“The thought police would get him just the same. He had committed–would have committed, even if he had never set pen to paper–the essential crime that contained all others in itself. Thoughtcrime, they called it. Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you.”
George Orwell, 1984.
By Felicity Shaw
“Words! Mere words! How terrible they were! How clear, and vivid, and cruel! One could not escape from them. And yet what a subtle magic there was in them! … Mere words! Was there anything so real as words?”
-Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Grey.
By Felicity Shaw
Everyday, artist Katie Horwich finds a discarded copy of tabloid newspaper, The Sun and paints the clothes that she is wearing onto the bare, naked Page Three girls. What started as a diary project while working in Boots chemist, where the compulsory uniform is an ankle length white pleated polyester skirt, and a navy tabard designed by Jeff Banks, has become an eight year magnum opus.
“It was a hot summer and I didn’t want to suffer alone so when I chanced upon a copy of The Sun on the pavement in front of me, I took it home and painted my unfortunate outfit onto Nikkala,” says Katie. Finding a copy the next day, she did the same. It soon became a compulsive ritual where she would scour the streets for discarded copies of The Sun, and then paint her days outfit onto the sartorially impoverished glamour models.
“Now, eight years later, I’m still extracting Becky from beneath a commuter’s heel on the tube,” she explains. “Peta’s more often than not in the Chinese take away at closing – until one day we open the paper and they’re not there anymore.”
‘Page Three Girls’ is on at Deptford’s Utrophia Project Space until 26 June, 2010.
www.utrophia.net
Twin headed down to the Scala last week to catch up with Au Revoir Simone – the Brooklyn trio that puts out inimitably cool and wistful electronic pop. The ladies were in town for a rare London gig to celebrate their third album – Night Light – which is released next month on the ever hip label, Moshi Moshi.
We like quirky names – tell us where you got yours…
Annie: It’s from the movie Peewee’s Big Adventure. There’s a waitress in the movie called Simone who helps Peewee follow his dreams. So she inspires Peewee to go find his bike and he inspires her to leave her small town in Texas where she’s been waiting tables. And it’s something that they say when she’s leaving for Paris.
How would you describe your music?
Erika: I used to say lo-fi electro pop or keyboard pop, but I feel like with our new album we’ve entered this new…can we just say dream crystal?
Heather: I like it.
Annie: I don’t like it…
Erika: Nothing’s appropriate anymore…we’ve evolved so much.
Annie: I would say it’s all electronic music that doesn’t sound electronic…
Ok, so where do you get your influences from?
Annie: There is this band from Brighton called Electrelane and they have a way of making songs be simple but sound really big and beautiful.
Heather: And Stereolab – they have these amazing electronic soundscapes and
they’re warm too.
Erika: And we just played a show in Paris with Air, where we were all on stage together and we learned ten of their songs and they learnt five of ours and we did some covers. That was really cool, I feel we can relate to the way they write – they’re really attentive to the sounds, having several relationships with the sounds.
What’s the music scene like in Brooklyn?
Annie: It’s fun, its supportive, it’s collaborative – networking is so easy because everyone is so creative…almost everybody in our neighbourhood is a graphic designer or a photographer or video director, so there’s a really multi-talented support network.
Who are your favourite designers?
Annie: Oh there’s this designer called Rachel Antonoff, she’s new.
Annie: Yes she’s amazing.
Heather: We all like Philip Lim.
Erika: And there’s this website from New York called Refinary29.com that we all like. They have a great blend – not thinking about labels and designers. For me it’s just about finding rad stuff. We get to travel so much, this year I got to collect dresses from a beach shop in Singapore and amazing pieces from India.
So tell us, if we go to Brooklyn, what boutiques should we visit?
Erika: There’s this incredible one over on the Lower East Side called The Reformation and it’s this girl who had a clothing line called ‘Love by YaYa’ and she takes for example 80s silk pieces and cuts them to make them more contemporary.
Heather: Bird is really good; there are a lot of stores on the Lower East Side
Night Light is out 5th July
www.aurevoirsimone.com
www.moshimoshimusic.com/artists/au-revoir-simone
Top image: Inma Varandela
Words: Marissa Cox
Twin is happy to have been selected for De Zines – an exhibition showcasing the very best of the independent magazine world. Opening at the end of the month in Madrid, Twin will be displayed alongside over 400 international publications that span from the purely commercial, to the crafty and homemade. Curated by Roberto Vidal and Oscar Martin, the show promises to be an amazing and extensive magazine library, and a place where likeminded people can share ideas on what De Zines claims to be, ‘the future of print media’ – in other words magazines that are nice and niche. Of course, we’d have to agree.
