The Museletter March/April 2023

Menu, About

Last Exhibition - Christos tsimaris

Current Exhibition - Andrzej Borkowsh

Future Exhibition - Painters Sculptors

Art Market - Rory Watson

Art Market - Andrzej Maria Borkowski

Art Market - Andrzej Maria Borkowski

Art Market - Christos Tsimaris Resindency Program

Resindency Program - Eleni Maragaki

Resindency Program - Lauren Goldie

Resindency Program - Matthew Dardart

Future Event - Teresa Wells MRSS

East West East ll - Last Bus Tour

ACAVA Studio - Miranda Donovan

The Bomb Factory - Thomas Coulson

The Bomb Factory - Sam Nicholson

Gallery 46 - Benjamin Blanc

Poem Limbo - I Sis

Poem On A Rock In the Noth Sea - I Sis

Future Event - Portebello People’s TV

Future Event - TGA

Future Event - TheAnuual Art 2023

Interview - Piers What is in your mind?

Article - Amir Dehghan

Local Hero - Gordon French

About...

ARTMARKET

We are an artist-led initiative that supports creative endeavors through affordable and accessible reproductions of artwork. Our model dramatically reduces the cost of digital reproductions, making art accessible to everyone regardless of their background or status.

If you admire a piece, you can now afford to purchase it. For artists, our initiative generates revenue that helps bridge the gap between exhibitions, whether they are emerging or established in the art world.

‘I love it, but I’m not going to re-mortgage…’ (no more)

The MUSE Gallery

(UK Charity for the arts No.1162300) 269, Portobello Rd. London W11 1LR www.themuseat269.com info@themuseat269.com

Twitter: Muse_Gallery

Instagram: Muse_at_269

MARCH 2023

Contributors :

Tze-Chun Yeh

Damian Rayne

Gosia Malawska

In our online version, we focus on partner organisations, guest artists and residents to bring you a preview of ‘what is’, and ‘what’s to be expected’. We also have links to a wealth of online content this month, including: sound art files for music producers, virtual tours and interviews with our partner organisation (The Galleries Association), and a cross-section of counter-culture to be found in West London.

The Muse was founded in 2003 by artists, with the aim of providing support for both gallery and studio activities. Our gallery is located in the heart of North Kensington, surrounded by Georgian houses in Portobello Market. We offer an annual residency program that provides subsidized studio space and opportunities for recent graduates to showcase their work. Throughout the year, we welcome artists to exhibit their work, curating a diverse selection of emerging and established professionals. In 2020, we supported three new residents and featured a varied group of national and international artists. We hope you enjoy this collection of artwork in our periodical, which includes collectable images accessible to our readership both in digital and print format.

PRICES:

A3 - digital reproduction on paper 350 gsm - £45 (unframed)

A3 - digital reproduction on paper 350 gsm - £55 (framed)

A4 - digital reproduction on paper 350 gsm - £35 (unframed)

A4 - digital reproduction on paper 350 gsm - £45 (framed)

Check our website to see more artworks for sale

www.themuseat269.com

To purchase digital prints of the artwork showcased in this edition, kindly send:

1.Your name

2.Your postal address

3.Your email

4.Page number

Once we have this information, we will send you a link for payment and process the order. You will have the artwork framed or with frame within 7 working days.

Opening hours: Thursday/Friday /Saturday/Sunday 12-6pm

Please check our website for up to date information

Front cover: Teresa Wells, To the left, to the right

The Muse Group Theatre Company @themusegrouptheatrecompany

An in house theatre company founded in 2022. An artist-led group working to support emerging talent. We strive to create powerful theatre, and raise funds for charities who support the causes that are aligned with each production.

Muse Theatre London was established as a platform based on our annual Scratchdays event ; hosting theatre groups and writers to showcase new material to live audiences. In 2020, the production was taken online to adhere to social distancing and lockdown protocols; using Zoom as a platform for us to broadcast to audiences at home. As lockdown eases, we will be continuing to support one production per month, working with talent from across London and beyond.

