Believe it or not, the Tate Modern is 10 years old this year. Yes, it's 10 whole years since the former Bankside Power Station was reborn to great acclaim as one of the world's best homes of modern art.
I can't help but think back to what I was doing in 2000. And cringe a little. We're all a lot older and wiser now. Kind of. Right?
Anyway, as much as I am fond of riffing, scatting and circumnavigating the point, let's get back to the issue here.
From the information I've seen this looks as though it will be a veritable feast of contemporary art and performance and allied with the knowledge that most of you are in a permanent state of hunger for creative juices, this is surely a match made in heaven...
We live in an era and a city where the stresses and strains of modern life often weigh heavy on our shoulders and it is important to have an outlet to vent every so often.
The premise is that if you are fortunate enough to get a ticket, you attend and are then shown into the arena. Each round a set of names are called and a load of hallowed scrap is brought into the room ranging from volvo cars to gas cookers, from grand pianos to exercise bikes.
When your name is uttered, you are then handed a sledgehammer and a pair of goggles and, well, you go to work on it. Smash it, kill it, break it, wreck it. It's frankly primeval.
Once you've walked the walk, you step away from the arena and, hey presto! The stress and anger has simply melted away...Ahhhh....now...
I'm coming back to a theme that is always close to my heart here. How frickin' awesome and talented the people I call my friends are.
They're also, mainly, massive show-offs...which is lucky for the rest of us who thus have the opportunity to see the manifestations of such efforts.
One such opportunity is on the horizon and drawing ever closer as part of the Scratch Festival at that veritable and giant mine of cultural performance and exhibition, the Battersea Arts Centre (BAC).
The Scratch festival as a whole will be displaying an array of different artists in every corner of the canyon of a space they have there. To narrow this premise down, a Scratch "is a new theatrical idea developed by artists and shaped by audience feedback".
Featuring in one of these Scratches is our resident cynical font of knowledge and creator of beautiful visuals, Justin Beardsall. In collaboration with composer Caroline Devine and Dancing Brick, "A L I C E" will be a piece lamenting the decline of analogue technology, harking back to a more innocent and clunky era and celebrating these icons of our childhood.
8-bit computer games, VHS, cassette tapes, that creepy girl with the doll and chalkboard. Ah, joy! Halcyon days indeed and, frankly, I couldn't think of a more capable pair of hands to bring this back to life than VJ Meno's.
Right, I'm off to spend 45 minutes listening to preternatural screeching and vibrating lines of colour just so I can play Arcadians on my Acorn again...
I don't know about you but I have definitely been smelling some Spring in the air in the last week or two. Certainly there is light at the end of the bitter winter tunnel we've had so far this year and the first buds of colour and light are in the ether.
On such a note, it seems appropriate to highlight the annual return of the Southbank Centre's Ether Festival which this year features an absolutely stellar line-up plus takes the opportunity to hand out some major musical kudos to Edgard Varese, oft referred to as 'The Father of Electronic Music'.
The Ether festival is no mere list of normal gigs and always injects a level of individualism that is seemingly beyond most other London festivals.
Amongst the cast of musicians such as Gil-Scott Heron, Stereo MCs, Chrome Hoof and Lou Reed there are also re-workings of Varese's small body of surviving music with a whole raft of different interpretations, as well as theremin workshops, short films and a rare opportunity to see and hear a live performance from acclaimed video artist/film director/deliciously warped mind, Chris Cunningham.
Frankly, I want to go to ALL of these but if anyone of you out there has a preference and would enjoy my esteemed company then hit us up and let's get out into the ether...
Returning to the bosom of the art world, a familiar favourite for some of you will be the Frith Street Gallery. A veritable stalwart in presenting and exhibiting exciting and interesting art pieces, their forthcoming show is no exception.
Jaki Irvine will be presenting her show Seven Folds In Time exploring themes of human emotional extremes and yet also the workaday unconscious collisions and opportunities missed.
