“illegal business controls America”
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This Week
💦 off-kilter verve
💦 knobs and nuts at Rose Easton
💦 Issy Wood house reveal?
Events
A fairly quiet week (!) post- Venice and Berlin Gallery Weekend, and pre- Frieze NY / bank hol, but some gems to absolutely not miss like Adam Rouhana at No.9 Cork Street on Thursday, and the programming around Coumba Samba’s Cell Project Space show on Saturday x
🧊 30 Apr | 6-9pm | The Middle Voice: Caroline Achaintre, Anna Higgins, Niamh O’Malley, Aimée Parrott, Stephen Polatch, Shtager&Shch [Oxford Circus]
🧊 30 Apr | from 7pm | Deleted Scenes: A Night of Readings in Soho. Theme: Celebrity with Philippa Snow, Emma Garland, Christina Newland and Oliver Zarandi, Trisha’s [Soho]
🧊 1 May | 6-8pm | James Fuller: The Cart Before The Horse, South Parade [Farringdon]
🧊 2 May | 6-8pm | Bex Massey: My Deuce, My Double, Seventeen [Haggerston]
🧊 2 May | 6-8pm | Adam Rouhana: Before Freedom, curated by Amah-Rose Abrams, No.9 Cork St [Oxford Circus]
🧊 2 May | 5-8pm | Jan Wade: Coloured Entrance, Richard Saltoun [Green Park]
🧊 4 May | 2-6pm | Talks & panel discussion for Coumba Samba’s exhibition Capital, Cell Project Space [Cambridge Heath]
🧊 5 May | 4-6pm | Finissage event for Aria Dean’s solo, with screening and panel discussion with Dean, Evan Zierk & Filip Kostic, ICA [St James's]
Exhibition of the Week
Vampire–Junkie, curated by Blue Marcus at Rose Easton, info here – now closed.
Festooned with crystal trimmings, a music stand draws us into the centre of Rose Easton’s bright gallery space. Door knobs, tens of them, are screwed into the metal surface of the stand. Sprouting across the feet and front, the knobs skewer sheet music into place over a bed of exposed nuts and bolts, from which the dangling chandelier prisms threaten to topple the whole thing over. This work by Scott Keightley is giving wind chimes x crystal ball, but delivered with intense corporate formality and a touch of sadomasochism.
The breakout show by curator Blue Marcus, Vampire–Junkie soon has us in its speculative universe – defined by what Lydia Eliza Trail calls Accelerationist Aesthetics, in this very good piece for émergent. Across from Keightley’s masterpiece is Callum Jones’ ghostly painting of a silent crowd, kind of giving the strangled anguish of Mazzoni’s Massacre of the Innocents. Staring us out from one wall, the expression and individuality drained from each face, these mute spectators are in direct conversation with Samuel Guerrero’s nocturnal stadium scene, glinting from across the gallery. Enigmatic and heavy with chiaroscuro, the scene makes us feel like we are on the road at night, or peering into the depths of an engine. Leaning against another wall is a large sheet of perspex, punctuated by wind instrument mouth pieces and lock mechanisms. In the universe of this exhibition, technology is allowed/left to run its course, mutating into unrecognisable shapes and creating a reality without recognisable logic or purpose. Poised for a racket, the silence of the works is a little bit sinister. A Mark Fisher-esque imagining of the end of the symphony (the world as we know it), except – as we are reminded by a breeze that almost imperceptibly sways the hanging crystals on one of Keightley’s works – in this scenario the potential for music remains.
Hot Links
🪨“our boy RJ helped us find the exact spot” – We love it when an educational tidbit crops up on the feed, and the design suite’s reels are always a welcome addition to any late night doom scroll. Visiting London’s best-designed estates, they give a lil history and evaluate the design… gorge.
🍸“the only famous person she’s never seen at the Chateau is Nicole Kidman” – Naomi Fry visits the iconic Chateau Marmont to see if the rumours are true, is the famed institution back as a cultural destination?! Not until spittle gets the diary commission its not.
🍼“Learning through osmosis what it was like to be a boss” – Kris Jenner gets interviewed by a 10 year old and it’s as cringe and as full of product plugs as you would expect. Kris’ superpower? Learning how to delegate, of course! If you’re missing a girlboss fix then tune in.
🦀 “bodies shuffled around, occasionally colliding, much like the cave fish” – If you were in Venice and left stunned and perhaps a little confused by Pierre Huyghe’s blockbuster show Liminal – or even if you didn’t go and are sick of everyone’s vague references to how ‘iconic’ it was without giving you a straight answer on the content… this review by Sean Burns really irons it right out. Enjoy!
🕷️“Shelley Duvall pulled over and lit another cigarette” - An interview with Shelley - described as a reclusive ‘female Buster Keaton’ in The New York Times. ‘This was the woman who once dated Paul Simon and Ringo Starr. Her sharp fashion sense — miniskirts, winklepickers, spidery eyelashes — earned her the nickname “Texas Twiggy.”’ Love x
☕“Illegal business controls America” - separately, the NYT also profiles Tremaine Emory, fresh from quitting as Supreme’s creative director after a fall-out over a cancelled Arthur Jafa project, citing structural racism. Emory has now released something *very similar* under his own brand… ☕
Add-to-Cart
Queen Viv’s personal collection of clothing is to hit the block at Christie’s this June to raise funds for Greenpeace, Amnesty International, and the Vivienne Foundation. The full catalogue isn’t live yet, but we can’t wait to rifle through suchhh iconic lewks ugh
Parting Shot
spittle-fave interior designer Jermaine Gallacher’s latest ‘off kilter verve’ creation is up on Architectural Digest. While the owner of this Clerkenwell townhouse is not named, eagle eyed followers of Gallacher might remember his mention of an eerily-similar sounding project in this interview. Could this Philip Guston-laden, stainless-steel kitchened, medievalcore masterpiece be casa Issy Wood? Readers, write in if you know the answer xxx