ARTS AND CULTURE

Last chance to see: Making NUNO exhibition at Japan House London

The European and UK debut of Japan House London’s current exhibition, Making NUNO Japanese Textile Innovation from Sudō Reiko runs until Sunday 11 July 2021. This is your last chance to see, in person, the eight art installations – including two never-before-seen exhibits – in Japan House London’s gallery. You have more time however, to visit (and revisit) the exhibition virtually. Read on to find out more.

Textile designer Sudō Reiko is renowned for pushing the boundaries of textile production. As Design Director of leading Japanese textile design firm Nuno and member of the revered Japan Design Committee, she is one of the most exciting textile artists working in Japan today.

Weaving Japanese craft traditions into new engineering techniques, Sudō champions regional textile materials, processes and makers from across Japan – from silk farmers in Yamagata Prefecture to weaving techniques in Tango, Kyoto Prefecture. Another major thread running through her work is the theme of sustainability, with Sudō finding innovative ways to make use of materials usually wasted in industrial manufacture and sustaining the regional craft traditions that influence her work.

The eight installations on display at Japan House London include ‘Amate’: a leather-like fabric created from pressing washi (Japanese paper made from mulberry) with amate (‘bark cloth’ made by the indigenous Otomi craftspeople in central Mexico). On display in the window bay of Japan House London, ‘Kibiso Crisscross’ is made from the outer shell of silkworm cocoons, usually discarded in the silk-weaving process. Meanwhile, ‘Colour Plate’, a vast wall of colourful thread spools, feeds thousands of threads into Sudō’s reinterpretation of a Jacquard loom.

These exhibits are more than just textiles. Bringing them to life is Saitō Seiichi, Panoramatiks Director (ex-Rhizomatiks Architecture), who combines the soundscapes from regional fabric and textile factories in Japan with projections that illuminate the processes behind each exhibit’s creation, taking guests into Sudō’s world. Bringing all artworks together for London is the vision of renowned curator Takahashi Mizuki, Executive Director and Chief Curator of Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile (CHAT) in Hong Kong.

If you have missed the chance to see this exhibition in person, or you are unable to make it to Kensington High Street, then why not pay a virtual visit? The exhibition is available online and offers visitors the chance to view these textile textures up close.

Explore the virtual exhibition of Making NUNO – Japanese Textile Innovation from Sudō Reiko on the Japan House London website: www.japanhouselondon.uk/discover/ exhibition/making-nuno-virtual-exhibition

As we slowly shuffle towards freedom, we’re taking stock of the effect the pandemic has had on everyones’ day-to-day. In his first column for the Kensington & Chelsea Review, dandyabout-town MARCUS WALTERS gives us the lowdown on his lockdown.

Hi, I’m Marcus Walters. I’d like to offer you my hand, but…

1) This is an article. 2) I’ve been locked down due to a deadly virus for the last year. Just like you have and everyone else. 3) It’s been so long I’m a bit nervous around people I don’t know.

The other morning as I was getting dressed for work, a latenight-show host was talking about the anniversary of the first lockdown. He reflected that the end of Covid was on the horizon. He talked about ‘getting back to normal’. But I wonder how close to normal that can be and how long it will last. I really can’t answer. But there is another question that everyone will be asking each other when that day finally comes – and I can pretty much answer that question today.

‘So, what have you been up to for the last year?’

For the first time in my adult life, I’ve had a real chance to look at the world around me. And, well… I have a few thoughts. So, I’ll be talking about the things I’ve learned this last year. Not just here, but going on from here. First up, my work.

I’m sitting in my office at my old job, group messaging back and forth with my friends. I’m a little annoyed as they’re shocked I’m in the office and it feels a little accusatory, ‘What are you doing there?! Why haven’t they sent you home?!’ I’m about to grumpily reply that ‘I’m paid to be here, and until that changes I’ll turn up’, when one of the directors walks over, ‘What are you doing here?’, she asks, ‘hasn’t Gert spoken to you?’ Just 10 minutes later, I’m heading home, rolling my eyes at everyone’s overreaction to this. This is just another swine flu. This is another SARS. As it goes, this is the last time I would work in that office. That day I got off the train for the last time in the following three months.

A few weeks in and I realise this is serious. For the first time since I was a baby, I have nowhere to be and nothing I need to do. I’d been unemployed in the past, but this time I’m on furlough. It’s a new word that I’ll hear daily, along with, ‘Zoom call’ and ‘social distancing’. It’s almost 10am and I’m squeezing myself into a pair of trousers for a video call (I don’t want to risk my team accidentally seeing me in shorts). I can barely fit into them. They were loose when I took them off. I squirm uncomfortably through the meeting.

I’m lugging my shopping bag back to my new home when my phone rings. It’s my boss’s boss. She called to reassure me that despite the circumstances the company, ‘isn’t currently considering redundancies’. I thank her for the call. The thought of redundancy hadn’t occurred to me until that very moment. Six weeks later, I’m made redundant.

Then, I’m back in the trousers for a job interview. I try to suck in my new paunch as best I can and give some pretty decent answers. So then I became a recruiter. I always hated them, but I’m surprised to find I’m good at it. I still suck at paperwork – somehow it’s even harder while working from home. Then I’m on the phone to my boss once more; lockdown has returned: ‘I’m looking at ways of keeping you on.’, she tells me.

