With the family away with the car I was obliged to walk down to Birkenhead this morning. The air was damp as I started with spits of rain but it wasn’t too bad. I stopped for 10 minutes in The Williamson gallery to look at pictures and see if there were any good second hand cook books for picking up.
Down towards the bottom of Oxton Road I paused to look into the window of All Nations 4 Hair. They had a white screen set up against a wall with some bright lights and cameras. I was waved inside and before knew it found myself being photgraphed first with my hat on and then with it off hair awry.
Harold Offeh, a artist and lecturer at Goldsmiths was in there taking pictures of passers by as part of an arts project involving the shops and business on Oxton Road. The other shops involved are the greengrocers and Frank Cavanagh, the cobbler on Borough Road.
The grocers have had in an Iranian artist, Haleh Jamali, she spent a week with them before Christmas taking videos and pictures. The art is all going to be shown on Saturday 5th March. In the grocers they are going to set up a projector and show the work on one of the walls at the back.
We should all make sure that we make our way down to have a look.
In the meantime it felt slightly unsettling stood in the hairdressers having my photo taken with the good people of Birkenhead passing by in the rain.
Five minutes later I was back out in the rain myself but with a promise that the pictures would be emailed through to me on Sunday.
I finished my walk to Wards and bought myself some fish and then made my way back home taking some pictures of the buildings as they look above the shop fronts through The Pavements.
On the walk back the rain grew in intensity coming down in a thick grey sludge that soaked through my jacket and shirt. Walking into the house I had to strip of dripping clothes left to lie on the kitchen floor hopefully to dry off.
Sheep's Head Food Company 