How I long for Jesterday...

While I was traipsing around the English countryside, being driven along narrow canopied lanes, drinking local bitter, visiting castles and cathedrals, and attending Britain's largish Medieval Festival, my Belgian buddy had been a busy bee putting together the music video we did during our last month in Madrid. So instead of posting about my country trip, which I will do over the next few posts, I'm going to return to my beloved Madrid for a different kind of trip... one down memory lane. Ah, Jesterday...

I hope you enjoyed it! I highly recommend making videos as a fun project to do with your friends. We had a amazing day laughing and laughing as we made a spectacle out of ourselves on the streets of Madrid. Locals and tourists alike stopped to gawk at us and these are some of my favourite memories of my time in Mad Madrid. The photo shoot from that day is here.

On a sad note, another friend of mine from Madrid, Nick, who was to visit me in London in mid Aug, died recently from a diabetes related fall. He was an eccentric, cultured and lively character, a right English gentleman who never shied away from sitting on the grass in his white outfit under the scorching sun. He delighted in saying that only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun. Cheers to you Nick! You knew how to live life to the fullest and you remind the rest of us to live well and large while the sun still shines. Besos a ti, mi amigo xx.

Shots from my exhibition at El Gato Verde

Setting up the show on Sunday.

Me and Gina in front of my street art wall.

Me, Belen and Pam enjoying the opening party.

The early crowd. It actually got a lot more crowded than this but by then I was schmoozing and boozing and not thinking of taking photos.

I got final confirmation of the exhibition Wednesday night and in the following days worked so hard on putting together a show that I couldn't even think about my move to London, let alone be sad about leaving Madrid.

Instead I spent my last few days in Madrid curating, getting my photos print ready, framing, working out logistic installation problems, making labels and worrying about the food. This was a DIY project and very labour intensive. Fortunately, I had a lot of help from my friends. They were amazing and I wouldn't have been able to pull off this show without them. So I humbly thank you, in particular:

Buchanan for the enchufe and acting as my advocate

Belen who was my translator and appetizer-making/installation goddess

Gina who helped me curate and put the prints up and whose endless encouragement was like an angel whispering in my tired ear

Sirio who helped me install the show with meticulous efficiency and invited so many people, he filled my exhibition space with bodies.

my buyers, I won't name you but I thank you for your financial support of my work!

and the guys of El Gato Verde for being lovely and to Quique for making it happen by squeezing me in, in between exhibitions.

Besos to the lot of you!!

I got a lot of really positive feedback and I feel like I'm prepared to have another show again soon. Thanks to everyone who came and made it such a success! This was my opening/farewell party and so many of my friends came out to wish me well on my new adventure. It was a wonderful night and a awesome way to leave Madrid - not with a whimper but with a bang!

In the next little while, I'll be doing a revamp of this site since I now live in London and need to widen the scope of my blog. I'm also planning on setting up an etsy shop to sell my prints. So stay tuned, exciting changes are on the way.

Today I went for a lovely walk along the canal - one of London's lesser known beautiful spots. A photo essay is currently in the works.

So for now, cheerio!

My Photo Exhibition

I'm super excited about my upcoming show. It's my first ever show and I'm a bouncy ball of nervous and thrilled. So much to do, so little time. This show was an unexpected gift and I plan to carpe diem! A day of random bumping into friends in my barrio, Lavapies, on Friday, led to a solo photo show. How freaking cool is that! Thanks to Buchanan, a man about the barrio extraordinaire, who made this all happen!! You are the man!

I hope that some of you will be able to join me this Sunday and help me make this show a success!

See you Sunday! Besos!

Spring is in the air again and love is all around us.

The weather turned wet and cool and spring-like early last week so I donned my lemon yellow pea coat and began looking out for signs of rebirth. The forecast tells me the sun will return this coming week so I can again look forward to more browning of my face and arms. Yay, for I really need to stock up on sun rays before I set off on my new adventures.

Sending you all some Sunday Love! The rebirth of wonder is all around us!

All photography by Shehani Kay

Jesterday: a photo essay of a guerilla video shoot

We recorded a song based on the tune of Lady Gaga's Poker face a couple weeks ago. My buddy Alex wrote the lyrics and sang the main part. I sang the chorus and the ooh oooh bits. Last Saturday, our crew of 7 took to the streets of Madrid and shot the video guerilla stylee with no permits, just sweat, will power, a camcorder, a tripod, an mp3 version of our song, some portable speakers and a whole lot of laughter.

Here's a little video I made with some of my photos:

On the streets of Lavapies.

We had a chase scene through Plaza Mayor.

The befuddling at the fountain outside Plaza Mayor

Obviously we attracted a lot of stares. We were very entertaining for the locals for sure, who stopped to gawk at us, but we were also an attraction for a couple of tourists who watched us from their taxi for 20 minutes!