Just over a week later, I’m unemployed again.

Once again, I’m back in the trousers for one last interview. This is the first interview I’ve ever had in a face mask. I try to sell myself using my eyes. And just like that, I’m a commuter again, my life back as the sidings to my work.

Which brings us up till now. I turn off the late-night host and head down to heat up the breakfast I prepared the night before. I eat standing up to save time. Supposedly, I’m ‘back to normal’ like nothing had ever happened. So, what will I tell people when they ask what I’ve been doing this last year? I expanded my mental real estate? I worked on my art? I was a regular mourner? I became a social-media buzzkill?

I think that there’s no way to show all the facets of a year once it’s gone. Instead, we tell stories to try to encapsulate the joy, the pain, the changes – the wasted potential. We’ll be telling stories about 2020 for decades to come. We’ve shown the holes in the way we live. It’s been an opportunity to actually change it for the better. As for me? Well, don’t go away, I’ve got a few stories of my own…

Charlotte Perriand: The Modern Life at the Design Museum

The Design Museum is the world’s leading museum devoted to contemporary architecture and design. Its work encompasses all elements of design, including fashion, product and graphic design.

Since it opened its doors in 1989 the museum has displayed everything from an AK-47 to high heels designed by Christian Louboutin. It has staged over 100 exhibitions, welcomed over seven million visitors and showcased the work of some of the world’s most celebrated designers and architects including Paul Smith, Zaha Hadid, Jonathan Ive, Frank Gehry, Eileen Gray and Dieter Rams.

In June, Design Museum, London puts a spotlight on the work of one of the giants of 20th-century design, a free spirit who championed good design for all. Marking 25 years since the last significant presentation in London, visitors can follow Charlotte Perriand’s creative process through sketches, photographs, scrapbooks, prototypes and final pieces. One of the great designers of the 20th century, at the age of 24, Perriand produced a number of critically acclaimed innovative pieces of metal furniture, which drew the attention of Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret. As a result she was given a position at Le Corbusier’s studio where she developed a series of tubular steel chairs, among them the famous chaise longue basculante. In the mid-1930s, she started to experiment with natural materials such as wood and cane. She travelled to Japan in 1940 as an official advisor on industrial design to the Ministry for Trade and Industry and became inspired by traditional Japanese materials and techniques. She also had a keen interest in the synthesis of the arts and was friends with Pablo Picasso and Fernand Léger who she collaborated with on projects. Her work aimed to create functional living spaces in the belief that better design helps in creating a better society and was an advocate for leisure activities and an outdoors lifestyle, designing various mountain refuges throughout her career which culminated in major architectural projects such as Les Arcs ski resort.

Cassina will act as the exhibition’s ‘Reconstruction Content Partner’. Founded in Meda by Cesare and Umberto Cassina in 1927, Cassina launched industrial design in Italy during the 1950s by taking a completely new approach, which saw a shift from handcraftsmanship to serial production. Cassina was pioneering in the way that it showed a striking inclination for research and innovation, combining technological skill with traditional craftsmanship. Today ‘The Cassina Perspective’ unites the company’s values to express the best contemporary design – avant-gardism, authenticity, excellence and the combination of technological capacity with skilled craftsmanship – and offers a broad panorama of configurations for the home, where innovative products and modern icons come together to create complete and, above all, welcoming environments, dialoguing according to a unique design code based on excellence.

Justin McGuirk, Chief Curator says ‘Charlotte Perriand was a hugely influential figure in design. Her life spanned the 20th century and her career reflects the twists and turns of the modernist movement. Yes, she was long overshadowed by her male counterparts, but this exhibition presents her not just as a brilliant designer who deserves wider recognition – she was also a natural collaborator and synthesiser. There is so much to admire, not just in her work but in the way she lived her life.’

Charlotte Perriand: The Modern Life runs until 5th September 2021. www.designmuseum.org, www.cassina.com #PerriandLiving @DesignMuseum

Image: Charlotte Perriand, Perspective drawing of the dining room in the Place Saint-Sulpice apartment-studio, Paris, 1928. © AChP/ © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2021

CHELSEA’S VANISHED PALACES: TRAGEDY AND SCANDAL IN TUDOR ENGLAND

As the Borough regroups for its future, historian ALISON WEIR takes a deep dive into its royal past.

In 1520, Sir Thomas More, that ‘Man for All Seasons’, bought a fine house at Chelsea. It stood by the River Thames on the site of modern Beaufort Street, and was surrounded by gardens and orchards. Henry VIII would sometimes visit unannounced ‘to be merry’ with his friend More. Once, he came to dinner, and afterwards ‘in a fair garden, walked with him for an hour, holding his arm about his neck’. The King arranged for the artist Hans Holbein, to lodge with More at Chelsea, where Holbein painted his famous portraits of More and his family.

More built a chapel in Chelsea Old Church, which survived the Blitz of 1941. He cared nothing for pomp and show. When the Duke of Norfolk found him in a plain gown, singing with the church choir, he tutted, ‘God’s body, my Lord Chancellor! A parish clerk! You dishonour the King and his office!’ More was unmoved. There is no evidence to support the tale that his head was buried in the chapel after his execution in 1535.

