Just Kids

Long after the critical chatter, recommendations from friends and a paperback edition, I finally read Patti Smith's biographical account of her complex relationship with Mapplethorpe. Boundless energy and the youthful struggle for creative expression are conveyed so well it's contagious. Effortlessly inspirational, it's funny how mature reflection makes reactionary counter-culture seem so fragile and pretty.

Keyhole

I can't believe my little tattooed nephew turns 21 this week. This year I'll urge him to forget the Key to Life and contemplate the void with my singularly downbeat cut-out card. Next stop 30, kid!

• Raymond Peynet, Persia, 1955 (from L'Amour, Penguin Books, 1964)

Swallow

I love that galleries are drifting back to the West End a decade-or-so after the exodus east. Curious to chart the progress of LA based artist, Ricky Swallow, I passed by the window of Modern Art the other evening where, surprisingly, the show was still open.



Drawing openly on themes from Lucie Rie to Lucio Fontana, these pieces mimic the vernacular of mid-C20 modernism. Here, however, the 'Truth to Materials' mantra is entirely up-ended; what appeared to be makeshift maquettes of corrugated card and paint-sprayed glazes are, on closer inspection, high-spec bronzes.

In a further classicist twist, the works are cast from archer's targets, literally shot-through with arrows. The objects and panels then affect a fragile museological aspect, as though reconstructed from antiquity. With interpretation in tangles, this was one reference too many for me. There's still a little time to decide for yourself though, this handsome show runs until the 19th.

Ricky Swallow
Modern Art
14 Jan - 19 Feb
Tue - Sat, 11:00 - 18:00
23/25 Eastcastle Street
London W1W 8DF

• Make-do Suite, bronze elements, oak table, 2010
• Make-do Suite (detail), bronze, 2010
• Plate 21 (triangle, iron), patinated bronze, 2010

In the Pink

This year we made a 'Valentine Edition' of our Lovebirds print in a deliberately dirty pink. The posy of Ranunculus in the picture put me in mind of Barney Bubbles consciously kitsch artwork for 1979's Do-it-Yourself. So I put it on. Apparently Stiff records released the LP with 30-or-so designs from the Crown Wallpaper Archive. A lurching Dickensian figure barking risqué lyrics over an impeccable Jazz-Funk soundtrack still sounds pretty odd today.


• Colin Fulcher (aka Barney Bubbles, 30/06/42 - 14/11/83) and Crown's X36434

• John Barry (1933-2011). Click on the image to hear Theme from Midnight Cowboy, 1969

255 Today

I've got two prosaic names, with nothing in between. I'll never know if grandiose titles safeguard against underachievement. But, then, how could Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, with a whole sentence of his own, be anything less than prolific?

Pocket

We cat-sat for some friends a while back, now an 'unforeseen series of events' means we may have her indefinitely... whoops!

Malicious Damage

Charged with 'malicious damage', Orton & Halliwell were famously sentenced to six months for borrowing, bastardising and bringing-back a selection of library books. Once evidence but now artefact, these pieces are purile; hilarious and disturbing by turns. Mixing surrealist collage with a healthy literary irreverence, they also seem to pre-empt a subversive humour that later pervades the decade.
 


I planned to include a selection in a group exhibition at Islington Museum in 2005. It turned out not to be such a huge cultural coup, Peter Blake had long since trumped us with About Collage at the Tate Liverpool in 2000. While, more devastatingly, low-level insurance/security saw that we eventually hung only high-res scans.



Luckily there's a far better opportunity to view these minor treasures along side the sculptural responses of artist, Adam Gillam, at east London's Ancient & Modern, 13 Jan - 26 Feb 2011.

Ancient & Modern, 201 Whitecross Street, London EC1Y 8QP
Wed-Sat, 12pm-6pm • +44 (0)20 7253 4550

Milly Freeman

Still in the mood for celebration? I thought not. Exuberantly poised somewhere between Niki de Saint Phalle and H. N. Werkman, it's still well-worth checking-out the work of young illustrator (and assistant extraordinaire), Milly Freeman.

