During the 15 years I reviewed exhibitions for The Oxford Times – when I was proud to write for it – the show that moved me the most was Qu Leilei’s ‘Everyone’s Life is an Epic.’ Meeting him and hearing about his 9 lives changed my life and led to Brushstrokes in Time. All QuLeilei’s work reveals the hand of an incredibly talented artist but what to me makes his work stand out is its profound humanity.
The most intellectually stimulating concerned Leonardo’s note books. They made me realise that he was a conceptual artist as well as a painter and engineer etc
http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/news/1012466.The_portrait_of_the_artist_as_pure_genius/
A show at the RA cemented my desire to find lost histories .
Dancing with the Gods.
http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/news/1146405.Dancing_with_gods/
I visited the cave temple on Elephanta Island off Mumbai, a place that I make significant to Harry and Ramma in Sculpting the Elephant.
I remember the delightful guide standing in front of a huge stone carving of Shiva, which had been castrated by Catholic Portuguese. He sighed deeply and said: “Westerners do not understand Hinduism.”
That is still true. Hinduism feels more a guide to life than a religion