De Zines runs from 29th June until 29th August at Room A of La Casa Encendida, Madrid.
www.lacasaencendida.es/en
Skipping naked through a deserted library sounds like one of those dreams where you inexplicably can’t find your clothes – or in this case, an image from the deliciously subversive world of Hasisi Park. The 27-year-old Korean photographer and film-maker’s images are beautiful daydreams flecked with raw reality.
Even her website bio is a glorious faction; from 2001 when she ‘put black-eyed Susan wallpaper on the windows’, to 2009 when she ‘renounced love’. And outside of her own make-believe world she has shot for big brands like Urban Outfitters and Converse, as well as making surrealist fashion films for Seoul Fashion Week.
“My clients haven’t asked me to shoot a totally different style from what I do mostly – which is really great.” says Park. “I carry my cameras with me all the time to capture intimate scenes and moments,”she continues. “They could be described as spontaneous moments – but I prefer to call them dramatic.”
See Hasisi Park’s work on show in ‘Untouched Secrets’ at the Curzon Soho from June 3rd.
www.hasisipark.com
We love Moschino’s Conduit Street window. It’s so damn cute in a Lolita kind of a way. Here comes summer?
We blame Coco for helping to make teeny tiny red shorts, yesterday’s eye make-up and ox-blood DM’s ubiquitous with this summer’s teen style. It’s just a shame we can’t all rock this look as effortlessly as she does. Ok, so we at Twin were as sceptical as the next lady about Sumner’s rock progeny roots – but her nonchalant attitude, husky vocal timbre and clever hook-up with Robyn on the sensational track ‘Caeser’ have won us over. If you can’t wait for Coco’s forthcoming debut album, ‘The Constant’ – then check out her re-working of Neil Young’s, ‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart’. Put together with Fyfe Dangerfield of the Guillemots, here Sumner follows in the footsteps of Saint Etienne who covered the classic brilliantly in 1990.
Coco’s own limited release is due out any moment now on the Luv Luv Luv label. Watch it here… Or better still, see her in the flesh – I Blame Coco are playing tonight at The Flowerpot in London.
It’s hard to imagine luminous skinned, flame-haired beauty Karen Elson being bullied at school. But now the model, and mother of White Stripes Jack White’s children, is having the last laugh. The title of her brilliant blues-inspired new album stems from her school time nickname, ‘The Ghost Who Walks’. Haunting and atmospheric – with a lyrical dexterity that’s comparable to a fledgling Nick Cave – Elson shows the vocal strength and timbre of Cat Power, or an Americana PJ Harvey, as she moves between murder ballad to lonesome lament.
Her transition from model to musician is definitely a family affair – produced by her husband, her band mates include The Dead Weather’s Jack Lawrence and Meg White’s husband, Jackson Smith (son of Patti). It’s not far from the circus-like vaudeville group, Citizens Band that she was once a part of. Ultimately, there’s no doubt that Elson is both beautiful and talented – for which we love and salute her – but she’s also so incredibly lucky. What other musician could hope to launch their music career post-thirty? The people of Oldham must be dead proud.
‘The Ghost Who Walks’ released on Third Man/XL records, out now.
www.karenelson.com
The heart of London’s design community beats faster than ever this week, as Clerkenwell hosts its own dedicated design festival. The first ever Clerkenwell Design Week, although actually only three days, packs in big names like Paul Smith, Tom Dixon and Tord Boontje as well as big ideas – like how to make clouds, snow ice-cream and the Chairless seat.
Look out for product designer Bethan Laura-Wood, and jewellery artist Wendy Ramshaw’s metre high brass and aluminium towers. Plus shoe designer Tracey Neuls has made two pairs of heels using Patricia Urquiloa and Tord Boontje fabrics that will be auctioned off. With new talents, ideas, exhibitions, food and pop-up shops – design junkies will be tripping out across the streets of EC1 in all directions.