The Gallery Association (TGA) @tga_artbus

TGA works to build community by hosting experience that connects artists, managers and galleries.

We are an industry network resource, supported by the small and independent galleries and artists studio of West London. Our events invites artists, galleries, curators, art critics/writers and enthusiasts to enjoy tours and performances and connect with the best in contemporary art and acumen, culture and counter-culture.

See you in the next ART BUS tour!

Portobello Radio @portobello.radio

Representing the rich sound and cultural diversity of West London since 2015.

We celebrate the rich cultural diversity that is the Portobello Road and serve as a hub of the community, streaming its events, offers, news, views and developments. We offer air time to all communities, a regular Latin American show, a Spanish hour, Moroccan, African, Caribbean, Irish & more join the Portobello Radio Melting Pot.

By giving airtime to all of Portobello’s varied residents we wish to bring the community together, entertain, inform and enthuse.

Christos Tsimaris

9th Feb - 3rd March

I believe that any painting can be reworked as long as it is in my studio. You could say that we grow together. Some of the paintings in my exhibition at The Muse Gallery were started years ago. For instance, “Starstruck” was a study of a self-portrait that I began in 2019.

Photo Credit by Jocelyn Tze-Chun Yeh

Recently, I was looking for a subject to paint, and my daughter suggested Timothée Chalamet. We had a conversation about this young and talented Hollywood star, who has an androgynous appearance. That evening, I went to my studio and googled him.

I picked one of the many self-portraits that I had lying around and started painting over it. There was no particular reason why I chose a self-portrait, other than recycling paintings that I was not happy with. Perhaps I was curious to see the metamorphosis from me being the subject to becoming Timothy, or maybe there was some subconscious vanity involved. The way my self-portrait was painted, and the way the metamorphosis started, was more traditional, and what I would call a study However, where I want to go is on a more personal journey of discovery and the creation of an image.

For me, the most important tool is drawing and work ethic. I was fortunate to study art in Thessaloniki, Greece, where the system is more academic and consists of daily live models. The presence of my tutor, Vagelis Dimitreas, was essential. He was excellent at identifying my weaknesses and turning them into elements of uniqueness through hard work.

Basquiat, 2019-2023, 150x200, mixed media

Christos Tsimaris

@tsimaris

The painting of Basquiat is also another recycled painting that I started a few years back. I wasn’t happy with the way my painting was developing, so as I was looking for a sitting figure online, I came across a photograph of Basquiat with Andy Warhol in the background. Basquiat is looking very calmly at the lens, but for some reason, I wanted to disturb all that and inject some of the energy that you see in a Basquiat painting.

I was pleased to show this painting and have a solo exhibition at The Muse Gallery. It was essential to see my paintings in a clear space that the gallery provides, and for people to see my work in real life.

The gallery is essential for London and for artists who exhibit and participate in the studio residence. It is located in an amazing spot on Portobello Road and is very busy, particularly on market days.

I am very grateful for the opportunity to show at The Muse and look forward to working with them in the future.

Andrzej Maria Borkowski

An Alternate Life

9th Mar - 2rd April

Andrzej Maria Borkowski

Reverse painting on glass

Returning to Portobello Rd brings back fond memories, especially now as I have my own individual exhibition, a significant contrast to my first visit in 1977 where I offered small drawings to late hippie magazines.

As a Polish graphic artist and performer, I came to Britain in 1976 to work with a small fringe theatre in Newark, touring around England, Scotland, and Wales for a year before settling in London to pursue my passion for drawing. Although making a living selling art was challenging, I returned to Poland to teach at the Fine Arts Academy in Gdańsk. I returned to Portobello Rd in 1981 to make drawings for Nicolas Saunder’s and Max Handley’s last version of “Alternative London Guide” and exhibited my first screen-print years later in a group show at The Muse Gallery at 269, the same place where I am now presenting my exhibition, "An Alternate Life".

