On Friday, someone at my new job asked me whether I had a blog. Well, I replied, I have a few but I don’t update them often enough. When I came on to this one I realised how true that was so I really REALLY am going to make more of an effort to do blogging. Honest I will.
So, what have I been up to and what’s been good?
I went to see Submarine, written and directed by Richard Ayoade who I’m a bit of a fan of. What a refreshingly lovely, very ‘British’ film full of poignant humour and sweet surreal moments. I even liked Alex Turner’s soundtracking. Here’s a trailer:
I went to the Pick Me Up exhibition at Somerset House, a veritable visual feast from graphic artists around the globe with a bias towards the UK (and especially London-based artists). It was an inspiring and thought-provoking afternoon and I especially loved Anthony Burrill’s workshop room, complete with a DJ spinning some Jean Michel Jarre, and I even purchased a print from the Conrete Hermit shop. I’ll take a photo of it once it’s framed and up on my wall.
I went to see Interpol, naturally, last week at Shepherd’s Bush Empire. They played The Specialist, my favourite ever song which I’ve never seen them play live before. Some clever person filmed it and popped it on YouTube:
Whilst I don’t generally agree with people doing this at gigs (mainly as they out their cameras in my way so I can’t see), I’ll let them off just this once. They also dropped The New and NYC. No Stella or Roland though… but I still love them.
I’ve also recently had a little trip to NYC. We stayed in the lovely West Village, spent our time eating incredible food, wandering round lovely neighbourhoods and found some time to explore MoMA which I’d recommend to anyone who won’t find tourists exploring the museum via the art of taking iPhone photographs of EVERYTHING. Sometimes, technology really does irritate me. There was a cool little Andy Warhol video exhibition hidden away at the top – go see it if you’re there and it’s still on.
Yes yes, I have been somewhat neglectative (is that even a word? Spellcheck says no…) of Stella Was A Diver of recent times. I’m sorry. I have many a-project on the go in work life , in regular life and all forms of life betwixt.
If you hop on over to my new photo blog one photo each day you will see that, in an attempt to get back into doing photography, I am documenting my entire life by taking one photo each day.
I am now also writing all about social media goodness and creativeness on a new collaborative project. That link will follow when there’s a bit more content and stylings sorted.
On the weekend, I “did some culture” and visited the National Portrait Gallery to see, as I do every year, the Photographic Portrait Prize. There’s some amazing photography there, go see it while you can. Some of my favourites below…
(note that the colours and prints are much more incredible “in real life”)
I also made it to The Photographers Gallery, happily settled in its new backstreet Soho home. What a lovely venue. Slightly depressing exhibition subject matter at the moment, however.
Tomorrow, I am very much looking forward to going to see Shutter Island (hooray for having film clients!), there’s some trailerlove for you below. Looks good, no? AND I intend to check out Damien Hirst’s new exhibition at White Cube Hoxton soon. Seeing as I can see it from my desk I think “why not?!”
I haven’t been posting on here for a few weeks now, naughty naughty me. This is mainly because I have been busy at work, in the process of purchasing a flat AND working on some other little projects in the background…
Here are some things I have found, liked, done and thought about during my blogging absence…
Spending far too long creating a Halloween-themed Spotify playlist (which now seems to have disappeared?)
On Friday eve I eschewed my usual grotty Hoxton pub eve of cheap vodka and naughty antics and went and “did some culture”. Armed with my newly procured Tate membership I crossed the river to the Tate Modern and headed to the new Pop Life: Art in a Material World exhibition…
Whilst I understand that this focuses on the materialisic nature of our society, I did leave the exhibition feeling a little bit flat. It all feels a bit ‘bitty’. Whilst there is lots of Andy Warhol at the beginning, a re-creation of Keith Haring’s Pop Shop and a whole sectioned off room dedicated to Jeff Koons‘ (far too gratuitous) explicit work, everything else feels a bit cobbled together. Even Damien Hirst’s Spot Paintings was disappointing, though mainly as the appointed identical twins supposed to be sitting under the paintings had nipped out for a fag when we arrived.
There are some good bits, of course, but overall I’d say that Pop Life is worth seeing only if you don’t have to pay for it.
Oooh, a couple of nice little photography projects to chat about this month:
The Impossible Project is a collaboration between Urban Outfitters and Polaroid to support the launch of a new Polaroid camera. More on the official website.
More analog photography fun at We Share Stories, part of the Singapore Design Festival. Submit your pics to be part of an interactive display.
These both come courtesy of Miss Cakehead’s blog. Merci beaucoup madame!
Ooooooh, came across My Parents Were Awesome a few days ago and meant to blog it – essentially a lovely little photoblog with user-submitted pictures of their parents, back in the day, looking…AWESOME!
This weekend, I finally made it to the lovely, yet always-child-filled Serpentine Gallery to check out the Jeff Koons exhibition…
I was a big fan of some of his older work, especially the Easyfun montages and the gorgeously simplistic big-and-shiny installation pieces.
The Popeye Series seems to be a bit (shudder at using this phrase) marmite. It’s a love it or hate it situation. Some of the “inflatable” work, especially the multiple iterations of the lobster, although fun, does get a bit much at time. It’s the big montage pieces like Olive Oyl (below) that made me stop and stare for longer than I usually would and really think about what I was looking at:
The exhibition is on until 13th September so get there while you can.
Super Contemporay @ Design Museum: Hugely inspiring look at iconic deisgn in, around or created in London. Especially loved the maps created for individual’s own London life. On my recommended list.
Coco Before Chanel: 30 minutes too long, too much time spent stringing out the beginning in slummy old Paris, not enough empathy with Coco. I so badly wanted to love it too…
Futurism @ Tate Modern: A little wishy washy but some good pieces to see. Not the sculpture. Do not like the sculpture.
I love the work of Bompas & Parr, aka The Jellymongers, and their epic jelly sculptural delights. Today let me introduce you to The Jell-o Mould Competition. Naturally, it’s American and, naturally, it’s frickin’ awesome!
