“I want to feel like I’m at seaworld!”
This week
🧊 insane phantasmagorical maximalism and horniness
🧊 diamanté pointillism
🧊 Joan Didion’s Céline shades are actually on sale, you could buy them
Events
Make the most of outdoor cig breaks at openings this week because we have a hunch there will only be a few more until the weather turns and pavement chats become punctuated with chattering teeth and non-covid-friendly huddling with strangers… it’s all too easy to catch your menthol end on a highly flammable Burberry trench and it won’t just be your career that's up in smoke!!
💦 2 November | 6–8pm | Beatrice Lettice Boyle and Hannah Tilson: A Flash of Blue, Cedric Bardawil [Leicester Square]
💦 2 November | 5–8pm | raw nerves (group show), Hanny Barry Gallery [Peckham Rye]
💦 3 November | 6–8pm | Between you and me, San Mei Gallery [Loughborough Junction]
💦 3 November | 7:30pm | Slicing the Scry (noise and readings for Tom Hardwick Allen’s exhibition, Scrying the Slice), South Parade [Deptford]
💦 4 November | 7–9pm | Born to make you happy: Débora Delmar, Lucy Evetts, Zoë Marden, Gray Wielebinski, The Residence Gallery [Victoria Park]
💦 4 November | 7–9pm | Cinzia Ruggeri: Cinzia says… Goldsmiths CCA [New Cross]
💦 5 November | From 4pm | Billy Fraser: High Treason 1605, Des Bains [London Fields]
💦 7 November | 6–8pm | Plum Cloutman: Kennel Cough, Arusha Gallery [Oxford Circus]
Exhibition of the week
Alfa Bransfield: The Chains that were Sold to me by an Algorithm, Woodsy’s, until 25 November, info here.
We loved Alfa Bransfield’s (aka producer & songwriter Iain Woods) major new show The Chains that were Sold to me by an Algorithm at Woodsy’s; his Bromley-by-Bow studio. Catalysed by the Instagram shopping algorithm persistently making an effort to sell him faux-diamond encrusted necklaces, Bransfield replicated these blingy ornaments in larger-than-life scale, carefully applying diamenté to sheer aluminium panels hung across both levels of the mezzanine studio. Recalling the ‘That’s Hot’ aesthetic pioneered by early 2000s icons Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton, these works belong to a moment of y2k rich girl envy and as a result their shiny, rhinestoned surfaces exude pure glamour, to paraphrase Berger. From afar the work is immaculate in its minimalism, each link of each chain depicted in diamanté pointillism, but up close the metal is scuffed and dented (flaws that are illuminated even further by flash photography) undermining the veneer of perfection and hinting at a richer provenance to these pop objects than just lives led as shiny icons to consumerism. One visitor cogently yet poetically summed up the show with: ‘all the reflections. Mulan is crying.’ The opening extravaganza was a 12-hour private view catered with takeaway pizza and martinis, the whole event functioning like a pre-halloween gesamtkunstwerk with notable curators, artists and gallery assistants dancing ’til the wee hours in celebration. The exhibition continues until November 25 and appointments can be booked via Woodsy’s nokia burner phone: 07769477911. After the close of this show, Woodsy’s promises to become an urgently-needed platform to support emerging working-class artists exhausted by the ‘needlessly complex language of theory-ready-project-based-work.’ Watch this space!
Hot links
👟 “The posh girls at Camberwell art school went through a phase of never wearing shoes” – The White Pube ask their audience to submit their most insane memories from art school for their latest podcast. From pervy lecturers, to overt infrastructural racism, memorable tales include students ‘playing guitar with their penises’ and an artist ‘pulling shit out of themselves and smearing it on the walls on the first day of a week-long group show…’
🤖 “man with pig face, HR Giger” – The FT Mag takes a deep-dive into the ramifications of those AI bots – Google Imagen, Dall-e 2, Midjourney – that we were obsessed with a few weeks ago. Aside from the obvious points (where does authorship lie when an image is auto-generated? #yawn) we learnt that next up are bots that can make videos from still images. That’s right. Can you imagine?
👻 “cheap strip lights can affect the brain to the extent that they can even trigger epileptic seizure” - Jan Golembiewski delves into how the infrastructure of buildings can make us believe in the paranormal and literally see ghosts (often because of poorly-designed features). spittle was also relieved to learn we are not the only ones to have experienced the sudden impulse to jump from a high balcony or steer the car into oncoming traffic… The French actually have a term for it: ‘l’appel du vide [the call of the void]’ ooh la la x
🕶️ “She took photos next to Anna Wintour, as one does when they’re about to be the next big thing” – Chirstine Quinn (aka the scary one from Selling Sunset) explains how she took the fashion world by storm this season, in a stunning interview with Paper. Going from buying, wearing and then returning clothes at Bloomingdales (until the staff started to recognise her and it got too ‘risky’) to walking for Balenciaga couture, her rise has been somewhat meteoric. The accompanying photoshoot, inspired by Basic Instinct, is iconic.
🕷️ “it doesn’t run screaming from the insane phantasmagorical maximalism and horniness that the Gothic demands” – Halloween is over but you still can’t get enough spook to fill yer boots? King of all things haunted Charlie Fox recommends 10 of his favourite scary movies for ArtForum, to keep you going through the long dark nights!
Add-to-cart
We are lusting after so many items from the Joan Didion estate sale (An American Icon: Property from the Collection of Joan Didion, Stair Galleries). Highlights include those Celine sunnies in the iconic campaign photograph by Juergen Teller; her huge John Breuner maple desk; her Isa Genzken book (never opened and still in its shrink wrap); her Loro Piana cashmere shawl and her porcelain fish service. Estimated at $400–600 (but likely to skyrocket) are her iconic Celine shades… this would be the chicest xmas gift possible, just sayin, xo
Parting shot
You have just one week left to apply for this enigmatic and totally nuts ‘Head of Uncertainty and Scenarios’ role which has just been listed on the Department for Transport’s job site. Sometimes the art world can feel a little overwhelming and it can make us just want to throw in the towel and leave the industry. We couldn’t think of a better place to start over! We think this would be the perfect role to follow any gallery internship, with required characteristics of the role such as seeing the bigger picture and making decisions at pace. With a required degree in economics (macro and micro, whatever that means) we might have to bend the truth a little to get to the interview stage. Applications close on 7th November, further details of how to apply can be found here.
back next tuesday xoxo