{"id":928,"date":"2010-02-15T17:04:53","date_gmt":"2010-02-15T17:04:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/?p=928"},"modified":"2010-02-15T17:08:08","modified_gmt":"2010-02-15T17:08:08","slug":"ariel%e2%80%99s-watery-opening-attended-by-names-after-party-at-dizzying-height-never-before-achieved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/?p=928","title":{"rendered":"Ariel\u2019s Watery Opening Attended by Names: After-party at Dizzying Height Never Before&nbsp;Achieved"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Monday 15<sup>th<\/sup> February 2010<\/p>\n<p>Last Thursday Ariel launched his new water sculpture. Indescribable. Miraculous. You must go to Sicilian Avenue to see. It will cost you nothing. It was good enough for The Pet Shop Boys, one of the Thompson Twins, Jimmy Cauty, who burnt a million pounds, <em>and<\/em> Reggie Cresswell.<\/p>\n<p>So it\u2019s good enough for you.<\/p>\n<p>It moves and makes colours and crosses over itself and forms patterns and just when you think you\u2019ve \u2018seen\u2019 it, it presents some new aspect. Only installed that afternoon, and passers-by were immediately bound to the spot, amazed.<\/p>\n<p>Then on, in a celebrity removal van or people-carrier, to Belgravia\u2019s heart, territory little-known to me, for the after-party given by a lady-greatness who has sponsored Ariel\u2019s work. In the van, somebody said, \u2018There\u2019s a Picasso.\u2019 \u00a0I begin to thrill. Unprepossessing entrance; in fact it\u2019s a flat, you know, not the whole house, so <em>common parts<\/em>. Can you imagine? Even mega multi zillionaires must endure. But within, a hidden world, terribly discreet, a kind of gilded vestibule, a bust on a plinth, and private staff, also ladies, not a bit servile. Huge main reception sweep, from back to front of the house, with different areas carved out, contemporary and traditional melded and the overall hue buff. Oh the finish and the immaculation! Such shutters!\u00a0 Harry Rollo and I inspect the skirting board and wonder how the polished look of the walls is achieved. I spot the Picasso and much else besides. Every item is presumably of museum standard. The hostess is whirling a topic in the middle of it all, in the traditional manner. It is hand-writing, the superiority of over typing. \u2018When you send your thank-you letter, you must hand-write. I don\u2019t have a computer.\u2019 I lean against the wall. \u2018Mind out for Jean-Paul Sartre,\u2019 she says. There is an important-looking photograph of grim-looking man in mac striding across what appears to be the desert. I can only think of those Monty Python sketches where they are in drag shrieking \u2018Jean-Paul Sartre!\u2019 for no good reason. \u2018You see that shadow behind him. I wonder who it is,\u2019 the lady says. Suddenly, I\u2019m terribly clever. \u2018Simone de Beauvoir,\u2019 I say, hoping to be top of the class. \u2018Is it?\u2019 she replies. Later she makes a kind speech in praise of Ariel and his powers of transformation but he, being modest, finds it shy-making. \u2018If you go back any further,\u2019 she says, \u2018you\u2019ll crush my Matisse.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Monday 15th February 2010 Last Thursday Ariel launched his new water sculpture. Indescribable. Miraculous. You must go to Sicilian Avenue to see. It will cost you nothing. It was good enough for The Pet Shop Boys, one of the Thompson Twins, Jimmy Cauty, who burnt a million pounds, and Reggie Cresswell. So it\u2019s good enough [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adrain-edge"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=928"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":930,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928\/revisions\/930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}