Wangari Maathai
What really made it wonderful is the wonderful Wangari and her life. The best I can do is recommend a multi-award-winning film: Taking Root tells her dramatic story: her simple act of planting trees grew into a nationwide movement to safeguard the environment, protect human rights and defend democracy.
GOOD FRIDAY 29 MARCH BACH’S ST JOHN’S PASSION
Andreas had organised tickets at the Barbican for Bach’s St John’s Passion. I don’t know when it was – say fifteen years ago – that I would not go to hear this work because I was anti-religious but now I treat the story of Christ as a myth whose purpose is moral regeneration. I was brought up in the Anglican religion and know the Bible well. Part of the satisfaction from the work is that the audience gets very involved in the story.
When I finally did go, I was carried away. I have been several times. The underlying rhythm hypnotises you, supports you, lifts you up with the harmonies and the shifting forms into the ether: you fly. It is glorious and tragic as well as exquisitely beautiful, tender and, above all, light as air: Pure Joy!
APRIL 2013
FRI 5 APRIL MANET AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY
Manet exhibition at the Royal Academy. Unbelievable! It was exclusively portraits. As I went round I became more and more astonished at the vitality of his work; life caught by strokes of paint. You can get something from a reproduction but you have to experience the physical painting. The economy was overwhelming: ‘Truth is fiction where the fiction’s true’. Monet told him that he did not need to spend so long being meticulous. Andreas told me to always look at the frames. He’s right, artists themselves knew they were as important as the painting. He also pointed out the hair: ‘It’s like sugar. He’s the best painter of hair ever.’ On Madame Manet, Andreas said: ‘The blood in the skin. This image is filled with love. Have you ever seen a kinder person?’
Manet’s portrait of his wife, Suzanne, at the piano.
SAT 13 APRIL THE ARREST OF AI WEIWEI
We have just heard that Leonard’s transfer to a softer prison has been stopped by high authority (just one person on the panel) in the power hierarchy. Two days later an email came via Leonard’s Defence Committee: ‘Courage!’
Hampstead Theatre: The Arrest of Ai Weiwei by Howard Brenton. Ai’s interrogators thought they had to deal with a murderer, as they always did murderers. But then they looked him up on the internet and got back to him with new accusations: he was rich, not a real artist, and a fraud. The interrogators studied the art world to build a case against him; they confronted him with Duchamp’s urinal and with his own work, which they claimed insulted the Chinese state. Gradually Ai converted them until they finally got it: Ai’s art was for them. The art itself was not important: important was what they thought of it. ‘Yes!’ shouted Ai.
I don’t agree. With the enactment of this statement, the play identified the crisis in art which happened at the beginning of the twentieth century with the launch of the abstract art which smashed tradition. Abstract art denies the need for subject matter. By this you deny the value of the work in itself – because there is no way to begin to judge it – as representing reality, as an Imitation. As an art lover, you are cut off from reality and left to your own devising, meditating on your own. Cut off from each other of course we can’t share in the work of art. We’ve all got a different idea. We can only come together by taking part in the same experience. This is culture.
Once you are cut off from tradition and the traditional view of art there is no need for skill, as Duchamp demonstrated with his urinal. This could have alerted people to the need for skill and sent artists back to work but they preferred the easy (but impossible) option, to repeat the shock: the shock can’t happen twice and ‘something different’ is always a bore – especially when it has to be explained. Simply choosing things and presenting them in a gallery or space (conceptual art) is not enough. It is certainly not original.
Ai Weiwei’s Remembering – 9,000 backpacks in five different colours, composing the sentence ‘For seven years she lived happily on this earth’ – a quote from the mother of a young girl victim of the Sichuan earthquake.
When I say there is no progress in art I mean that, through the test of time, the new art fits in, makes its own space in the tradition, and yes, the new art makes the world a better place. Art is timeless and can never be obsolete. Ai thinks that past art is inadequate to express today’s world. How does he know that?
I do accept that Ai’s installation Remembering – 9,000 backpacks on the facade of a Munich art gallery in memory of dead children whose poorly constructed school buildings had collapsed in the Sichuan earthquake – succeeded with its sad message in exposing the Chinese cover-up. He had previously been beaten up for his activism. There is no doubt he is brave and sincere. In this case conceptual art worked, with its political subject matter, in communicating to our Best Self. And yes, he communicated his fanatical rejection of the past by filming himself as he smashed a precious (old) Chinese vase. No one could ever have made that vase or make it again but the man who produced it. It was perfect. This rejection of the past is the received theory of our age. [At Ai’s exhibition at the Royal Acedemy, the point made was that by breaking up traditional furniture and smashing the vase, we are made to appreciate them].
The play closed with Ai the actor telling off the audience for not thinking. I agree, as they had approved throughout his theory on art. He said that freedom of speech is the most important thing in the world. I agree, especially if you have something to say, as he does.
SUN 14 APRIL MURRAY PERAHIA
Iris came for a week so Andreas and I spent time working with her and our other pattern cutters. I worked on the Red Carpet collection and got her opinions regarding fabrics and fit, which is so valuable. She has such an eye. It’s important to know what she likes.