My life has been an alternating journey between Poland and Britain, performing, teaching art, and creating my artwork. My "BOOKs," which started in the 2000s, are a by-product of my prints, printed on the red pages of cheap sketchbooks, and more carefree and playful in nature. They depict reoccurring themes, mirroring my fascinations, longings, and obsessions, and are all about love, featuring images of women and men in a dance of life surrounded by heart motifs. My prints are settled now and portray heroes and themes, adding a touch of drama with their red background.

Although settled in Bath now, memories of Portobello Rd remain close to my heart. The beautiful red tribal Afghan dress that my ex-wife and I wore on our wedding day was purchased from the market, and my two daughters and their families live nearby.

I am grateful for the support I received from The Muse Gallery and am impressed by its hub of art and creativity.

On Her Trembling Lips - monoprint

From Red Book

Incognito - screenprint

Mlle Pomme d’Epinne - screenprint

Mona - screenprint

Teresa Wells,Gaia, bronze sculpture,

Rory Watson

Andrzej Maria Borkowski

Andrzej Maria Borkowski

Christos Tsimaris

Man and dog, 2019-2023, mixed media, 140x190cm

Residency Program

The Muse Gallery has been supporting emerging artists through its residency program since 2004. This program offers studio space, exhibition opportunities, and industry connections to help cultivate emerging talent. The gallery also hosts an annual group show, which awards successful artists with residency positions.

The gallery has launched a Sponsor program to further support emerging artists by providing financial assistance to kickstart their careers. Established by artists, the gallery merges creative and commercial concepts under one roof, supporting contemporaries.

In addition to the residency program, The Muse Gallery & Studio offers exhibition space to more established artists for a nominal commission. However, with limited slots available each year, the gallery’s affiliated artists and professionals select shows and provide appraisals to proposals in need of refinement.

The gallery opens its doors throughout the year to host community arts projects, musicians, film makers, and live performers. Events range from ‘Sound art’ to ‘Cult film’ evenings and associated seminars.

The residency program is available to recent BA and MA graduates, offering a group and solo show during their time with The Muse Gallery & Studio. The gallery works to secure public and private sector funding for its residents and visiting artists, offering professional development opportunities during visiting shows throughout the year.

Established in 2003, The Muse Gallery & Studio continues to improve conditions for arts practice and exhibition, placing ‘artists for artists’ at the heart of its organization. As a UK charity for the arts, with registration number 1162300, interested parties can contact the gallery directly for more information.

Muse Gallery residents went for Saachi Gallery for Beyond the streets London exhibition - 23rd of March (Our Artist Junior Tomlin has a few leaflets designed by him there.)

Eleni Maragaki

Linocut, work in progress

Being a resident at the Muse Gallery for the past two months has provided me with interesting interactions among artists and visitors, as well as with the opportunity to work on my practice in a concentrated and methodic manner. It has been intriguing to present my work in all its various stages of production from beginning to end and invite meaningful dialogue with the viewer.

I consider the opportunity of practicing my art within the Muse Gallery as a time of communication and sharing. I always aim to develop my practice within shared studios and I consider working alongside my fellow residents as a great source of motivation. The duality of the space, being both a gallery and a studio, offers an intriguing dynamic for my current ideas which are related to the elements of interaction and audience engagement. The programme not only has provided me with a much needed workspace, but also with the opportunity to meet and discuss with gallery visitors and to examine firsthand the public reaction to my practice.

The first work I have made within the Muse Gallery is a puzzle created from a linocut print under the title: The Endless Landscape Puzzle. The puzzle provides a space to test out the dynamics between the human element, geometry and structure, challenging the relationship between all three. This work reflects my interest in bridging the dichotomy between urban construction and the natural environment. The Endless Landscape presents the immense non-organic flows of life that constitute the landscape, such as mountains and seas, attempting to depict the environment in its pure state of wilderness and solitude. This powerful representation is being fragmented as a result of the equally strong presence of geometry, a symbol of the synthetic and human made. The puzzle’s complexity allows the viewers to interact with it from different aspects and comprehend it in multiple layers regarding its playfulness, form and lastly discovering the enclosed conflicts between the natural and the artificial.

