“art is sexy, so is data”
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This week
💦 luxury sausages
💦 Drag Race United Nations
💦 a cultural pyramid crowned by plutocracy x
Events
Kids… xmas is 4 weeks away… We could be black friday/friweek shopping rn but instead we are again taking one for the team and compiling hot events for YOU… and there’s a lot to not miss in the last week of autumn. Anya Gorkova’s debut solo show at South Parade on Weds is sure to be cute and hot; we can’t wait to find out more about Azize Ferizi at Ilenia on Thurs; and we’re spoilt for choice with cabaret options (NUTS mag and Montez press) coming out of our ears on Fri! Not to mention 'an interpretation of traditional Thanksgiving dinner using fermented and foraged elements' courtesy of Soft Studies on Sat x
🧊 21 Nov | 6-8 pm | Close Looking: Collection Studies from the Roberts Institute of Art, Cromwell Place [South Kensington]
🧊 22 Nov | 6-8 pm | Don Van Vliet: Standing on One Hand, Michael Werrner [Bond St]
🧊 22 Nov | 6-8 pm | Anya Gorkova: Are you Seeing Anyone?, South Parade [Farringdon]
🧊 22 Nov | 6-8 pm | Carole Ebtinger & Esther Gatón: phosphorescence of my local lore, South Parade [Farringdon]
🧊 23 Nov | 6-9 pm | Waiting Room (Aimeé Lyon, Leo Costello, Dominic Myatt), Performance @ 8pm, Kupfer [Shoreditch High Street]
🧊 23 Nov | 6-8 pm | Two for Joy (Fundraiser exhibition), San Mei Gallery [Loughborough Junction]
🧊 23 Nov | 6-8 pm | Azize Ferizi: Redemption Request I, Ilenia [Shoreditch High St]
🧊 23 Nov | 6:30 pm | Tissue Papers 001: MAKING (an evening of readings by Trans Writers), Whitechapel Gallery [Aldgate East] | £2.50-5, tickets here.
🧊 23 Nov | 6-9 pm | PARALLAX: Conspiracy Theories, Details and the Act of Looking Closely by Ellie Wyatt (Book Launch), Alt_r [Deptford]
🧊 24 Nov | 6-9 pm | Bloody Lipstick, Blooming Dirt (Aléa, Henry Kitcher, Meryl Yana), Zerui G [Denmark Hill]
🧊 24 Nov | from 6pm | London: Dive Lounge After Dark, Montez Press cabaret live at Ormside Projects [South Bermondsey] £5 tickets here
🧊 24 Nov | evening | NUTS Magazine Cabaret, RSVPs to market@nuts.international
🧊 25 Nov | 5-8 pm | Viscose Journal 05 + Nice Outfit 02 Launch, Tenderbooks [Leicester Sq]
🧊 25 Nov | 5pm | Giving Thanks Supper, Dukkan [Haggerston] | £60, tickets here
🧊 25 Nov | 10am-8.30pm | WePresent + Russell Tovey: We Move In Circles (exhibition Programming) | 133 Bethnal Green Road [Bethnal Green]
🧊 26 Nov | 12pm–midnight | Morag Keil: Marly Ingva Axewell Andra Nikolas Eliya Margen & Shopping, Spryte (artist-led stream, online here) 🚨new online gallery alert 🚨
(Excerpt) of the week
In lieu of a review this week we bring you an excerpt (!) from our essay, titled IN A NUTSHELL, penned for All The Small Things – a group show curated by Hector Campbell at Soup gallery – of small artworks by Okiki Akinfe, Kate Burling, Anna Clegg, Matthew Clifton, Lucas Dupuy, Elliot Fox, Natalia González Martín, Lucy Neish, India Nielsen, Nina Silverberg and Sang Woo Kim.
Tasked with conjuring ‘a text about small paintings’, and tempted by the idea of appearing in a Foolscap Editions printed pamphlet, we opened as we always do with “Get your fucking ass up and work”.