At that time, his house became forfeit to the Crown. In 1536, Jane Seymour stayed there while Anne Boleyn was in the Tower, and it was at Chelsea that she received news of Anne’s execution. Only the orchard wall of More’s house survives today, enclosing private gardens on the west side of Paultons Square.

In 1536, Lord Sandys gave Henry VIII a riverside manor house at Chelsea, which occupied a site now bounded by Cheyne Walk and Oakley Street. Henry converted it into a bijou palace. Constructed of red brick, it resembled St James’s Palace, which was built around the same time, but was only two storeys high. Ranged around two quadrangles, it had five acres of gardens, including a walled ‘Great Garden’ to the east and a privy garden with borders of rosemary and lavender, cherry, filbert, damson and peach trees and damask roses. There were 64,000 privet hedges and a fishpond. Water was piped into the palace by conduit from a spring in Kensington.

In 1544, Henry VIII granted Chelsea Palace to his sixth wife, Katherine Parr. Soon after he died in January 1547, she moved there with her 13-year-old stepdaughter, the future Queen Elizabeth I.

It was probably at Chelsea, in late May, that Katharine secretly married Thomas, Lord Seymour, Queen Jane’s brother. The marriage was kept secret. Thomas would visit Katharine at Chelsea in the middle of the night; she left a gate unlocked, warning him, ‘Ye must take some pain to come early in the morning, that ye may be gone again by seven o’ clock.’ She did not want to be found in bed with him when the household was rising. She was headily in love, longing for each tryst, and observed to Seymour, ‘The weeks be shorter at Chelsea than in other places.’ When the marriage was made public, it caused a scandal, coming too soon after Henry VIII’s death, even though the nine-year-old King Edward VI had privately encouraged the match.

In June, the swaggering, swashbuckling Seymour moved into Chelsea Palace. That summer, Lady Jane Grey, the future ninedays Queen, joined the household. Already, though, Seymour was showing an unstepfatherly interest in Elizabeth. He had had keys made for himself for all the rooms in the palace, including her bedchamber. He would enter in the mornings and ‘strike her familiarly on the back or on the buttocks’. Elizabeth’s response was not that of a child.

Katharine was last at Chelsea in October 1547. She died in childbed in September 1548 at Sudeley Castle, having tried to mend her marriage after surprising Seymour and Elizabeth in an embrace and sending Elizabeth away. Seymour was beheaded for treason in 1549. Chelsea’s connection with Henry VIII’s queens continued. In 1557, when the health of the divorced Anne of Cleves declined, Queen Mary I arranged for her to reside at Chelsea, where she died in July. She was the only one of Henry VIII’s wives to be buried in Westminster Abbey.

In 1653, after it had been extended in the 1630s and 40s, the palace boasted three halls, five parlours, three kitchens, three drawing rooms, twenty-six other chambers, three cellars, four closets, garrets and summer rooms. The complex was still enclosed with the Tudor brick wall. The house was demolished in 1828. All that remain are seven chambers vaulted in brickwork in the basement of 24 Cheyne Walk, extending beneath the road to Cheyne Mews.

Alison Weir’s latest book Katherine Parr: The Sixth Wife is published by Headline. To purchase or find out more, visit: www.alisonweir.org.uk

Credit: Anthony Delanoix

LARRY POONS MAKES HIS LONDON RETURN

By Tani Burns

For over half a century, Larry Poons has been identified as heir to the heroic era of American painting, following in the footsteps of such greats as Pollock, de Kooning, and Rothko. In his first solo show in London for almost two decades, works from as early as the 1970s feature alongside those created in the past year. His evolution as a painter over the decades has a life as dynamic as the canvases themselves…

In 1969, aged 32, Poons featured in the landmark exhibition New York Painting and Sculpture 1940–1970 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Curated by Henry Geldzahler, who devoted the show’s culminating gallery to the artist, this seminal exhibition saw Poons’ work stand out alongside those American greats, the final room glowing with his early ‘Dots and Lozenge’ paintings, as well as several then-recent expansive, colourful abstractions later regarded as iconic works in the Colour Field movement. The youngest artist included in the exhibition, Poons was at the time regarded as the promising, guiding star who could lead the way toward exciting new possibilities for contemporary painting.

Over the course of the five decades since the Met exhibition, Poons has more than fulfilled that promise. His trajectory was, however, not what most critics and art-world observers were expecting, or perhaps were even equipped to understand. Poons, as it turns out, was a much more radical painter than anyone could have imagined. Indifferent to the demands of critics, curators, and the marketplace, he remained steadfast on his own, inimitable path, constantly evolving and always surprising his audience.

This summer, and opening in perfect time for London’s first Gallery Weekend, Almine Rech are now presenting a solo show of Poons’ work in their Mayfair gallery space. This will be the artist’s first London show in nearly two decades, and constitutes a concise Larry Poons survey that picks up where Geldzhaler’s Met show left off. Already an art-historical figure, with the vibrant, energetic, and surprising works he continues to produce, he re-enforces his stature as one of the most significant artists of this moment. Widely regarded as among the foremost colourists of the latter half of the 20th century, 50 years on Poons is as relevant today as ever.

