25/09/2009

Showtime

A couple of old pals have exhibitions this month; Neil Tait has an overview of a year’s painting at the White Cube while, a few streets further east, Steven Claydon’s pieces completely disorientate a themed show at The Drawing Room.


More selfishly, I get to scoff waffles and take delivery of my new Acne trousers (so much cheaper in Scandinavia) as warm-hearted wunderkind, Daniel Rybakken, brings his deceptively icy brand of modernism to Norwegian Prototypes as part of London Design Festival.

daniel rybakken aluminium mirror

20/09/2009

Harvest

barbara fürstenhöfer poole 6 inch summer plate
There had to be a good reason for being at Preston Flea Market one freezing afternoon last year and perhaps this little Poole plate was it. Titled Summer II, its harvest theme is right on the cusp of autumn. The effect of the scene is a contrast I enjoy in real life too, when everything’s struck bright with sunlight against the gloom.

• Summer II, 6” plate by Barbara Fürstenhöfer for Poole, 1980

14/09/2009

New Site

screen shot

I realise Paul Riley hasn’t devised a way of getting fresh water to remote African villages, but he’s still a hero. From a few scrappy files, hundreds of images and garbled suggestions riddled with bad terminology, he fashioned our wonderful new website.

That’s not to say there wasn’t a little grumbling about the workload vs. the miniscule timeframe and budget. Look at it this way Paul, at least I kept you from skulking off to the skate park every five minutes; broken bones heal slowly at our age!

screen shot

09/09/2009

Ambit

If I had more lives to live I’d begin another blog, an inventory of scraps found marking the pages in used books. So far I have tickets (old, new, foreign and familiar); photographs; curious confectionery wrappers; shopping lists and two full letters!

peter blake a4 1985 ambit invite

This A4 invite to Ambit’s 1985 Art Show was a good find. From the pages of a Louis MacNeice poetry collection, it’s not so much a colour copy as an ancient Xerox with coloured toner.




Aside from citations in arts articles, my knowledge of Ambit’s output is fairly limited; the current show upstairs at east London’s Raven Row has helped fill the gaps. As ever, and much to my chagrin, Paolozzi’s work from The Jet Age Compendium makes screen printing seem a vehicle of boundless possibilities.