Dreams do come true…Margot Robbie shares the screen with Jacob Elordi for this fire campaign film, “SEE YOU AT 5” for CHANEL No. 5. The pair succeed Marion Cotillard, and it’s the first campaign film we’ve seen from the house for five years. Shot in California by legendary director Luco Guadagnino, of Challengers fame, Robbie and Elordi rendez-vous and it’s all a bit overwhelming… watch here or forever hold your peace.

Tags: Chanel, Chanel beauty, Chanel No.5, Jacob Elordi, Margot Robbie

This year feels like an extra huge bumper Frieze Week. Every single gallery,
institution and numerous project spaces are opening shows to coincide. Aside from the obvious visit to Frieze, Frieze Masters and the freebie option Frieze Sculpture Park in Regents Park, here are eight things to check out courtesy of our arts editor Francesca Gavin:

Frieze Film X ICA
The ICA have teamed up with Frieze for a second year of artist film screenings projected in a continuous loop. There are some incredible people in their year but keep a special eye open for Sung Tieu, Onyeka Igwe and Jacolby Satterwhite. And if you cant make it the films are also free to view on line for the duration. (The Guemhyung Jeong performances at the ICA on October 8 and 9 will also be unmissable.)
Oct 8 – 13, ica.art

Seb Patane at Maureen Paley
This is the most welcome return pairing of the year. Seb Patane made his name on Maureen Paley’s roster with incredible drawing work, sound performances and graphic installations that touched on photographic history, the memory of war and the echoes of time. ‘In the Sharp Gust of Love’ is Patane’s return to the gallery in Paley’s Studio M offshoot. If you’re East, go see.
Until Nov 9 Seb Patane at Maureen Paley, Studio M, Rochelle School
maureenpaley.com

Magdalene Odundo at Thomas Dane
This is cult favourite Odundo’s first London exhibition in over two decades. Inspired by diasporic ceramic and vessel sculpting techniques, her pieces are unforgettable (and have fans including Jonathan Anderson and Nadege Vanhee). The pieces on show here are described as fusing British studio pottery, ancient ceramics, ceremonial vessels from Kenya and Nigeria, and modernist sculpture.  
PV October 8 6-8pm
Exhibition runs until Dec 14

Mire Lee at Tate Modern
In case you thought a Mike Kelley retrospective wasn’t enough, the Turbine Hall is being given a dose of Berlin-style cool from Mire Lee. The young artist who is showing in the UK for the first time is known from abject and absorbing sculptures that drip, twitch and shudder. (Schinkel Pavilion paired her with great success with HR Giger). Imagining her neo-gothic liquid techno oddness supersized is VERY exciting.
Oct 9-Mar 16
Tate Modern, tate.org.uk

1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair
Somerset House’s regular is always a thankful respite from the market machine of Frieze itself. This is a the fair where you will discover artists – Lina Iris Viktor and Anya Paintsil for example both had their breakthroughs here. Looking at artists in the broadest sense from the African diaspora, keep a special on their special projects from people like Nigeria Art Society UK.
11-13 October, Somerset House, Strand, WC2
1-54.com

Yayoi Kusama at Victoria Miro
You can’t help but love a bit of Kusama. If the lines for Tate have been to painful, quickly book to go see her latest works at Victoria Miro. There is a new Infinity Mirror Room with a tech edge that looks delicious as well as a series of intimate new paintings entitled Every Day I Pray for Love. Sounds like a good thought for today.
Until Nov 2, Victoria Miro, 16 Wharf Road, London N1

Bloomsbury and Farringdon
The explosion of emerging and fresh galleries in the Bloomsbury and Farringdon area is so good they even printed their own postcard sized map. If you want a taste of emerging London now, go to Hot Wheels Athens, Union Pacific, Brunette Coleman, A Squire, Phillida Reid, South Parade, and book a place to view the solo show by British painter Lewis Hammond at the incredible The Perimeter and finish at the hottest space in town, Ginny on Frederick.
theperimeter.co.uk

Minor Attractions
The is the second year for the parallel fair Minor Attractions founded by the burst of energy that is Jonny Tanna (Harlesden High Street) and Jacob Barnes. Focusing on non-profits and emerging galleries, this year it takes place in Fitzrovia’s Mandrake Hotel and is a place to see some killer spaces like Tblisi’s Artbeat and Salford’s Division of Labour (plus some late night programming for those looking for something after.)
Oct 8-13

Special mentions (because its insane not to highlight some of the amazing shows out there!): Lauren Halsey, and Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst, at the Serpentine, Haegue Yang at Hayward and the Chronoplasticity show curated by Lars Bang Larssen at Raven Row, Nicola L and Jack O’Brien at Camden Arts Centre, Olivia Erlanger at Soft Opening, and Stanislava Kovalcikova at Emalin.

