car park I had to return to was the right one, I decided it would have to suffice.
I am afraid that the architecture of the brutal brings out a desire in me for extreme civilisation, something not always available in 2010, unless of course you know the location of a hole in the time space continuum, fortunately one of these is located in Walpole Bay.

The waitress arrived with civilisation, I am afraid I consumed the strawberry, half a scone and several cups of tea before I remembered to photograph this.

Fortunately there was a waiter available who understood how to civilise first one child

and then the other.

In the ensuing calm I thought I would do some of my computer chores, this went well until I tried to access last weeks planning applications,

as you see my computer developed a bug.

Strangely enough I seem to have the same bug on all of the other computers that I have tried since. Eventually today I tried communicating with various people at the council about this, in case it was their bug.

For some reason none of them have replied, I expect this was armless enough, I don’t suppose they have any applications that they wish to conceal, so we can’t object to them.

Here are the Walpole Bay Hotel and museum pictures http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/laptop910a/id11.htm

Cliftonville Margate, Shell Grotto and The Walpole Bay Hotel Museum, pictures and a few thoughts.

One of Cliftonville’s more unusual attractions is The Shell Grotto, its organs and age are uncertain, you can read about its history on The Shell Grotto website, click on the link to do so http://www.shellgrotto.co.uk/pages/history.html

It isn’t that easy to photograph, so apologies for some of the pictures, click on the link to view them http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/410b/id5.htm anyway it’s well worth a visit as you can see.

We then went on to The Walpole Bay Hotel for cream tea and a visit to the museum there. The cream tea was excellent as was the museum experience click on the link for the pictures http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/410b/id6.htm also here is the link to the hotel’s website http://www.walpolebayhotel.co.uk/index.html

I hadn’t been to the shell grotto for a number of years and have to admit to going in the wrong direction so here are a few pictures taken of Cliftonville while I was lost http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/410b/id4.htm

Frankly when one thinks of Cliftonville now one doesn’t expect to get a reasonable all weather afternoon out for the family, something we certainly managed.

A few pictures of Ramsgate yesterday here http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/410b/id3.htm

Some of this morning here http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/410b/id7.htm

The section of my latest publication on Westgate for Simon Moores who has had rather more flack from me than he deserves recently and did help to sort out some problems for me although he isn’t my councillor here http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/410b/id8.htm