Starting with the early work, this new exhibition at Almine Rech features a particularly representative work of the 1970s, Yellow Cat on Hand (1976), a brilliant example of Poons’ richly textured ‘Throw’ paintings. Here, cascades of innumerable rivulets of pigment flow down the large canvas like a mesmerizing waterfall. By the 1980s, Poons was renowned as one of the pioneers of Colour Field painting, but defying expectations, he shifted away from a focus on pure colour, and furthered his experiments with texture, enhancing the already rich impasto of his surfaces. In works such as The 4 Fenton Bros (1985) and Carioca (1986), he applied bits of foam rubber and crumbled paper to the canvas in order to slow the movement of the numerous layers of thrown paint. The results are enthralling compositions of richly nuanced textures and earthy colours that recall rocky cliff faces or lichen-covered hillsides on a rainy day.

The large 1990 composition Music is a key work in Poons’ evolution. The surface of this sumptuous, prismatic-hued canvas has been built up with clusters of bisected rubber balls, and bits of rolled and crumpled paper fixed to the canvas and ensconced beneath many layers of shimmering pigment. It communicates a pulsating rhythm that fits the work’s title. Music also provides a connection with Poons’ background in music, as well as his lifelong interest in it – from 1955 to 1957 he studied at the New England Conservatory of Music, with the intent of becoming a professional musician, however after seeing Barnett Newman’s exhibition at French and Company in 1959 he gave up musical composition and enrolled at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Although Poons gave up music in a formal, educational sense, nevertheless he kept that passion alive, playing guitar with The Druds, a short-lived avant-garde noise music art band that featured prominent members of the New York proto-conceptual art and minimal art community in the early 1960s. Walter de Maria played the drums, LaMonte Young played the saxophone, Patty Mucha (Oldenburg) was the lead singer, while Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns wrote the lyrics.

In his more recent works, Poons largely abandoned the threedimensional elements that often served as the structure for each composition. In a large part, he also abandoned brushes, and many recent works, including No Home (2010), and Bye Corinthian (2016) were painted primarily with hands and fingers. It is as if Poons had returned painting to a realm of primordial artistic expression, embodying human emotions and the sensations of living through the fundamental mark-making capabilities of the human hand—the artist’s hand. And in the 2020 painting Centaur (2020) with its frenetic shifting clouds of light and colour, Poons demonstrates his virtuosity with seemingly effortless panache.

Those who may have seen him in the HBO documentary ‘The Price of Everything’ some years ago will recall him as the artist walking through a snowbound landscape in upstate New York, on his way to his woodshed studio. In the film, he spoons paint onto his palette with his hands before applying to a vast canvas. This unlikely star of the documentary, Poons is presented as the antithesis of art-market superstars such as Jeff Koons, also in the film. On camera, Poons condemns the market for preferring his ‘old stuff’, railing against the idea that the ‘best artist is the most expensive artist.’ His lyrical ideas around the purity of art and his work’s modest rise at auction provide a stark juxtaposition to scenes of market darlings like Koons.

In Almine Rech’s show in London, thankfully, we see that the old Poons is still in there – all the physicality, the musicality and the acute purity still remain – but we also see that, now in his 80s, the artist has continued to strive, continued to surprise, to grow and change. As Poons said in an interview at the time of the film’s release: ‘It’s impossible to stay the same unless you’re catatonic. Much like Leonardo da Vinci said, a work of art is never finished, only abandoned.’

LARRY POONS is at Almine Rech Mayfair until 31 July 2021. For more information visit www.alminerech.com

JR: CHRONICLES AT THE SAATCHI

With large-scale socially aware installations spread across the world – plus an Oscar nomination and TED Prize to his name, French ‘photograffeur’ JR’s new exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery is big news…

Like many who started out tagging walls, French artist JR has kept a degree of anonymity – cloaking himself in a Clark Kent-esque disguise of dark glasses and a hat – but his work is all about shining a spotlight on people, especially those who slip under the radar. He may have started out as a graffiti artist on the streets of Paris, but after finding a camera abandoned on the Metro, he turned the lens on his artist friends and then the wider world.

Now, his large-scale photographs of slum dwellers, migrants, impoverished farmers and other marginalised groups, blown up to immense proportions and pasted onto the sides of buildings, train roofs, along the US-Mexico border, buried in a symbolic funeral and more, are bold and confrontational, yet engaging and open to wider discussion. As JR says, ‘For me it’s really clear. I was writing my names on walls to say ‘I exist,’ then I started pasting pictures of people with their names to say they exist.’

So, we were very excited about JR: Chronicles at the Saatchi Gallery, the largest solo exhibition of the artist’s work to date. It focuses on some of his most important projects, including The Secret of the Great Pyramid (2019), a vast trompe-l’œil wheatpaste laid out around the Louvre’s glass pyramid (which JR once made ‘disappear’ by pasting an image of the Louvre over it). And Tehachapi, a project carried out in a Californian prison, where JR photographed the prisoners (many of whom had been behind bars for a decade or had little chance of parole) and guards, and filmed each subject telling their story. Working with the subjects, he pasted an image of prisoners and guards together to cover the entire prison yard.

