Emin's on the map

Just a quickie. I know she's not everyone's cup of tea (and I've gone off her drastically since I discovered she was a raving Tory that resents paying a high rate of tax) but I can't help but find Tracey Emin's sketches really enchanting and/or haunting.

I managed to pick up one of the tube maps today with her interpretation of it on the front.

I'm one of those sycophantic London-lovers who thinks the tube map is a work of art as it is, but this edition is really welcome- such a beautiful sketch. It's a personal take on the map, might be seen as a bit indulgent, but if I had to make my own version of the underground map, it would certainly only contain ten or twelve stops at the most.

There's a good article about it here.

If you can't make your mind up about Emin, I definitely recommend you read Strangeland. It really changed my mind about her (this was pre-Tory discovery) and made me be more forgiving about her art work, which even now with my bubbling resentment of her, I can't help but love, particularly her sketches, textile work and light installations.

Also, on her entry on the Feminist Art Base, where all artists have to write a statement about their relationship with feminism, she says: When I had my interview for art school in 1983, one of their questions was: “What do you think of Feminism?” My answer at the time: “I don’t.” By that I meant that I didn’t think about Feminism. Of course that’s changed a lot now. I often think about feminism, in an everyday way and in an historic way. But to be honest, being a woman has never stopped me from doing anything I wanted to do. Apart from fuck a man really hard up the arse. I’ve never had penis envy, but I’ve often wondered what it must be like. I know that just having a penis definitely affects your wage packet, but I’m not bitter and twisted. I’m grateful to all the women that work so hard to enable women like me to have a voice. And I’m still shouting.

Which I think is so typical of her, it's very aware, very paradoxical and very exposed. Still not sure I think Tory values can really coexist with feminism, since the crux of feminism is about removing hierarchy and power, but it's still an interesting statement. 

Maurice Sendak's other great work...

I came across this a while ago in my library, and I thought it was pretty horrific in terms of poor messages for fairy tales to carry, I'm talking of course, of Wilhelm Hauff's Dwarf Long-Nose - one of the more un-PC children's books I've stumbled across.

Apparently, in Germanic countries, this tale is as well-known as Snow White or Sleeping Beauty. It involves a young handsome boy who is turned into an "ugly dwarf" by a "hag" who was "ragged and in tatters" after Jacob takes offense to the way she manhandles her mother's herbs (I know) with her "dark brown, ugly hands". After not believing that this new incarnation is her son, the mother sends him away calling him "an ugly monster".

  

The father is equally dismissive, and Jacob weeps.

  

And then masturbates with his nose.

To cut a long(ish) story short, he becomes a chef to the Duke (after turning down the chance to be court jester).

He then buys three geese, one of whom (Mimi), is spared of the chopping board because she cries and sings him a little song. Mimi helps Jacob find a herb that restores his height and good-looks and only then do his parents take him back with open arms.

I don't need to point out the obvious about the many levels on which this story is offensive, but I thought it was timely to share, as the illustrator for this particular edition is none other than Maurice Sendak who died yesterday. Obviously not his finest moment, but interesting to point out all the same, thankfully he will be forever remembered as the genius who brought us Where the Wild Things Are.  

tomb of the unknown craftsman

For my birthday a few years ago, I got this from the Tate Modern, which I love. For christmas this year, Babs got me the new one made to accompany the Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman exhibition at the British Museum.







It's beautiful, can't wait to get some twin frames for them both. The exhibition is on until mid February, so go if you get the chance, it's brilliant, one of the few exhibitions you'll see where people actually laugh out loud as they walk around it. I took some pictures of Alan Measles' pilgrimage motorbike on my iPhone (it's not Alan Measles in the box, it's one of his stunt doubles).





Hope everyone had a good christmas.

Björk - Biophilia

Firstly, apologies to anyone who follows my twitter feed, or anyone I’ve spoken to in person for the last five months as I’ve been gushing rather incessantly about Björk, which tends to happen in the build up to a release, but usually not quite to this extent. Secondly, if her newest album, which came out on Monday 10th October, is not yet in your life, make it so, as it will change it.