Working mainly in film and video as a medium to create a point where this can all be represented in the overlap between image and sound, between passion and mundanity, she will be focussing on instrumentalism within music, where notes begin and end, and practice relative to performance.
Opening 12th March and running until the 30th April
With the ever moving force towards 'regeneration', the purpose and use of buildings around London are constantly changing. This sometimes means eyesores and affronts to local history and community. However, it cuts both ways and there are also buildings made manifest by the definition given by the people who inhabit or access them, rather than the owners, by their potential rather than perceived utility.
This often leads to amazing opportunities and one such opportunity has arisen.
These monolithic buildings once served their purpose as housing, if in a very utilitarian manner. Now, at the end of it's life and so-called usefulness, it will have a moment of expression and exhibition.
This is London we love.
6th March
FREE to attend. Tickets can be booked on the website.
Having made a brief allusion to this in a previous post I thought I'd fully big this up now that more details have been released about it. Drum roll please....................The East Festival!
This is a six-day event that celebrates, promotes and educates about the creative, multi-cultural, diverse jumble that is East London.
Alongside the Bonnie Greer performance is another Late at Tate gem from Larry Achiampong.
Jam In The Dark is a short film of Larry and his band, unsurprisingly, having a jam session in total darkness and is being shown in the Manton Studio at Tate Britain as the musicians try to heighten their auditory senses by closing off their visual ones.
This is a small part of the larger Chris Ofili exhibition that is currently bringing huge brushstrokes of colour and emotion to the Tate. One of the most acclaimed living British artists, this is an amazing opportunity to see over 45 of his works from the last 20 years.
On to our new dedicated 'art' section and this week I thought I'd highlight a sample of some of the amazing photography exhibitions on at the moment. Since this is my blog, these three are all after my own heart...
Opening tomorrow at the newly renovated and revamped Whitechapel Gallery, a range of images spanning 150 years of the Indian sub-continent. Documenting the social, political and cultural changes that have developed through India, Pakistan and Bangladesh through the eyes of Indian photographers, both professional and amateur.
Where Three Dreams Cross is a beautiful representation of lands and people that are forever evolving, changing, struggling and yet always with an element of beauty and wonder.
Tickets £8.50/£6.50 concessions
FREE on Sundays 11am - 1pm
Amongst some of the 400 images in Where Three Dreams Cross, you will spy a handful of photos that have probably passed through your consciousness before. That is because they will have been taken by the wonderful Indian photographer Raghu Rai, who is responsible for some of the most iconic images of India and Indians over the last 40 odd years.
I am a man who will freely admit his love for India and Raghu Rai's images really do convey the spirit of the country and even his simplest subject matter can hold one transfixed with his eye for truly capturing a moment.
The final part of this photographical triptych is from one of the great album cover artists. William Eggleston has lent his work for use by such disparate musicians as Primal Scream, The Silver Jews and Joanna Newsom.
His themes often cover forgotten spaces and finding a certain beauty in drabness.
His new exhibition at the Victoria Miro Gallery will leave you in wonder at empty shower stalls and the creepy light inside of a freezer. Perfect hangover fare for us all, I would have thought.
Well, that seemingly went down well with everyone.
Due to popular demand I am now adding some additional delights to keep your soul warm. Some cultural chestnuts to roast on the open fire of inspiration. Or something.
Please do keep sending me through anything you hear on your particular grapevines and I also have the hope that you will want to write some little delicacies yourself. There is a comments section at the end of every post for you to do so or feel free to send me anything you have written and I will post it up.
This might be an event you are running, a curious artistic experience or a review of something on here that you have seen. Get involved and do the do, as it were. Be inspired and inspirational.
Anyways…
First up, a beautiful exhibition of sculpture at the Frith Street Gallery opens this week. Daphne Wright manipulates an array of materials in her work but in this show she has mainly worked with Marble dust and resin to create moving sculptures of the fragility and gentle grace of animals.