Lauren Goldie

Glass from the kiln with ceramic fibreglass stencil

Time at the beginning of The Muse residency has been spent diversifying the use of material and process. Casting is essential during construction, many of the materials are mixed, measured, and are essential to the concept. Recently, I have experimented with slip-casting, producing two and three-part plaster moulds, using a polyurethane maquette. I have trialed environmentally friendly alternatives to epoxy resin, including rice-starch variants.

Metal working is a new asset within the sculptures. Alongside The Muse Residency, I was fortunate to be awarded a scholarship with Morley College, enabling me to attend two casting workshops on bronze production. Pre-emptively I created a plaster and grog core sculpture coated in foundry wax. Bronze was cast into the plaster and grog mould and left to cool. The mould was smashed and the work cleaned. The sculpture is currently undergoing filing and refinement before considering a patina.

It will form part of a lager work produced for The Muse final exhibition.

Further metal experimentation includes working with titanium. Colouring titanium is achieved using heat via a blow torch or anodising techniques. Anodising involves placing the titanium into an amnion sulphate bath and running electric currents through the metal. The colour of the metal is dependent on the voltage running through it.

Glass working has also been trialed as a material, introducing techniques such as tacking and slumping in a kiln. A favourite process involves creating a stencil with ceramic fibre paper and placing it beneath the glass in the kiln to create a permanent indentation. Metals interact interestingly with the glass. Coppers for example change colour to either a deep maroon or aquamarine.

Printmaking has become an extension of drawing, its allowance for experimentation encourages fast-paced and diverse results. Techniques trialed include caustic etching, where exposed lino is placed into an acid bath and dissolved. Carborundum, where grit is mixed into a paste and applied to a plexiglass plate at different levels of intensity to create texture and shade. One preferred method to work with is metal etching, experimenting with ways of interfering with hard-ground on a zinc plate using solvents, water, dust, sand and touche.

Research has also been running alongside practical development. Upcoming artworks will continue to explore the value of orbital objects in outer space, critiquing the economic and political incentives for this form of expansion. Recent interests have extended to consider the ways apocalyptic narratives impact humanity’s approach to climate change. The research considers humanity’s psychological need to anticipate the future and theories on survival.

The bronze newly out of the cast, with sprues still attached.

A Drypoint print, sampling carborundum techniques to achieve texture and shade.

A sample of colouring titanium using the anodising technique, altering the voltage to achieve different colours.

Matthew Dardart

My time at the Muse has so far been a positive and progressive experience. Everyone who works here at the gallery have been very welcoming to me, generously offering opportunities to broaden my experience in the art world and trusting me with access to their space whenever I need it. I am grateful to have been given an opportunity like this in such a relaxed and freeing environment.

The residency kicked off with an exhibition in January showcasing art works from all four residents. This created a deadline and gave me the drive to make something new to present in the show, a pressure I have missed since leaving university. The private view night was very special with friends, family and strangers coming to the gallery on a cold January night to show their support and indulge in good chat, great sights, and free drinks. It’s hard to believe three months has passed since then, but you know what they say, time flies when you’re painting pictures of Simon Cowell.

I am currently working on two ideas for sculptures to finish before the end of the residency and hopefully exhibit at our group show in June. One, a large free-standing sculpture resembling a handstand, is being made, or rather, growing in a separate space from the gallery as the intuitive process I try to follow makes these kind of works particularly messy. This process is heavily material driven and so will, hopefully, end up consisting of a wide range of detritus and residues.

And two, a triptych of crucifix-esque reliefs depicting a silhouetted representation of the three businessmen of the apocalypse British icons/old white men, painted onto a number of panels made up from chicken wire, hessian scrim and bonding plaster. Painting and relief making is not part of my usual practice but being given a space at the Muse has allowed me to consider and experiment with alternative methods of making. One of the first things I noticed when joining the studio was the vast scale of the wall space surrounding it. This then led me to consider how a space like that could possibly be filled with a much larger scale relief than I had previously ever imagined doing. I am now able to directly act upon this curiosity due to the open-mind the gallery provides to its residence – as well as the ‘all clear ’ for the excessive wall nailing.

