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.
Refik Anadol, Echoes of the Earth: Living Archive, 2024. Installation view, Serpentine North. Photo: Hugo Glendinning. Courtesy Refik Anadol Studio and Serpentine.
Artist, technologist, and pioneer in artificial intelligence arts, Refik Anadol presents his new exhibition of eye-candy works at London’s Serpentine Gallery.
Refik Anadol, Echoes of the Earth: Living Archive, 2024. Installation view, Serpentine North. Photo: Hugo Glendinning. Courtesy Refik Anadol Studio and Serpentine.
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.”
Refik Anadol, Echoes of the Earth: Living Archive, 2024. Installation view, Serpentine North. Photo: Hugo Glendinning. Courtesy Refik Anadol Studio and Serpentine.
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.
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.
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.
Asmaa Jama. Portrait by Kevin Lake. All About Love commission by BUILDHOLLYWOOD, 2023
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
Helen Cammock, ‘the deepest crease in the fold of stone and the sweet taste of salt’ (2023). All About Love commission by BUILDHOLLYWOOD. Courtesy the artist. Photo_ Kevin Lake
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.
Asmaa Jama, Except This Time Nothing Comes Back From The Ashes. Courtesy of Asmaa Jama and Gouled Ahmed. All About Love commission by BUILDHOLLYWOOD, 2023 Photo by Kevin Lake
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.
Eve Stainton, You can take the _ out of _, 2023. All About Love commission by Buildhollywood. Courtesy the artist. Collage feat photography by David Laskowski, Stephen Bishop and Eve Stainton (48 sheet)
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
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.
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.
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.
IDEA, the publisher and bookseller of Dover Street Market London, New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, is back with its incredibly popular–sell out in the blink of an eye–coffee table book, Ibiza ’89 by Dave Swindells.
An expansive vibey photo book, the title perfectly captures the hedonism of the White Isle, as seen through the lens of Dave Swindells. Here, he documents one fun-filled week spent in and outside the likes of Pacha, Café del Mar, and Amnesia; after all, he’s famously been photographing nightlife and people since 1983.
“It was easy to believe that almost anything was possible in Ibiza in 1989; that many of the big clubs put MDMA powder into their cocktails; that the music could jump across genres and not only be exciting, but better than the sum of its parts; that there was always another club or bar to carry on to as long as you wanted to carry on; that it didn’t really matter about your age or sexual preference or how much money you had if you came for the fiesta and the music (although it helped to dress up to get into Pacha, and only the wealthy could buy tables overlooking the dance floors there); that there was always a secret cove or beach where you could create your own party…And all of that was pretty much true.” Dave SwindellsSnapping the Brits abroad, Dave also recalls first-hand the story of the British guy in the pink shirt framed so perfectly in the mirrored morning light of Amnesia’s terrace, “When a group of Spanish clubbers turned up at the gate I went down on all fours and crawled in behind them. Boom! I was in! The girl in the photo with me was an Italian Princess. She was with a group of people who had water pistols filled with liquid E – it was mental! That was without doubt the best night of my life.”
Back by popular demand, the title it now on its third edition, with four times as many photographs in the new book and has been released this week as an edition of 1,200 at Dover Street Market London.
Natural Companions: Ecosystems and Existence in the art of Marguerite Humeau
Marguerite Humeau is an artist unafraid of realization the imaginary. Her art practices fuses historic and futuristic research with the skills of craftsmanship and design, and the emotions and ideas of sprituality, philosophy and science. The French artist has been based in London since she studied at the Royal College of Art, and shows at White Cube in the UK and C L E A R I N G in Brussels and New York. She has had stand out solo shows at Tate Britain, Lafayette Anticipations, Jeu de Paume and New Museum, as well as inclusions in the most recent Venice Biennale, Sydney Biennial and Kunsthalle Basel. She’s an artist who is unafraid of working big, bold and addressing the huge issues of existence.
Humeau’s aesthetic is shifting. Best known for giant fluid biological style sculptural installations with sound elements, her new projects are pushing medium, collaboration and what her projects look like. There is always something mind-blowing alongside the accessible in her work. Here the esoteric walks hand in hand with the factual. The results are art experiences that make us address what is it to be human, in this world, at this moment in time. Humeau highlights are place in the long now of civilization.