The show traces his evolution from documenter of young graffitists, to radical architectural interventionist, posting vast works illegally in countries such as Sierra Leone, Kenya and Brazil, to his digitally collaged collective portraits of communities. From the work of Expo 2 Rue, which showcases his early images of spray-paint wielding teens, to his socially aware work in Portrait of a Generation, portraits of the people living in Les Bosquets, a housing project in the Parisian suburb of Montfermeil, which became a focal point for the riots of 2005. In showing their faces and documenting their stories, JR allows the youth from the project to tell their side of the story aside from media narratives.

He’s also used his medium to draw attention to conflicts (Face 2 Face, where photos of Israelis and Palestinians who hold the same job were placed opposite each other over the border wall), recognised women’s contributions to public life (Women Are Heroes, where photos of women’s eyes and faces were displayed throughout their community), and highlighted the value of the

elderly (The Wrinkles of the City, installed in Havana and Los Angeles, featuring portraits that told tales of the cities’ older residents). And, his film work is recognised here too, both Faces Places, made with famed New Wave filmmaker Agnès Varda, and The Gun Chronicles: A Story of America, which deals with one of the US’s most divisive issues.

Exactly how anonymous JR might be these days is up for debate, what with worldwide acclaim, big-ticket shows, Oscar nominations and a TED Prize win, but it’s a moot point really because he emphatically shows you where he wants you to look – somewhere where sight is much needed. This show, curated by Sharon Matt Atkins and Drew Sawyer from the Brooklyn Museum, gives further focus to his artistic advocacy and couldn’t be timelier when the world feels so fractured.

JR: Chronicles runs until 3 October 2021. To book tickets visit: www.saatchigallery.com

Images:

Top: JR (French, born 1983). The Chronicles of ClichyMontfermeil 2017, (detail), Duratrans prints, lightbox. © JR-ART.NET

Right: JR (French, born 1983). Women Are Heroes, Liberia, Rebecca Deman, 2009. Gelatin silver photograph. © JR-ART.NET

Bee in a Daisy Web (2020) Tuesday Ridell

Fulham Town Hall is the stunning scene for an exhibition of work by some of the most exciting female artists working in London right now. TANI BURNS spoke with young up-and-coming curator MC Llamas about the show, titled ‘The Tribe.’

As part of ‘Art in the Age of Now’ at Fulham Town Hall, The Tribe was curated by MC Llamas to bring together new work by contemporary female artists, presenting the different faces of femininity – from the strong or vulnerable to themes of sexuality, mystery or whimsy – without objectification. From Nettie Wakefield’s eerie reverse portraits to Abigail Fallis’ enormous bananas, the pieces oscillate between the humorous and the esoteric. Tuesday Riddell’s intricate Japanning panel opens us to a guided dream world from which Nancy Fouts’ Little Red Hiding Hood erupts – the works have conversations and make light of each other’s secrets.

The Tribe features work by Holly Allan; Pauline Amos; Kiera Bennett; Dana Berber; Elodie Carrel; Arietta Chandris; Catherine Eldridge; Abigail Fallis; Nancy Fouts; Anna Kenneally; Lily Lewis; Bip Ling; Jil Mandeng; Marion Mandeng; Sarah Maple; Tuesday Riddell; Savannah Macmillan; Jessica St. James; Chloe Karayiannis; Nettie Wakefield. Spanning three rooms in the vast space of Fulham’s old Town Hall – the iconic, deserted 51,000sq ft Victorian building in West London – The Tribe moves through several key themes. In the first, eerie and mysterious works include Nettie Wakefield’s sharply drawn reverse portraits of the back of women’s heads, Jil Mandeng’s collage family portrait reflecting on blurred childhood memories, and the late Nancy Fouts’ Little Red Riding Hood – charmingly dark as it references both a young girl taken from a childhood bedtime story and the very dark aesthetic of the pointed hoods of the Ku-Klux Clan. Tuesday Riddell’s highly lacquered small painting of a fantasy forest scene brings in detailed insects to take part in a modern tale.

Fun in its femininity, the centrepiece in the second room is a large stack of bananas made specifically for the room by Abigail Fallis – referencing Andy Warhol and Maurizio Cattelan while at the time offering a sarcastic take on womanhood and authority. Edie Baker’s works are inspired by pin-up magazines, where she paints, collages and weaves into the images, creating a dialogue with the subject and elevating the images by creating a strong narrative around them. In the third room a series of collaborative works between Pauline Amos and MC Llamas will be presented – a collection of new timed paintings, where the artists swapped works every 30 seconds, constantly adding to each other’s marks.

Kensington & Chelsea Review: Tell us a bit about the title of the show, ‘the Tribe’.

MC Llamas: The title is from one of the works performed in the showrooms, a poem by Dana Berber, which is an incredible ode to love and unity. The string of poems is written partly in Hebrew and has an incredible typographical and symbolic element to it, as it is transferred on the wall.

KCR: The exhibition is female artists only – was this a conscious decision?

MC: I never made a conscious decision for it to be an all-female show, I started thinking about specific works that I wanted to create a story with, but realised that I had been selecting works by female artists, so decided to keep going!

