At precisely 8:12 yesterday morning
I was on the street where I live, ringing a bell.
I only got this bell last week and would have settled
for anything but bells are surprisingly hard to find.
I had almost given up when, in a charity shop, I
chanced upon the unusual leaf-bedecked glass object
you see below.
I was part of a small
crowd gathered at the junction of two roads, all swinging
and happily banging their own bell-like things.
I hope people
don't mind my posting photos of them; everyone was
snapping so I guess it's okay.
Encouraging the performance
was Sandy
Nairne, Director of the National Portrait
Gallery.
He lives in the neighbourhood and was the one who exhorted
us all to play our part in Martin Creed's Work
No. 1197 welcoming the Olympics
to London. Here he is holding up a radio so we can hear Big
Ben joining the nation-wide artistic cacophony for three
whole minutes.
It was a wonderfully simple and
effective community-enhancing moment.
This spectator was wondering about
the meaning of life, noise and everything.
3 comments:
Sounds great fun - could have done with a bit of that here! If one is ever short of a bell one can usually find a household object to hang from a piece of string and strike. Things make the nicest noises when you tap them. (I love garden centres where they have rooms full of empty garden pots. One can create the strangest tunes and scales, going round tapping them).
Dominic, I did want to improvise and many people did so, but I thought that a real bell was something I ought to have at home anyway and I'm glad I chanced upon that glass one. But garden pots are a great idea, I wish I'd tried that!
The event certainly was fun. Didn't the project reach the area where you live?
Not that I know of. If it did, I wish I had known.
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