Your work began as large, sculptural installations with sound elements, and really particular aesthetic. Your work now seems to be going in new directions from video to earthworks. What do you find interesting about how your work is shifting? How does connect to the work you are best known for?
It was a natural transition. Conceptually, I am exploring further many ideas that I have been preoccupied with for a very long time now. Things are also evolving. I’m still interested in mythological ecosystems and how they relate to existing ecosystems. I’m still digging into the deep past and the far future to understand the present(s). I am also still exploring parallel presents and their possible multitude. I had huge desire to bring more texture to my work. I never really talked about this – I’m thinking out loud. But I always felt that there was a lot of texture to my research and my conceptual thinking. And there was a big gap between what I was presenting as pure, raw experiences of death and life and states in between. These semi-mythological presences. There was a gap between that and all the texture that was happening before getting there. I started to wonder, what if I would bring that texture more to my sculptural and installation work? What would happen then?
For a long time, I was interested in accelerating life to a point where death doesn’t exist anymore, and analyzing what that could mean, and the horror that is triggered as a result. I then went on a quest exploring transcendence and how we can exist beyond our physical body. How can our existences persevere in eternal cycles? And I got much more interested – it’s been three years now – in our physical shells and inner worlds. Our imaginaries, dreams and how they crack, how they melt. How they maybe get reborn. I felt especially during the pandemic that we all had to almost collapse to get reborn. We were really lonely. It was very much about survival and then regeneration. It was a transition that started early 2020, when I was doing my explorations on weeds and the soil, that then gave birth to ‘Surface Horizon’ at Lafayette Anticipations.
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Let’s talk about research. Even just looking at your Instagram, when you were going around all these crazy postmodern buildings. We could feel your research process, this flow. What sparks your interest and draws you in? What makes you look at something?
That’s a really good question. I think it depends. Last year I went with my partner to the north of Australia, we crossed the Northern Territory from Darwin to Broome. It was amazing. I never travel with something specific in mind. I discovered the termite mounds there in Australia. I became completely obsessed. I downloaded this book that’s called ‘The Soul of the White Ant’ by Eugène Marais, written in the 30s. We were listening to this audiobook, as we were driving through the mounds. I’m encountering something and sometimes it clicks because it speaks to a broader concept that I’m interested in.
For a while, I had been thinking about how we could become collective bodies, how could we merge within the greater whole of Life. For a long time, I had been making bodies that are individuals – a vessel unto themselves, that would become communities as they would be brought together, for example, the elephant family mourning their matriarch in ‘FOXP2’ (2016), or ‘The Dancers in High Tide’ (2019). This time I wanted to create bodies, that would be the sum of their parts. I discovered the termite mounds. I was listening to this audio book. I connected the mounds to beehives and all the collective structures built by insects and also to the concept of human community centers. These concepts are also connected to my project in Colorado, ‘Orisons’. I feel we need to merge within the greater whole of life. It’s not so much about will we survive as a human species that really matters. It’s more about having the confidence that life will make it through all these different crises, and we need to nurture life around us. There are forms of life that will survive us. How can we take them as our guides or companions to understand how to navigate our own futures?