Oooooh what silly fun we had. Once the video has been edited, I'll post the link!

Metro Stories: cussing out the bullies

* Warning: there's bad language and swear words in two languages in this post. For those with delicate and refined sensibilities, perhaps you'll want to avert your eyes and skip this post.

Since I moved to Spain I have often fantasized about what it would be like to tell someone off on the metro who is being an asshole. The language barrier really inhibits me all the time. Joder (fuck), mierda (shit), gilipollas (stupid asshole), puta (slut), and cabrón (motherfucker) just don't flow off the tongue in a natural way for me. I'm always left eating my words and seething in silence. Only recently have I decided to allow myself to swear and make sarcastic remarks in English, just to let off some steam. I mutter things like, fuck, jesus fucking christ, what the fuck? and "sure, why don't you take your sweet fucking time" and "yup, in the middle of foot traffic is a really great fucking place to stop". Still, I haven't become so bitter as to push people out of my way like some other folks. These bullies will shove you, step on you, yell at you and in general be complete fuckwits. Because I don't speak enough Spanish to give them a coherent piece of my mind, I'm often left feeling frustrated and impotent.

Well on Wednesday I finally got my chance to speak up. I was coming home on a very crowded metro and when the doors opened at Lavapies station a lot of people were trying to get out. There was this British brute who grunted "move it" and began pushing behind me to get all of us out the door faster. As soon as I heard English, I went into instinct mode and so I turned around and said, "Will you stop fucking pushing?!" I could see my admonishment trigger a look of surprise at being called out in his mother tongue and then a flash of anger ignited in his blue eyes. His fleshy face reddened. "Then move faster!" he retorted, to which I replied, "We're moving as fast as we can!" He snorted and said, "Yeah right." So I shook my head and said, "You're a fucking twat!" as I walked off the metro carriage. He went ballistic behind me and began screaming, "Come say that to my face you cunt.." etc. But I kept on walking calmly away and I soon lost him in the crowd. He was freaking out so much, people turned around to look to see what was happening! The Bulldog was bellowing out in what sounded like a battle cry. "Arrrggghhh!!" Que fuerte! My heart thumped hard in my chest as visions of him chasing me down and beating on me crossed my mind but I shook that fear off and kept on walking up the escalators, out the door and into the lively, people filled streets of my barrio.

The thing is, if it had been a Spanish gilipollas or even a Morrocan cabrón, I wouldn't have worried that he'd get violent on me. We'd just heatedly exchange swears and cusses, gilipollas and putas. However, the threat of violence felt very much more probable with the British bulldog. Perhaps it's because British friends of mine have often regaled me with horrible stories of bloody bar fights that bubble up from nowhere in the UK. Why is it that beneath the thin, flimsy veil of respectability, stiff upper lip and civility there lies a barbaric violent streak in the breast of the British bloke?

Photography by Shehani Kay. Original street art found near Metro Puerta del Angel

The Open Door

The hobbit-size storage room door on my floor was opened for visitors so I took the opportunity to snap a photo. There's something other worldly, mysterious and tantalizing about this open door. Who knows what visions of Cthulhu lie down the corridor and behind the little doors... what secret gardens and Narnias hide from our view.

This is a followup to the Fifth Floor series of photos I took back in March.

Photography by Shehani Kay

Sunday Flowers and Other Bliss

The reflection of my neighbour's flowers upon the glass of my balcony door last Sunday morning. This image caught my eye as I was sitting in my antique armchair, writing in my moleskine, getting kissed by the sun and licked by a delicious wind. This was a moment of bliss for me.

A couple days ago I discovered that one of my photos and caption appeared in The New Yorker Online and this was a heady surprise. Forever more I can say my work has appeared in The New Yorker under the caption, "Great images of books from around the world and the Web." (!!) I am beyond thrilled and this delightful bit of randomness and luck has reminded me that life is full of amazing richness. Things invisible to our eyes are perpetually swirling around us. We navigate but we don't actually control a lot of life. What's important is that we keep on doing what we love to do, and if we keep on following our bliss, as Joseph Campbell said, doors will open where we would not have thought there would be doors. This week The New Yorker's door opened to me and it was breathtaking.

Happy Friday everyone! Stay inspired and keep on keeping on!

Photography by Shehani Kay

No Doll Left Behind

Photography by Shehani Kay

Revisiting Rodas

A recent revisit to the facade of the okupada (squat) on the corner of Calle Embajadores and Calle Rodas, which is often the canvas for stunning street art, was a reminder that art of the street is a perpetually evolving, mutating and organically curated work, in constant progress. Gone is the cat from "What's New Pussy Cat?" and so is the camera boy from "Say, PATATAS!" and the beauty from "Stalking Beauty" and all the smiles from "SMILE" In its place is a collaboration of a number of well-known local artists: Steven, e1000ink, chylo, Borondo, and whoever else is bold enough to join in this visual riff.