All in all, my time here at the gallery has been fun! And I’m lucky enough to be able to experience all this in such a freeing and community positive space. Things are starting to happen now in the studios and I’m looking forward to seeing how they progress over the final three months of the residency.

Thank you to the Muse Gallery for having me.

We gathered early on Portobello Road. What was different this time was that we visited open studios, we brought Portobello Radio.

The visits to the studios along the way can be heard on the radio station, which was a very interesting experience. Therefore, for friends who cannot join us, please tune in to our program on @muse_at_269 or our podcast

We departed at 11 am and stopped at three studios, which were ACAVA Studios, The Bomb Factory, and Gallery 46.

We met many professional artists and greatly enjoyed watching them create in their unique studios. It’s interesting how you can learn about a person’s personality and style through their workspace.

There will be more interview content to come, and we look forward to future opportunities to collaborate with them. If you would like to join our art studio tour in the future, don’t forget to follow our bus Instagram account @tga_artbus

Photo Credit by Jocelyn Tze-Chun Yeh

Miranda Donovan

Where contradictions can co-exist and harmony prevails combining juxtapositions like man and nature, order and chaos, beauty and decay, Donovan’s low relief paintings are a space where contradictions can co-exist. They are an analogy for a society where harmony prevails within the politics of division and where the melting pot of nationalities and divergent creeds thrive. To this end they could be seen as idealistic – especially in the context of Brexit, the legacy of Trump, the climate crisis and Britain’s handling of the European refugee crisis, “but you’ve got to believe in the possibility of a better world, otherwise what’s the point?”.

Raised between London, Holland and Gozo, an island off Malta, Donovan “learnt to carry strands of different societies, different cultures, within me.” She read History of Art at the University of Bristol, followed by Fine Art at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts d’Aix-en-Provence and at The City & Guilds of London Art School. She graduated in 2005 with an in-depth knowledge and appreciation for artists ranging from the Dutch landscape artists of the Golden Age to Anselm Kiefer, a deep interest in the sculptural possibilities of painting, and a lasting preoccupation with walls. “Age-old, enduring… walls we walk blindly past every day to the ancient walls of the Lascaux Caves in France. Their layers talk of man’s history, of hopes as well as fears. Walls create havens as well as barriers, whilst their surfaces tell stories through their colours and the marks left both by man and the elements.

”A wall is the genesis of every canvas, the foundation of what will become a landscape or a street scene. Donovan makes each work with materials of the building trade, first layering down a cement-like substance, mixed with polymers. Over this, she applies paint, text, figures, and slogans, constantly sanding back and reapplying coatings, until the colours, marks and residual matter connect with her, and a story is told. A story which at its core, in spite of polarities and differences, speaks of tolerance and an understanding of the “other,” enabling instead emotions of what it is to be and to feel human to rise to the surface.

Thomas is a multi-disciplinary artist based in London exploring sites of the congregation, the narrative of working life and the arcs of family life. Through scripts, sculptures and landscape paintings, Thomas conjures singular silhouettes of darkened habitations and architectural monoliths situated in overcast damning horizons. Collectively Thomas’ body of work gives us a glimpse into a world that is seemingly teetering on the edge of its peril.

As new worlds are forged old ones are forgotten. Now into the third Milenia, our previous days become mythologized and seemingly more archaic with the whitewashing and sandblasting of the backdrop that held host to the previous world's ongoings.

Thomas often focuses heavily on the Industrial Chimney as the central subject of his landscape work. Commanding that its cultural relevance as an architectural monument is as important if not more important than the Steeples of Cathedrals or the Hendges of the Moors. These monuments stand analogous to the standing stones of the bygone ages, marking locations of civilization and collective gathering for collective purposes. However, Thomas' work protests that these ‘spires of modernity’ for a time loomed over all else, monumentalizing the birth of a new deity. A deity to which people would congregate for a new purpose, A deity of economy and capital.

In 2021 I wrote a poem in which the recently shrunken six-fingered narrator, speaks of a mosquito that would be able to rest one leg on each of his fingertips. This mosquito started squatting in my mind and slowly started to burn its way out.

A couple of months later I had to hang a few paintings around the house (where they remain) for storage purposes, including a large mosquito canvas in the living room that began to, in the correct circumstances and with a little bit of encouragement, show me other forms it had the potential to exist in. The flat space in which it resided dissolved and it showed me the depth of its world.

My existing entanglement with colour and texture naturally intensified in order to communicate the resonance and movement and disorientation of this other place I had flirted with, aided by seeking visual reference from the world around me.

The superpositions of colour on a roof stubbled with moss for example. At once an orange clay and also an acidic green. Observed as green in the morning and observed later as orange. And then observed as both and for me that’s when things start to hum. One of the so many things I love about painting is that you can never predict where it will end up. Forme the initial ideas get things flowing but quickly lose themselves in layers of thick paint.

It all becomes more physical. The relationship between the canvas and the painting itself. This intuitive time of technicolour allows also for areas of research to flow into the work. I find over-planning individual paintings restrictive if not futile. The materials (and I am including colour as a material) are not passive. To force a rigid ideal onto them seems to result in conflict. There is a power in the materials that also commands an end result from the painting.

Often after the painting as an image and the painting as an object spend some time getting to know each other, changes are required. The breaking down and rebuilding of a painting may be required. I have works that have been exhibited in multiple forms. Sharing the development.

Exhibiting the process. A painting that is different at each point of observation. Forever a W.I.P.

Benjamin Blanc

Benjamin Blanc is a french painter in their final year of Fine Art at Central Saint-Martins. After just over a year of finally exhibiting both in Paris and London, from queer raves and group shows with dear friends, to formal exhibitions in gallery spaces like Southwark Park Galleries and Gallery 46, Benjamin chooses, or maybe cannot help themselves to treat every audience the same way.

The artist believes a formal painting is just a big piece of stretched colour-stained fabric placed on a wall, and plays with the chemical and physical interactions between paint and fabric. They however, think any coloured fabric absorbs the energy, creates a vacuum and gives a place for the eye to land in a room with bare walls. Benjamin wants to make a point of this. In laying the groundworks with opulent fabrics reminiscent of eleganza, they affirm their queer subjectivity. The ruffles trap the painting or protrude from the canvas – depending on how you want to see it. Their paintings beg for attention with their garish ornaments, which stem from thorough examination of taste motivated by WWtheir queerness, and unveil the illusion of formalism.

Benjamin believes oil painting is inherently nostalgic and does not exist without connotation, and plays with the painting-adjacent lexicon. Antique carousel horses, draperies and porcelain flowers waltz in and out their canvas, alongside dusty aubergine, prussian blue and Payne’s grey pigments.

This practice calls for a certain limbo between order and disorder of things, which the artist summons by painting surreal uncanny scenes. Disorder, of things that are not in the right order in time or space, creates vacant gaps left to be explored.

Obsessing over an elimination process led by dissatisfaction, Benjamin’s paintings live in an overly curated decor. Theatre spotlights turn the bed into a stage: the figure laying in the duvets knows you are watching. The cardboard trees of a set design are self-aware, they effectively give the gist of greenery. This paper forest fools the audience without turning them into fools, it contains them in the space of a theatre.

Benjamin wonders if they shouldn’t start obsessing with things that might satisfy them. Lightness ahead!

Exhibition at Safe House

Left to right: Jasmin/ Perpetual concession/ Irene

LIMBO, LIMBO, LIMBO!

LIMBO, Different things to different people , is it a dance, a game, an ancient tradition, its true meaning lost over the millennia…

I was born in Trinidad and Tobago and grew up there during the 60s and 70s. Ina a place, and a time when the LIMBO dance was routinely performed at social events.

Through the eyes of a child LIMBO was vibrant it was strong, a celebration of our tradition, Powerful bodies showcasing exquisite expertise, colourful costumes; it was vibrant.

