“Mercury likes us because his mom was a nymph”
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This week
💦 sexual kitsch and dim erotica
💦 the exploits of Pygmalion, Arachne, Daphne, Narcissus and Apollo
💦 Hauser & Wirth pub to open in London, apparently!
Events
🧊 18 May | 6:30pm | ANAN x Rochelle Canteen, Hummus evening, E2 7FA [Shoreditch High Street]
🧊 19 May | 6–8pm | Edgar Serrano, PM/AM [Oxford Circus]
🧊 19 May | 6–9pm | Oisín O’Brien: Sometimes in Sequence, Some Times in Sequins, SET Woolwich [Woolwich]
🧊 19 May | 6–9pm | Potentials, group show curated by Arthur Poujois, 122 Minories St [Tower Hill/Aldgate]
🧊 19 May | 6–9pm | Slade Undergraduate Degree Show, University College London [Warren St]
🧊 20 May | 1pm | Tender Chats with Clem Macleod & Dal Chodha [Instagram Live]
🧊 20 May | Bold Tendencies reopening with works by Rhea Dillon and Gray Wielebinski [Peckham Rye]
Exhibition of the Week
Natalia González-Martín: A change (would do you good) at Hannah Barry Gallery, until 25 June 2022. Information here.
A knee, grazed, bleeding and framed by a white lace stocking, is proudly on display. The physical effects of the torment faced by women at the hands of the Gods as imagined in Ovid’s epic, ancient poem ‘Metamorphosis’ are not stereotypically depicted in the subtle, relatable vignettes painted by Natalia González-Martín. Her delicate paintings produced for this exhibition are a reimagining of Ovid’s tales. The exploits of Pygmalion, Arachne, Daphne, Narcissus and Apollo are rendered on thick wood blocks, slick with oils and varnish. What González-Martín does so well is to capture the sensuousness of the original verse with a forgiving and tender approach to the soft fleshiness of her subjects. The artist interrogates and subverts archaic attitudes towards women’s agency; she gives perspective to these myths – designed as they were to warn women of the harsh repercussions for stepping out of line – while also lovingly conveying the romanticism and whimsy of stories that are deep in our collective psyche.
Hot Links
💓 “I touch on the sexual needs, the romantic needs – of people” – purveyor of sexual kitsch and ‘dim erotica’, Jack Vettriano, gets the profile treatment in The Times. His paintings feature charming imagery such as ‘a young prostitute in black slip and stockings spreading her legs for a besuited older client.’ Asked whether he cares about cancel culture, his response came hard and fast: “Well, I don’t much give a f*** and you can quote me on that.” Madonna and Jack Nicholson are big collectors, appaz!
👡 “Oh my God, your body’s encased and it’s barely covered” - Highsnobiety deep-dives into Y2K’s continued revival; interviewing Rihanna’s stylist Mel Ottenberg and transgressor of taste Jeremy Scott. spittle was intrigued by the hemline index theory which ‘argues that stock prices and skirt lengths move in tandem, shortening in times of plenty and lengthening when things go bad.’
💫 How Mercury Retrograde Went Viral - For Harper’s Bazaar, Jo Livingston explores how ‘a whole discourse has sprung up around Mercury’s supposed effect on the tech that’s closest to our hearts.’ Mercury retrograde is a ‘celebrity on social media because he’s the god of messages,’ she reveals to us. ‘Mercury is everywhere and nowhere—always in motion, delivering an urgent message, but too busy to explain.’ No clue? Us neither.
🧡 More Mumbai than Memphis - Prinita Thevarajah explores the under-researched impact that Indian culture and design had on the post-modern master Ettore Sottsass. In fact, the salt and pepper mills which Sottsass designed for Alessi, which are instantly recognisable and emblematic of his cheeky, playful designs, were originally part of his ‘Bharata’ collection, which took its name from an ancient Indian tribe, and led to the designer collaborating with Indian craftspeople.
🍸 “I voted and I lost my health insurance. I’m a true American” - Kim Cattrall reveals all in an interview with Variety, including how she found out about the reboot (spoiler alert - it was through social media like the rest of us), when she realised SATC was dead, and her thoughts on Emily in Paris.
Add-to-cart
spittle can’t help ourselves when it comes to a Supreme collab although this one stands out more than most. Emblazoned with Roy Decarava’s iconic imagery of figures such as Sister Mary Bradley and Malcolm X, this is sure to be sought-after for years to come. Describing his works, Queen Roberta Smith noted they are ‘visually rigorous yet incalculably sensitive to the human predicament and the psychology of everyday life, especially concerning but not limited to African-Americans.’ Produced with the DeCarava archives, this collection also benefits the Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. Available here from Thursday.
Parting Shot
“I realised that I’d just attended a bizarre kind of seance for the end of the 20th Century”
Jon Buck, of Harlesden High Street, writes a wry ode to that particularly YBA flavoured late 90s ‘punk’ which was somewhat revived last week at the opening of Jake Chapman’s new show at Paradise Row. The show itself is rather succinctly summed up by Buck as ‘an attempt to throw together some sense of semiotic ‘centrality’ from reading the Guardian in a fragmented world’ with the main talk of the night centring around a car, arguably belonging to ex PM David Cameron, running over the author Will Self’s foot. No one seems to know what happened to Self’s foot, but Chapman certainly had a lot to say about Cameron coming to his show, getting shadowbanned from IG for captioning a (now removed) image ‘DIE FUCKING MISERABLE POINTLESS MEANINGLESS CUNTS’ and giving a bravado-fuelled interview to Louisa Buck in The Art Newspaper wherein he suggests he would have physically fought the ex-PM if there hadn’t been ‘a hefty-looking, unblinking ex-military man with him’. Honestly, Kate Moss and Tracey Emin were there and it really was the most drama spittle has witnessed possibly ever and we hope this sets a tone for the next decade or so.
London’s beating ‘art <3 <3 <3