Nikki Coates

@nikkicoates

Someone told me the type of brain I have means I have a poor sense of self so expecting me to write this is very ableist actually. SE London.

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Nikki Coates@nikkicoates· 2d

Here’s one for Guess Where London* *A Flickr group of some repute in the 00s, still running today but y’know I’d have to go to Flickr and…

A narrow covered alleyway somewhere in London lit in blue

A narrow covered alleyway somewhere in London lit in yellow

A narrow covered alleyway somewhere in London lit in orange

Nikki Coates@nikkicoates· 3d

It’s happening

Crescent shaped light filtered through a tree’s foliage on to a construction hoarding

Nikki Coates@nikkicoates· 7d

Over the next few weeks I gotta hustle a little - I may have to turn my engagement setting dial further towards ‘Pester’, I am tbh a little bit reluctant & shy, and I thought it would help to explain. Prob only helps me! Sorry if so.

Proof sheets for some flyers for www.londonisfine.co.uk, showing a fox looking at a bin with the question ‘what would you thank London for?’

Nikki Coates@nikkicoates· 8d

Listen friends, I dragged myself out of my sickbed to put my site live just so that I could show you these riso printed flyers that I made yesterday (Okay Pagemasters of Lewisham did most of the work) Look out for one in a public space near you!

On a work bench, two piles of postcard sized riso-printed flyers depicting a fox looking at a bin and the text ‘What would you thank London for?’ and www.londonisfine.co.uk. Next to the piles, a3 proof sheets of the same thing.

Nikki Coates@nikkicoates· 18d

The Brisbane Courier had some robust reporting on industrial relations for its readers on 20th August 1866:

Newspaper screenshot reads: HELIDON.
Sunday, August 19, 3 p.m.
A MEETING of navvies was held in the Railway yard this afternoon. There were about three hundred men present.
The following resolutions were carried:—
1. That the misery entailed upon the unemployed required instant relief.
2. That excessive immigration be immediately checked.
3. That a march be made to Brisbane for the purpose of asserting their rights, and to make terms.
The whole affair was a ridiculous failure.

Nikki Coates@nikkicoates· 19d

Frinstance I recently passed through the Essex village of Earls Colne while visiting my parents, and was curious about how it seemed to have so many museums. Google took me to this BBC story:

Story about a small museum in Essex receiving a grant contains the sentence
‘Brown said the village's accolade was "academically recognised as the most documented village in England" due to the work of a resident vicar in the 1600s.’ I mean I can guess what they were trying to say.

Nikki Coates@nikkicoates· 22d

Here’s something I saw in the ladies loo in a pub yesterday

One of those signs with tear-off tabs, only one of several remaining. Text reads: “RISE UP against
domestic abuse [campaign name in top right, body text follows]
Does your partner:
/ Control who you see and where you go
/ Monitor your social media
Criticise you and put you down
/ Humiliate you
Punch walls or break things
/ Take out loans or credit cards in your name
Your local helpline number is:-
0800
977 5690
Help is available.
The freephone, 24-hour National Domestic
Abuse Helpline: 0808 2000 247

Nikki Coates@nikkicoates· 24d

Guys guys guys I made a pigeon

Two monochrome tetrapak prints of a wood pigeon I saw on the Strand

Nikki Coates@nikkicoates· 28d

Today’s displacement activity: tetrapak from a Vimto pyramid, an etching needle, ink that smells of coal + a neglected pasta machine makes this. Proof of concept, I wouldn’t be pushing this in the face of any printmakers (eg smudged ink bottom right) but still, y’know, it’s something

Dry point print of a swan-necked lady with a ridiculous rococo pompadour.l wig

Nikki Coates@nikkicoates· Jul 12

Struggling on with Bam! and the diet plan his vet says he must follow

A charming and persuasive black and white cat - his name is Bam! - who doesn’t look he is starving to death but who am I to doubt his word?

But wait - what’s this? There’s a b&w instant photo in my kitchen showing a familiar-looking b&w cat and it has DON’T BELIEVE HIS LIES written beneath it.

Nikki Coates@nikkicoates· Jul 5

He’s asleep on my foot, the furry idiot

A large black and white cat - Bam! is his name - sprawls at maximum length along the middle of a red sofa. At the other end, my husband. In the bottom right corner, my leg, which disappears under the cat.

