“nugget ice”
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This week
💦 Goop For Him
💦 Hot Wheels Athens apparently opening a London space?!?!??!!?!?!?
💦 a patchwork of traditionalism, libertarianism, and environmental hysteria
Events
Basel’s over, the degree shows are open, but things aren’t letting up just yet – the commercial gallerists are back after a brief stint on the continent where they have been drinking champagne, eating asparagus and crying in the Messeplatz toilets! We can’t wait to let our creative juices flow at Tenent of Culture’s workshop at the ICA on Thursday, and you can catch us at Hannah Morgan’s Xxijra Hii opening too (yes we CAN have it all) plus excited for Sue Webster’s show at Project Space on Sat, apparently they’re doing spritzes! <3
🧊 20 June | From 7pm | Book launch: Will Sheridan Jr’s how did you want me to behave, with a sound piece by Euro TV (Nic Cheveldave & Will Sheridan Jr) at 7:45pm, Emalin [Shoreditch]
🧊 22 June | 6–8:30pm | Emmanuel Awuni: I know why the caged bird sings, Copperfield [Borough]
🧊 22 June | Zinzi Minott: Many Mikl Mek Ah Mukl, Queercircle [North Greenwich]
🧊 22 June | 6–9pm | Ella Fleck and Bora Akinciturk: Mirror Stage, Shipton [Cambridge Heath]
🧊 22 June | 6–8pm| Support Structures, inc. Emanuel de Carvalho, Jack O’Brien, Maren Karlson & more, Gathering [Piccadilly Circus]
🧊 22 June | 6:30–9:30pm | Upcycling textile workshop with Tenant of Culture, ICA [Charing Cross]
🧊 22 June | 6–8pm | Hannah Morgan: Animula, 𝘔𝘶𝘥 𝘛𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘍𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘛𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘋𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵, Xxijra Hii [Deptford]
🧊 23 June | 7–9pm | Lucy Evetts: Limelight, The Residence Gallery [Victoria Park]
🧊 23–25 June | Looking Out Looking in (Zine Fair & Events programme), Studio Voltaire [Clapham Common]
🧊 24 June | 5–8pm | Sue Webster: Full Leather Jacket, Project Space/Kane le Bain [Hackney Wick]
Exhibition of the Week
In lieu of an exhibition review this week, we wanted to share some *young artists to watch* from the recent degree shows. Don’t walk, run (!) to organise your studio visits…. At CSM, Mica Li’s gentle sculptures – using materials like concrete, sheep spine, pigeons claws, feathers, metal and jute – were giving pared-back conceptual Michael E. Smith energy. Henry Gibbs – previous assistant to Eddie Peake and current assistant to Michael Ho – showed queer and bitmap abstraction, as well as a bodyprint of his own bumcheeks. Zeus Li’s ambitious, large-scale installation was brilliant, like a posthuman Doris Salcedo/Anselm Kiefer mashup. Estelle Simpson’s neo-surrealist paintings were among the highlights at the Camberwell BA show. Charie Boothright’s abstract painting felt heavyweight and serious. Trixie Hunter‘s pinky-grey cute / slightly disturbing works felt ready for a gallery show. At Slade there were many highlights: among them, Sofia Bordin’s mediaeval sculptures and Ty Locke’s funny fridge work – covered totally in magnets – and a lampshade with tassels so long it looked phallic, of course. Jamie Hammill’s quietly subversive presentation was unbelievably tight and felt very… Contemporary Art Daily, in a good way. With an accompanying video game, Chaney Diao’s installation was giving puppy play night at Berghain. At the RA, highlights included: Daria Blum’s performance and installation – which entranced us with newly-produced music and some random visuals; Max Boyla’s beautiful, inky abstractions; Mary Lucia Stephenson’s white vinyl floor cushions shaped like steps; and Enej Gala’s suspended sprawling vine-like sculpture made from sawdust in the RA workshop… to die for.
Hot Links
🎸 “At first, it resembled a documentary Adam Curtis would have made with access to Tiktok” – Spike reports on the Angelicism film screening, promoted via ‘morose rumours’ that a ‘mass shooting might occur at the theatre’ because ‘the high concentration of artists, It-girls, and cultural contributors presented a prime opportunity to eliminate the entire downtown-NYC microcosm”... turns out the whole thing, + this article, is just a hype strategy… :(:(
🍆 “Julie Ault and Danh Vo are rumoured to own his archive” – ARTnews explores the anarcho-primitivist prophet Ted Kaczynski’s influence on the art world… his prescient manifesto is a must-read, but it’s a line Ted wrote from jail that really sticks in the mind: ‘your wages, your blankets, and your right to suck cocks won’t do you any good, because we’ll all drown’. So true. RIP.
🍽️ “The art world’s currency is belonging” – Phoebe Cripps is The Hater in Vittles, venting about the politics of The Gallery Dinner, musing that the ‘gallery’s choice of restaurant positions it financially, socially and culturally’... will someone make sure Phoebe is invited to the next ‘do’ at St John?
🐚 “Predominantly white people in grey and brown clothes, living in their white homes filled with grey and brown furniture” – Danielle Thom jumps on the quiet luxury bandwagon, defining it as ‘an approach to design that favours the use of high-quality materials and exquisite craftsmanship to produce subtle, muted, elegant things’ for ArtReview, positing that ‘stealth wealth’ has been the aesthetic of the rich since the reformation.
🕯️ “A fedora hat worn by me without the necessary protective irony would eat through my head and kill me” – An interactive deep dive into millennial dad culture from The New York Times. Think: Competence Porn, Dan Carlin's Hardcore History, Bayesian Statistics, Goop For Him, Semi-Escapist Sci-Fi and prestige children’s television.
🧋 Starbucks is shifting to ‘nugget ice.’ Why are Americans so obsessed? – The Wall Street Journal explores the art of ice, via TikTok; The New Yorker; and Starbucks. ‘To know your ice preferences, [whether] soft and chewy, globular and dramatic, classic and cubic,’ they say, ‘Is to know yourself, to know the fastest route of happiness for you.’
💥 “Not a serious exhibition” – Laura Cumming’s scathing review of Tate’s newest exhibition is enough to make us cringe!! Capturing the Moment, which focuses on the dynamic between photography and painting, fails to capture the imagination – by all accounts. Most of the works come from Pierre Chen’s collection, leading Cumming to ask: what does it mean when a multibillionaire’s loans make up much of the show? The Whitechapel’s Action Gesture Paint show shares a similar story, with Christian Levett loaning about 90% of those works… both shows are bad. If this model is here to stay, things don’t bode well for public institutions…
Add-to-cart
We can’t wait to read friend of the ‘sletter Prem Sahib’s new book That Fire Over There. The title references a fire which took place following a turbulent clash between right-wing extremists and anti-racist protestors at the Hambrough Tavern, Southall, near where Sahib grew up. Drawing from local history and personal biography, Sahib uses fire as a device to explore ‘freedom, sexuality, and intergenerational experiences of place and politics.’ Available to pre-order for reduced price of £18, here x
Parting Shot
Forget Kate Moss being tattooed by Lucian Freud. We’re now obsessed with Sam Smith being tattooed by spittle fave, Florian Krewer this weekend. Ugh…… so. jel. xoxo