Biophilia has managed to do what I thought was an impossible task, which is topple PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake off the top of my “best album of 2011” list to a respectable second. Not only that, but for me, this has been the most impossibly tense build-up to an album ever. By the time the album came out, I knew all ten of the tracks quite intimately, from the four formal releases and the show at MIF, and Bestival, and the plethora of live footage on youtube, but as a complete album it still managed to surprise and enthral.

When I first heard Moon at MIF I thought it was a fairly twee and childlike song, that was improved by the visuals, I liked it a lot, but it was definitely one of the few growers, which turns out to be one of the most rewarding and luscious tracks on the album, a great opener, the choral arrangements are stunning and the harmonies (particularly on the last “all birthed and happy” line) immense. The video has had a fairly mixed response on youtube, some saying it was a bad choice of song to make a video for, others saying it’s too obvious or looks cheap. I agree with none of those, for me it kind of embodies the entire concept of the album, integrating the visuals that are used live (the moon) the graphics from the apps, and the striking image of Björk that forms the artwork of the front cover. Also, I really like being able to see Björk up close in her videos, her strongest videos in the past are the ones that are almost intrusively close to her and where she’s exposed and real (see cocoon and hidden place). I think it’s worth saying that Björk is brilliant at picking the perfect opener of an album. Lots of people don’t really put much stock in track orders, but I prefer listening to albums than individual songs, so I think it’s really important, would Homogenic have been as epic if it didn’t start with Hunter? Would Medulla have been as jarring and dense if Pleasure Is All Mine didn’t open it?

Thunderbolt was definitely my favourite song live. See this video from Bestival of what an intensely brilliant live experience it was. To see the tesla coil working in the flesh was surreal (at MIF, not so much at Bestival, where it was quite lost on the stage, I didn’t even realise it was there until I saw a video afterwards) I worried the more extreme instruments in this project would seem gimmicky, but the tesla forms a really hypnotic bass line, that at first I thought was lacking from the studio version, and to an extent I still do, although it really kicks in about halfway through, the initial introduction of it is too understated an affair for my liking, it’s literally electrifying when it kicks in live. For me, the lyrics in Thunderbolt are amongst some of her finest, and single-handedly show those who think of this album as some sort of didactic science lesson that at its core it’s a very human album, particular highlights for me: ‘No one imagines the light shock I need/ and I’ll never know/ from who's hands deeply humbled/ dangerous gifts as such to mine come and ‘My romantic gene is dominant/ and it hungers for union’. The choral arrangements again are off the scale, no one does it like Björk. Tesla bass or otherwise, this is my favourite song from the album, and probably enters my favourite songs of all time list. Really looking forward to receiving the manual edition in the post as it will include this live version, which could potentially be the definitive version so far. I’d love to see this as a single with a video, and perhaps a more bass-heavy remix.

Crystalline was the lead single, with a brilliant Gondry video. I prefer the album version to the single version, the way the drum and bass finale fades in is brilliant, and it works so well. It’s worth mentioning that Omar Souleyman’s remix of this track is also brilliant. Cosmogony was another that instantly captivated on a first listen, I was subconsciously already familiar with the melody, as one of the first teasers for the album was this video, which is Wonderbrass playing an alternative arrangement. Again, staggering lyrics: ‘they say, back then our universe/ was a coal-black egg/ until the god inside/ burst out and from its shattered shell/ he made what became the world we know’, I’m really excited at the possibility of the Wonderbrass arrangement with Björk’s vocals, that could be truly epic. Like Crystalline, the album version is different to the single version (the Serban Ghenea mix) and is probably better too.

Dark Matter and Hollow are likely to be some of the most jarring songs of the year, with Dark Matter being a brooding but ultimately beautiful gibberish piece (the choir and organ version included on some releases is my preferred version) and Hollow is quite unlike anything I’ve heard before, sort of sits alongside Ancestors from Medulla in that it’s quite primal and rootsy in the most barbaric sort of way and requires work in order to fully engage in it, but once you can pick out the melody it becomes a brilliant song, the choir repeating the lines ‘trunk of DNA’ and the ‘jewel-after-jewel-after-jewel’ repetition are real high points. I think Virus is an example of Biophilia at its most beautiful, and also, makes me think that aside from the concept and the extremely unconventional time signatures, that Biophilia is essentially a very simplistic album in terms of song structures, this is also another song that reiterates my thoughts that it’s a very human album as well: ‘The perfect match/ you and me/ I adapt, contagious/ you open up, saying welcome’.