During the week I squeezed in a concert with Andreas at the Barbican by the great pianist Murray Perahia. By the end of the last piece – Chopin – I wish we could have heard it all again (especially because sometimes I don’t settle down at the beginning). I would have if the concert had begun with Chopin – every note carries you with it.
THURS 18 APRIL GREENPEACE
John Sauven from Greenpeace came to talk to us about ‘Save the Arctic’ and about the rainforest. John explained how Greenpeace are funded by the public (they need donations) and their credibility rests on not accepting donations from governments or corporations. To save the Arctic they need, as well as public support, to lobby governments and corporations and hopefully to get support from the UN. If you look on their website you can see what would happen if oil spilled in the Arctic. It is so crazy that the description left me with an image of not a white Arctic but a black one.
John gave me a present – a piece of intense blue canvas from the sail of the Rainbow Warrior II – which is now a hospital ship in Bangladesh. We did cut a bit off the sail to get the colour copied – very special – for dyeing.
SAT 20 APRIL BAROCCI AND BALLET
Barocci exhibition at the National Gallery. He is not so well known to the frequenter of art galleries because his work is mostly in situ in Italian churches where he painted altarpieces. Marvellous facility, very special.
Then I met Andreas, my friend Giselle, my son Ben and his fiancée, Tomoka, at the English National Ballet, where Tamara (Rojo) has recently become director. It was the middle one of the three ballets that knocked us out! It had a story and ballet has to have one or it isn’t complete (the exception is Les Sylphides, which blends for ever with an orchestration of Chopin’s music).
Tamara Rojo and Nicolas Le Riche in ENO’s Le Jeune Homme et La Mort.
What a tour de force was this ballet, Le Jeune Homme et la Mort. It had an existentialist feel but it projected right up to each moment as we watched. It was so original, we were in suspense. It was the creation of two geniuses: Jean Cocteau (the idea and costumes, the stage effects) and Roland Petit (choreographer and hus
band of Zizi Jeanmaire, who made famous the role of The Girl). I’m so glad Giselle saw it, she is French and appreciates so well the great ideas of the French (some ideas can only be French, like, for example, Duchamp’s urinal which summed up an age).
Andreas loved so much the yellow dress, I think he will copy it.
SUN 21 APRIL JUAN DIEGO FLOREZ
Andreas and I went to work – still choosing fabrics.
Evening. Lucky again: Andreas had got us concert tickets for the Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez and friends. Handsome, sweet, powerful, sexy, his voice and his persona expanded so that he controlled the whole space and everything in it.
FRI 26 APRIL BEE WISE
11 a.m.: went to demonstration to save the bees from neonicotinoid pesticides. The EU has put a ban on these substances for two years to monitor their harm. England has opted out saying the evidence against is not clear – they prefer to wait till it’s too late. I accompanied Katharine Hamnett to hand in a petition of 700,000 names. Katharine said she was honoured to represent so many.
SAT 27 APRIL CAN FASHION CHANGE THE WORLD?
Vogue conference. I was on a panel of four with Livia Firth, Katharine Hamnett and photographer Dick Page. Subject: Can fashion change the world? Had I looked properly at the programme I wouldn’t have gone as they gave us only 45 mintues between us and there wasn’t time to say anything. How silly to propose such a momentous question and then ask you to give the solution in ten minutes each. There was no time for questions and for me it was a waste of time, though I think the other panellists got their main points across.
When I was unlocking my bike to come home a young teenage boy came to me and asked if we could have a photo and when would the Climate Revolution T-shirts be back in the shop. He was quite thrilled to meet me and said, ‘Gosh, I think you’re my most favourite person in the world’. Of all the thousands of people who have asked me for a photo this boy touched me with his youth and his sincerity. His appreciation I shall never forget, it will fortify me.
MON 29 APRIL BEN AND TOMOKA GET MARRIED
My son Ben married Tomoka. I am sure they will be happy. I was very pleased to see my first husband, Derek, with his wife, Jean, and family. A good man.
Tomoka and Ben at their wedding, Chelsea Town Hall.
TUES 30 APRIL SAM BRANSON AND LEONARD
Sam Branson came to talk to Cynthia and me. It is good to meet up with people who are doing stuff. Discuss mutual support, join the dots. I’m interested in what his dad is doing. I didn’t know about Richard’s big idea, The Elders, which includes Mandela. If we could get Mandela to reiterate the support he has previously spoken of for Leonard – the Mandela of the Indians – that would be ace. Mandela and Peltier were both targeted for the same reason. The ruling power wanted to suppress their claims for justice. We must hang on to the idea, like Siddhartha, so that we reach our aim as easily as a stone falling through water.
Later Lorna came and we spoke to Leonard on the phone – he’s allowed to phone her. I worry about what to say to him, I can only tell him how he inspires us with his courage. It was lovely talking to him; he has a rich full voice.
MAY 2013
SAT 4 MAY THE MET’S PUNK EXHIBITION
4 p.m. plane for New York. Slept. Arrived evening. Hotel Carlyle (near the Metropolitan Museum of Art).
