I’ve had 3 really great days. I’ve felt inspired and stimulated and I’ve had loads of fun. On Friday I drove (rail strikes) to Manchester bright and early to meet my friend for breakfast before visiting Aviva Studios/Factory International, the base of the Manchester International Festival.

We all know breakfast is the most important meal of the day and the Federal Cafe Bar have definitely got it right. I don’t often eat out so when I do, I like to try new foods. I’ve never had an açai bowl and I’ll be having it again. It was delicious and pretty healthy and I felt satisfied afterwards.

Nourished, we headed to the Factory, a new arts venue which isn’t quite finished yet.

T had recommended the Yayoi Kusama exhibition You, Me and the Balloons. He’s got his finger firmly on the pulse of what’s happening and what’s not in the arts world, and I don’t remember ever being disappointed with any of his cultural choices. I’d never heard of Kusama so I was quite amazed when I discovered she’s a household name. Where’ve I been?

The exhibition started in a fairly small room with yellow spotted black tentacles sprouting from the floor reaching right up to the high ceiling. It was very cheerful and playful although I felt a slight frisson of fear – the spotted tendrils suggested danger, toxicity.

The room was hypnotic and fascinating – where did the tentacles start and where did they end? What was lying above and below? To which mythical creature did they belong?

We went upstairs onto a platform overlooking a vast dark warehouse. It was as though we’d gate crashed the craziest party ever. There were huge inflatables everywhere. What resembled big bowling pins reeled in the air along with the enormous dotted balls which might have clobbered them. We looked down at a bizarrely utopian scene with humongous inflatable characters, quite possibly made of parachute silk, frozen mid action as if posing for a freakish photo shoot. The hallucinatory creations looked benevolent despite their immensity, but the giantess certainly had a sinister presence.

Overlooking proceedings was the creator of this fantasy world, her face projected onto a screen, half-singing half-reading a poignantly haunting poem in an endless mesmerising loop.

We went downstairs to inspect a large young girl and her dog mid play:

Super king sized cosy irregular shaped air beds were dotted randomly in front of a mirror – an intriguing touch. The mirror added yet another dimension to the space:

A gigantic pumpkin sat unassumingly opposite the giantess.

At the far end from where we entered the warehouse were yet more tentacles, pink this time. It looked a bit like a dance floor in a curiously respectable disco. There were quite a lot of children, clearly at home in this playful universe.

We joined a queue for the infinity mirror room, another of Kusama’s trade marks:

And a shorter queue for the kaleidoscope:

There was a lot of information about Kusama on the walls and it’s really worth reading about her background. She’s 94 and she still works in her studio every day. It’s fascinating how her background influences her creations. I found her story inspiring and it offered me validation and permission to keep playing music and writing, to keep living a creative life.

T and I both used to live in Manchester so it was great to go for a mooch around the city afterwards, observing how much it’s evolved since we left. We had more coffee of course, and we shared a piece of cake to soak it up, a delicious clementine creation so dark it almost looked scorched. It was strong and tangy with a lip puckering pithy zing.

After T took his train, I mooched around even more. It was a lovely hot day and I browsed shops I’d never been in. I visited the old arcades around St Ann’s Square and drooled at the mouthwatering aromas emanating from freshly prepared dishes served to diners eating outside in the pedestrian areas. People looked happy. Sunshine has that effect, especially on Mancunians. It rains a lot in Manchester, probably as much as it does in Yorkshire.

On Saturday and Sunday my playing was revitalised, inspired, in full flow. It reminded me how important it is to get out there and experience the art and creativity of others as much as possible. The exhibition is on until 28 August. Don’t miss it! Yayoi’ll be sorry if you do 😏

Footnote:

I went to the cinema last night and as I walked there, I noticed this in a shop window: