20/09/2013

Life

bear eating sandwich hung in the style of vintage educational poster

If you're not running too late you can glimpse the curious new Design Museum taking shape behind the hoardings on route to Kensington Olympia... not that Olympia didn't have enough curios of its own at Top Drawer trade fair earlier this week. It's been predictably good to catch up with old friends (now stockists), Black Bough and some of our oldest friends (also now stockists), Present London.


It wasn't all familiar faces though, we spent a few days in the spirited company of Joy, Anna and Rose of London Pooch and Anna Wright, even getting to meet Polly, one half of pattern-mad design duo, Wrap. While I admit the current copy (No.8) is my first, at least I can check out those back issues while I wait for more!

Young lovers clinch upon the shore

Too preoccupied to scour the charity shops proper, we did find a copy of Charlotte Salomon's (1917—1943) extraordinary document Life? or Theatre? in Oxfam, W8. This untimely 836 page tome dates from the early 1940s and forms a dream-like diary, or early graphic novel, where each gouache panel becomes a fevered or fluid artwork in its own right.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Was lovely to catch up with you both as well. A x

Rob Ryan said...

One of my favourite books.

Lisa Jones Studio said...

Some people would love to reduce it to a holocaust document, but it's way too esoteric for that. Astonishing. As for a favorite, I'm looking forward to reading The Invisible Kingdom this Christmas. It looks like you've been busy... again!