Journal

Man on Fire, by Jason de Caires Taylor

I love the thinking behind Man on Fire, one of the first three submarine sculptures installed off the coast of Cancun, Mexico. Made out of marine cement and fibreglass by artist Jason de Caires Taylor, the figure weighs more than a tonne and is implanted with live corals, so that it blooms in fiery red and yellow–and, adding to the effect, the figure’s coating of corals will sting.  Ouch, but makes me wish I was a diver.

Photo: PA

One of the more memorable afternoons of my young life was being rocketed out to sea from Plymouth in a sea rescue launch, powered by aircraft engines, when my father, Tim, was involved in air-sea rescue. I became more aware of the intense battle fought across the Channel by MTBs and E-boats thanks to the wartime involvement of Sir Peter Scott, who I first came across as a judge when I was going for a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship in 1981.

Two boats of the era – MGB 81 and High Speed Launch 102 – were in the news yesterday having been bought for the nation with £580,000 of taxpayers’ money. And a worthwhile investment, I think, aside from the sheer beauty of their lines.  These craft played saved a total of some 10,000 airmen of all nationalities. If Flt Sgt Berry hadn’t blown Tim (unconscious in his parachute) back over land with his slipstream in 1940, he might just have been one of them.

And then there was the courage of the young men who crewed what some called the “Spitfires of the sea” – riding on top of thousands of gallons of high octane fuel, which tended to vaporise the boats when hit by incoming fire. Hats off to their memory.

As I travelled in this morning on a packed-to-the-gills Tube train, for the first of a 2-day strategy away day session for Volans, my back gave out – so that rather than racing off for (what would have been) a surprise day with Innovation Arts, I ended up flat on the floor. Sam then taxied me off to Ale’s osteopath in North London, during whose kind ministrations my spine gave off a sound like a pistol shot – at least in my head. Something tells me that having sat in front of computers for some 30 years hasn’t served my poor back well. But am I likely to change? Well, I’m trying to sit up straight for the moment …

Park bench, Barnes Summer Storm

Have long loved and collected my sister Caroline’s paintings, but two of the latest – painted for an exhibition in Dulwich – simply took my breath away. The first is based on a photograph I took one evening as I worked home from work by Barnes Pond, just after a downpour, but has been elaborated with detailing that appeals to my deep love of the weirder sides of stained glass. The exhibition will be held on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th May, as part of the Dulwich Artists’ Open House Festival.  The address: 4 Beauval Road, Dulwich, SE22 8UQ. More paintings here.  

The final painting, here at least, is based on a photograph I took at Steve and Sandar Warshal’s house a while back – and I love it, too.

Warshal lemons

Later this month, I’m involved in a Study Mission to California and Silicon Valley, with 20 entrepreneurs and/or CEOs of leading UK cleantech companies. A filmed interview of principals of the three supporting organisations – Polecat, the UK Technology Strategy Board and Volans – is now available on YouTube, here.