Friday 30 January 2009

Personal highlights (mainly photographic) from:

The

Unpopular Culture Collection

(Selected by)

Grayson Perry

AT Southampton Guildhall



Bert Hardy


David Hepher



David Hurn




Homer Sykes


Tish Murtha


Tony Ray Jones


These were the best of an interesting collection of art work,
This is what it is all about:

Unpopular Culture, 16 January - 15 March

Grayson Perry selects from the Arts Council Collection. Grayson Perry was catapulted into the public consciousness in 2003 when he won the Turner prize, accepting his award dressed as a transvestite alter ego, Clare. A unique figure in the international art scene, Perry is best known for his ceramic pots which he adorns with subject matter ranging from his childhood in rural Essex, his transvestism, and his reflections on British art and society. It is perhaps his desire to reinterpret the past that informs Perry’s recent interest in curating exhibitions from public collections. The exhibition highlights this emerging aspect of Perry’s practise and offer a unique and personal view of the Arts Council Collection.

For over a year Perry has researched the Arts Council Collection’s holdings, painstakingly scouring acquisition catalogues and considering works in the stores. Unsurprisingly for an artist who has always positioned himself on the margins of the art world, he has found himself drawn to art made” before British art became fashionable”, including such work that conveys a sense of tradition, restraint and quiet accomplishment. His selection will feature modern British paintings, sculpture and photographs that embody a certain nostalgia, while exploring notions of place and environment, issues of identity and class and ideas about form. Rather than retreat into a world of rose-tinted romanticism, Perry presents an alternative view of British art, one that reassesses the relationship between past and present and questions the boundaries between the radical, the conservative, and the radically conservative.

On show are more than 70 works by 50 artists, covering figurative painting, bronze sculpture and documentary photography dating from the 1940s to 1980s.
Represented in the display are Kenneth Armitage, Frank Auerbach, Ian Berry, Anthony Caro, Lynn Chadwick, Barbara Hepworth, LS Lowry, Henry Moore, Paul Nash, Eduardo Paolozzi, Martin Parr, Tony Ray-Jones and Homer Sykes, and two works by Perry.

Worth a look I reckon.


Wednesday 28 January 2009










All i feel the need to say about her photographs
is that i need not say anything at all.


Friday 23 January 2009

www.blackcabsessions.com

This website is absoloutely wonderful.
What a great idea.
Thanks Phil for telling Paul who told me, its made my day.

Thursday 22 January 2009




Woelv/Ô Paon

The wife of Phil Elvrum (The Microphones etc)
But a wonderous entity all of her own.

Take a listen, i HIGHLY recommend it.
(my housemate reminded me of her, and i am EVER so glad)

Saturday 17 January 2009




you are my absolute favourite



mrs toaster



the harmonica



the books,
(imagine if they had stories in?)



Cuckoo-cuckoo


You are all soo sweet as well.

(thankyou)



Friday 16 January 2009


Beirut,
i had forgotten how brilliant it all was for a moment there.
(Isn't this such a pleasing photo?)

Tuesday 13 January 2009

Procrastinating from my final year today i came up with

A few YES PLEASES of the Day:


YES PLEASE 1:

The Edge of (Florals) Love




I watched The Edge of Love, not an amazing film, in my post-party drinks day yesterday,
and it reminded me what my gothic winter had made me forsake.
The floaty fabrics, the floral dresses and the chunky knits.


I also watched the Diary of Anne Frank on the BBC last week, and thought it was a great production, loved it in fact.
Very well done, and provoked and urge for a re-thumb of the old book... if i can find it.

And, without wanting to be insensitive to the topic, the clothing from that was equally pleasing.
Though this feels a little distracted from the point of the programme...


I feel a WW2 era clothing revival coming along VERY nicely.

Yes, perhaps 2:

Designer: Obedient Sons & Daughters

Their 2008 A/W collection was dark and tailored

and Their 2009 S/S collection is pale and quite interesting


All images were borrowed for the evening from their really delightful WEBSITE


YES PLEASE 3:

A Black and White Patent Leather Brogue
(allegedly from office for £60 - though searching their website up and down proved nothing)

Featured in ELLE this month page 54



AND

some of thoes tassly/peasanty boots.
These are pretty nice ones.

AND

some ladies heels

AND

some nice black boots, VERY hard to find for a shoe critic of the highest order.


Yes, yes please to all of the above.

Thankyou.

Listening to : Camera Obscura : Underachievers Please Try Harder
( a nice revival from my youth)


Monday 12 January 2009

Coco Rosie : You Wanna Fuck Me

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=m36P8XUkDYY

a brilliant cover, by a band with which the love affair has been alot longer than most.

Friday 9 January 2009


Dream Machine

it might make me a slightly strange 23 year old, but i REALLY want one of these.

my friend (who is a touch older, in all the best ways) just got their food processor, its so nice,
my new bargain £19.99 Kenwood treat seems a little sad in comparison...



I think papercutting is incredible,
I have been looking at lots of it on the internet recently.
I love the detail and i think there is something a bit magical about it
I would love to experiment with it, but fear i may be a little cack-handed for such delicacy

I found out that Scherenschnitte is a German papercutting style and this is a lovely example by Luise Theil Bücher.

This book looks delightful.
Cat's are mysterious yet delightul little blighters.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7819843.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7776776.stm

Oh, ho ho.

I am a news reporter these days.

Monday 5 January 2009

Young Love.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7811686.stm


This story really made me smile.