Text by Francesca Gavin

Tags: exhibitions, exhibitions in London, Frieze, Frieze London, Frieze Week

Daria Blum’s art star has been rising since her graduation from RA schools in 2023. In this solo show brilliantly titled Drip Drip Point Warp Spin Buckle Rot at Claridge’s Art Space, she develops her well-honed performance practice into a slick installation well worth a visit.

Blum won the inaugural £30,000 Claridges RA Schools prize selected by judges Yinka Shonibare CBE, RA and Eva Rothschild RA. The prestigious award was presented by performance artist Marina Abramović and introduced by actor, author and co-host of Talk Art Russell Tovey at Claridge’s last September.

This impressive site-specific installation in the subterranean Mayfair space evolves the artist’s research into the relationship between physical space and muscle memory, choreography and embodiment, and notions of institutional power in relation to dance and architecture, influenced by her own background as a ballet dancer.

A central three-channel video work follows Blum’s fictional character as she moves through rooms and corridors of a deserted 1970’s office building and discovers a collection of documentation and ephemera including portraits of her late grandmother Ukrainian ballerina/choreographer Daria Nyzankiwska, archival recordings of dance rehearsals and footage of a 2022 performance by Blum herself. Through a series of live performances, the artist further inhabits a live character who “disrupts and criticises, pointing fingers at the bodies on-screen and the voices offstage”.

Blum’s multi-layered, constellatory work blends pop and classical in referencing both the online circulation of popular dance trends and influential theorists such as Arabella Stanger and Beatriz Colomina whose sociopolitical assessments track gender, violence, and power across bodies, dance and architecture.

The artist discusses classical dance as an ‘archaeological site’, and questions what it means to re-perform choreographies that contain a range of misogynistic and colonial tropes, including how French ideals inspired Imperial Russia and in mapping her family tree tracks how choreography “travelled via bodies across state lines”. One to watch, this will no doubt be the first of many solo presentations by this thoughtful and captivating artist.

Claridge’s ArtSpace Café
Brook’s Mews London,
W1K 4DY

Monday – Friday: 8am – 6pm
Saturday & Sunday: 10am – 5pm
Admission to the exhibition is free.

Tags: claridges, claridges artspace, Daria Blum, exhibition, London Exhibition

Right In The Eye, is the new book from acclaimed photographer Boo George that spans his fifteen year career and includes figures like Emma Watson, Helen Mirren, Eddie Redmayne, and Kim Kardashian. He has risen to prominence working with top publications and brands including Moncler, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, Range Rover, Ralph Lauren, Emporio Armani, and Louis Vuitton.

This book dives into Boo’s journey, which leads from rural Ireland to an international, star-studded career, framed through anecdotes and BTS insights into his world.

After his father gifted him his first camera, Boo would go to Wicklow Mountain in Northern Ireland to take pictures of individuals that fascinated him and document a community that lived on the outskirts of the outskirts.

The juxtaposition of subjects has become his signature, as he explains, “wherever I go around the world I am a spectator, I never claim to be the same as the people I am shooting. I’m inquisitive as to who these people are and what their story is. In my photographs, their story is written on their faces.”

Boo grew up by the sea and spent countless hours aboard boats and trawlers, documenting fishermen and divers which became some of his favourite images. As such, the proceeds of the profits are donated to Bantry Inshore Search and Rescue Association (BISRA) who protect the waters near his home in Ireland.

Tags: Boo George, book, Book launch, Photgraphy

Last weekend Twin’s very own Francesca Gavin helmed the new look Viennacontemporary art fair. The biggest edition in recent years featuring 98 galleries and 6 institutions from 24 countries, Gavin is putting this art fair firmly on the Autumn pre-Frieze map and as she describes, “the aim was to create a fair with it’s own identity that showcases some of the incredible emerging talent coming out of Central and Eastern Europe … I wanted to curate a pan-European fair that had a sense of curatorial excitement”.

43 Austrian galleries, 33 Eastern European galleries and 22 galleries from the rest of the world showcased a wide range of works, with a focus on emerging artists.

The CONTEXT section presented 20th century masterpieces by artists who continue to influence Austria today, and ZONE1 curated by Bruno Mokross presented artists living or working in Vienna.

Sustainability and Energy were a key focus of the fair, explored in the curated section VCT STATEMENT: The Color of Energy, curated by Mirela Baciak and two VCT STATEMENT Talks at the intersection of art and energy production and the fair’s Talks program features the coming together of leading artists, designers, gallerists, industry leaders, patrons, and market specialists, sharing insights into the latest trends of the art world alongside a new Open Call prize, ‘Art for Stronger Democracies’, which honored artists whose work confronts the challenges and opportunities facing democratic societies. 

Tags: Vienna Contemporary

Twenty years ago, artist Sam Winston discovered a room of unused words in the Oxford University Press (home of the Oxford English Dictionary). Penny Silva, Dictionary director at the time, gave Sam a tour, “she was showing me around when she took me into a small room full of index cards and declared… ‘this is the room where all the words that aren’t in The Dictionary are kept’.” Since that first spark of interest in 2004, Winston has gone on to create exhibitions and artworks inspired by this unseen words room and the creative potential of the dictionary.

This unique linguistic inspiration now forms the spine of a lyrical picture book created in collaboration with New York Times best-selling author-illustrator Oliver Jeffers. A call to kids and adults alike to create, to question, to explore, and to imagine, their magical project is intended to prompt young readers to ignite their love of language and discover where their words come from, and how we all have a story to tell.

In 2007 words like almond, blackberry and crocus in the Oxford Junior Dictionary made way for block graph and celebrity. In 2012 the edition maintained those changes, and further removed catkin, cauliflower, chestnut and clover, and now instead features cut and paste, broadband and analogue. The authors noted a pattern in which the natural world and external play-based childhood inferences are being replaced with internal, digital and sedentary past-times.

Winstone reflects, “It’s a book that I wish I had as a kid. When I was young I didn’t understand words, my imagination was crazy and reading seemed like torture. This book is for that person. I hope it inspires a reluctant reader to pick up a book and smile. Because when someone realises how powerful the spell of words can be, a new world of opportunities opens up for them.”

Definitions

ghost /ɡəʊst/ Believed to be the spirit of someone who is no longer in this world. Ghosts can appear as shadows, strange shapes or just silly people with bedsheets over their heads. They sometimes scare people, which means it is hard for them to make friends. Fortunately, puddles don’t get scared; puddles make friends with everyone.

puddle /ˈpʌd.əl/ A small pool of water. Puddles are often made by rain and they love to look at the sky. They will make friends with anyone who takes the time to say hi to them. Puddles are the friendliest things in the universe.

apple /ˈæp.əl / A hard round fruit with green, red or yellow skin. Some apples can send princesses to sleep or give people all knowledge. Other apples fall to the ground to help explain complicated laws. (See gravity.) If we leave apples alone, they turn themselves into trees. (See amazing.)

artist /ˈɑː.tɪst/ A person who spends a lot of time with new ideas – drawing, writing or acting them out. Some of these ideas turn out to be funny, some sad and some beautiful. Lots of colour and a few surprises are often involved. (See art.)

dream /driːm/ A word for things people see while asleep. Dreams are the brain’s way of showing you that you’re a lot more imaginative than you think. In the day, we fill our heads with sensible things, but dreams prefer to create strange things, for instance, glow-in-the-dark marmalade and inflatable chicken’s teeth. We’ve been studying dreams for hundreds of years and we still don’t really know what they are. That said, Martin Luther King Jr had a really great one.

heart /hɑːt/The organ that pumps blood around an animal’s body. It’s also the part of the body that helps people recover from trying to think too much. (See headache.) Hearts help heads make good decisions. When things are going well, the heart feels full; not so well, it aches.

Book tour dates
Saturday 17th August: London, Sunday 18th August: Edinburgh International Book Festival, Monday 19th August: Glasgow,
Tuesday 20th August: Manchester, UK

Tags: Books, children, for kids, Oliver Jeffers, publication, Sam Winston

As well as the annual summer party, the stunning Nan Goldin fim staged in the former church above Below Stone Nest, the pavilion opening and Serpentine Ecologies, this gallery has been in our diaries more than most this Summer.

The major exhibition is by trailblazer Judy Chicago, and surprisingly presents the first major interdisciplinary, immersive institutional exhibition in London of her work. As well as drawing, new and lesser-known works are on display alongside preparatory studies, and the expected audio-visual works.

Revelations, a moniker taken from an unknown illuminated manuscript by Chicago, was created in the early 1970s and now published for the first time with Thames & Hudson. The manuscript details the stories of women that have been persistently subjugated in the socio-political imaginary, in a radical retelling of human history.

With never-before-seen sketchbooks, films and slides, video interviews of participants from her iconic work The Dinner Party (1974–79), audio recordings, and a guided tour of The Dinner Party by Chicago herself, this exhibition is not to miss.

REVELATIONS is on view at Serpentine North from 23rd May to 1st September 2024

Tags: exhibitions, exhibitions in London, Judy Chicago, Serpentine Galleries, Serpentine Gallery

ME Ibiza Celebrates 10 Years of Style, Sustainability and Spirituality 

As the white Isle continues to be a summer destination for luxury and party crowds alike, this year marks the tenth anniversary of ME Ibiza, the iconic five-star design hotel nestled in the heart of the legendary Balearics on the shores at Santa Eulalia.

Over the last decade, ME Ibiza has become a must-visit destination for artists and connoisseurs that find themselves drawn to the magic and energy of Ibiza, seeking a conscious community for artists and creatives. Offering more than the expected luxury F&B offering, ME has earned its status by creating a space for a conscious community of artists and experience-seekers. From hosting intimate Tanit Gatherings with local artists, to sponsoring the island’s film festival to showcase up-and-coming creatives, ME Ibiza is committed to fostering reflection and dialogue and contributing to the creative spirit of the island.

Gabriel Escarrer Jaume, the man behind ME by Meliá, has been attached to the spot since childhood, and watched the island’s legend grow along with the tree under which his dreams first took root. This magnificent coastal tree remains a landmark of the architecture, and a timepiece encapsulating generations of guest memories past, present and future.

To celebrate a successful decade in the sun, ME presents the programme Ancient Future, including the blessing of the ME tree by a local spiritual elder and a curated cultural programme showcasing local painters, photographers, and artisans, alongside holistic wellness experiences. ME Ibiza has been offering avant-garde design and high-end holistic wellbeing for the past decade, thereby maintaining its status as a member of The Leading Hotels of the World.

Rates at ME Ibiza start from £570 per night on a B&B basis. Exclusively for 2024. To book and for further information, visit: https://www.melia.com/en/hotels/spain/ibiza/me-ibiza

Tags: cultural hotels, Ibiza, ME Ibiza

A unique installation by artist & designer Brett Westfall, longtime collaborator of Comme des Garçons & member of the Dover Street Market Paris umbrella, lands at Sorry Thanks I Love You (STILY) in Sydney this July over four weeks.

So-Cal born Westfall is a multi-disciplinary artist working across painting, sculpture, assemblage, installation, fashion, video, film, music and photography. His brand WESTFALL began with the idea of extending his ideas into clothing design that would read like poetry.

For this installation, canvas paintings and wooden pallets feature as walls, interlocking bicycles make up the roof and each hand-painted artwork incorporates Westfall’s signature motifs, hand-crafted and distressed style. “FRESH”, strawberries, and Westfall’s daughter’s version of “Snoppy” add a personal touch to the mix of eclectic found objects. STILY’s adjacent cafe is also in on it, serving a Westfall-inspired menu including custom-made treats from Tokyo Lamington and Gelato Messina in exclusive flavours.

The launch coincides with Westfall’s inaugural art showcase in Australia and to complement Westfall’s FW24 collection and mark the project, STILY and Westfall have co-designed a custom t-shirt, available exclusively in- store at STILY.

Sorry Thanks I Love You has an ongoing partnership with Dover Street Market Paris Brand Development and in addition to Westfall, STILY also offers DSMP BD labels Sky High Farm, Honey Fucking Dijon, and the recently introduced New York-based, Vaquera at their Westfield Sydney store.

The Dover Street Market x Westfall x Sorry Thanks I Love You collaboration will run at Sorry Thanks I Love You from 1 July – 28 July 2024.

K1006/188 Pitt Street, Level One Westfield, SYDNEY NSW 2000

Tags: Brett Westfall, Dover Street Market, Sorry Thanks I love You, Sydney, Westfield Sydney

Artists: Liam Gillick, Paul Purgas, Claudia Wieser, Appau Jnr Yiadom-Boakye

This week we’ve been excited for the launch of Isle Skateboard’s limited-edition line Tweaked Modernism. Curated by Twin’s art editor Francesca Gavin, the artist produced decks are accompanied by a printed publication by Birmingham design studio An Endless Supply.

The four specially created skateboards unpick the aesthetic and conceptual ideas of modernism, meta modernism, and off modernism.

Founded by Isle Skateboards is the skateboard label founded by artist Nick Jensen and Paul Shier. Past collaborations with artist have included boards from Kira Freije, Oliver Laric and Christian Hidaka.

As curator Francesca reflects, “there are fascinating connections between skating and modernism. Both have rethought what the human physical relationship is to form and space. Street skating approaches architecture in a way no one would have imagined. I was interested in bringing together four varied artists who all tweak modernist ideas or aesthetics in their work. I liked the urban slang take on tweaking as getting high – it felt apt for addressing how artists rework history.”

The Artists:

Liam Gillick studied at Goldsmiths and lives and works in New York. His work, ranging from small books to large-scale architectural collaborations, explores the aesthetics of the constructed world and dysfunction of modernism.

Paul Purgas is a London-based artist and musician working with sound, performance, and installation. Originally trained as an architect, he has presented projects with Tate, Spike Island, Glasgow Tramway and Kunstverein Gartenhaus. He is one half of Empyset, and has performed at Berghain, Serpentine Gallery, CTM and Atonal.

Claudia Wieser is an artist based in Berlin known for creating geometric installation, sculptures and wall works that unpick the legacy and aesthetics of modernism. She has had solo shows Hamburger Bahnhof, The Drawing Center and has collaborated on projects with Hermes and Musée Yves Saint Laurent.

Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom is a London-based multi-disciplinary artist working with found materials and objects, sculpture, photography, sound, performance, archive, and self-produced moving image. He has exhibited at National Portrait Gallery, Jerwood Space and Southwark Park Galleries.

Boards available from skate shops across the United Kingdom, United States, Holland and Japan.

Tags: An Endless Supply, Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom, Claudia Wieser, francesca gavin, Isle Skateboards, Liam Gillick, paul purgas, skateboards, Tweaked Modernism

MiArt New Talent: Julija Zaharijević by Twin Art Editor Francesca Gavin

Julija Zaharijević exhibited wall sculptures with Eugster from Belgrade at Miart.. The gallery was in the emergent section of the Milanese fair  – in a great section in the fair which happens each April, curated by Attilia Fattori Franchini.

The Cabbage series depicts realistically recreated cabbages – complete with faked insect nibbles and decay. Each cabbage subtly varied in colour so it was clear they are the real veg on the wall. Pyschadelic, emotive and beautiful, the works play with the art historical tropes of beauty, decay and the sublime. They are stand ins for roses or flowers. Part of what makes her cabbages so engaging is how that question what is real, what is beauty, what is meaning.

Julija Zaharijević was born in 1991 in Serbia and lives and works between Vienna, where she studied, and Berlin. Still only a recent graduate, Zaharijević’s practise has incorporated performance, collage, text, that touches on the experience of class, gender and reality.

Highlights value systems that are innately built into the purchase and visual consumption of beauty and art in a wider sense. They are mirrors to our heads, emotions and performative selves.

www.julijazaharijevic.com; miart occurs April annually miart.it

Tags: Julija Zaharijević

On this solar eclipse in Aries, we celebrate Seana Gavin’s archive that serendipidously includes the eclipse free festival, photographed by Gavin below.

Following on from her phenomenally successful book “Spiralled” published by Idea Books, the artist and former raver opens her new exhibition Hidden Tracks at Gallery 46. This exhibition continues her exploration of the legacy of sound systems that put on illegal raves in the UK and across Europe in the nineties, and acts as a document of the creativity, vitality and community of the underground party scene in which Gavin features heavily. From 1993-2003 she spent long periods of time travelling in friends’ mobile homes, in convoy with the sound systems, living in nomadic communities, attending raves and parties in France, Spain, Holland, Italy, Berlin, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary.

“It was more than just a night out. I wasn’t a photographer or journalist I was part of this world and these people were my family. We were un-materialistic and survived with minimal funds without limitations.” – Seana Gavin

Whilst the book is aesthetically and nostaligically pleaseing, it also serves as a reminder about the radical potential and rebellious energy of the free party movement, which emerged as a rebellion against the over commercialization of Acid House that had developed in the UK at the time.

Even today we are left with the legislation that became ‘The Criminal Justice Act’, catalysed by the police response to Castlemorton festival – a week long free unlicensed rave which took place in the British countryside and was shut down by the police. As an underage teenager the artist’s adventurous spirit led her to other like minded wanderers as news spread before mobiles and the internet, and 20- 50,000 people came together by word of mouth alone.

The exhibition which opens this week, includes Gavin’s personal documentation including flyers, ephemera, diary entries and a large body of photographs that capture the build-up and aftermath of the raves across Europe alongside the characters and friends who defined this scene, and demonstrates the ethos and spitit of community and freedom.

Exhibition runs  10 – 28 April 2024

Gallery46, 46 Ashfield St, London E1 2AJ

www.gallery46.co.uk

Tags: exhibitions, exhibitions in London, gallery46, Hidden Tracks, London Exhibition, Seana Gavin

Artist, technologist, and pioneer in artificial intelligence arts, Refik Anadol presents his new exhibition of eye-candy works at London’s Serpentine Gallery.

Anadol’s collaborative generative process with AI plays here manifests to present “years-long experimentation with visual data of underwater landscapes and rainforests”. This large scale digital work features Artificial Realities: Coral (2023), which immerses viewers in an Al’s imagination of underwater landscapes. Made by training a unique AI model with approximately 135 million images of corals openly accessible online and generating abstracted coral images, “the AI then constructs new visuals and colour combinations based on the dataset.”

This is also the UK premiere of Living Archive: Large Nature Model which was first introduced at the World Economic Forum 2024 in Davos, Switzerland. To make this, Anadol worked with the data of major institutions, including the Smithsonian Institution and London’s Natural History Museum to create the model, “centred around archival images of fauna, flora and fungi, will expand over the coming years.”

As far as spectacular exhibitions go, this is a sure fire crowd-pleaser.

Tags: ai, Art, artificial intelligence, exhibition, exhibitions in London, Refik Anadol, Serpentine Gallery

TWIN LOVES the harmonic resonances of “All Life Long”, the long anticipated album from Kali Malone following a tour that included her performing in iconic venues including Gedächtniskirche as a part of Berlin’s CTM festival last week. She toured historic pipe organs at Église Saint-François in Lausanne, Orgelpark in Amsterdam, and Malmö Konstmuseum in Sweden, with additional accompaniment from Stephen O’Malley. 

The album, featuring four different organs dating from the 15th to 17th centuries, represents experimental reinterpretations of pipe organ, choir and brass quintet polyphony in a temporal layering across sound, structure, and introspection. 

The album includes a brass quintet performed by Anima Brass at The Bunker Studio in New York City, and vocals by Macadam Ensemble recorded at Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-L’Immaculée-Conception in Nantes. It is the first release of organ compositions since her highly acclaimed album “The Sacrificial Code” came out in 2019.

Throughout the album, the artist presents a rich tapestry of recurring harmonic motifs and evolving patterns, crafting an intimate sonic landscape across its twelve pieces. Her music builds from “evolving harmonic cycles” that evoke profound emotional depths. Her music invites listeners to relinquish expectations of time, opening doors to spaces of reflection and contemplation. 

The main piece “All Life Long” is featured twice on the album: initially as an extended canon for organ and later combined with the poem “The Crying Water” by Arthur Symons. The poem is imbued with themes of mourning and eternity, expanding on the album’s sense of spiritual transcendence.

A timeless journey that invites listeners to discover themselves within its intricate musical tapestry. “All Life Long” is out now. 

Digital Download from Ideologic

Record vinyl and CDs available from Bandcamp

Tags: album release, kali malone, Music, Twin Loves

SCENES FROM PARIS FASHION WEEK’S MOST ANTICIPATED SHOW

Artist Isabella Ducrot’s installation, Big Aura, adorned the walls of the room hosting the presentation of the Dior haute couture collections in the Rodin Museum gardens. For the set design of this Dior haute couture spring-summer 2024 show, twenty-three oversized dresses up to five metres high created a composition reminiscent of weft and warp. Designed to echo the dresses of Ottoman sultans studied by Isabella Ducrot, here she hones in on an abstract symbolization of the garment and revisits details of dresses from the Dior archives to recreate contemporary looks.

The Dior concept is woven together across artforms that encompass Ducrot’s detailed vision for the environment, and even a poem:

Rag or brocade
every women textile thus results
from this enforced embrace, a grand design that only human minds are meant to grasp and execute; and thus a marriage that could not in nature ever find its place.
Take the spider, poor thing. It dupes.
The spider doesn’t weave; the spider glues.

• extract from TO WEAVE IS HUMAN for Isabella Ducrot by Patrizia Cavalli – 2008.

A stalwart in the world of textile research and art, Ducrot is also a collector with her own extensive archive of rare textiles amassed over her long and distinguised career. Born in Naples in 1931, she travelled extensively and as such brings her unique eye on fabric to this runway. In 2002 at a lecture in Naples, she described, “my creative work goes hand in hand with the search for new fabric uses. Its aesthetic qualities continue to inspire me, as does its historical importance within human civilization. I have dedicated my work to textiles. ”

Dior note on the design, “the use of this particular, intentionally irregular and imperfect square pattern, obtained using the ancient artisanal technique of block printing, bears the artist’s signature of sorts. She often uses this type of geometric pattern not only for aesthetic purposes, for the simple pleasure of getting lost in the weave of vertical and horizontal lines, but also with the political intention of honoring the checkered fabric, considered lowly in the history of Western fashion, mainly used and worn as it was by workers, such as farmers, pruners and masons, doing manual labor outdoors.”

The elevated silouettes and crafted detail of the materials both on the runway and embedded in Ducrot’s design did not disappoint.