Clerkenwell Design Week runs from 25th – 27th May 2010.
www.clerkenwelldesignweek.com
Tracey Neuls Shoes
Bethan Wood (photo credit: Luke Hayes)
Top image: Morgan furniture
Here, filmmaker Tim Foster brings ease, calm and serenity to the adrenaline-fueled scenes he shot backstage at Erdem’s recent show. And incidentally, who knew that the brilliant Erdem is also a Twin?
One woman’s trash is another woman’s treasure – so the saying goes – and for 26-year-old artist Erika Iris Simmons, recycling has become an art form. Using discarded tapes and forgotten old film reels she creates portraits of music and film icons; the results end up in galleries, rather than at landfill.
It started when, lacking cash for art supplies Simmons was forced to get creative with her materials. “I went through the house tearing up what I could,” she says. “That’s when I stumbled on the cassette tapes. I pulled out the ribbon and it reminded me of Jimi Hendrix’s hair, so that was the first thing I made.”
There’s now a wish-list on her website where people can donate their used objects, and wait to see what Simmons re-fashions them into. Topping her list at the moment are an old butterfly net, graduation tassels and vintage lace. We’re intrigued.
Hailed as folk music’s answer to Lady Gaga, 19-year-old Geordie songstress Beth Jeans Houghton usually performs wearing a peroxide wig and a metallic bra. As the story goes, three years ago she emerged from the crowd at Green Man festival after Devendra Banhart asked for a member of the audience to get up and sing a song. Since then, Houghton has been fine tuning her sweet, breathy vocals on winsome tunes such as, I Will Return, I Promise.
An album is now on its way, and Houghton has already supported Bon Iver, Mystery Jets and King Creosote. This month she takes centre stage, touring the UK with her band, Hooves of Destiny. While her look maybe brash and glam, don’t be fooled. Behind the quirky facade lurks a well of gentle folk tunes full of mandolin and magic.
Beth Jeans Houghton plays the ICA on May 21st.
I Will Return, I Promise.
Twin’s fashion director Celestine Cooney delves inside the hearts and minds of Taylor, Shiloh and Britney in-between shots on Boo George’s denim story, Kentucky Rain.
There are plenty of reasons to like model and NME TV presenter Naomi Shimada…Her blog, which charts her antics from Dalston to Miami, is called Hip Hop Lollipop. She has a Mariah-meets-Mad Men body. She speaks four languages. Plus, she’s just shared her top five summer tracks with us:
1. Mala – Alicia
2. Big Boi – Shutterbug
3. Nicki Minaj ft Sean Garrett – Massive Attack
4. Aaliyah – Are you that somebody (Brenmar Windy City mix)
5. LCD Soundsystem – All I Want
Meet model-turned-director Joana Preiss as photographer Boo George her captures her in Deptford, London.
Get up-close and personal on-set with model and artist Christina Kruse.
Photographed by Paul Wetherall.
Go behind the scenes with photographer Ben Weller on his beautiful Nineties inspired fashion story.
Remember that perfect car journey cassette tape? Or lovingly writing out a track list for the boy you liked? Mixtapes were the way we shared our music love. Sadly, the days of the comforting clunk and click of a cassette player are as long gone as those crushes.
Spotify and others have tried to revive the art of the mix through shared play lists and the like – but somehow it’s not quite the same. Luckily we have discovered The Mixtape Club – who have found a way to bring back the magic of the compilation. It began with burning mixes onto CD’s for friends while at art college, fast-forward a few years and Micah Panama and Brian Thomas, who live in San Francisco and Brooklyn respectively, have created their own website dedicate to the mix.
“We started the site with a simple mantra: ‘The Mixtape Club is an organization dedicated to the art of the mixtape’,” says Panama.
Each month they invite ten designers and friends to submit ten tracks along with an original artwork album cover. The mixes are available for that month only and then they do it all over again.
“A good compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do,” says Panama.
This month’s mix brings together tunes from Animal Collective and Sébastien Tellier to Madeleine Peyroux and A Tribe Called Quest. Amongst the cover art is a dreamy barren wood photograph taken by designer Yuri Angela Chung, as well as a DIY paintbox style thumb picture by Driko Moto. Who said MP3s have no soul?
DJ Blank Space
Yuri Angel Kung
Drika Moto
Is it us or do these rather magnificent mannequins spotted in the Prada window look uncannily like Twin’s favourite model, Freja Beha Erichsen? Clever Miuccia. Ok so it’s not Freja’s typical tomboyish look – but we covet the hell out these summery, graphic print day dresses. Next stop Portofino.
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