Meys is on show at White Cube Bermondsey April 5 to May 14
Full Interview by Twin’s Art Editor Francesca Gavin in this issue of Twin
Images:
Marguerite Humeau Migrations (El Niño, La Niña, Kuroshio), 2022, Installation view, 59th Biennale di Venezia. Courtesy the artist, C L E A R I N G and White Cube Photo: Roberto Marossi
Marguerite Humeau The Oracles of the Desert (detail) 2021 Steel, diamond drum cut prismatic light diffusers, aluminium dibond, Plexiglass, Plywood, grow lights, pale amber gold filters, clay soil, mattress foam, clairvoyant, plants variable dimensions, bioindicator plants : Greater Plantain / Plantago major, Annual Mercury / Mercurialis annua, Buck’s-Horn Plantain / Plantago coronopus, Ribwort Plantain / Plantago lanceolata, Broad-Leaved Dock / Rumex obtusifolius, Nipplewort / Lapsana communis, Ragweed / Ambrosia artemisiifolia, Common Amaranth / Amaranthus retroflexus, Fat-Hen / Chenopodium album, Curled Dock / Rumex crispus, Canadian Fleabane / Erigeron canadensis, Cuckoo-Pint / Arum maculatum, Hairy Bitter-Cress / Cardamine hirsute 561 x 654 x 381.3 cm Courtesy the Artist, C L E A R I N G New York/Brussels Image Credit: Julia Andréone
Twin correspondent and artist Cecilie Norgaard travelled to Milan to explore the emergent section of miart fair this April. London-based gallery Ginny on Frederick presented five sculptures on a high table by artist Guendalina Cerruti. They resembled miniature rides in a fun park and urban landmarks forming the skyline of a city. All the objects, clearly handcrafted, are made from a mix of wood, plastic beads, wire steel mesh, glitters, glue, fabric, and none of their dimensions exceed 70 centimetres. They seem direct extension of toys, underlining associations to childhood with their rainbow and soft pastel colour scheme. The bigger pieces are decorated by photographs from what seems like someone’s photo roll.
I have a thing for miniatures. The part of me that pressed a fascinated face against the glass montre of a large miniature landscape, through which different electric trains drove upon the toss of a small coin in the central station of my childhood lives on. Many childish miniature passions have matured into adult dedication and dexterity and become complicated, nerdy, professional hobbies – from Warhammer to collections of electronic and self-assembled miniature vehicles, to the elaborate design of the landscapes that these objects inhabit. Art too, I would argue, is “refined” childhood passion matured in a subject over time. The minimum criterion for good art, I would propose, is when the subject, the artist, opens their eyes to their surroundings to the extent of finding resonance outside themselves with whatever their passion is – and creates from there.
The reason why I find Cerruti’s sculptures brilliant in the context of the fair is because they’re very effective mirrors of a contemporary condition. By literally thematising entertainment and spectacle, one can perceive the works as a metaphor for the art fair as fun park: hysterical and sensation-driven, too sweet, too loud, too exciting, way too exhausting. I really like how meticulously they’re crafted. To me this communicates authenticity and intimacy which makes the sweet mockery they engage translate as sympathetic and self-aware, rather than sarcastic and condescending. These objects are someone’s darlings. The care they hold, combined with the alludes to innocence, contrasts the cynicism of the market within which they’re traded. They’re aware that they quite concretely depict entertainment value and old fashioned stimuli, like ice cream and rollercoasters. They are the entertainment around which all the hysterical transactionality happens.
As I inquire the gallerist about the work he goes on to demonstrate how it can be interacted with; he spins the work ‘Life is a Giant Wheel’ and multi-coloured beads slide up and down the spokes as they used to on the rear wheel of my bicycle. It is clear that the interactive part of the work is sensitive. “It has already been sold, so we shouldn’t spin it too much,” he says. In the context of the fair, the works function as good mirrors of the holy Trinity inner-child-professionalist-Artist, fun-fair-ride-promoter-conductor-Gallerist, and of the Consumer, for whom the spin is reserved.
First showcased at London fashion week 2022, the noon by Noor collection comes into its own this spring. Pale Pinks, Mint Greens, Stone and Navy create a neutral base from which the brand plays with texture and form.
Noon By Noor designers Shaikha Noor Al Khalifa and Shaikha Haya Al Khalifa present precision engineered sportswear-inspired shapes and sculptural layers. Boxy oversized shirts meet chiffon and lace, layered over low slung pants or dresses
“We think the Noon By Noor woman will have fun styling this collection. It is conceptually simple yet rich with unexpected details,” said Shaikha Haya Al Khalifa.
Simplicity of form, function and a clean precise aesthetic extends through to the photography and styling in this strong visual identity.
The collection is conceptually presented with a film that showcases a portrayal of sisterhood in the context of the home through sculptural gestures, touch and togetherness.
The designers worked alongside Art Director Sarah-Jayne Todd, Photographer and Filmmaker Esther Theaker, Stylist Hanna Kelifa and Casting Director Gabrielle Lawrence to craft the season’s visual media starring identical twins AmelieKöpf and Charlotte Köpf exclusive to Noon By Noor at London Fashion Week.“We loved engaging with an all-woman team this season and are very grateful for everyone who has helped us bring our vision to life” remarks Shaikha Noor Al Khalifa.
