The More the Merrier

It may not have been December yet, but streets like this one in Marylebone are already decked out in their holiday splendour.

My favourite shop on the street had a window full of charming delights,

including this great lineup of Santas (?) with a Scandinavian twist.

Down on Oxford Street, the Selfridges Christmas windows were, erm, a bit more over-the-top, reflecting both the street and the department store in which they're located.

I bet you didn't know Santa does a regular DJ night--I guess he has to do something to fill his time from January to November!

And you thought he still travelled by reindeer . . . .

I guess if Santa can keep track of all the kids all over the world, he won't have any trouble passing the knowledge.

Oh dear; he hasn't even delivered the presents yet . . .

I'm not sure Santa understands how to take a bubble bath, but maybe that's because he drank too much in the previous window.

This being Oxford Street, he certainly knows how to shop!

This next scene is impressive in a very different way--Antony Gormley's Case for an Angel I (1989) is part of the British Museum's Statuephilia, in which five contemporary sculptors contributed pieces that engage with the museum's existing sculptures and gallery spaces. Gormley's angel watches over the museum's main entrance:

A related exhibit of 20th-century British sculptors' drawings contained some pieces with connections to the Statuephilia pieces, including Gormley's Angel in the Ground (1997), which reveals the enormous underground base necessary to support his 20-metre-tall The Angel of the North.

From a distance, it's easy to focus on the beautiful shadows created by Tim Noble and Susan Webster's Dark Stuff (2008),

but up-close the mummified animals that create those shadows create a decidedly tense mood. The artists have said that their inspiration came from the museum's Egyptian collections and displays of mummification. Apparently the "dead things" in the sculpture came courtesy of the artists' kittens, who bring new prey into the house every day. The artists were unsure what to do with these "gifts" until they got the idea for this piece. Ewww.

Marc Quinn's The Siren (2008) is situated in front of the Nereid Monument (390-380 BC, Turkey) with its statues of sea deities' daughters.

Quinn's take on the notion of Aphrodite is a yoga-contorted Kate Moss made entirely of gold.

Quinn's Study for 'Siren' (2008) highlights some of the ways he sees the sculpture tying in with notions of frozen fame, culture, and money.

Ron Mueck's contribution to the exhibit was my favourite--the eerily realistic take on the artist's face

is only revealed as a mask when you peek around the side.

According to the exhibition write-up, Mueck's Mask II (2001/2002) connects with the Rapa Nui (Easter Island) statue watching over it through the "need to make our own image on a grand scale" and "alludes to the many fallen maoi (human figures) that remain on Rapa Nui today as reminders of a civilisation that has since been transformed." The museum's Enlightenment Gallery is the location of the final piece in the exhibit: Damien Hirst's Cornucopia (2008), which consists of eight antique bookcases filled with 200 painted plastic skulls. "[T]ogether they appear like a sinister shrine to a bloodthirsty deity. They offer a dark, superstitious riposte to the Enlightenment concerns--reason, collection and classification--that surround them."

Here's Hirst's sketch for the piece:

There were many other interesting pieces in the museum's exhibit of 20th-century British sculptors' drawings, including Henry Moore's Reclining Figure and Red Rocks (1942);

Barbara Hepworth's Winged Figure: Project for a Sculpture in Brass (1957);

Eduardo Paolozzi's Head of Demeter (Knidos) (1946),

Metalisation of the Dream (1962),

and Untitled (Head) (1954);

Robert Klippel's Untitled Composition (1951);

Marc Quinn's Study for the Sculptural Exhibit 'Rubber Soul' (or 'Frog') (1994);and Antony Gormley's Under My Skin (1998),

Germinal (1982),

Earth (1994) (at top), Attendant (1994),

Body (1994) at left, Part (1994),

Edge (1994) at left, and Light (1994).

After I left the British Museum, I met Bob and we popped into a shopping event on Carnaby Street, where the street decorations were oversized

and they were giving out free drinks to get people in the mood to spend. Bob was quite happy to knock back my drink as well as his own!

I wanted Bob to pose getting a bear hug, but he didn't want to crouch down, so this was the slightly confusing result:

He was a bit more cooperative in front of this hair salon.

As we wandered away from Carnaby Street, I spotted an oddly isolated nose perched way up on a wall:

Bet you can't guess what kind of business lies behind this window display!

(It's a digital effects and animation studio.) By now we were ready for a bit of a relaxing sit, and headed over to Foyles to sip coffee, listen to jazz, and build up the energy to start heading home for the night.