I love this new mural collaboration. It seems ripe for one of my mashup comic narratives, which I will perhaps create one day soon. For now though, I wanted to share this visual eye candy in its original form.

Like the buds and leaves that are bursting from the branches of once barren trees around the barrio, the weather beaten walls around Lavapies are also bursting with new life, colours and shapes. Be on the watch, there is beauty everywhere.

All photography by Shehani Kay

I Spy: van art and murals behind fences

Wandering around my barrio, Lavapies, I often see art in unexpected places. I saw this van by Chylo on the way home from work. I think he's the same guy who painted the mural on Olivar 48, which I made into a comic mashup you can see here. The style is very similiar.

Speaking of the wall on Olivar 48, well, it's no longer there - a reminder of the ephemeral nature of street art. In its place is corrugated metal fencing. I peeped through a small hole in the fence and discovered this mural:

The dome in the photo is a part of an initiative linked to the eviction of the last Laboratory (Labo04 in Ministriles). The wall was torn down because there will be a nursery school built in this space. The Solar Dome was recently relocated to Doctor Fourquet (behind the wall of murals from which I created a comic mashup you can see here) with a procession and a party. You can read about it here.

While I was taking photos through the tiny holes in the fence, an older Spanish man watched me with curiosity as he was walking along the street towards me. I inspired him to peep through one of the holes but because he was quick about it, he didn't see what I saw and so shrugged his shoulders and kept on walking. Sometimes seeing takes a little patience.

Stumbling upon art and beauty is one of my joys in life so I'm always on the look out, I'm always on the watch.

When was the last time you wandered your neighbourhood in search of art and beauty?

Visions from La Casa de Bernarda Alba

Last night I watched Teatro Espada de Madera's (Calle Calvario, 21) presentation of Lorca's La Casa de Bernarda Alba. The theatre is housed in the old Jewish quarter of Madrid, Lavapies, on a steep street where centuries ago, Calvario No 21 were sentenced to death by stoning. The theatre interior looks like a restored synagogue, though I don't know if this is actually the case.

Impressions from the upstairs lounge

The ticket ladies

The theatre chamber with wooden choir benches surrounding the stage.

In this version directed by Antonio Díaz-Florián, the characters are dwarfs. The performances were wonderful and even with my terrible Spanish, I was able to follow the story without any prior knowledge of the plot or characters. Yay for me.

After the play these lovely ladies were generous enough to pose for a photo and to give my friend a copy of the playbill. The last performance of La Casa de Bernarda Alba is tonight, so if you're in the neighbourhood and there's seat, I recommend that you go to this play.

The Fifth Floor

I wandered up to the fifth floor of my building yesterday to look at the hobbit size doors and the view. No one lives in these hobbit rooms, they are for used storage. I love the haunted feel of the photos and the light so I put them together as a photographic poem.

Sometimes you reach the top and then there's no where to go but down...

All photography by Shehani Kay

I need a hero

Click on the image to enlarge.

Original mash up (photography, compilation, digital manipulation and narrative) by Shehani Kay. Inspired by original street art on the wall of Doctor Fourquet in Lavapies, Madrid, by various street artists: Saner, Parsec, E1000ink, Ruina, Sakristan, Pincho, kid chalao, Jaime, Neko, Dier, Ring, Seon, Alberto de Pedro, suso33, vhs (kid chalao, fragil & e1000ink). Thanks to Dug for helping out with the list of credits.

Going from top left across and then down:
a1 & a2: (grupo) parsec; a3: dier; a4: e1000ink; b1: dier & ?; b2 & 3:?; c1-3:saner; d1: suso33; d2: vhs; d3: e1000ink; d4: vhs; e1-3: vhs

The ? indicates that I'm sure of the artist's name but he's one of the artists listed above. If you can identify him, please comment and let me know.

Note to the urban artists:
I love making mash ups of found street art because it imposes limits and a framework. I can't just draw whatever I need to move along my narrative. I have to work within the confines of what I have photographed and what the artists have drawn. Doing this challenges my skills, creativity and imagination as a storyteller and weaver of narratives. The images are like a puzzle and I have to figure out how to piece together a tale. To those whose works I compile, rearrange and manipulate, I hope you understand that I do it with the highest respect for your art. Your work inspires me to invent stories! Thank you.

Photos from the wall:

You can see more photos of the original wall here and here.

Behind the wall is a public place where the group "Operarios del Espacio Público” in collaboration with many area neighbors have been developing a garden called "Esta es una plaza". The potential green space is open to the neighborhood. The space fosters meetings between different generations and cultures in an attempt to enhance local resources and weave relationships between the residents.

All photography by Shehani Kay