Sacrifice is one of my favourite tracks, it’s really tender and the final refrain of ‘your generosity will show in the volume of her glow’ is stunning, I love when the flickery Vespertine-esque beat kicks in about half way through the song. I’m disappointed that this is the only Biophilia track that doesn’t feature on the live album, as the live version of this song ends with a choral version of said refrain and the harmonies are enchanting, I have a bootleg version courtesy of @VintageVeevers but I’d love there to be a higher quality live version at some point.

The last two tracks strike me as a more successful attempt at how Volta concluded. In this case Mutual Core, which ends with perhaps the most exciting 40 seconds of beats on the album and then the serene and heart-achingly good Solstice. I always felt that Volta should have ended with Declare Independents which assaults your ears with a barrage of chanty protest, I always found My Juvenile a bit of an anti climax, it always stood out like a sore thumb on the album for me. But on Biophilia, the come down from the (albeit brief) insanity of Mutual Core leads perfectly into the hypnotism of Solstice, which ends the album at its most intimate and raw. Really can’t wait for some Mutual Core remixes, it is a phenomenally good song.

Anyway, Blah blah blah, I didn’t imagine this would be such a long review/rant/verbalorgasm. I read an Independent review t’other day which gave the album 2 stars out of 5, and then an NME review (which was very well written considering the usual trendy tripe they come out with) gave it a 9/10. This made me think it was quite a divisive album with varying levels of success for people, but in fact the majority of reviews are favourable, maybe the Independent writer is just a fool. On the shuttle bus to the ferry on the way back to Bestival I had to butt in to someone’s conversation as I heard him say “the Cure were the highlight, Björk was quite boring” with a rather lengthy rant (as you might be able to imagine) about how people who don’t like Björk or can’t appreciate the pure magic of her work are lazy and unwilling to be challenged by music. While perhaps that was a bit extreme and I don’t really believe it, I do think that Björk is the most important and progressive artist today, and she will be lauded as one of the great innovators and geniuses of our time and Biophilia will be one of her many masterpieces to cement this. To sum up: Biophilia is a FUCKING TRIUMPH.

fenwick lawson

A few months ago when I was at home, me and Babs (the mothership) visited Durham for the day, and I spotted this piece of public art in Durham's Millenium Square:



I took a picture of it on my phone because it was sufficiently maudlin and out of place to tickle my fancy. It's only today, when looking up Fenwick Lawson (who is responsible for one of my very favourite pieces of art, The Pieta in Durham Cathedral) that I realised it was him that did this piece as well, which is called The Journey. It's pretty obvious now, given that stylisticly and thematically it's quite similar, and also because he's a Durham local as well.

Look up the Pieta if you haven't seen it, there aren't many really good pictures of it online, but you get the idea. Aside from the tedious religious theme, the Pieta is the most emotive thing I've ever seen, it's so simple, but it oozes with sadness and, I'm in danger of spilling into hyperbole here, it's sublime and ethereal.

That's all.

bird poo tears

Took pictures of the evacuee memorial in Liverpool Street Station yesterday, because I noticed that some bird shit had landed strategically on the girl at the front to look like a tear. Thought it was pretty poignant. And rank.





More about the memorial here.

mirrors in the snow

You may remember my pictures of the Anish Kapoor sculptures in Kensington Park. Well, Sophie, Andy, Louise and I went to Hyde Park to see the winter wonderland and have some mulled wine and decided to go and look at them in the snow. We only managed the first one, because it was far too cold to be wandering around in the park, but it looked really beautiful.

Seeds at the Tate

Well, you all know about the latest Turbine Hall farce. (If not, read about it here).

The health and safety concerns seem entirely justifiable, my qualm is that at no point was there any foresight into the fact that this might have been the case. I am no expert, but I think if I was putting months into planning this exhibition it might have occurred to me that porcelain, when trod upon MAY release a dust, and when there are as many pieces of porcelain as there are internet users in China, and people are being actively encouraged to tred on them, the dust might be a bit of a problem.

