Amsterdam (3) - Anne Frank House

One of the most popular places to visit when site seeing in Amsterdam is the Anne Frank House where a young girl and her family went into hiding during World War II. She wrote a diary about her experience and it was later published. The house where she lived in one of the rear rooms, is now a museum open to the public.

The tour had an audio piece that went along with each part to tell the story of Anne Frank and her family. I found it all very interesting and surreal the fact that the public were allowed access to where this now very famous girl lived her life in fear. In some parts it was obvious that things had been changed such as the wallpaper, but where the children had their height marked on the wall while growing up, this piece of wallpaper was preserved behind a piece of glass.

I feel that this story of her life can be somewhat relatable to the artwork that I have been creating in the sense of how personal a diary is and how it is now published for the world to see and how I am taking my memories and showing them to an audience also. She was a young girl when these events took place as was I and in relation to the house fire that happened to my home, we were both uprooted in a violent manner.

Photography was not allowed during the tour, but I managed to take a photo of the final wall while coming to the end.

Amsterdam (2) - Madame Tussauds

I only spent about 3 days in Amsterdam, but I wanted to try and visit as many museums that I could. I knew that there was going to be a Madame Tussauds there which I have always wanted to go to and never got the chance in other places of the world.

The experience was very surreal due to; first of all, how life like the wax models were and second, the environments that each celebrity was in. This was very well set out in terms of walking through all of the different scenarios which were seamless and there was a very good flow to the whole tour as I walked around the museum.

"Distortion" Live Exhibition - Jessika Emmett

My friend and fellow artist, Jess, created a collaboration exhibit with another Jess who creates similar artwork about the same kind of ideas to do with body image. This was a live performance and in particular was all about BDD (Body Dysmorphic Disorder). They set up in the reception area of Leeds City College Park Lane in order to catch the attention of passers by including; staff, tutors and students. Both artists attached plastic objects to themselves with bright, colourful tape and were seated back to back.

I feel that this experience was very memorable and educational due to the hand outs that the viewer was able to take all about BDD which I think added to the explanation of the piece.