After a successful launch across five UK cities with new commissions by five leading artists, the final instalment of this national billboard takeover comes to Bristol, led by artist Asmaa Jama. Twin’s digital editor Susanna Davies-Crook caught up with the large-scale public art project’s curator Zarina Rossheart to hear all about love….

Why did you choose Bell Hooks’ masterpiece book All About Love to be the title of this series? 

In the period of time when I was conceiving this project, coming out of the uncertainty of the global pandemic with a sudden war starting in Ukraine and an everyday reminder of ongoing climate crisis, there was heaviness in my heart. I was looking for answers and I wanted to do work that would counter the pain individually and collectively. Reading Bell Hooks’ All About Love in that moment provided inspiration and encouragement. I came across this paragraph that really spoke to me and it became a point of departure for the project:

‘Whether it is the ongoing worldwide presence of violence expressed by the persistence of the man-made war, hunger and starvation, the day-to-day reality of violence, the presence of life-threatening diseases that cause the unexpected deaths of friends, comrades, and loved ones, there is much that brings everyone to the brink of despair. Knowing love or the hope of knowing love is the anchor that keeps us from falling into the sea of despair’. – Bell Hooks

What is your hope for the effect of the billboards on people who pass them?

I have always worked in public realm and hardly ever inside galleries. To me the billboards are the outdoor canvas for the artists to bring their work closer to everyone without exception. It is for the street workers and night workers as much as for anyone else passing by on their way about their life. As opposed to advertising that we are so used to, and immune to in a way, the art on billboards makes you stop, feel and hopefully contemplate life. It also allows to make invisible, unrepresented or other come to the forefront: For conversations held behind closed doors to become a shared or communal experience. It’s about amplification, being louder and having the courage to take up space.

Has anything unexpected happened as a result of embarking on this project?

The magic and mystery of working with artists leaves a lot of space to the unexpected and the unknown. I find beauty and meditation in that. I guess I could have never predicted though that the project would unfold in such an expansive and generous way. Including sharing difficult personal life moments with artists, and building incredibly supportive relationships that inspire me and hopefully the audience to continue on our chosen paths. 

GRACE NDIRITU – BIRMINGHAM | 28-30 APRIL
JASLEEN KAUR – GLASGOW | 9-11 JUNE
EVE STAINTON – MANCHESTER | 7-9 JULY
HELEN CAMMOCK – BRIGHTON | 4-6 AUGUST
ASMAA JAMA – BRISTOL | 8-10 SEPTEMBER

‘All About Love’ is BUILDHOLLYWOOD’s first major curatorial and artist commission that took over large-format billboards across Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Glasgow and Manchester between April – September 2023. The project champions artists who are either born in those cities or live and work there, curated by Zarina Rossheart.

This weekend Edinburgh lights up at Jupiter Artland. Alongside the many delights and sights of the Edinburgh Fringe, this new programme and festival lands with a bang, as part of Edinburgh Art Festival and with JUPITER RISING. 

Curated by artist Lindsey Mendick, whose solo commission SH*TFACED is currently presented across Jupiter Artland’s galleries, and queer workers’ co-op Bonjour, this year’s JUPITER RISING x EAF features artist-performance, live music, talks, workshops and DJ sets from An(dre)a Spisto and Joana Nastari, Guy Oliver, Honey Revlon, Pink Suits, Sgàire Woods, STASIS, Ziah Ziah and a new commissioned performance by Lindsey Mendick.

JUPITER RISING is set to be a riot – expect dancing, karaoke, DJs, performances and live music across the iconic landscape of Jupiter Artland, 30 minutes from the city centre.

As Kim McAleese, Director of Edinburgh Art Festival describes “Our EAF 2023 programme is one which seeks to platform local grassroots artists alongside those working globally and is a programme which is deeply connected to feminist and queer practice”.

Bonjour’s Late Night Stage brings together two of Scotland’s favourite QTIPOC (and ally) cabaret and club nights MOJXMMA and Q’IWA with sets from Halal Kitty and Jam Eye and performance by Lala Munan, Malaikah, Thea Transformo, Kiki Rivera and Caramella Coins.

“This free event continues Jupiter’s mission to support artists at every stage of their career. It will be an unmissable night” adds Nicky Wilson, Director of Jupiter Artland 

Time to get on the Megabus!

JUPITER RISING x EDINBURGH ART FESTIVAL

A party curated by Lindsey Mendick & Bonjour

Saturday 19 August, 6pm – 1am

Doors open 5.30pm for 6pm start

Free / £5 including complimentary drink

Bus ticket: £15, leaves Jupiter Artland at 1am

Jupiter Artland, The Steadings, Bonnington House, Wilkieston, EH27 8BY

Wed – Sun, 10am—5pm | @jupiterartland @jupiterrising_fest

This weekend, just outside of Berlin, a recommissioned power station hosts Burn Out – a summer symposium weekend of music, performance and discussion to truly address the power of art and radical change.

