The Rise and Fall of Anti-Culture: ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’
Whether you believe Exit through the Gift Shop to be a genuine documentary or a hoax, the character study of Thierry Guetta, or as he is more commonly known Mr. Brainwash, is an intriguing one. Exit through the Gift Shop, more than just a character study, captures of a collapse of a counter-culture. We witness...
The Wait
Ah, the wait. Something every actor has to deal with. It’s not all waiting – and certainly its not for the phone to ring nowadays. There’s a lot you can do to be proactive, but there is one time when your only choice is to wait, there isn’t a thing you can do about it,...
art bollocks / arts blogs / Contemporary Art / Fine Art / History / Installation art / London / Photography
Say hello to Frieze Masters
Mexican dolls, early 20th century Dutch and Flemish paintings Installation of Don Judd’s works This year Frieze has launched Frieze Masters, a new fair for ‘historical art’, alongside Frieze proper in Regent’s Park. In contrast to Frieze which is pretty much the thermometer of ‘what’s hot and what’s not’ in the realm of contemporary...
Thomas Houseago – Hauser and Wirth, London
As Thomas Houseago takes over both the North and South galleries of Hauser and Wirth London with two exhibitions “I’ll be your sister” and “Special Brew” it offers us a breadth of opportunity to further our understanding of his practice. The North gallery stages “I’ll be your sister” which contains six large pieces of work,...
The Often Overlooked Value of a Second Hand Book…
People who look through the dirt encrusted window of a second hand bookshop and see nothing but a dark, musty cellar of a room, full of aging tombs nobody wants; you are deluded. Those who peep, nervously through the highly polished window of a second hand book shop and see an immaculate and expansive, scholarly scene...
The Art of Seeing
It was only very recently, during this summer in fact, that I saw – for the first time in my life – someone staring at a painting. Now, I like to take my time when observing a painting. In fact, I know a lot of people who do, but this guy…he was different. He wasn’t...
When to stop Paying your Unpaid Dues
Whether its unpaid internships, expenses-only student films or being a volunteer administrator, doing work for no pay is a subject done to death. Equity has a Lo Pay/No Pay working party, the Old Vic is in a sticky situation over its internships, and even the Arts Council Jobs site has an “opportunities” page. I thought...
Novel Ideas #3 – Write What You Know
“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise.” ~ Sylvia Plath Granted, this quote comes from Sylvia Plath, who is well known as an autobiographical writer, but I’ve been thinking about how much of myself I put into my writing....
Novel Ideas #2 – The Value of Writing Workshops
If there is one thing I have learned from my time working for Cyprus Well, it is that there are a lot of wannabe writers out there. The quality of these writers varies greatly, but one thing many of them have in common is their desire to attend writing workshops. And there are just so many...
