“I love Heathrow. We take edibles and just have a good time”
spittle is a breaking (contemp culture focused) news bulletin for all you curious London(art lov)ers, spotlighting the fantastically diverse and heterogeneous facets of London’s art and art-adjacent scenes. Published on Tuesday mornings, click here to subscribe!
All submissions welcome at spittlesubmissions@gmail.com
From left to right: Wolfgang Tillmans at Morena di Luna; The W Hotel, Edinburgh; Alicia Reyes McNamara at Niru Ratnam.
This Week
💦 IRL events stacking up as D-Day looms
💦 Spittle left London, chasing after Wolfgang
💦 Francesco Bonami ignites culture wars 🙄
Events, 13-21 July
This week sees Pope.L’s first show in London for a decade; a Hackney performance by Mark Leckey on a Monday night(!) and Spitalfields stalwart natural wine bar, Crispin, open a Soho branch, real close to Sadie Coles HQ.
🧊 13 July | Gilbert and George artist talk and book signing with Charlie Porter, Thaddaeus Ropac, W1S 4NJ [Green Park] | Free
🧊 15 July | Opening 12 - 6pm | Pope.L: Notations, Holes and Humour, Modern Art, SW1Y 6AL [Green Park] | Exhibition runs through 18 August. Free
🧊 15 July | Opening 10am - 7pm | Goldsmiths MFA Degree Show 2021, Goldsmiths, SE14 6NW [New Cross Gate] | Exhibition runs through 20 July. Free
🧊 15 July | Opening of Bar Crispin, Soho, with an interior by Jermaine Gallacher, W1B 5PY [Oxford Circus].
🧊 14 July | Opening 6 - 8pm | If You Don’t Play, You Can’t Be A Winner, Celeste McEvoy’s in situ installation at 213 Kupfer, E9 6FJ [Hackney Central] | Exhibition runs through 16 July. Free
🧊 Until 18 July | Alvaro Barrington: Wave Your Flags, Tabernacle, Notting Hill, W11 2AY [Ladbroke Grove]. Free
🧊 19 July | Emulsion Presents E-Birth: A Freedom Party | Music, film and performances by Blackchaine, Mark Leckey, Space Africa, and more | Studio 9294, E9 5LN [Hackney Wick]. Free
Exhibitions of the Week
Wolfgang Tillmans: Moon in Earthlight at Morena di Luna, Hove, 3 July - 5 September 2021, book here
Tillman’s residency resulting in a tender, compassionate and hauntingly beautiful exhibition at Maureen Paley’s Brighton space. From queer politics and lunar investigations to supermarket food trends and memories of raving and nightlife. It’s all here! Shout out to Daré on the front desk for making us so welcome.
Alicia Reyes McNamara: From Within, Niru Ratnam, now closed, access images here
This exhibition featured intimate works which blend Mexican and Irish folklore to reinterpret the role of women and water in mythology. A dreamy colour palette and pastel-like handling of oil gives these works a feverish quality, while the abundance of axolotls and genitalia add a cheeky edge. With Niru Ratnam announcing representation, and a solo show at Lismore Castle Arts now open, we’re excited to see what the future has in store for Alicia!
Hot Links
⛓ Fascinating deep dive on the internet as a broken, decaying archive - who knew that at least 25% of external links in The New York Times have rotted, or the curious tale of Amazon rewriting books after publishing?
💢 Instagram pillow face is out, TikTok anime face is in - the Nymphet Alumni identify and anecdotally describe the evolution of the internet girl physiognomy and the cultural ephemera that feeds into it.
🐊 Are You Ready For A Croc Girl Summer? - Vogue are spot-on; 2021 is most definitely croc girl (and boy) summer. But if we throw our Tabi Boots to the wind and invest in some snappy slip-ons, the question of the year will be: are they Frieze appropriate?
🌻 Single mum left the entire Van Gogh oeuvre after his death, makes him into a world-renowned legend - everyone hated his work but the artist’s sister in law Jo van Gogh-Bonger has been revealed as an early PR/Marketing genius.
✈️ AIRPORT CULTURE IS HERE (and getting into full flight) - journalist/deep dive ethnographer Chloe Combi uncovers one of the weirdest youth culture developments ever: “I love Heathrow. We take edibles and just have a good time”.
💩 Golden Turd Hotel incites strong reactions - we certainly see the resemblance, but we’ll wait for our press trip invitation to make our minds up.
🚨Chapel conversion for sale *alert* - We spot works by Glenn Ligon and Emma Cousin in this mysterious SW10 chapel conversion once occupied by The Rolling Stones. Any leads on who owns it?
Edition of the Week
A compendium of David Hockney’s iPad drawings by the recently turned 94-year-old master, published by Taschen. Priced at £1,750, it looks like we’ll be sticking to the rainy views from our own windows…
Parting Shot
Curator Francesco Bonami’s totally inappropriate raving holding a printed out article from The Art Newspaper in which he self-identified as a 35-year-old Iranian lesbian did not end so well, see curator Stella Bottai’s empathetic letter of response here.
Love,
London’s beating ‘art
<3 <3 <3 <3