Standing in Trafalgar Square for one week only was an unusual art exhibition featuring the large tree stumps from nine different species sourced from Suhuma forest reserve, a commercially logged tropical forest in Western Ghana.

The fully grown trees would have reached around 50 metres - the same height as Nelson's Column.


The hefty stumps distributed around the square were designed to raise questions about the future of the world's vulnerable forests, although we found ourselves wondering how much of a carbon footprint was created by lugging the things here.

The Ghost Forest installation finished on Sunday Nov 22 2009 and headed off to a public square in Copenhagen, to be seen during the UN Climate Change Conference.

 

 

 

 

More pics here.

Labels: art, london, trafalgar square

Some photos from the 3rd National Demonstration For Gaza: "Israel Out Of Gaza Now: Lift The Blockade," Trafalgar Square, central London.









The police had decided to pen everyone into the square so tempers were rising.

I was taking pictures from outside the cordon and nearly got nicked:

Stroppy cop: "You! Get off the grass area"
Me: "I'm trying to but you're now pushing me back on to the grass"
Cop: "Get off the grass NOW!"
Me: "I am trying to comply but you are continuing to push me in the wrong direction. I am press phoographer. (shows press card). I am trying to do as instructed"
Cop: "Get off the grass then.NOW! NOW!"
Me: "Well stop shoving me back on to it then"

*cop finally stops shoving me into the grass area, and I step on to the pavement..

Fucking prick.

Excluding the testerone-charged police, there was certainly a few 'hotheads' in the crowd including a fabulously hysterical woman who was dramatically pleading to the police outside the cordon, "WHY WON'T YOU LET THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN GO FREE?!" as people were happily walking out of the cordon next to her.

Labels: gaza, protest, trafalgar square

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Some snaps from my wander around central London yesterday:



Street artist in Leicester Square.



The half-demolished 1962 Swiss Centre in Leicester Square. The building was originally designed to provide a showcase for Switzerland and hosted a Swiss bank and the Swiss National Tourist Board.



The original Empire Theatre opened with a production of 'Chilperic' which was a 'Grand Musical Spectacular' by Florimund Herve in 1884.
Just three years later it had been become 'The Empire Theatre of Varieties,' reverting back to The Empire Theatre in 1898 before finally closing and being demolished in January 1927.

The second Empire Theatre opened as a cinema in November 1928, although it still put on occasional ballet and dancing shows before closing in May 1961 after a 76 week run of 'Ben Hur.'

After a major reconstruction, the third incarnation of the Empire Theatre opened in December 1962, and now hosts a cinema and casino.



The 20 feet tall tower of the art deco Odeon Leicester Square, once the 'flagship' cinema of Oscar Deutsch's Odeon Theatres Ltd.

Built on the site of the Alhambra Theatre (1883-1936), the Odeon opened for business on 2nd November 1937, offering 2,116 seats - and all of them covered in mock leopard-skin!



Trafalgar Square at night.




More photos

Labels: leicester square, london, photos, trafalgar square

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