FREE
Moving on to something that is right on many of our doorsteps, the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club is hosting a programme featuring a series of 8 films by the experimental filmic artist, Michael Robinson, followed by a Question and Answer session with the man himself.
His body of work explores the exquisiteness of loss and he has shown this from New York to Hong Kong, from the Viennale to the ICA. Now he’s just up the road.
Tuesday 19th January 8pm
Tickets: £5/£3 members
On to the section where the whirlwind of social butterflies, creativity, experience, inspiration and, well, high jinks that are our friends, are melded to produce fabulousness.
On a slightly more mellow tone, he of the excellently appropriate moniker, Theo Bard, is launching a new monthly night, The Dawn Chorus, at Passing Clouds in Dalston. The first of these soirees will be on the 28th January and will see Mr Bard debuting his new band including the incontrovertible talent that is Ewan Bleach.
For the opening night they have also invited along guests including John Langan and Max Baillie.
Tickets are £5 in advance or £7 on the door at 1 Richmond Road, E8 4AA
And, not forgetting…
Martina Ziewe’s newest pieces being exhibited at the cosiest and friendliest of coffee shops, Tina We Salute You. Beautifully crafted nests and sparkle adorn the walls while one can relax and sip exceptional coffee. What could be better for those times of hibernation?
To finish off this little cultural addendum, something that is always guaranteed to generate debate. The so-called ‘War on Drugs’.
Take your opportunity to have your say and hear the opinion of those whose business it is to know in a free debate, hosted by LSE, on the impact of the current prohibition policy and whether legalisation and regulation would work in practice. Go and jostle with a United Nations senior adviser…
Don’t forget, whatever your views, you can and should also participate in the KnowDrugs.net project that is being so valiantly and determinedly run. Bring the honesty…
My next full post will be next week and after some feedback, I’ll be making a couple of changes to the layout so as not to bombard you all with scary WORDS!
So. It’s January. You’re back at work with memories of the festive period as fresh in the mind as the bastard behind the eyes still lingering this morning.
Fear not though. We live in a city that continually offers the plink-plonk-fizz of the Alka-seltzer of cultural remedy and, even as the first solar flare pierces the horizon of 2010, opportunity abounds.
Let’s start with the old-old-school.
The British Museum is playing host to an epic exhibition on the Aztec ruler Moctezuma, whose name roughly translates as “he who is angry in a noble manner”. Ultimately, he was the fall guy to the Spanish invasion but the legacy of the Aztec’s ritual and architecture is revealed in exhibits being seen in the UK for the first time ever.
As I know you all enjoy getting your own hands dirty, to tie in with this, the British Museum is hosting two one-day Mexican sculpture workshops with the ceramic artist Tiburcio Soteno.
These will take place on Friday 15th and Saturday 16th January from 11:00 – 17:00 and cost £30 or £20 for concessions. Very limited places so book soonest.
The Host Gallery is, well, playing host to an affecting show from photographer Rena Effendi.
In her first UK exhibition, her images highlight and explore the lives of those living on and affected by the 1700km long BTC pipeline that flows through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.
Tuesday 12th January also sees the gallery as the setting for an evening conversation with the artist herself.
FREE
Flipping over to the contemporary, place-to-be Berlin art scene, SilberkuppeRooms Without Walls take over the Hayward Gallery Project Space with their exhibition. Usually an independent contemporary art space in Berlin, the group use this opportunity to reflect on the collective cultural scene in the two decades since the fall of the Wall through the medium of pop and art.
FREE
In the main Hayward Gallery, in a slightly less free exhibition is a 50 year retrospective of Ed Ruscha, an important figure in both the pop-art and beat movements.
Tickets are a tenner although there is a sneaky little two-for-one offer here.
Sticking with the Southbank Centre, that loveable scamp and one man vocal orchestra, Shlomo is still Artist in Residence.