“Get your fucking ass up and work” is the mantra that has been echoing down the corridors of society for the last two centuries. As Sisyphus was condemned to roll a boulder up a hill, so we are condemned to hustle harder; buy more things; feel more empty. We have a ‘growth mindset’ problem. To peel back the layers of conspicuous consumption – McMansions, Rimowas, Moncler Puffers, big paintings – is to expose an open wound: capitalism’s perpetual need for more more more. But what is ‘more’ and ‘bigger’? Without getting too John Berger-y, scale is an optical dimension that relates to our perspective. Changes in scale rock us ontologically: Gregor Samsa waking up a man one day and a cockroach the next is made significantly more horrifying by Kafka’s description of the insect’s size as “monstrous”. Big paintings are big gestures; in the 70s Warhol was pissing on canvases to say something about a market still in awe of Abstract Expressionism…
etc!
All The Small Things is on view until December 16th, and you can pick up your own Foolscap Editions pamphlet for free at the gallery !! We promise we won’t always settle every argument with a Joni Mitchell quote... x
Hot links
📈 “New collectors might yet yearn for the days of being compared to sentient beings” – Ravi Gosh brings the goods in this scorching piece for The Baffler, scrutinising those dark urges that lead certain bros to apply data analytics and AI to art market performance in the name of optimisation !! Thankfully spittle knows there are equally powerful and pervasive forces using Excel to keep lists of highly sensitive information, not a formula in sight x
🍆 “going into it with open eyes and with no clothes on” – the show with the best name in the business (Naked Attraction) gets a dressing down (yep) in The Guardian with investigative reporter Amelia Tait uncovering (sorry) that producers use Tinder to scout participants, and that many go on to make a killing on OnlyFans… get it girls x
💲 “Nobody sits you down and tells you about the fines” – This year everyone seems to be opening a gallery; even The New York Times have published a guide to starting your own space... speaking to upstarts like Jasmin Tsou, Rachel Uffner, Helena Anrather, and Polina Berlin. What could be the catch?!? ‘You get fined for stuff you didn’t even know you needed to do’ says Uffner. The conclusion? In NYC, you’ll spend $91,000 a month. w0w
💎 “In the West, certainly, we are witnessing much attention being paid to malleable silver sh*t” – our fave interiors newsletter, FOR SCALE, explores the diverse role of silver foil in man-made environments, conveying vibes ranging from ambition and vanity to fragility, emergency and conspiracy… *pastes foil onto bedroom walls instantly*
💅 “I think the internet has been fantastic, but at the same time, it f---ed us” – Jonathan Anderson gets the profile treatment by Rachel Tashjian in the Washington Post, discussing collabs with Beyonce, Lynda Benglis and Joe Brainard, and a dress like a ‘a sloppy drag-and-drop’. He says: ‘I think the minute you are trapped by an aesthetic, the clock ticks’... and don’t we know it Jonathan.
💋 “As a private investigator, she flirts her way into information” – spittle fave Sam Moore treats us to a spin through Post-Gay TV, touching on a need for nuance and euphemisms in the queer mainstream and, of course, the looming and very real possibility of a Drag Race United Nations.
Add-to-cart
Over 150 artists are taking part in Pictures for Palestine, a group charity initiative raising funds for ‘MAP, Medical Aid for Palestinians, which provides vital medical care, working for the health of Palestinians.’ We our going to fill our Phoebe Philo boots with hot prints priced at £100 each by the likes of Jade de Montserrat, Joanna Piotrowska, Marili Andre, Laila Majid and Louis Blue Newby, Sharna Osborne, Cindy Sherman and many many more. Get yours here xxx
Parting Shot
We loooove a juicy artworld scandal, and now that Lisa Schiff’s case has been taken up by the authorities, the goss has gone a little quiet. Until AirMail broke a shocker of a story concerning fraud (duh), art (obvs) and loads of michelin-star sushi (ok..)
Pretending to be his mates Dad (who happens to be a Mexican Media Mogul), Alberto Fis allegedly conned galleries into giving him works, and sold said works on to multiple people (we’re calling this the Philbrick special) – yikes