Review of Bird la Bird’s LGBT History Month Swoosh Around the V&A

24/02/14

Bird la Bird’s Swoosh Around the V&A

Victoria and Albert Museum

22 February 2014

On Saturday, 22 February 2014, the 162-year-old institution, formerly known as the Victoria and Albert Museum, was rechristened the “People’s Queer Knick-knack Emporium”, or, affectionately, “Millionpoundland”. Am I joking? Well, not according to our lovely, lively (and only somewhat unlikely) tour guide, queer femme performer Bird la Bird, who, towards the end of her 90 minute “swoosh” around the museum, was keen to remind her flock of followers: “Everything you’ve heard here is true!”

To read the rest of this review, please go to: http://www.divamag.co.uk/category/arts-entertainment/swoosh.aspx

Artist Profile: Anka Dabrowska

Artist Profile: Anka Dabrowska

Anka Dabrowska’s work is rooted in cities, architecture and urbanism, the Warsaw environment in which she grew up. Working on large-scale projects, she creates surprisingly minute installations from a mixture of cardboard, wood, plastic and concrete, toy town installations which require the visitor to kneel down and peer more closely.  Walls, towers and kiosks – a ubiquitous presence on the streets of her youth – and across them all, words scrawled in graffiti, sprayed on in lurid pinks and greens. 

To read the rest of this profile, please see the March 2014 issue of DIVA

Book Review of Caroline Halliday: Bare feet keep you safe

24/02/14

Caroline Halliday: Bare feet keep you safe

An author who declares: ‘language hinders me’, this book of painted memories meanders poetically creating a dreamscape which becomes the reader's own. A feminist, a lesbian, a mother, a wife. Reading Halliday's stream of consciousness is like gazing at a painting and creating your own interpretation.

Memoir

Caroline Halliday

Bare feet keep you safe

Amazon, £5.29

Also published in the March issue of DIVA magazine

Book Review of Hysteria: A Collection of Feminisms (Square Knot Publishing)

Published in F22 Issue 13 February/March 2014

Interview with Martin Creed

18/02/14

Martin Creed: What's the point of it?


Hayward Gallery

29 January – 27 April 2014


Martin Creed (b. 1968) became the marmite subject of much art world discussion when he won the Turner Prize in 2001 with his “minimalist” work, The Lights Going On and Off (2000), which, pretty much, does as it says on the tin. He came back very much into the eyes – or ears – of the public with his opening gambit for the London 2012 Olympics, All the Bells in a Country Rung as Quickly and Loudly as Possible for Three Minutes. As we settle ourselves in the Royal Festival Hall Members’ Bar, enjoying the stunning views out along the Thames, Creed begins rummaging in his bag, hurriedly scribbling some notes to himself, and then, in his mellifluous Scottish accent, mutters some apologies for his wet wipe addiction which is, he points out, less damaging – and cheaper – than smoking, although it still leaves him with similarly dry skin. After the difficult decision (Creed notoriously struggles with making choices, as he later explains) between a cup of tea or coffee, we are ready to chat, taking as a starting point his current survey show, What’s the point of it?, at the Hayward Gallery.

To read the interview, please go to: http://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/martin-creed-interview-hayward-gallery-london 

Interview: Anne Pigalle

18/02/14

Eurostate: Derry~Londonderry City of Culture 2013

18 February 2014

Review of The Best of Terry O’Neill at the Little Black Gallery

06/02/14

The Best of Terry O’Neill

The Little Black Gallery

14 January – 1 March 2014

Like many of the best photographers, Terry O’Neill (born 1938) was not trained in his profession, starting out, in fact, as an air steward; unlike many others, however, he has never even owned a camera, preferring instead to rent, as and when necessity arises. Although some of his shots of film stars and celebrities are undeniably worthy of their iconic status, capturing moments that many wait a lifetime to shoot, his success is, according to those who’ve worked with him, largely also thanks to his personality, which lacks ego of any sort. Such an easy-going nature is perhaps the number one criterion for working with those who have ego enough for two or even three!

To read the rest of this review, please go to: http://www.photomonitor.co.uk/2014/02/the-best-of-terry-oneill-2/

Review of Winter Pride UK Art Awards at CHART Gallery

05/02/14

Winter Pride UK Art Awards

CHART Gallery

62 Old Church Street

SW3 6DP

3-5 February 2014

and

Tobacco Dock

Wapping Lane

E1W 2SF

8 February 2014

Winter Pride UK: The Next Level

2 Clove Crescent

East India Dock

E14 2BE

13 February - 13 March 2014

This Saturday (8 February) sees the first ever Winter Pride UK, a night of awards, celebrations and an enormous DJed party, held in East London’s Tobacco Dock. Conceived by Rebecca Paisis and Nicola Chubb, AKA L-Wired, whose joint CV includes such hits as London Pride’s 2013 Big Gay Bash, MINT, Code and One Love, the event is bound to be a resounding success. Sponsors Smirnoff wanted there to be a broader cultural aspect to the event, however, and thus the idea of an Art Award was born. A call was put out, in the form of a poem, in art colleges, art publications, gay publications, the lot, and word clearly got around. Of the 137 artists who responded to the call, 21 finalists have been selected by the panel of judges, and their works are being shown firstly in the pre-awards exhibition, from 3-5 February, at CHART Gallery in Chelsea, and then upstairs at Tobacco Dock on the night itself.

To read the rest of this review, please go to: http://www.divamag.co.uk/category/arts-entertainment/don't-miss-winter-pride-art-awards.aspx