KCR: We’re interested in your collaborative work with Pauline Amos (in which you call yourselves ‘M.C.P.Amos’) – how important has this collaboration been for you over the past year – both personally and as an artist?

MC: P.A. and I developed a framework together. It helped me maintain a sense of focus during this lockdown. I was in London alone and it was quite tough. Pauline was in Devon, she was my bubble, we were each other’s support. Collaborating helped you step up and do more, when the isolation was difficult. We also made a book together called Tempus Fugit (time flies), which is symbolic of the collaborative art during a pandemic, when time did drag and yet the year flew by!

KCR: Fulham Town Hall is an incredible venue – have you curated the show with the space in mind?

MC: The Fulham Town Hall is such an incredible space, one can definitely feel the weight of history embedded in the walls. I loved curating the space, it has a homely and intimate feeling, which is enhanced by the nature of the artworks and the stories they tell.

KCR: And what have you got coming up next?

MC: I’m also curating a series of shows at an incredible new pub called the Hawk’s Nest in Shepherd’s Bush; the first exhibition will be a solo show by James Vaulkhard.

Find out more about ‘The Tribe’ and ‘Art in the Age of Now’ at Fulham Town Hall at www.artbelow.org

Check out The Hawk’s Nest at www.the-hawks-nest.co.uk

Follow MC Llamas on Instagram @mc.llamas

Luxury watch-making brand Bremont is opening a long-awaited Manufacturing and Technology Centre – SARAH MORAN gets the lowdown

Bremont is an award-winning British luxury brand, manufacturing mechanical watches in Henley-on-Thames, England. Co-founded by brothers Nick and Giles English in 2002, Bremont has made a substantial impact on the watch-making industry in a very short period of time. The brand remains true to its original principles of aviation and military, British engineering and adventure. As well as manufacturing watches for some of the most exclusive military squadrons around the world, Bremont continues to play an influential role in revitalising the British watch industry, the birthplace of numerous timekeeping innovations still used today. The brand is now in the top handful of chronometer producers in the world.

Bremont has been on an unwavering 19-year quest to manufacture watches in the UK and the opening of their new centre is a considerable leap towards that dream. The Bremont Manufacturing and Technology Centre, aka ‘The Wing’, is a state-of-the-art facility for manufacturing mechanical watches, the likes of which hasn’t been seen in this country in the UK since the 1970s. It provides the perfect foundation for the future growth of Bremont, enabling the brand to manufacture more components here in the UK and cement their global position as a manufacturer. Not only has The Wing been designed to perfectly fulfil a manufacturing requirement, but also with architectural merit that makes it a destination for watchmaking. When Bremont started all those years ago, the aim was to be more than just a marketing company outsourcing watch manufacturing overseas, and this was always going to be a massive challenge. Bremont’s mission statement remains the same: ‘To make exquisitely engineered mechanical timepieces on British soil with the lofty objective of reinvigorating the nation’s horological past, using our adventurous spirit, passion for detail, desire to innovate and dedication to the highest quality of customer satisfaction.’

The Wing is a 35,000sq ft purpose-built state-of-the-art mechanical-watch-manufacturing centre, enabling the full machining of Bremont’s watches. Sitting on the edge of a beautiful English Oxfordshire town, it was designed by award-winning architects Spratley & Partners on the site of a former piggery with strong eco-credentials, including a living roof, and recycled-air heating system. The site has been transformed into an end-to-end mechanical manufacturing centre with CNC machining, finishing and assembly as well as an on-site boutique and significant entertaining space. Just as importantly, the site will provide a destination for watch lovers to visit from all over the world.

Bremont has been running its own apprenticeship scheme for some time now, training up its workforce in this very specific and exacting craft. Working with partners like Rolls Royce, Jaguar and now Williams F1 presents a remarkable opportunity to collaborate and learn from some of the finest engineering businesses in the world, and Bremont is committed to building up a team of first-class engineers to reduce reliance on its non-domestic supply chain and as a key part of its onshoring programme. An increased focus on movement manufacturing and assembly will see Bremont further develop its apprenticeship scheme and will ultimately lead to the recruitment of more technical engineers as well as skilful craftsmen and women. As proud supporters of the British School of Watchmaking, Bremont will be looking to integrate training courses for its students at The Wing.

Bremont is opening up the new HQ to visitors and asking for a £25 charity donation which will go directly towards the Jon Egging trust. To find out more please see: www.bremont.com/products/the-bremont-tour

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HAME SWEET HAME

KATE WEIR tries her hand at professional cheffery with Adam Handling’s DIY meal kit

With restaurants back open again, why on earth would you want to dine in? We’ll tell you why: Hame by Adam Handling. The celebrated chef’s home-delivery kits bring his decidedly decadent, upmarket comfort food into your kitchen, sustainably packed and prepped with easy-to-follow recipe cards, which even have QR codes revealing videos of Handling himself showing you how it’s done. At the time of writing it was the closest I could get to having Handling cook for me – always a welcome prospect – so I was eager to give it a go (full disclosure: with the help of my chef partner).

