Exploring Southbank and Bermondsey

We started with Tate Modern because it's quite a representative museum. There are swings around when we have visited, which turned the open space into a public playground.

A space where children can roll on the ground.

Boy: I want to play that swing! There's still one seat in the middle!

I think these swings connect people with their multi-seats on "one" swing. Swings are usually played and experienced alone.

I noticed this blind lady who listened to an electronic audio guide when she was appreciating the artwork. But she did "stare" at the artwork and perhaps appreciated the works of art more seriously than we did. How would she have imagined this?

Maybe it looked better in her imagination.

After some touring around, we headed down along the south bank and walked along the Thames.

Here's a cool old man who posed for me (accidentally). The guy behind was singing and added a cheerful vibe to this sunny day.

We went pass the Millennium Bridge. It had a fluid twisty shape which was more modernistic than other bridges.

Blue sky today. We are lucky.

Under Millennium Bridge. I really like the contrast of the underside's shadow and the blue sky.

There are primary school children sketching the view opposite of Thames. It gave an interesting contrast between this noisy little crowd (wearing bright jackets) and the lonely man in the shades enjoying some leisure time on the right.

Here's a poet for hire and he had a philosophical, thoughtful look on his face (or at least he was attempting to).

Agents Mr. and Mrs. Blue.

I really like the juxtaposition of the row of trees and the buildings. It's where the "city view" ends and where the greenery begins.

I love how the balconies are not in sync with the perspective!

Then we went past a small sunny park. It was lovely to see people lying there.

We also came across the OXO tower which had cool small design and concept stores.

The walkway was very broad and we continued our leisurely scroll.

We went past the Nation Theatre and took pictures from a higher angle. The modernist, minimalist architecture gave an edge to the building unique from others along the Thames.

There was a second hand book fair under the bridge.

This was a cool graffiti place with graffiti artists doing actual graffiti and skateboarding hipsters in real time (despite not being as skilled). 

This sticky looking limescale-d pipe caught my attention.

This refined and colourful mural caught our attention because of how it stood out from the black walls. I wonder if that was a depiction of India and London.

There was a nice view above the bridge as we overlook the eye.

We went to get the tube to London bridge. This walkway might be where gangsters walk down to have a meeting.

We got a closer look at the cranes we saw earlier from afar. I like how they are each at different levels, creating parallel and intersecting lines. 

Taking a journey down this sci-fi tunnel.

Here we finally arrived!

There were a lot of vintage, old-school furbishing around the street, alongside old brick buildings of tarnished colours.

"Woolyard" is a hybrid of modern typography on an industrial metal gate.

I really LOVE how sunlight was reflected on the building by windows on the other side. They look like flowers or light filtered by trees. There's also a small banksy-like graffiti in the small alley which looked like a secret meeting place for couples of forbidden love.

The sun loved us. Bermondsey street looked desolated and old(er), but tranquil. Where retired couples might live.

This (new born baby-like) pastel blue of this cafe stands out from the rest (even from the faded greyish blue on the right).

Another street view of the broad streets in the Bermondsey area. The left column of buildings slightly resembles a warm hued rainbow.

This lady had a nice nifty flowershop with vibrantly coloured flowers, seasonal squash and mutant cactuses. Fae thought of getting one, but the cactuses looked too precious to be impulsively owned. Nevertheless, this flower place was a feast for the eyes.

The above was a contrast to this semi-desolated parkway with a modernist solid worn-out block behind.

Another small silent grass patch.

Finally arrived to White Cube!

Fae and Tom standing there.

I really like how much interior space White Cube has left. The rows of white lights on the low ceiling elevated the space to become more futuristic and unreal.

We enjoyed the exhibitions in White Cube more than Tate Modern-- perhaps it is because objects and pieces of work are scattered throughout with free-flowing space, such as this tangle of string and tubes suspended mid-air in a half-open room.

Very "physical" lights.

Contained in the hole of a gigantic roll of "tape".

I love these  halves of newspaper paper-mache altases. There was something very comforting about them.

Each sphere is different. They each represent one alphabet from 26 letters of English Language.

Using newspaper and showcasing the cross sections creates a visual texture that can be felt without touching them. It seemed grainy, coarse and dense, like how a sound can be pronounced/ a circular soundwave.

Like ripples on a pool.

Layers of aesthetic trash.

This was like an amplified sound wave. 

There was something very therapeutic looking at these structures which we might not understand the meaning of.