So I visited after it had been closed off, but I have to admit there was still something quite beautiful about the visuals of it, but it definitely lacked much power as it was clearly supposed to be an interactive piece. As it is, it's quite embarrassing and pitiful, but could have had potential to be one of the more powerful pieces the Turbine Hall has had.

Anish Kapoor

A few Sundays ago David and I braved a drizzly grey day and a pair of horrific hangovers to see the four new Anish Kapoor sculptures in Kensington Gardens.

This is the first:



This was definitely the most interactive of them all (you can see me and David in the middle-ish with umbrellas and unecessary sunglasses), but I found myself getting rather annoyed at a snooty middle-class mother who was trying to appear provocative and arty, but just came across as really tedious. She was with her two children who were enjoying themselves trying to make their reflections upside down and so forth and she spewed something along the line of "now, how does this compare with what we saw yesterday?" after no response (because they were having too much fun) she answered for them: "well, that was very much an exhibition of found artworks, and these are commissioned works that allow you to find yourselves." Silly cow, I'm all for trying to engage children with art, but rather than being provocative, she was being pompous- and interfereing with their experience; they had managed to engage physically with the artwork very well without her prompting them to be "deep". She should have just let them enjoy it and then afterwards on the journey home, asked more of a leading question such as "so, what did you think about it?" or the much underrated: "did you like it?"



This was my least favourite of them, once again I got rather annoyed that the experience was being interfered with. They had guards at this one to stop you from getting too close, which is fine, though a rope would have done. And the guards would come up to you and tell you to view it from a distance so that you could see the peak reflected in the bottom, which was very interesting but I prefer to discover these things for myself. One of them kept saying "people think the point is to try and see your own reflection but it's actually to try and see the reflection of the peak"- FINE, but let people discover it for themselves- if they want to see their faces bloody let them.

Well, luckily the next two you were allowed to interpret in your own way. This red one, from a distance, looked quite ugly, but it quickly became the boldest and most powerful for me. (Possibly helped by the appearance of a swan).

This was the final one, and this was as close as you could get. I'd love to go back and see it on a clearer day, or at least on a day when the sky is a bit more interesting.

It was a nice day out, and definitely worth a look- I just don't get that public art can be policed. Not only physically, but also having your experience interfered with and being told how to approach it. I found it very annoying. David found it funny how annoyed I was- pretty much the story of my life.

x

Kingston Lacy

More pictures from Dorset. We visited Kingston Lacy, which is my new favourite National Trust place (although I still have a softspot for Cragside and Gibside). Excuse the blurriness of some of the pictures, you're not allowed to use a flash inside the house. Also, the order is a bit messed up because blogspot is rubbish for uploading loads of pictures.

My mother pointed out a rather humorously worded description on the information sheets that said that the Dining Room was dominated by William John's massive organ. Tee hee. Here is said organ:

Some cabinets that Babs was particularly taken by:

beautiful ceilings:

This painting was massive, there was another of a cow being savaged as well. I love how grim it is:

The picture can't do this painting justice, it looked like an engraving in stone:

This picture took ages to take, because there was a really slow-moving old woman ambling down the stairs.

There were a few of these peacock panels, I loved them:

This is what the rooms in the National Trust properties look like over the winter months, it takes two weeks for everything to be covered. It reminds me of a scene in the Others.

A hand-carved last supper scene, the detail is phenomenal:

The tent room, can't decide if I think it was beautiful or naff, reminded me of Cair Paravel in the Narnia books:

I love the word 'injurious' I'm going to try and get it into more conversations:

This is my favourite picture of the day, wish I could go back though and get a better angle, so that the miserable cherub would be less central.

There were a number of wood sculptures around the grounds. I love seeing contemporary artworks in a heritagey setting, as long as they fit. Some of these were beautiful:

This one reminds me of an episode of Jonathan Creek from series 4 called Gorgon's Wood. Some of the little "faces" reminded Babs and JC of Munch's Scream, I can see it!

This one was my favourite, but I couldn't get a picture of it that showed how beautiful the curve was:

Animal gravestones:

The Japanese Garden wasn't as impressive as we thought it would be, definitely just a Western impression of how Japanese gardens should be:

Hope you enjoyed! x