We kept changing our minds about going to New York for the Met’s punk exhibiton (Punk: Chaos to Couture), because I’m not very interested in the punk past, though I love the clothes. But we finally decided ‘yes’ – because we wanted to be polite to the Met and express our thanks to them, and also to Anna Wintour. And an important purpose was to express support for Bradley Manning. Bradley is a danger to the Power Structure. Blowing the whistle on war crimes is not a crime but Bradley now faces life in prison for sharing a video with WikiLeaks of a US helicopter attack that killed eleven civilians and wounded two children in Baghdad.
SUN 5 MAY NEW YORK GALLERIES
Interviews: 11 a.m. at CNN, a four-minute piece with host Alina Cho. Then 1 p.m. with Vanity Fair back at the Carlyle.
Immediately after, I walked to the Met. The Chinese painting gallery was closed so I looked at the Japanese paintings. Chinese culture was a major influence on Japan from the introduction of Buddhism in 552AD. They mastered the Chinese technique of painting and for centuries you can’t tell the difference, the paintings are as good. I was carried away: there’s just you, a white heron and the grey calligraphic stem of a lotus pod.
Went for an hour to the hotel bar with Andreas. He is fascinated by the taste in dress of rich old American gentlemen, eccentric and super-chic. My friend Gene from Brooklyn, now living in Japan and fashion editor of Vogue Nippon and Korean Vogue – though not so old – has the same taste. Andreas had been to the flea market (near the Natural History Museum) with our friend Sabina, originally from Vienna (she was a pupil of mine in the same class as Andreas), now a stylist in New York. He told me of the old ladies (probably my age) taking tea at the market who all look like Raine Spencer – hair and make-up. You don’t find them except in America. Eccentric. Why? Could be because of American isolation.
Andreas had also been to the Frick Collection. Frick was a coal baron who visited Europe around 1900 and was inspired by the London Wallace Collection to form an art collection – not only paintings but furniture etc. He built a mansion on Fifth Avenue to house it – now open to the public. Andreas says that experiencing art in someone’s house is different, walking on carpets. The art is tremendous. Frick achieved his aim of buying the best. His mansion is the only one standing on Fifth Avenue, other people demolished theirs and built giant blocks of expensive apartments – families who had once made their money from industry, turned to real estate.
With Andreas and Lily Cole at the Met Ball for the opening of their Chaos to Couture exhibition. I wore a photo of Bradley Manning on my dress.
MON 6 MAY THE MET BALL
I met my friend Terry Doctor but only for an hour. We got coffee to take away and sat on a wall in the street. He knows everything about fashion and politics. He and his wife Louise were part of the fashion crowd when fashion was at the King’s Rd in the 1960s. Then I walked to the Met for an interview at the punk exhibition. The clothes inspired by punk didn’t work; exceptions were Gianni Versace and Hussein Chalayan.
Then, though the museum was closed, Andreas and I were allowed to look at the Impressionism, Fashion and Modernity exhibition, which included one or two sensational Worth gowns. Worth is the first creator of fashion – others had trimmed and decorated existing shapes which changed slowly over time. By dynamic cutting, Worth changed the silhouettes and movement of gowns according to their rapport with the body. We also saw a so-great painting by Manet of Berthe Morisot in a white dress, getting up from a sofa and saying something: totally engaging. Its originality had shocked at the time; ‘she’s not sitting, not standing’, they scorned.
Evening at the Met ball. It was glamorous because of all the actors and models who were there. Andreas found Linda Evangelista, who he adores. She gave us a lot when she did the shows.
And what about Bradley? Mostly people didn’t recognise the photo on my dress. When I said the name then one or two knew him; when I said WikiLeaks they all did. The reaction was guilt that they didn’t know already but glad to know when I explained; all these people know American justice is a travesty and they were all sympathetic to Bradley. The people who did recognise him were democrats who still believed in Obama even though he is personally responsible for deciding Bradley’s trial is in secret court.
TUES 7 MAY BILL MCKIBBEN
Bill McKibben came to see me at the hotel. He wrote the article in Rolling Stones magazine, ‘Do the Math’ naming the fossil fuel industry as Enemy Number 1. I had invited my friend Irina, and Bill arrived with JB, a lady I shan’t say anything about until the day I tell you what she and the NGOs she works with have been doing. One of the things she said which stayed in my mind was that to continu
e campaigning for justice and to hang on to your initial outrage and live with it is (morally) an act of courage.
Because of the urgent need to hold back climate change we all feel the need of mass protest. On his laptop, Bill showed me photos of protest events where 350.org has linked with people in every country in the world except North Korea to stage protests and to maintain contact. It’s jaw-dropping what can one man do. Bill’s wife told him he’s been in jail for more days than at home this year.
Irina is so pretty – the more serious she looks, the more pretty she looks. Bill liked her, especially as she came from Lake Baikal, the largest freshwater lake in the world, and one of his favourite places on earth. She is Inuit, an author, a model and an activist. Her focus is on precious water and she told us of the environmental destruction to the Lake Baikal area, enforced by Putin, who has put his own men into the local government. She is too scared to protest even from New York because she has family there.
Get a Life Page 16