Merry Chrsitmas!

The common image of the Robin as the festive gardener's friend — perched on the handle of a snowy shovel — sometimes rings pretty true; even our local plot has its own red-breasted resident. Last time I saw him he came especially close, blinking his eyes and opening his beak, not to chirp out some message of universal understanding but to chuck-up the best part of a slimy black slug.

Melt Chocolates

I shouldn't really urge you to try anything from west London's award winning Melt, it'll ruin the pleasure of regular chocolate forever. I love the antiqued blue they've achieved on this, our second seasonally themed collaborative mug. And we're in good company too, there's Dinky and Beau, gorgeous chocolate lollipops from the wonderful Celia Birtwell.

Barbara Fürstenhöfer

After featuring a 6" Barbara Fürstenhöfer plate for Poole back in 2009 a good friend found me a festive one, snappily titled 438 Scene VIII. Thanks Kate!

25

I laughed out loud when Edward brought home this old red gillet. When he said it reminded him of Marty McFly's 'life preserver', I laughed even harder. Celebrating its 25th birthday this year, I had no idea Back to the Future began shooting with Eric Stoltz as the lead; it's as though the film has one its own alternative futures already written through it. Our studio takes an age to heat up each morning, so he'll have the last laugh come Monday.

Seasonal Sales

With the advent of December, so comes seasonal sales; we've got a few pencilled in these next few weeks. First up it's...

Great Western Studios
12-6pm, Sat 4th & Sun 5th December
65 Alfred Road, London W2 5EU
followed by...

Our Christmas Pop-up Market
1-9pm, Thurs 9th & Fri 10th December
Railway Arch 897, Holyrood St
London Bridge, London SE1 2EL

which dovetails neatly with Poundshop's contribution to the...

Super Christmas Market
6-9pm, Fri 10 Dec
11am-7pm, Sat 11 & Sun 12 Dec
The Studio, South Wing, Somerset House
The Strand, London WC2R 1LA

I'll be manning the first and second, and visiting the latter. Hope to see you there... somewhere!

Elphick's

It's sort of a shame that Sharon runs Elphick's, one of the best shops in London, otherwise she could focus more on the prints, collages and sketches that first made her name. There's a host of interesting outlets along Columbia Road and now even more occasion to check them out; late-night shopping began this evening and will continue every Wednesday until Christmas... that's 1st, 8th, 15th and 22nd of December, 5 until 9pm.

• Sketch, 2008, Sharon Elphick

Lots of Pots

Venturing westward last weekend we visited the sale preview of ceramics by the gorgeous and gifted, Laura Carlin. The application of her illustrative aesthetic to a beautifully hand-worked collection of objects was seamless. This weekend the ceramics are a little closer to home; Church Street Workshop's Open Studio will feature pieces from the exceptionally talented, Moriaki Yamauchi, and Queen of the Kiln, Lesley McShea.





Open Studio: Sat 27/Sun 28 Nov, 10-6pm and Sat 04/Sun 05 Dec, 10-6pm

Unit 8, Church Street Workshops, Gutteridges Yard
172 S. Newignton Church St., London N16 0JL

• Images: 1x Laura Carlin; 2x Moriaki Yamauchi

There's an allure in the alliterated naming of anti-heroes like Nabakov's Humbert Humbert. This being said; happy birthday Becky Beasley... sorry I couldn't make it after all. You can see more of her ruminative work online or corporally at the touring British Art Show 7

• Trap, 2006, matt gelatin silver print
• As I Lay Dying, 2006, matt gelatin silver print

First and Last

Commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Peanut's creator's death, Radio 4's documentary on Schulz had me scouring the shelves for some remembered illustrations. The first is a school project (kept by a teacher and forwarded years later), the second a late preliminary sketch. Ironically, the weak line of the latter doesn't betray infirmity, Schulz (Sparky to friends and family) liked to keep sketches vague, ensuring spontaneity in the final inking.

• from Peanuts Jubilee (Allen Lane, 1976)

• from McSweeney's Quarterly Concern #13 (Hamish Hamilton, 2004).