Saturday, May 16, 2009



Amazing Garageland Offer

If you haven't read Garageland magazine before we are doing a great offer at the moment. The first 4 issues (Machismo, Baroque, Nature and Painting & Translating) are now selling in a pack for only £6!!! (normally they are £3.95 each). You can buy them at Transition Gallery or online here


Thursday, May 14, 2009


Fabiola

I saw Francis Alys' Fabiola way back in 1990 something at the Whitechapel and it made a real impression on me (it inspired my Mary Mary Mary Mary project). Fabiola has been added to quite considerably since then and is now on show at The National Portrait Gallery. Fabiola is the saint of abused women and nurses (I think). The one known portrait of her, painted in the late nineteenth century (and now lost), has been copied and re copied. Alys has collected a huge number of these copies from junk shops and flea markets around the world and it is these that make up Fabiola. The portraits vary considerably in style, competence and medium but they have the commonality of their subject to bind them together. The majority of them have Fabiola in profile her head covered by red fabric. This sea of red looks amazing against the turquoisey green of the walls in the rooms that the portraits are installed in. I love the aesthetics of the piece and there is something quite moving about it - all that time and effort by all those people. There are many other points that the work brings up but the outstanding issue is that people have felt that they need to create their own versions of this saint - they could easily have bought copies.


Tuesday, May 12, 2009


Tess

Finally managed to get to see the Flash Company show at Cecil Sharp House in Camden. It was curated by Matthew Cowan who asked lots of artists to create some art with / on a hankie. Cecil Sharp House is the HQ of the English Folk Dance and Song Society and has always had a mysterious fascination for me. So it was suitably surreal when I visited to find the foyer (where the exhibition is being held) packed full of nervously chattering students waiting to enter an exam. The work (viewed above the heads of the chattering students) was really interesting and varied - nice to see so many boys embroidering! My work 'Tess' was inspired by the many adaptations of Tess of the D'Urbervilles .