"Muscular full bussomed big bussies"
All submissions are welcome at spittlesubmissions@gmail.com. Published on Tuesday mornings, click here to subscribe! Things are starting to wind down for Christmas now, so we’ll see you again on the 13th!
This Week:
💦 (hopefully clean) bed linen and a Rolls Royce Phantom
💦 the delicate fragility that houses the flesh of fingertips
💦 Muscular full bussomed big bussies
Events:
Heaps going on this week, if you can squeeze the openings and book signings in around the Christmas drinks and carol singing. There’s something for everyone– A performance of Ed Atkins’ book Old Food; Football-themed gallery OOF is back with a new offering; and the more adventurous among you will be pleased to hear that Margate’s QUENCH has a new opening, too!
🧊 30 November | 7:30–9pm | BOUND (publication launch with Sarabande Foundation and Dover Street Market), Dover Street Market, Haymarket [Piccadilly Circus] | RSVP at rsvp@doverstreetmarket.com
🧊 1 December | 6:30–8pm | Somaya Critchlow: Paintings [Book signing], Reference Point, 2 Arundel Street, WC2R 3DA [Temple] | Free
🧊 3 December | Opening 5–8pm | EN-GER-LAND, OOF Gallery, Warmington House, N17 0AG [White Hart Lane] | Exhibition continues through 20 February | Free
🧊 4 December | 12–8pm | Zoë Carlon: Strange Comfort, South Parade, South Parade, 50 Resolution Way, SE8 4AL [Deptford] | Exhibition runs through 22 January | Free
🧊 2 December | 5—8pm | Hard as Nails: Emily Moore, Maddalena Zadra and Miranda Forrester (curated by Michaela Yearwood-Dan) Quench Gallery, Cliftonville Avenue, Margate, CT9 2NU | Exhibition runs through 9 January | Free
🧊 2 December | 6–9pm | Realities [Artistellar Goes Off-Line] (group show including Valerie Savchits, Kristy M Chan, Moya Rojo, Georgia Dymock, Manon Steyaert), 98 Curtain Road, London, EC2A 3AF [Old Street] | Exhibition runs until 5 December
🧊 3 December | 5–8pm | Gay Mens Sexy Undies Part 2, A Max Allen Night’s Dream (collection of new work by Max Allen. Shot by Dexter Lander and Styled by Jayson Hindley), Ridley Road Project Space, 51–63 Ridley Road, E8 2NP [Dalston Kingsland] | Exhibition open by appointment, contact ridleyroadprojectspace@gmail.com for more information
🧊 4 December | 7:30pm | Toby Jones performing Ed Atkins’ ‘Old Food’, Wigmore Hall W1U 2BP [Bond Street] | £15
Exhibitions of the week:
Anicka Yi: In Love with the World, Tate Modern, until 16th January. Information here.
Stepping into the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern something smells off. The smell of damp is subtle enough that it takes a few moments to register, yet cloying enough that it sticks to the inside of your nostrils. Anicka Yi’s Hyundai commission, In Love with the World, sees the hangar-like space filled with machines that blend the robotic and the organic– jellyfish-inspired creatures flying through the space, weaving above and below crowds of visitors. Yi’s work, which invites viewers to reimagine the ways machines interact with the environment, provides both visual spectacle and a compelling ecological point of departure.
ArtReview’s Gary Zhexi Zhang recently interviewed Anicka Yi, providing a deeper look into her practice.
James Davison: The Perfumed Gluttinis of Pervantis, Ridley Road Project Space. Now closed, information here
James Davison, artist and illustrator known for running @sketchsesh, the East London life drawing class which supported communities in lockdown; designing flyers for notorious queer pub The Glory; and collaborating with brands like M.A.C Cosmetics, Sibling, James Long, has installed a riotous and posthuman exhibition at Ridley Road Project Space. In this immersive, worldbuilding exhibition, stretchy fabric — hung like kites — depicts posthuman BDSM figures, blending Davison’s own sexy poetry with sci-fi imagery and meta-verse like social media conversations. “Muscular! Full Bussomed! Big bussies and chests! A thousand accessorized and their hand styled the best!” read one hilarious text message. Spittle was here for it all. Particularly, the radiant ‘JOOP HOMME’ sea-shell shaped soft sculptures, which give Dorothea Tanning a run for money, no less. More, please!
Hot links:
💅"Trendy is the last stage before tacky" - once said the legendary Karl Lagerfeld. Dive into the pioneering – and often controversial – fashion designer’s personal collection of art and design, soon to be auctioned at Sotheby’s. From trophy items such as a Chanel black quilted… trophy, to gorgeous post-minimalist furniture by Wonmin Park and even his (hopefully clean) bed linen and Rolls Royce Phantom – this catalogue tells more stories about fashion than any book we’ve ever read.
🕊 Rest in Peace Virgil Abloh – Spittle was heartbroken to learn of the death of Abloh – a multi-faceted designer who truly believed in the power of art, fashion and youth culture, always at the forefront of pushing the boundaries of any sector he touched. Rachel Tashjian’s obituary was both heartbreaking and – like Abloh’s collaborative, encouraging and inclusive ethos – beautiful. “Fairy tales happen in their own universe with their own logic, too pure for our cynical world. That was Virgil Abloh,” says Tashjian. Too soon.
🦜 “I’ve never worked in my life and I don’t intend to start now” - With the new House of Gucci film in cinemas atm, we look back on this Guardian interview with the Black Widow herself who, upon release from prison, ‘went shopping on Milan’s Bond Street decked out in gaudy jewels and movie-star sunglasses, with a large pet macaw perched on her shoulder’.
💉 “A girlboss tonic infusing fantasy women with pluck as they slink from boardroom to bar stool” - Amanda Hess has produced a critical analysis of Botox for The New Yorker, asking, how has facial muscle paralysis insinuated itself into our emotional and creative lives?
📜 “It’s all about looking reformed and demure, innocent even if proven guilty.” - Celebrity courtroom fashion is given a thorough once over by Daniel Rodgers, who examines how transforming a trial into a PR moment – see Naomi Campbell doing community service in a glimmering Dolce gown – apparently ridicules the seriousness of the justice system.
💽 “House of Cards felt like a slog. Was this home entertainment’s tipping point?” - Is there too much content? Asks media studies professor Anne Helen Peterson. ‘Wading through the streaming menus felt akin to babysitting hundreds of small children, all of them clawing at me, desperate for my attention.’
Add-to-cart:
This Sunday! 5pm! The launch of Lindsey Mendick’s crowdfunder for the 2nd year of @quenchgallery launches with some fab (affordable) creations, including a 9ct gold slip-cast ceramic gherkin brooch, cups with eyes, and a sad fried egg T-shirt ‘inspired by Sarah Lucas and sadness’. Prices vary from £30-250 - set a reminder on your phone and get yourself an early xmas present.
Parting shot:
In light of a reportedly toxic (and racist) working culture at London’s Slade School of Art – recently causing a member of staff to resign – artist and lecturer Peter Davies (also represented by The Approach) has fearlessly called out elitism at the institution.
Love,
London’s beating ‘art <3 <3 <3 <3