Hame offers several tempting packages for beautifully conceived DIY feasts, ranging from a Sunday lunch with a truffle-stuffed chicken to a ‘Who are you trying to impress?’ box with caviar and lobster wagyu. However, the à la carte has all of Handling’s big-hitters and so that’s where we turned our attention, ordering cheese doughnuts, beef tartare with caviar, lobster in wagyu beef fat, beef Wellington with clotted-cream mash and a silky chocolate and raspberry mousse cake.

I rarely do the cooking in our flat, so I was bemused to open the huge delivery box to find seemingly disparate sachets of ingredients (pouches of beaten egg and vegetable oil, dough ready for the proving). I’m familiar with the inner workings of a restaurant, but part of the joy of fine dining is seeing a dish magicked up from the kitchen fully formed. Assemblage was a daunting prospect, but we got stuck in.

The beef tartare, mixed with kimchi sauce, pickled mushrooms and caviar was a strong start – a tangy, punch-packing dish with plenty of bite. The lobster looked somewhat forlorn in its vacuum-sealed package, but laid out on the plate, fat and pillowy, pooled in butter, it was ravishing and tasted as succulent and meaty as you’d hope. The beef Wellington was packed with sausage meat instead of a crepe, an excellent substitute that added to the richness of the dish, while the mash tasted like Devonshire’s finest. To finish, the mousse cake was a calorific, velvety mouthful of joy.

I’ll admit, there were some technical difficulties, when we didn’t have a rack to rest the cake on, the meat thermometer arrived sans batteries, and we mistook the Wellington for the tube of mash, and fledgling cooks like myself may baulk at some of the prep, even with Handling’s help, but overall we would absolutely hunker back down indoors for this top moveable feast.

Order yours here: www.adamhandling.co.uk/hame, from £130 for two.

A Silk-Wrapped Sensation Cook at Home Meal Kit From CERU

Fine dining in your front room has been a rising trend during lockdown. EMILY WILLIAMS delves into the delights of CERU, South Kensington’s Levantine restaurant that delivers flavoursome, stylish and sustainable DIY meal kits to your door.

What was going to be just another Friday night in lockdown turned into something surprising and special thanks to CERU in South Kensington. By this point, I’d exhausted all options on Uber Eats and dried-up dinner choices on Deliveroo. It was time to go back to the drawing board and find a unique and authentic meal that would transport me from the confines of the flat.

I virtually scrolled the streets of South Kensington on Google maps and the bright aquamarine awnings of CERU restaurant popped up on street view. It’s this captivating shade of blue that inspired the name of the restaurant and the Levantine cuisine that it serves. The cerulean colour represents the beauty of the East Mediterranean sea, which fringes the countries of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Palestine and Jordan that make up the Levant region in the Middle East.

The word ‘levant’ originates from the French word ‘to rise’, as the sun rises in the east. It’s a historic and colourful part of the world with a kaleidoscope of flavours, aromas, and ancient cooking styles. CERU restaurant aims to encapsulate the sensorial experience of this rich agricultural region known as the ‘fertile crescent’, using fresh ingredients from top London markets, and bring it into the comfort of your home. The result? A flavour-filled package that’s bursting with Mediterranean sunshine.

I could tell from the moment my CERU delivery arrived that it was prepared and presented with care. On receipt of the large cardboard box, I stripped back the seal to unveil a cool bed of reusable frozen-gel packs nestled around a vibrant parcel of ingredients wrapped in a bespoke silk scarf. As I carefully undid the knot and held up the luxurious fabric in front of me, the print revealed captivating clusters of raspberry-coloured cows framed by a chic royal-blue edging.

It was a thing of beauty, and before I had even turned to the ingredients, I started mentally pairing it with outfits in my wardrobe. What a brilliant idea – CERU has crafted stand-out sustainable packaging that combines its food concepts with a fashion accessory. With this stylish keepsake, the memory of the meal kit experience lives on beyond the final bite. Never mind haute couture, haute cuisine anyone?

At once, I’d donned the scarf around my neck and was beaming from ear to ear as I unpacked the ingredients and laid them out on the counter. Each vacuum-packed bioplastic slip was clearly labelled with allergen information and the beef-fillet recipe card provided detailed instructions alongside a step-by-step video link condensed into a useful QR code. I was impressed by how easy the instructions were to follow (the whole recipe only took 20 minutes in total), and how well adjusted they were to domestic kitchen conditions. All the ingredients were included and only familiar cooking equipment was required, such as an electric or gas hob, an oven with two shelves, a sharp knife for chopping, one bowl for tossing the cooked potatoes, two metal oven trays and a grill or frying pan.

As I cut open each ingredient package, I could smell and see the fresh quality of the ingredients, from the aromatic zing of the Zhug salsa to the lean tenderness of both beef fillets. For starters, homemade houmous and warm pitta were on the cards, a winning combination. Dipping the light and fluffy bread segments into melt-in-the-mouth garlicky creaminess set off the meal to a great start and it was only up from there.

Achieving a perfectly cooked medium-rare beef fillet was far less daunting when the recipe specified minute-by-minute instructions. All it took was one minute and 45 seconds in the frying pan on each side, followed by eight-and-a-half minutes in the oven to create that edge-to-edge pink interior and a seared outer casing. As I plated it over the artistic sweep of verdant Zhug salsa and sprinkled it with crushed hazelnuts, I was amazed at how professional the finished fillet looked. CERU has refined the minutiae of the menu so that customers can get it right every time.