Founded in Bahrain in 2008 by business partners and cousins, Shaikha Noor Al Khalifa and Shaikha Haya Al Khalifa, the womenswear brand became the first GCC-based fashion brand to be invited to NYFW in 2013, where it continued to show prior to its shift to LFW in 2021.
At the end of a deep Berlin tunnel, lies an exhibition that marks the cornerstone of this year’s edition of CTM festival in Berlin. We Found Our Own Reality examines the cultural, political, and post-colonial echoes of South Asia’s avant-garde sonic pioneers. This large-scale exhibition at Betonhalle, brings together architecture, furniture, textiles, and sound to explore India’s first electronic music studio, founded in 1969 at the National Institute of Design (NID)* in Ahmedabad. The exhibition curator – artist and musician Paul Purgas – also presents a new work from a collection of unheard recordings by five previously unknown Indian electronic composers.
Alongside the exhibition and vast research output by Purgas, is an in depth talks and events programme, including a great discussion on “Feminist Perspectives on Night Life and Music Scenes in India and its Global Diaspora” with Nabihah Iqbal and Dehli-based DJ Lush Lata, who went on to bring her legendary mix of influences Panorama Bar for Thursday evening’s CTM club night.
*”Founded after India’s independence, the NID was a multi-disciplinary facility to train a new generation of free thinking modern designers, animators, ceramicists, film-makers, and sound artists. The exhibition explores the technological and experimental ambition of the NID’s electronic music studio across its four year lifespan at a moment of unprecedented national transformation and cultural exchange between Western and Indian Modernist ideologies, narrating its dialogue with the international sonic and visual avant-gardes of Europe and the USA.”
Ray Stevenson, The Bromley, 1978 (c) Ray Stevenson.jpg
A giant fanged mouth frames the entrance to the subterreanean space of Somerset house on London’s embankment this winter.
Presenting some of the greatest cultural provocateurs and visionaries, The Horror Show! examines how ideas rooted in horror have informed the last 50 years of creative rebellion in Britain.
An immersive exhibition through over 200 artworks and culturally significant artefacts, the exhibition presents modern British history in three acts – Monster, Ghost and Witch through 1970s punk to the revolutionary potential of modern witchcraft, showing how “the anarchic alchemy of horror – its subversion, transgression and the supernatural – can help make sense of the world around us”.
Juno Calypso , A Dream in Green, Courtesy of the artist
Horror not only allows us to express our deepest fears; it gives a powerful voice to the marginalised and society’s outliers, providing us with tools to overcome our anxieties and imagine a radically different future.
The exhibition is an invitation to imagine a radically different future through outliers and marginalised persons and practices. The Horror Show! is co-curated by BAFTA nominated filmmakers Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard with curator Claire Catterall and open until 19th Feb 2022.
Ninni Nummela is a professional make-up artist known for her editorial work and plethora of celebrity clients. She has a keen eye for touching simplicity, focusing on the enhancement of natural beauty. Emma Clarke caught up with Nummella to talk with her about a recent project using Chanel Noir Allure – Chanel’s latest innovative mascara.
What were your main influences/inspirations for the look created with Liz Collins, using Chanel Noir Allure? We wanted to create a story with beautiful moments on a late summer’s day, where an effortless beauty look with naturally radiant skin brings focus to the Chanel Noir Allure mascara. Lived in mascara, like she’s been wearing it all day; swimming, running, lounging. Nothing too perfect.
What about Chanel’s style is synonymous with your creative outlook? I love the understated elegance of Chanel. The simplicity and beauty. It’s very much synonymous with my work and how I approach beauty.
Chanel Noir Allure’s design is indicative of simplicity. What is your definition of both and how is that reflected in your work? To me Chanel makeup is iconic; the design, colours and compacts all reflect a true elegance. The Chanel Noir Allure mascara is the epitome of Chanel; sleek, beautiful and easy to use.
My work is very much less is more. I always strive to enhance the individual beauty of the person I’m working with by enhancing elements and never applying too much.
