Dunelm Sept 16 -17

Happily a weekend spent NOT working and a trip to Dunelm, as the Romans called it, or Durham, as it is more recently known, to visit Cristiana Cavina Pratesi. Durham is about two hours, or 80 miles north of here. and is, even by the admission of someone who comes from Tuscany (CCP), very beautiful.

Also on the agenda is a trip to Antony Gormley's Angel Of The North, a massive steel sculpture on the outskirts of Tyneside. Gormley is my favourite artist, unashamedly democratic, and very straightforward - he wants to create work that echoes the massive civic architecture of ancient Egypt and he wants the public to visit it, go "wow", buy an ice-cream and go home talking about football. Gormley is'nt deep - his stuff just adds to the environment.

CCP's apartment is great - light, airy and well-proportioned, and is her own space. This is important because all the time we hung out with CCP in London, she was renting a room in the house of a mad-woman called Sue. For the first time we get to see all of Cristiana's personality via her own space. Like her personality her apartment is a riot of colours, information, ideas, fascinations as well as art and is complex without being complicated.

Durham Trip[