'Tis bitter chill at the moment, but I've warmed myself on a couple of inspiring exhibitions this week. This lunchtime, a brisk and bracing 15 minute walk got me to The Serpentine's Centre for Possible Studies for a proper look at the Fabelist Imprint show. We'd gone to the launch the previous Friday (I'm a …
Category: art
all quiet on the literary front
Not much writing going on, for various reasons (excuses?). I'm still adapting to (resisting) the full time work routine. And then, last week, there was my significant other's significant birthday to celebrate. Cue: midweek break to Margate for bracing walks, sea air, magnificent skies and a visit to the new Turner Contemporary gallery - unprepossessing …
big paintings, small review
Well, hardly even a review. But I've been thinking about the Gerhard Richter retrospective, Panorama, on at Tate Modern at the moment. I've been twice now, and there is so much to see, and the work is so varied, which is one of the things I like about Richter. The same artist can produce bleak …
immersive states
On Friday evening, we went to see the Pipilotti Rist exhibition, Eyeball Massage, at the Hayward Gallery. 'See' is not quite right; 'experience' is more accurate. And what a joyous, enriching and somehow also calming experience it was, and a wonderful transition out of - far away from - the working week. I'm worried now …
masks and wings
On Tuesday night, we found ourselves standing in a street in Shoreditch with a hundred or so others, all sporting plastic Alfred Jarry masks. The occasion: a group photo to mark the launch of Alastair Brotchie's handsome and indispensable tome on the great 'Pataphysician. Inside The Griffin pub, the pool table had been temporarily transformed …
no boundary condition
I've been twice so far to see the current exhibition at the Lisson Gallery: No Boundary Condition - paintings and sculptures by Shirazeh Houshiary. It's the paintings I'm most drawn to - shimmering, shifting, mirage-like pieces, with their captivating titles ('Wither', 'Sigh', 'Ebb', 'Between'); the intense, bruised colours; and the surfaces, which appear to have …
cultural pick-me-up
Headed to the British Museum after work on Friday to check out a couple of their Australian Season offerings. Out of Australia featured prints and drawings by Australian artists from the 1940s to the present day, and was an absorbing and varied show. Amongst my favourites were Sidney Nolan's powerful felt-tipped pen drawings of drought-struck …
three good things I did this week
1. Wednesday evening to Loose Muse at the Poetry Café, for some stimulating and varied readings from women writers. A mixture of open mic spots and longer readings from the two featured poets, Karen Head and Katrina Naomi. I was particularly taken by the poems Katrina Naomi read, which were quirky, a bit edgy, perfectly pitched. …
avian des res
At the end of a long week, on a day of high wind and changeable skies, we refreshed our somewhat battered souls by wandering over the river to seek out the Chelsea half of Spontaneous City in the Tree of Heaven, a sculptural installation by London Fieldworks. The site: Cremorne Gardens, tucked away between the …
much better chop
To the Susan Hiller retrospective at Tate Britain on Good Friday afternoon. In contrast to the previous Friday's art fix, I was pretty impressed by this show, which presents a body of work produced over 40 years. Some of Hiller's recurrent themes include language, the subconscious, the hidden meanings and value of ephemera (the Rough …
Hilaire 