Working with one of the most exciting UK composing talents, Anna Meredith, Shlomo will be performing the Concerto alongside a full orchestra made up of parts from the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightment and Philharmonia Orchestra.
Tickets are £20 or £10 for concessions
On the gig front, as usual, there is a veritable smorgasbord (love that word!) of aural delights to partake in…here is a little selection to swill around before deciding whether to spit or swallow…
Moving swiftly on to that bastion of trendy noisecore bands and fine film, the ICA, there are a couple of interesting celluloid additions.
That doyen of eclecticism, Jim Jarmusch, has a new release, The Limits of Control, and he of Being John Malkovich fame, Jon Malkovich takles JM Coetzee’s Booker Prize-winning novel in Disgrace.
Another new cinematic release that has been hotly anticipated, not least in my household, is the Ian Dury biopic, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll. Starring the much underrated Andy Serkis in the lead role, this opens in cinemas this weekend including at The Barbican, Screen on the Green and The Ritzy.
A late recommendation, and I have it on very good authority that the new Mexican film Voy A Explotar (I'm Gonna Explode) is a bit of a cracker. I think it only prudent to take the advice of a source as reliable as this. Showing at The Barbican, tonight at The Ritzy and at The Renoir.
January also strikes me as an excellently apt month to remind oneself of the experience of Waiting For Godot and we are blessed to be able to have the opportunity to see one of the finest actors around leading this. Magneto. Sorry, my bad, I meant Gandalf, of course.
Running from the 21st January for 11 weeks.
In other more cosy theatrical surroundings, the Arcola Theatre is running a mini German season featuring their new production Innocence showing from the 6thth January. There are the usual pay-what-you-can evenings on Tuesdays but also the opportunity, should you be young and fresh-faced enough (alas!), for a FREE ticket… – 30
Alongside this, between the 10th and 17th Jan, the Arcola Bar will be turned into a 1989 Berlin bar for an interactive recreation of the night the wall fell and the 15th and 16th will play host an evening of Kurt Tucholsky music, a satirist, writer, poet and cabaret singer of the Weimar Republic. These are both FREE.
Given my penchant for musical obsession and geekery, I am taking the liberty of including a segment with my current soundtrack to life.
Naturally, you also have the liberty of ignoring this but I can assure you that, as anyone who knows me can attest, I have impeccable taste in music… ;)
Fever Ray – Fever Ray. The new solo project from Karin Dreijer Andersson of famously reclusive sibling electro duo The Knife. Dark, haunting and mesmeric. Get yourself lost in this.
Birds Demo – Kuryakin. Little known Swedish duo making beautiful music by exchanging samples through the post. It’s all about the Scandinavians…
Snowdonia EP – Mechanical Owl. This falls under that unfortunate moniker of ‘folktronica’. Despite that happenstance, this veers between tender indie and cultured electronica. With a bit of Stuart Murdoch-style storytelling thrown in for good measure.
Sing Along To Songs You Don’t Know – Múm. One of my favouritebands, ever. Consistently innovative, always beautiful, defiantly intricate. Their new album hits the heights again after the only very good, rather than brilliant, Go Go Smear The Poison Ivy. In case of emergency of never having heard Múm, follow these simple instructions.
Stop whatever it is you are doing right now.
Use Spotify to immediately fill this gaping hole in your life
Go out and buy this album to satisfy those long-term cravings.
And relax.
Cymande – Cymande. Depending on your musical leanings Cymande are either a band you worship or a band you have never heard of. A band from Birmingham making Rastafarian-influenced funk doesn’t immediately sound promising but even on the first listen to this album, subsequent artists who have begged, borrowed or stolen from them start to pile up in your head, from A Tribe Called Quest to The Fugees to DJ Yoda. Impossibly tight.
Although not on this album, to really put a bounce in your stride, and the roll into your stroll check out Brothers On The Slide. Fuck yeah…
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