London is a tough city to be broke in, but thankfully the first Thursday of every month has the art and photography galleries open late serving up tepid wine and beer from ice buckets.
London is a tough city to be broke in, but thankfully the first Thursday of every month has the art and photography galleries open late serving up tepid wine and beer from ice buckets.
First stop Bischoff/Weiss on Rivington.
The gallery blurb says Thai artist “Nipan Oranniwesna’s work uses a minimalist vocabulary and symbolic materials including baby powder, rice, Buddhist clothing and gourd to provide the viewer with a rendition of the artist’s birthplace.”
This bares no relevance to his piece pictured here – two large street maps of London meticulously scalpeled out and overlaid. It took him an entire month. The precision of this piece is insane. And a perfect representation of London: a colossally complicated mind fuck of a city.
Wine drunk: one glass of white in a plastic cup.
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Next stop La Viande Gallery on Charlotte Road to catch Rob Flowers exhibition with Cris Jones and Jess Wilson.
(Ugly – Cris Jones)
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(Spring Heeled Jack – Rob Flowers)
I’ve admired Flowers’ stuff for ages, particularly his work starring Spring Heeled Jack. (Nothing to do with ska band Spring Heeled Jack USA, thank God.)
Spring Heeled Jack was first spotted in London in the late 1830s. He would jump out at startled passers by, slap them in the face, stare them down with his red eyes and tear at their clothes with sharp claws, before breathing blue flames in their faces. SWEET!
He got the “spring heeled” moniker because he bound about with great leaps. Like a frog. Or rabbit. But in a black cloak. He was never caught and no one has ever figured out who or what he actually was.
(Rob Flowers’ Spring Heeled Jack in the Box)
Anyway Rob spent a lot of time obsessively drawing Jack and mixing collage with his creepy Victorian street scenes. Now he’s gone the whole hog and made a Spring Heeled Jack in the Box.
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Here’s a picture of Amber and Nisha (DJ duo The Broken Hearts) with more of his work. Amber (on the right) goes out with Rob. Even when I see them at the local Tesco they look like they’re about to go dancing at some smoky speakeasy.
(Rob Flowers piece, and The Broken Hearts)
(Broken Hearts DJing – shot by Harriet Logan)
The Broken Hearts are the sort of girls who only spin 7-inches and use specially made telephones as headphones so they don’t mess up their hair. They recently released a slinky single with Whitey (on Mute Irregulars) called Black Cat and Rob shot the video.
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(Barefoot Wormhand Man – Cris Jones)
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The rest of the exhibition was ace too. Particularly the Barefoot Wormhand Man by Cris Jones (not that his MySpace has anything remotely related to his art on there), and this painting on wood of what looks like a bunch of naked Jesuses.
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Jess Wilson’s drawings of old, cantankerous grannies being mean to each other were also brilliant.
Wine drunk: two glasses of white also in plastic cups.
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After that we hit up the HOST Gallery just off Old Street to check out the far more sobering, totally packed exhibition of prints from Judah Passow’s book Shattered Dreams: Israel & the Palestinians.
Passow (who has been a photojournalist for 25 years) was milling around chatting, while people craned for a glimpse of his shots.
Here are three of my favourites. All moving in different ways: the hands behind the back, gripping rocks as hidden weapons; the curious crawling child gazing at the gun; the soldiers swamped and frozen in an unreal, whitewashed gloop.
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Gaza City, Gaza, 1988
A Palestinian confronts Israeli troops in Gaza City.
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Herbon, West Bank, 1999
An Israeli soldier guarding Jewish settlers in the Avraham Avinu quarter of Hebron.
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Yamit, Sinai 1982
Israeli soldiers storm the roof of a house in Yamit, an Israeli settlement. When the settlers refused to leave, the army sprayed them with immobilising foam, taking them off the roof one at a time.
Wine drunk: Three glasses of white in a plastic wine glasses.
On a totally unrelated note, my friend just told me about a dream he had last night where he had doggy style sex with Amy Winehouse. Apparently she had a butt like a shelf. But not in a good way – he described it as “like a wall bracket.” Also, instead of finishing the business within, he ended up sploodging ALL OVER a nearby TV. One can only assume he’s got a fetish for right angles.
It’s sort of related because the last picture looks like the Israelis splooged over all the Palestinians. Holy crap, what did they use? A Peter North launcher?
those aren’t palestinians they’re splooging on, it’s their very own peeps. AND you’re quite right, they contracted peter north for the job.
a bearfoot wormhand man would be considerably more dangerous to others, but not as threatening to himself as would a birdfoot wormhand man.
“London is a tough city to be broke in,” as opposed to the thousands of cities where poverty is a fucking breeze.
spring heeled jim slurs the words, “theres no need to be so knowing!”
Poverty is kind of a breeze in Portland.
shmoopy: Take the carrot out of your ass and stop being such a nit-picking douche. Have you ever been there? It costs an arm and a leg to get on the bloody bus.
Go back to the rock you crawled out from under.
Of course I’ve been there, alexass. It permanently cured me of Anglophilia. I’m sure I’ve traveled more and further than you ever have or will. It was a dumb, ill-conceived opening line because it implied that London was somehow unique due to the fact that being broke was rough there. It’s rough to be broke everywhere, stupid! (I agree it’s easier in Portland because everyone’s white there.)
Shmoopy was too kind. The whole fucking article is dumb.
“London really sucks when you have cancer.”
“Nuclear war is, surprisingly, a very unpleasant thing in the UK.”
6 glasses of wine overall? B-.
the broken hearts are my new favourite band
im not reading this article unless it has the author talking about all the famous people she knows and beautiful cool parties she goes to and how by association, but without saying so (because shes far too lovely) she is actually cooler than the cool people she knows because she knows ALL of them.
and then my friends could write comments under the article shooting down anyone who says they dont like it, with well-thought out and cutting statements like “if you dont like it then dont read it.”
that would be cool.
It’s my feeling that all of the art featured in this article is entirely valid and doesn’t have an arts and crafts feel whatsoever; and it’s all well conceived and thought out — these artists deserve a holiday in the sun, I’m just saying.
really? even the ‘spring heeled jack’ guy?
that guy doesnt deserve a holiday in the sun, he deserves to go out and get a job.
i like pretty dj girls too but, im just saying.
more from kim
The rock you crawled out from under costs an arm and a leg, and don’t you ever forget it.
“Westminster Abbey can be difficult to see when you’re legally blind.”
“writing funny comments can be really tricky when you’re a complete douchebag”
i’m late to this party. just want to say i love london. i’m filthy rich too.