Nikki Coates@nikkicoates· Jun 30

I’ve been looking wistfully over at the #shittycamerachallenge thinking about how it looks fun but I would obviously never get it together to take part when today I walked into a charity shop and saw this guy and his spare lens friend. I know when Fate is trying to tell me something.

A Zenit-B camera with its lens attached and another lens. Haven’t even worked out what the focal lengths/apertures of either are yet cos like I say when Fate is making the decisions you don’t quibble.

Nikki Coates@nikkicoates· Jun 25

Tbf I have also seen here much more improving iced tea discussion which prompted a three day streak of making lemon ice tea. Today I remembered I have this and I am enjoying it a lot. Got it at the Japan Centre if you’re passing one of their shops

Packaging of Japanese mugicha: black soybean barley tea

Nikki Coates@nikkicoates· Jun 24

Typical, it gets a bit hot and the local ne’er-do-wells get all lairy

Nikki Coates@nikkicoates· Jun 23

While I was looking for that I found that I wrote this in 2016 too. Well. Nikstradamus they call me.

Who is there who can harness the need for a real opposition to a Tory government that has just accidentally driven the country into a wall? I don't know, nor even know that such a person exists. And yeah, I am worried that the Party is going to learn all of the wrong lessons from the referendum if they do manage to winkle Corbyn out: move a lot further to the right, pander on immigration and retreat into tribalism. There's 48% of us who didn't want to leave the EU but it seems that our votes are useless to everyone except the Lib Dems, who are not my party for a different set of reasons.
What I want, really, is what this piece from January talks about: a coalition of

Nikki Coates@nikkicoates· Jun 19

Waterloo’s The Sidings jumping on the nightmarish-liminal-spaces bandwagon with this carefully highlighted stairway to nowhere behind a barrier (not pictured) bearing the branding of the venue that has been repossessed by the landlord just to the right of here.

Stairs beneath a huge pink lighting panel lead down to blank unfinished space probably intended for retail

Nikki Coates@nikkicoates· Jun 19

You probably think you have seen everything that London’s cultural scene has to offer, but have you seen Alan Titchmarsh’s orange Uniqlo jumper?

An orange lambswool jumper. The white dot is just a reflection of the spotlight above.

Explanatory text provided by the Garden Museum: “Gardeners World jumper, 2007
This Uniqlo jumper, chosen by TV producers, was worn by Alan Titchmarsh for shoots from 2007 to 2010. Photographs of Alan wearing the jumper still appear in his Gardeners' World columns.
On loan from Alan Titchmarsh.” And to think we can get this close!

Nikki Coates@nikkicoates· Jun 12

RIP David Hockney - and thoughts with the procrastinator in Vilnius responsible for this:

Graffiti on a wall in Vilnius which shows a pair of round black-rimmed spectacles and the words “one day I will draw Hockney’s portrait but now it’s only his glasses”

Nikki Coates@nikkicoates· Jun 9

1973, before even someone as ancient as me was born, and the Central Office of Information working for Heath’s Tory government has a clear read on objections to the Race Relations Act 1968.

Poster from 1973. 3 caricatures of an older red-nosed man looking disgruntled. Beneath that “Disgusted, Binchester” in yellow script. Then the small text reads: “The Race Relations Board have commissioned a seven-minute cartoon film which may be hired from the Central Film Library. Made by Nicholas Cartoon Films Ltd. for the Central Office of Information, the film takes a look at some of the lives and times of Disgusted, the man who is always writing to the newspapers and protesting about some new law or other.
If there had been newspapers in the reign of Henry II, Disgusted would have been the first to protest about the introduction of the royal courts, which first gave Englishmen an alternative to the rough justice of barons and bishops.
It was Disgusted who led the opposition to the Elizabethan Poor Law; who protested against the abolition of slavery and saw no reason to prohibit small children from working in coalmines. When universal compulsory education was introduced he expected revolution to follow. Needless to say he did not have a good word for the Race Relations Act 1968.
The odd thing is, that all the reforms Disgusted can be counted on to protest about have at least one common feature. They become part of the accepted landscape of society so quickly that if anybody subsequently attempts to interfere with them, Disgusted will be among the first to protest about that too.
Disgusted will always be with us, but the Race Relations Board believe that if he can be seen in the perspective of history, so can the Race Relations Act 1968.
*Central Film Library, Government Building, Bromyard Avenue, Acton, London W3 7JB.
Scottish Central Film Library, 16-17 Woodside Terrace, Charing Cross, Glasgow C3
Central Film Library of Wales…”

