The Kapoor's new clothes

Berlin today.

You may remember an installation at the Tate Modern that looked like a huge red trumpet-thing. Pretty cool when you see it up close. It was by an artist called Anish Kapoor.

So here I am in Berlin with mum, and we see there is an installation of Kapoor's called 'Memory'.

Duly in to the Guggenheim we went and were confronted by this, as soon as we got the door:

Okay. It's a big metal rugby ball. Interesting enough.
The 'charming' lady (not in shot) behind the counter (not in shot, but in the same room) told us the tickets were €4 each.

Fair enough, it's an art exhibition, or so we thought. So we cough up €8. (which is pretty much 8 quid these days, if not more)
Here is what the €4 ticket looks like:

Now then, the rugby ball is big and impressive. It is also too big to walk round unless you crawl under the gap by the wall. We gamely tried to do so, but were stopped by a couple of attendants who told us we had to go back outside and down to a second door to continue. Fair enough, all sounds rather unusual and unconventional.

Out we trotted and down the street to the other door.

This is what we found when we went in:

That's right. The other side of the rugby ball.

There was a helpful old custodian/ticket ripper who tore our tickets for us so we could see this, which was very helpful.

After enjoying the other side of the rugby ball, we looked around to see where we could go on to see the rest of the exhibition, and found a stairway which led to...

...the gallery shop and cafe.

We took one look, and without further ado, gtfo of there in fits of laughter at what looked to be a gigantic swizz.

We had to really. The alternative was to cause an almighty but ultimately futile stink.

I kept the tickets because on closer inspection, i.e. looking at the back, I saw this handy map of the exhibition;

My apologies for the poor quality of the scan, but I trust you get the gist.

Apparently there was a third aspect of the piece, which was a window that looked into the sheer blackness of the rugby ball's interior. To access this portal of wonders, one would have had to go through the shop and cafe. Without this esoteric knowledge, on account of not looking at the back of our tickets, we gtfo, as mentioned earlier, full of wonder at kapoor's moxy.

(full cobblers about the reason Kapoor did all this is available from the Deutscher Guggenheim website http://www.deutsche-guggenheim-berlin.de/e/ausstellungen-anishkapoor01.php )

A-block Alkie beats the recession!

I spied a new empty can deposited on the stairs of A-Block today.
Every time I take the stairs instead of using the lift, I see an empty can placed on the third or fourth step down, round about the 2nd or 3rd floor. I can almost see the poor soul, sneaking out at whatever time, drinking the one solitary can of tramp juice, placing it neatly upright on the stair for the cleaner to collect and making his or her way off to wherever, empowered by the hit of booze required for normalcy. The can is always tucked into the step where it meets the wall, almost unobtrusively. Almost.

In a run-down estate or derelict building, this may not look so out-of-place. Du Cane Court, however, is pretty damned far from that. This is a very well managed building and the service charges are certainly evidence of that. The apartments here rise in value year-on-year and the location on Balham High road is exquisitely convenient. There is a feeling of pride to be living here, or at least a feeling of having paid for something and expecting appropriate quality.

Our Alkie neighbour (if indeed it is a resident here. the alternative is that it is a regular visitor or bizarrely enough, someone who comes in from outside each day to have a drink in the relative warmth of the stairwell) seems to have had a windfall or at least is not affected by the current financial unpleasantness. Rather than the usual Diamond White cider, it was a can of Fosters.
I'll admit I've not done a price check on the two brands, but I'm fairly sure that the beer costs slightly more for slightly less alcohol. So at least someone has reason to say cheers!
I just wish s/he would pick up after themselves.

Welcome to Ducania!

Hello and welcome to Ducania, the blog from Du Cane Court.
I say THE blog, as this is the only one of it"s kind as far as I know. No doubt I shall be corrected in due course.