i'D NOW at The Red Gallery

You can see the dogs tail...

"Marking over three decades at the forefront of style and culture, i-D will be ‘popping- up’ at London’s Red Gallery this September, showcasing 30 years of historic covers and laying on a feast of interactive events including acoustic performances, fashion shoots, book swaps, dance classes, coffee mornings and more in celebration of i-D NOW."

I think it is worth a look. The retrospective of covers all in one place is really quite impressive. SO many cover stars and so huge from the start. i-D has become a fashion and cultural british BIBLE. It is something we should be proud of. 

  That said.. my favourite part of The Gallery was the cutest Jack Russell...from what I can see he was called i-D. I miss my dog so much!!

Amy

I know there are lots of mixed opinions about Amy Winehouse and lots of tragedy in the world but no   one can fail to pay there respects to this extremely talented girl on the news of her death. It is a tragedy. A tragedy caused by the world we live in, addiction, emotion, passion, creation and life. We don't know the causes. Amy had a lot of lovers and fans but people were cruel. A victim of the world of celebrity.
  I was in Tesco when I heard the news (it came on the TV screens at Liverpool street) and I must admit I am devastated. The music (as well as the person) has been a big influence in my life. There was a point when I would listen to her continuously every day for almost a year. Mainly to dance to, to deal with my own problems, to be with people, just to relax. "Back to black" is probably my most listened to album ever.   It came out when I was in hospital for the second time and "Rehab" was a song that we could laugh too. There we were stuck in "Rehab" and, well, it just made everything a bit lighter. Amy was also in the news a lot then.. and we were all interested. She had similarities with us that we could connect to. Obsess over. Anything. Most of all though, I really did love her music. It "feels" so much. You can "feel" her.
  I hope Amy is at peace now, like so many troubled people I know that have died young, hopefully this means the torment has ended. It makes me think of all those wonderful people : Lorry, Fran, Joe, Kate  and all the rest I know who are still struggling with life. "Only the good die young" . Thank you for making me stronger.

Headism

"An exhibition by Phil Levine - the 'life performance artist' who uses his head for a canvas for creativity."

The work shown is not appealing to me (especially in the photographic print format). Aesthetically I don't really like it and the exhibition was well... a bit bland. Conceptually it is easy. There is nothing deep and meaningful and nothing I really connect with apart from the fact that it is about image and aesthetic.
Even so, Philip Levine himself is an interesting subject. As an artist he has decided on his soul practise and focuses on that. I understand that many people are scared of baldness and his head art is a way of overcoming this. Whereas being a spokesperson for the bald doesn't really appeal to me his statement does. As a fashion piece and personality his ideas work well. Artistically I think the "gold" has to lie in Levine as a subject. The marketing of his work and himself is really quite remarkable. In placing himself at the centre of his art he is giving himself a celebrity status and achieving it. Placing adverts on the tube and live performances where he reveals himself as a sculpture at the V and A are amongst his marketing ploys. As an artist he also focuses on collaboration highlighting the importance of networking and innovation. As Levine gets more well known connections with Artists such as Warhol are made in my mind. Levine is now even advertising for Gillette and they are sponsoring his show. Yet again the public invest in the artist and the artist is what interests people. Kitsch is still in. Pop art rules? Good for him... and it is pretty cool...

http://www.headism.co.uk/

Erin O'Connor ... and the rest.

This is my fourth day of having gastroentoritis and I am finally beginning to feel a little on the better side. I am hardly ever really properly ill (Like really never ever! ... maybe once every 4 years!) so this has come as a pretty big shock and I really was in a bad way. I have been bed bound and not even able to stand up for a couple of days which is horrible as I hate being lazy and un constructive. Tuesday and Wednesday I spent dazed and confused without the energy to even read or watch television and listen to music... A waste of life. I Learn't nothing... apart from how to cope with illness on your own and what being ill feels like. I also have had a bit of  a crisis with my flat as the boiler has broken and today they came round to turn the water off so now I am stuck inside ill.... with no water! At all .. EEEK.
I will have to cope.
Another set of bad news (which I am actually extremely angry about) ... anyone who has been following my blog will know that my relationship with my father has been quite upsetting. I thought things were picking up but I am devastated to find out (through a third party) that my Aunty has breast cancer and I have not been told (even though I ask after her) even though my father has known for quite some time and she has already started chemotherapy. I am devastated. Of course I care about my aunty and my cousins. How could he think it wan;t important for me to know? I feel embarrassed and humiliated that I haven't written or spoken to them about it! I know my father has issues with talking about "bad things" and accepting things are wrong but this id NOT on. . . especially when my eight year old half sister knows and seems to think it is some kind of joke!
  Anyway a bit of random news (although I feel like a bit of a dirty paparazzi!) ... Today I spotted Erin O'Connor in my gym changing rooms! I went on for a shower as mine is not working and there she was preparing for a personal training session looking pretty shy in the corner. Unfortunately I was naked and just jumped in the shower as quickly as possible but it was cool to see her. She definitely is very tall .. and of course very beautiful!
Some pictures including an illustration by David Downton (favourite illustrator of Fairyality)  :

strung up...

EXPOSED Voyeurism, surveillence and the camera...

It seems the TATE MODERN has pulled out the publicity card again for their latest major group exhibition. Unlike POP LIFE the names of the artists wasn’t the crowd puller, nor was their much controversy but again it was still a largely celebrity obsessed exhibition luring our celebrity obsessed world.
I am not complaining. The theme of celebrity and the need for celebrity constantly intrigues me. This exhibition followed the secrecy of paparazzi, the creation of celebrity and how celebrity was created through our surveillance. Sex, violence, war and drugs also featured heavily in the massive collection of photographs. These photographs questioned what art is? Is it the artist? The subject? Or an accident?
Largely the work here was accidental….so can it really be called art? I think it proves art is limitless and we must have faith in whatever it is… science, people, image or thought.
Art is set out to satisfy, give knowledge, break boundaries….
Even when the camera was relatively new it was being developed to secretly spy on people…maybe even reveal things we could not otherwise know. The magic of voyeurism is in fact it catches people off guard, as themselves, at their most natural and real.
I think this exhibition proved humanities lust for power and holding a secret, knowing something we shouldn’t and clinging to it. As humans we have a desire for the wrong and risky a desire to penetrate people’s lives and a desire to know all and control. With a camera you can do this. You can hold a small part of a person and do with it what you will.
In terms of an exhibition, it was well curated, well explained, but fairly boring. The pictures were interesting but repetitive, some well known, the others, not really that exciting… yes it was intriguing but perhaps would make a better book of documentary. After all we are all in control of our surveillance.. We can all take pictures of people on toilets and feel like we are in control…the fact is … are you?

note.
Alex's art! (cough cough)...

The all seeing eye

Horus, the sun of Osiris and Isis was called ‘Horus who rules with two eyes’. His right eye was white and represented the sun: his left eye was black and represented the moon. According to the myth, Horus lost his left eye to his evil brother, Seth, who he fought to avenge Seth’s murder of Osiris. Seth tore out of the eye but lost the fight. The eye was reassembled by magic, by Thoth, the god of writing, the moon and magic. Horus presented his eye to Osiris, who experienced rebirth in the underworld.

iconism and idolism; electricity a modern day alter

The modern day world is one reolving around technology however as human beings we also still live in a world domenated by our relationship with people we have never met. We worship and we adorre yet we are all narcisists. It is the way we are conditioned. In reality we worship modern life.

I am not sure about sex .. that goes without saying but celebrity + technology = the future.