“we are white, privileged, multibillionaire trust-fund babies”
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This week
💦 freaky adderall cherubs
💦 a revival of the Great British Mackintosh Magazine
💦 Sinead O’Dwyer-clad art darlings
Events
A slower week on the event front, but quality over quantity, kiddos. See yous at the mass break-in for Tate’s Leigh Bowery show tonight! x
💦 Opens 27 Feb | Leigh Bowery!, Tate Modern [Blackfriars]
💦 27 Feb | 7.30pm | Serpentine Reader, with Aria Dean, Gary Zhexi Zhang, Tosia Leniarska and more, Reference Point [Temple]
💦 27 Feb | 6-8pm | Penny Goring: Cold Hunt Corsage and Brad Kronz and Stuart McKenzie: The Old Grey Liver Test, curated by Galerina, Arcadia Missa [Bond St]
💦27 Feb | On Ugliness: Medieval and Contemporary, Skarstedt [Green Park]
💦1 Mar | 12-6pm | Mother of a famous artist, Dorothy Iannone, Sarah Pucci, 1992, Ginny on Frederick [Farringdon]
💦 2 March | 2.30pm–4.30pm | Jana Euler: Exhibitionism (book launch, drinks and talk), Cabinet [Vauxhall]
Live Reading Series of the week:
GARGLE, Sadie Coles HQ, Tuesday 18 February 2025.
spittle was delighted to be seated front row (ish) at the debut of Sadie Coles HQ’s new live readings programme GARGLE last week. We love to see the live trend gathering momentum! Credit must be paid to tru pioneers Ana Viktoria Dzinic’s Cabaret, Tom Willis’ Soho Reading Series, and South Parade’s dogged patronage of LA alt-lit heads Casual Encounterz. This month curated by Climax books, GARGLE attendees were encouraged to bring along some smut for a sexy book exchange – a stipulation we completely forgot, causing an emergency diversion to a charity shop en route where fortuitously there was an illustrated guide to Sailor’s Knots, with chapters on Whipping (a type of binding to prevent rope fraying x), Slide-and-Grips (an adjustable knot that attaches one rope to another x), Prickers (does what it says on the tin), Dogging (securing rope ends together x), Kinks (obstructive rope twists x) and Cockscombing (forgot what this one means). It was sad to let this treasure go, but we did secure some illustrated tentacle erotica which was not as good but still enlightening. Climax founder Isabella Burley invited Rene Matić, Charlie Fox, Del la Grace Volcano and Clara Mary Joy to take the mic. We fell in love with them all, especially Charlie Fox’s hypnotic and nymphic collaborator who was charged with hopping around and making bizarre noises with the microphone during Charlie’s maniacal reading. This included dragging said mic up and down the walls and leaving little black lines all over the gallery’s pristine white paint job. Love! Del la Grace Volcano set a horny tone to kick off their sparky recitations - on ableness and the hermaphroditic body - by asking the audience to raise a hand if they had had sex with them before (sadly no sexual partners were in attendance, one imagines this would have been a different story in Sweden where they live… and we dread to think about Berlin). Rene Matić’s reading about water and whiteness enchanted and provoked, and Clara Mary Joy’s animatronic rendition of the history of the rubber fetish had us all riled up and ready to sign up to the Great British Mackintosh Magazine. After the performances, all baby gallerinas migrated to the nearby Coach and Horses pub for an impromptu Tuesday night convention. Talk was of who's IN at Liste in Basel year (emails were sent out on Thursday last week)… We loved to read Sadie’s interview in AnOther mag, wherein she talks about something intriguing happening in London at the moment, saying that the city’s scene and energy “feels like 30 years ago”. We think back to when we started spittle 4 years ago in response to the comparative lack of scene in the city, to try to corral others in the front desk workforce to a curated selection of shows every week and to write up some sort of record of the exhibitions presented by the new young galleries that were beginning to pop up and whose programmes weren’t being picked up by the press… look at how far we’ve all come kiddos !!!!!!
Hot links
🧊 “I was miserable in that helicopter. I was miserable in Loewe” - former art advisor to Leo DiCap, Lisa Schiff, spills all in a New York Times feature featuring some moody pics to boot. Although her apologies don’t convince some. “Any attempt by Lisa Schiff to portray herself as remorseful is disingenuous at best,” says one Ms. Lindstrom… meow x
🧊 “In general, the French had really bad taste in American literature” – As part of its roundtable series, Frieze gathers together a group of the hottest theorists, critics and artists to reminisce about Semiotext(e)–your favourite writer’s favourite publisher. Tracing the publishing house’s legacy from the 70’s to today, and containing anecdotes involving “Chris Kraus spouting theory in a g-string,” it’s as sentimental as it is inspiring.
🧊 “white, privileged, multibillionaire trust-fund babies” – In a rare interview, James Murdoch describes life as a billionaire’s least favourite son in excruciating detail–from family therapy sessions to the phone hacking scandal. Widely believed to be the inspiration for Succession, the Murdochs’ family history is full of backstabbing, blame and unfulfilled ambition. Reminiscent of life on the front desk x
🧊 “I am God and my lawyers are my twelve disciples, do not fuck with me.” – While we all know not to judge a book by its cover, fashion often speaks louder than words, and the image which we present to the world can reflect right back at us. Having mastered the art of image-making, celebrities know this better than most and there is no time more critical to make a good impression than at court. Here, Dazed rounds up the best celebrity court lewks of all time, including our two favourite Annas (Delvey and Nicole-Smith, duh!).
🧊 “algorithmic curation and ‘streambait pop’” – music pod no tags returns, serving up a killer interview with Liz Pelly, whose recent book, Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist, they discuss. From the playlist-ification of music streaming, to the recent rise in ‘fake’ artists making music for spotify, which is then disproportionately promoted by the platform, it’s looking pretty bleak out there for our cousins in the music industry! Ultimately: spotify is bad and we should all go back to buying CDs!
Add-to-cart
We haven’t listened to Red Scare in years TBH – at one point Anna and Dasha’s voices seemed to morph into one unfamiliar adderaaallll infused language and we’d zone out. But we did spot that Galerie Pepe in Mexico City are showing one half of the pod’s mischievous drawings... Lots to unpack…. Available here (maybe?) x
Parting shot
Gemma Collins FROW at Ashish, Connor Ives wearing a ‘protect the dolls’ t-shirt, Fiona Shaw AKA Harry Potter’s Petunia Dursley walking for Simone Rocha, Dunhill PR and artworld cabaret organiser Zac Klein singing at an Aaron Esh dinner, Paolo Carzana’s cosy presentation in a pub (avec red wine and pints), artist Gaby Sahhar walking for Olly Shinder (BF of Wolfgang) – there were many iconic moments at London fash week… But it seems pretty confirmed that Sinead O’Dwyer is the certified designer darling of the London scene, with Anya, Gray, Michael, Zoe, and Jack gracing the frow… we love to see it 🫦
xxx