Nikki Coates@nikkicoates· Jun 8

well, Reddit, I was for some time employed as a payment systems expert in an organisation that was supposed to regulate payment systems, but tbf you're right that's no guarantee of anything

screenshot which contains following text: "Reddit would like your feedback.
Which of the following payment card brands have you heard of?
Question 1 of 4

American Express
Mastercard
VISA
PayPal
None of the above"

Nikki Coates@nikkicoates· Jun 8

Glass gilding: definitely NOT a passing fad unlike all of my other, loser, craft preoccupations of the past (Well, this one is kinda related to my masters so maybe I will keep going for at least a while)

Two framed silvered glass pictures, one of a beetle, one of a telescope goldfish. The ground is near-mirror silver, the figures are black. I didn’t know they were called telescope goldfish until I was looking for a picture to copy. Also apparently there is breeding politics about goldfish these days, like there is for pugs

Nikki Coates@nikkicoates· Jun 4

As far as I can recall there was never the need for an equivalent sign in the Law School at KCL

A4 printer paper sign stuck to concrete that reads:

ual: central saint martins

Notice
On Tues 26th May
There will be a private event in The Crossing
6-9pm.
Please do not dance in this area.
Thank you

Nikki Coates@nikkicoates· May 29

Went to Plumstead today to learn how to make this

Me & my phone blurrily reflected in a piece of - ahem - verre eglomisé (foiled or gilded glass, silver foiled in this case) with a floral picture on it.

Nikki Coates@nikkicoates· May 26

Not taken today - if you think I’m letting sunbeams in today… - but thought I would show you this. When Lina’s reflex timidity and hostility gets frustrating I try to remember that when we first took her home she’d spent six months in a basement in Brockley.

Lina the small tortoiseshell and white cat relaxes in a sunbeam on the living room floor

Nikki Coates@nikkicoates· May 26

Oh! I saw this recently in the Ashley Book of Knots (yay weird adhd sudden interests) and thought of you cos I remembered we’d had a convo about untangling. Glad you’ve reminded me cos the next entry is a thing I always want to remember about snapping string

Ashley Book of Knots, text from p29: “
141. To untangle a snarl, loosen all jams or knots and open a hole through the mass at the point where the longest end leaves the snarl.
Then proceed to roll or wind the end out through the center exactly as a stocking is rolled. Keep the snarl open and loose at all times and do not pull on the end; permit it to unfold itself. As the process is continued the end gradually emerges. No snarl is too complicated to be solved
by this method; only patience is required.
142. To break twine or small cord, lay the right forefinger across the standing part and revolve the finger exactly as the marlingspike is revolved in making a MARLINGSPIKE HITCH, but pause when the cord is in the position shown in the first diagram. Hold the cord firmly in the palm with the thumb and fingers. Grasp the upper end with the free hand, and jerk cither with the right hand, the left hand, or with both.
The method is used with varying technique; often the thumb is employed instead of the forefinger. Do not allow the cord to slip while jerking, or a cut finger may result.
140
141
142

Nikki Coates@nikkicoates· May 25

In the occasional series entitled ‘I believed in a just and benevolent God until I realised Nikki was allowed access to synthesiser technology’ this might be my dumbest one yet. Featured artist Tradescantia

Nikki Coates@nikkicoates· May 24

As I was saying… here’s Little Simz! Back of the shirt says ‘NORTH LONDON’ ‘Controversial, eh?’ she says

Little Simz wearing an Arsenal shirt at Cross the Tracks (via a screen!)

Nikki Coates@nikkicoates· May 24

Am at a South London big park festival. You would not believe the amount of Arsenal shirts. And, well, good! I’m glad for their happiness.

In the foreground an ice cream cone covered in hundreds and thousands. Behind and blurred, a London festival: people standing and sitting, big colourful flags, that sort of thing.

Nikki Coates@nikkicoates· May 18

Some imagination being applied (kinda)

Picture shows part of a map of London (As far west as Hyde Park, as far east as Victoria Park) with pins marking locations and orange tape trailing from the pins out of the picture to the right.

Nikki Coates@nikkicoates· May 17

Get off, Bam!, map not for standing on, go play with the string again idiot… wait