Do This Or Regret It: My Weekly Dose Of Capital Culture
Oh my – it’s March. I’ve been quelling my sense of impending doom with smile-fuel fodder, and I would urge you to do the same. Last weekend saw me seeking out the Caravaggios at the National Gallery, racing sewing machines at the ICA and taking tea at The Wolseley. I also learned how to breathe fire at my good friend’s hen night and sported ridiculous dresses at every given opportunity. In short: my smiles are safely satiated.
ART: Susan Hiller, Tate Britain, till 15 May
American born, British based, artist Susan Hiller has been producing an extraordinarily diverse body of work for almost half a century. Celebrated as one of the most influential artists of her generation, Hiller’s work is multidisciplinary: encompassing visual installations, audio sculptures, writing and performance. This exhibition focuses on Hiller’s exploration of the mind: embracing both the subconscious and unconscious in a sensual clash of dreams, memories and visions. Visceral it may be, but not exclusively so. Hiller’s work is refreshingly rooted in the cerebral – informed as much by her PHD in Anthropology, as the visual language of her contemporaries.
MUSIC: Cut Copy with Holy Ghost!, Forum, 6th March
From the ashes of Automato rose Holy Ghost!. Comprised of Alex Frankel and Nick Millhiser, the DFA duo mix unabashedly danceable disco. Like Gold Panda (of last weeks post), I first heard Holy Ghost! on a Health remix album. I would like to make it known, however, that my musical taste is not limited to artists who remix Health. In my defence, they clearly engage a high-class of remixer. Holy Ghost! are joined by Australian synth-poppers Cut Copy. Abandon your inhibitions and dress to dance . . . you have been warned.
FILM: Birds Eye View Festival, BFI Southbank, ICA and Southbank Centre, 8th – 17th March
The seventh annual Birds Eye View Festival opens next week. Celebrating and supporting women filmmakers, the festival features exclusive previews, retrospectives, shorts and live performances. The Sounds and Silents programme comes particularly highly recommended. Here BEV have commissioned cutting edge female musicians to compose and perform live scores to silent films. I’m particularly intrigued by Micachu’s response to Reineger’s Hansel and Gretal. I once saw her hold a crowd transfixed – in the back room of a pub in New Cross – with a virtuoso performance on a Henry Hoover. I’d be cautious to speculate whether household appliances will star in her soundtrack for Reineger’s seminal animation, but can assure you it’ll be mesmeric regardless.
THEATRE: Buried Child, The Gatehouse, From 9th March
Directed my Timothy Trimingham Lee, Buried Child takes the iconic American family and pushes it to new levels of dysfunction. I’m talking incest-touting-alcohol-fuelled-amnesia-inducing dysfunction. Imagine the epitome of dysfunction – pack it into the back of a rusted Cadillac, drive it through the Mojave desert and crash it full speed into a wall of ill-repute. Now you’re close. But to define Sam Shepard’s Pulitzer Prize winner by it’s subject matter would be a disservice. This play is outstanding. Gut-wrenching and gut-shaking, devastating and hilarious: see this or regret it.
WILDCARD: Sprint Festival, CPT, till the 27th March
Billed as a festival of adventurous experiences in theatre, Sprint features intimate performances from some of our finest theatrical experimentalists. The previews certainly whetted my appetite for adventure: I saw a woman with a projector tapped to her head, I heard a zebra do a Slits cover and I witnessed a man remix a sung conversation with a traffic warden. Needless to say, I laughed. A lot. Next weeks programme is brimming with mischief-making boundary-pushers, including Analogue, Tangled Feet and the wonderfully named GETINTHEBACKOFTHEVAN.
Photography by Tate, Cut Copy, Little White Lies, and Emily Orley
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