How do you negotiate the balance between an iconic beauty brand and innovation? I always try to innovate and create looks that will inspire, while always reflecting the essence of the iconic Chanel brand.
What do you envision the future of beauty and style to be? I envision individuality will play a big role, in both beauty and style. Self-expression and inclusivity.
The CHANEL Spring-Summer 2023 Ready-To-Wear Collection draws inspiration from arthouse film Last Year in Marienbad (1961) by Alain Renais. A haunting classic, the fiolm takes place in an eerie Marienbad and splices together scenes in a non-linear series of images and set pieces, and similarly the CHANEL Spring-Summer 2023 Ready-to-Wear collection is described as a collage.
The collection is imagined by Virginie Viard as a “free stroll through fragments, it exposes an imaginary world confronted with itself, offering variations on the theme of allure” as she explains, “the films we have seen, those that possess us and those we invent for ourselves, Marienbad, the Nouvelle Vague, the allure according to Gabrielle Chanel, Karl, the night, feathers, sequins, heels: I like it when things get mixed up”.
The collection seams together bows, boas, rhinestone boots, jersey worked like scales and chiffon tracing contours of the body, flowing and dreamlike.
Virginie explains, “whether it’s her [Kristen Stewart], or the other women I dress, I need to feel that they like the clothes anyway. But, of the people around me, she is the closest to Gabrielle Chanel, at least to my idea of her. She understands CHANEL, its clothes. And with her, it becomes even more modern. This collection, it’s also her.”
The makeup mirrored the timeless colour paletteof the show with nude shades on the eyes and lips to compliment each models skin tone.
The lashes were kept bare with only a light dusting of Les 4 Ombres Tweed on the lids.
Opening this evening at London’s Gagosian gallery, this large scale photographic exhibition showcases the work of Altanta-born photographer Tyler Mitchell, now reknowned for his distinctive editorials including Beyoncé’s cover for Vogue. Describing the exhibition he explains,
“Collectively, these moments become figments of an imaginative psychic state of being, one in which radiance, resistance, restraint, comfort, and full human agency exist.“
The duality of organic and manmade, staged and naturalistic combine in Cage, which shows a woman posing before a painted backdrop of a garden surrounded by a white picket fence.
For Chrysalis, the New York photographer has continued his exloration of youth and coming of age while reflecting on the history of photographic images of Black people, particularly in the American South. The images bring into focus a sense of spirituality, transformation and aspiration.
As the gallery describes, “Chrysalis presents images of Black men and women in idyllic states of leisure and repose, safe and unencumbered by social expectations. In a photograph that shares its title with the exhibition, a young man sleeps on a blanket-covered bed, within the protective cocoon of a mosquito net.”
TYLER MITCHELL Chrysalis October 6–November 12, 2022 Gagosian 17–19 Davies Street, London
Mitchell’s work is also to be featured in The New Black Vanguard, an exhibition curated by Antwaun Sargent that will open at Saatchi Gallery, London, on October 28, 2022.
Tyler Mitchell, Gagosian Gallery, Davies Street, September 2022
An intimate photography show opened in Paris last week for one evening only, organised by Agnes Costa in association with Rapid Eye Darkroom . invited artists to respond to the brief “blurry”. The intimate show played host to the bright lights of the photography world including Drew Vickers, Maxime Imbert and Larissa Hoffman.
Louis Canadas
As Agnes explains, “I used to organise these kind of exhibitions at Rapid eye when I was working there – I would give a theme (we did ‘Blue’, ‘Pink’ and ‘Woman’ at Rapid eye few years ago) – and then ask a few of my friends to hand print something. Everyone was free to print anything they wanted around that theme, so we would always end up with something very versatile and interesting…I moved to Paris to open my own darkroom here and it made sense to keep organising these kind of events that bring people together and celebrate hand printing which is something very dear to my heart!”
Thomas Christiani
The exhibition took place at Flou, 13 Rue de Mont Louis, 75011 Paris
For London Fashion Week 2022, Twin commissioned photographer Natalie Lloyd to document the brightest, boldest, best and most distinctive moments of the week.
Below are the highlights from BMUET(TE)’s presentation Spring-Summer 2023…
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