E-WERK Luckenwalde is a fully functioning power station re-envisioned as a sustainable Kunststrom Kraftwerk by curator Helen Turner and artist Pablo Wendall. The former coal power station built in 1913 – which ceased production in 1989 after the fall of the Berlin wall – was acquired by the couple in 2017, and since this gigantic space has played host to some of the foremost names in music and contemporary art. Legends including FM Einheit and Suzanne Ciani have resonated through the building, whilst artists from Himali Soin Singh to Cooking Sections have provided propositions on sustainability – a key focus for this iteration of E-WERK. In 2021, E-WERK hosted and curated the German premiere and only CO2 neutral performances of Golden Lion awarded opera Sun & Sea by Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė and Lina Lapelytė.

Burn Out – presented at this extraordinary location – seeks to address climate and capitalism, de-growth, and environmental imperialism. The symposium is all about driving ecological, economic and human change to the cultural sector.

Helen Turner as Artistic Director of E-WERK and Burn Out describes, her vision for the programme “the earth sighs deeply with the weight of its own planetary and human exhaustion. Hypercapitalism, the hamster wheel, chronic stress, repetitive strain injury, the rat race and perma-crisis – Burn Out. The hope for systemic change, a slower pace, better working conditions, planetary calm, economic and ecological progress all appear to have faded, and once again humanity and the planet is burning out. This event will bring together artists, thinkers, activists and more to consider how we can catalyse systemic change for the future”

E-WERK have put their money, power and politics where their mouth is – and as such it feels no institution is better placed to host and mount this discussion. In 2019, Performance Electrics gGmbH formally switched the power in the former factory back on, so now it powers itself, and is alos available as an energy provider – a true intervention in the mechanisms of power within the country. E-WERK produces an average of 900,000 KW/h a year, using renewable energy technologies such as solar, wind and wood gas. and now supplies energy to cultural institutions, businesses and private households. By switching energy provider, the client simultaneously supports the development of renewable electricity and contemporary art through their utility bill.

The extraordinary turbine hall at E-WERK currently hosts a stunning exhibition entitled The Material Revolution with a solo presentation by RA graduate Kira Freije who welds her intimate and uncanny human-scale sculptures and for this exhibition worked with a lighting designer and subtle haze to create a feeling of total transcendence and sacred stillness in this historic space.

Further iterations of a series of symposiums at E-WERK and LUMA Arles, Rupert Centre for Art and Education in collaboration with Gallery Climate Coalition on human and planetary sustainability will continue throughout 2023.

https://www.kunststrom.com/

https://www.theapproach.co.uk/artists/kira-freije

www.rupert.lt

The next in the stream of eagerly awaited exhibitions at 180 Studios is a showstopping showcase of iconic imagery from fashion photographer Campbell Addy, “I ❤ Campbell is a personal meditation on the artist’s roots and inspirations”.

The imagery in the photographer’s first ever solo show was shot on location in Ghana. The 36 new works also feature a new film, spatial design by set designer Ibby Njoya and a soundtrack by CKTRL which all coalesce to create an immersive dip into the artist’s vision: “world within love, grounded by nature.”

In July 2016 Addy founded Nii Journal and Nii Agency as a challenge to the beauty standards of society and the fashion industry and build a new brand around who and what constitutes beauty and style.

Since graduating from Central Saint Martins, Addy has shot for Vogue, Harpers, Wall Street Journal, Dazed and i-D and been behind the lens to legends including Beyoncé, Naomi Campbell and Edward Enninful.

A typically brave and bold show – this is one we wouldn’t miss.
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As the newly announced ambassador of BLEU DE CHANEL fragrance, Chalamet’s iconic look for this campaign will be shot by equally iconic photographer Mario Sorrenti and released this June.

BLEU DE CHANEL is the actor’s first collaboration with CHANEL, and his first official ambassador of any fashion or beauty label, and with it, the French-American 27-year-old actor will underscore his reputation as a style leader and unique presence in the world of fashion. As BLEU DE CHANEL observe, Chalamet has “audacious style and unapologetic charm…a man who does not limit himself to the ordinary boundaries life sets and looks beyond what is visible”.

As we eagerly await the next instalment of Dune and all the other no-doubt remarkable projects the Hollywood darling turns his hand to, CHANEL have bagged another legend to direct the BLEU DE CHANEL campaign film. Martin Scorsese will work with Chalamet and CHANEL to cement this illustrious collaboration, and we’re more than here for it.