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This Week
💦 fwip fwip fwip kaaahhkkk muuhhhrrr
💦 Vacant Himbo or Emerging Artist?
💦 A demonic ghoul screaming into a spotlit tunnel
Events
We’re looking forward to friend of the ‘sletter curator Diego Chocano’s panel talk on de/anticolonial perspectives in art practices from Latin America; Bora Akinciturk’s mysterious exhibition opening at 9pm in a Moorgate toilet; and Ridley Road’s swansong exhibition MELTDOWN.
23 Feb | 9pm–12am | Bora Akinciturk: The Tourists (fwip fwip fwip kaaahhkkk muuhhhrrr), Scatalogicritesofallnations [Moorgate]
23 Feb | 7pm | Panel Discussion: Decolonial Perspectives on Exhibition-Making, Heritage and Material Cultures, Gasworks [Oval]
25 Feb | 6–10pm | MELTDOWN (group show), Ridley Road Project Space [Dalston Kingsland]
25 Feb | 11–7pm | V.O Studios artists (open studios), VO Curations [Angel]
26 Feb | 5–8pm | Gal Schindler: Razor Blade, Ginny on Frederick [Barbican]
26 Feb | 3–7pm | SEX (group show with Isabella Benshimol Toro, Eva Gold and Amanda Mostrom), Moarain House [Bethnal Green]
Exhibitions
RIP Germain: Four Bedrooms With An En Suite, A Garage & Garden In A Nice Neighbourhood, VO Curations, until 24 March
RIP Germain is one to watch. spittle has been tracking his work which ‘traffics in double meanings, deep resonances and a tension between accessibility and occlusion’ since his impeccable show at Cubitt Gallery two years ago. His current show with VO Curations – comprised of fragmented sculptures and installations in their ex-office Mayfair abode – explores black subjectivity through the connection of consumer items with coded and loaded associations, think: Alize Gold Passion Liqueur; Ghillie Suits; Blue Bomber cake soap; and a L2A3 Sterling MK4 submachine gun. The beauty of his orchestrated works lies not only in that they can be read on social and political levels; their impeccable formation and curation is an aesthetic and conceptual joy that is way harder to produce than it looks. Germain is London’s answer to canonised revolutionaries such as Cady Noland, David Hammons and Mike Kelley, in spittle’s opinion, and – you heard it here first – a Turner prize nomination will come within five years. Go see!
Hot links
☠️‘Pop culture was not putting out bangers during the pandemic’ - Phrase of the week, vibe shift, occurs when ‘things change, and a once-dominant social wavelength starts to feel dated,’ says Allison P. Davis in The Cut. Artist/trend-forecaster Sean Monahan has predicted we are on the cusp of a seismic vibe shift. Surely the resurgence of early-aughts indie sleaze isn’t really going to be more than a Buzzfeed quiz?
👜‘five birthday Birkins lined up on a table in a neat, gauche little row’ - gorgeous, mysterious actress of the moment, Julia Fox, has been profiled in The Cut with some INSANELY good images by Juergen Teller. And lines like this are just golden: ‘A metal heel snaps off one of Shazam’s gorgeous Balenciaga boots. The shiny new life can start to show cracks when you get too close.’ Who knew Fox also made paintings using syringe-extracted blood back in 2017?
🙆♂️ Robert Pattinson Is The New Nicolas Cage - spittle keeps misreading the title of this as ‘Vacant Himbo or Emerging Artist?’, which isn’t too far off the original heading for this character-assasination of the Twilight-actor-turned-arthouse-it-boy. Emma Garland’s hilarious piece manages to simultaneously laud R-Patz’ ‘genius’ while totally undermining his integrity.
💊 The Slow Red Pill - Truly the artist for our times Josh Citarella has uploaded a video detailing how a bunch of far-right kids who run meme accounts are strategically and gradually radicalising hundreds of thousands of centrists and liberals. All explained in a hot 5 citarella-pilled minutes.
🤫A bland aesthetic and low-risk high-gain activism - Mainstream media is finally cottoning onto something Dasha and Anna have been vocal-frying on about for ages; that, for influencers, social justice is no more than a branding device. Courtesy of Rachel Connolly for The Guardian.
Add-to-cart
It’s one of those LFW times of year again and the 2022 Central St Martins MA cohort presented some nuts collections (view via Vogue runway). One of our faves was the new ready-to-wear collection from @lizakeane_ - available in real or virtual stores soon we hope!!
Parting shot
Mountains! Flowers! Love-hearts! A demonic ghoul screaming into a spotlit tunnel: anguish, rage, isolation! Dogs! Snow! Spot the odd one out? We did too in Kim Kardashian’s video for Vogue presenting daughter North’s suite of recent paintings. Among the Bob-Ross-esque landscapes was one nightmarish graphite work that screamed authenticity; a work totally out of place amidst Vogue’s sickly sweet pandemic content.
Love,
London’s beating ‘art <3 <3 <3 <3