The side dishes were another highlight in the overall composition. CERU provided lightly spiced pre-cooked potatoes that only needed 10 minutes in the oven to complete. Meanwhile, sautéing the tenderstem broccoli added a divine dose of green, topped with the contrast of velvety tahini. Tucking into the varied palate of textures and tastes, I felt completely transported and excited by the thought of visiting the Levant region in person.

CERU provides a gastronomic journey that fuses Levantine cooking methods, locally sourced British ingredients and a premium restaurant experience in a relaxed setting of your choice. Plus, thanks to their environmentally-conscious silk packaging, you can indulge in high-quality cuisine and embellish your wardrobe all in one go. CERU delivers a dine-at-home meal kit that goes the extra mile — it’s a flavoursome and fashionable silk-wrapped sensation.To order your CERU cook at home meal kit, visit: cerurestaurants.com/cook-at-home-kits

After what’s been a trying year for most of us, we need little excuse to celebrate now we are emerging into a positive new post-lockdown era. Let’s finally meet with loved ones and toast to happy times with some of these wonderful sparkling wines and champagnes as selected by LISA CURTISS.

Taittinger Nocturne Sec City Lights

The Palm by Whispering Angel

From the makers of iconic Provence rosé Chateau d’Esclans comes the Palm by Whispering Angel, an effortlessly chic and refreshingly approachable new wine for the rosé-lover looking to bring an extra splash of style to their summertime sipping. £13.99, www.thedrinksbasket.com

Bottega Gold Prosecco

A visual twist on the traditional Nocturne with fine bubbles and delicious notes of white blossom, peaches and apricots. On the palate it is soft, fresh and mellow with delicate floral and ripe-fruit flavours. The aftertaste is long and soft with a subtle sweetness. £40, www.champagnedirect.co.uk

Langham Estate Rosé 2017

Bottega Gold Prosecco Brut is made from Glera grapes, grown in the Valdobbiadene hills that surround Venice. Fermented for 40 days, it’s given its signature sparkle via the Charmat method, and bottled in an opaque golden bottle to protect the precious formula from light. With a fruity, floral bouquet and fresh, elegant palate of pears and apples, this is a lovely bubbly for any special occasion. £18.99, www.thedrinksbasket.com

This lovely English rosé is a blend of 54% Pinot Noir, 23% Pinot Meunier and 23% Chardonnay, which produce this pale-rose-gold wonderfully elegant wine with a stream of fine bubbles and a lasting finish. Aromas are of rhubarb crumble, cherry, cranberry and raspberry compote. The palate has a fine mousse with notes of strawberries, cherry and zingy apple. Langham was named Sparkling Wine Producer of the Year recently by the IWSC. £29.90, www.langhamwine.co.uk

Ca’ di Rajo Pink Prosecco DOC Treviso Rosé Millesimato Brut 2019 Krug Grande Cuvée

Krug Grand Cuvée Champagne is the magnum opus, a finished product that starts out as a combination of over 120 wines, expertly blended by the brand’s Chef de Cave, hence the limited quantity. Fresh and full-bodied, you’ll notice notes of toasted bread, hazelnut, sweet nougat, jellied fruits and barley sugar, accented by green apples, floral notes and a dash of savouries, like almonds, marzipan, gingerbread and sweet spices. £149.99, www.thedrinksbasket.com

An elegant pink prosecco with a touch of Pinot Noir bursting with flavours of summer berries. The Pinot Noir gives the wine a pretty pink blush, as well as adding delicate tastes of wild strawberry and fresh raspberry. It’s a delightful summer drink, with a lower-than-usual alcohol (11.5%), and a light body. £14.56, www.independent.wine

Francone Antichi Poderi dei Gallina 2020 Moscato d’Asti

A highly aromatic, light-bodied and exceptional sparkling Muscat wine from award-winning Piemonte winemakers, which has only 5% ABV and is ideal as an apéritif, and irresistible on summer afternoons. With notes of guava and pear, candy, and white-flower blossom. The wine has the typical sweetness of Muscat, with medium acidity, a fine mousse, low alcohol and a long lingering finish. £16.16, www.independent.wine

Bolney Estate Cuvée Rosé

A wonderful award-winning English sparkling wine from vineyards in Sussex. An elegant and delicate single vintage, traditional-method sparkly with a pretty salmon-pink colour and very fine bubbles. Floral and red apple aromas lead to red apple and cranberry on the palate with a bright, fresh finish and lovely length. Cuvée Rosé Magnum 2016, £69, https://bolneywineestate.com

Jenkyn Place Blanc de Blancs 2015

This award-winning wine is made exclusively from Chardonnay grapes from the boutique vineyard’s 500 vines. Pair with a fresh asparagus tart or white meat, such as chicken in a light garlic and cream sauce. It notched up many awards, including a gold medal at the Wine GB 2020 awards, silver at the IWSC awards 2020 and winner Best English Sparkling Wine at the World Sparkling Wine Award 2020. £38, www.jenkynplace.com