Trinidad is credited with it origin during the 1950s. However, there are some who make the connection between LIMBO and enslavement because of the narrow space that the kidnapped Afrikans were forced to occupy and the small space under de stick. Afrikans were also forced to dance on deck for exercise.

LIMBO shows were participatory events because the audience were always expected to join in.

Take a turn under the LIMBO stick. Lines formed and the brave , bold supple ones had a go.

Each time our turn came the stick was lowered a notch until it was a few inches off the floor so that only the most limber would be able to keep going.

At this time of year, I feel lost. Trapped on a rock in the North Sea, Near the year’s end, I feel threatened, by the hibernal shift seeking to lift my mood at time struggling to maintain a positive attitude.

At this time of year, I ask myself why am I still here. It's wet, it's damp and cold, another freeze unfolds. For me, This is not a good place to be... Yet another bleak winter, the sunlight's gone AWOL...

At this time of year, I'm left wondering. can handle the adverse weather to come? Sunny days are definitely dun. I do not feel welcomed.

I notice everything around me slowly dying. Much has stopped growing and it’s time for hibernating.

1ST APRIL FROM 6-11PM

Celebrating some of the great movies from the Portobello Film and Art Festival’s 26 years’ history. Featured tonight and you may have seen his stickers around Portobello Road Dominic Wade’s cult classic

DocoBanksy

w hich goes a long way to answering the question Who Is Banksy?

THE MUSE GALLERY 269, PORTOBELLO ROAD LONDON W11 1LR

WWW.PORTOBELLOFILMFESTIVAL.COM

Piers, What is in your mind?

Transcribed Audio

Damian:

So Piers, What's on your mind?

Whatever you like, it’s up to you

Piers:

Well, Damian spring is on my mind. We've had obviously, some miserable times and miserable weather. But here we are into March and spring is from here and it seems to be a lot of creative activity going

Damian:

To be true. What in particular,

Piers:

On portable radios show, Strong and good shout at the tabernacle, regular show every fortnight quite nice in the bus is back up and running and we had a fantastic bus in February. That took us as far away as watch up, which was really quite exciting. And I think that's quite as a theme. At the moment. I'm reaching out across London. We've been quite insular. We've been insular for a while, but we've been particularly insular since the pandemic. Bill got stuck in our neighborhood stuck in our homes. And we realize even within London, you know, you go across these trends you've crossed the river to Brixton. There's so much going on. So I think the objective for the next six months is gonna be to bring our neighborhoods back into the collective East London.

Damian:

They were standing here on the block between Cambridge and Lancaster Road, Cambridge gardens and Lancaster road. Do you think this block has changed in the last 20 years? Do you think this is the last bastion of Portobello road?

Piers:

Portobello road changes slowly. I mean, my personal bugbear is the loss of many of the foods to food, by which I mean raw food, stores we've had for so long and the pandemic was not good for a lot of them because a lot of them were relatively elderly. But it's on the other hand, physical space isn't that much different. We're looking at Spanish restaurants. I can remember when that was the Italian cafe. Same people outside

Damian: Cierra Solly. Yeah. So like the south

Piers:

turning to follow the sun it changes it stays the same and you've got to work hard to maintain the vibe, the ambience, the values and what is important to it.

Damian:

Couldn't agree more. Thank you

An insincere future: will discourse become diluted with AI

Written by Amir Dehghan

An insincere future: will discourse become diluted with AI I was out with a few friends one weekend in early February when one of my French friends said, "I’ve been sending my boyfriend texts that Chat GPT edited for months now", a point I ignored at the time. Although, since then artificial intelligence (AI) has become a major talking point, specifically Chat GPT, is an engine built to respond to any queries and reply in a scarily accurate fashion. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been keeping up with the times, automating all of my formal and informal correspondences, and no one has noticed a thing... AI can automate, but it cannot experience anything tangible, so I set myself a test, I’ll write a very short piece about the history of the modern Iranian politics. My mother and father experienced the Iranian Revolution of 1979, a famous timestamp in their lives and in Iranian history, I’ll be only using their experiences and knowledge of the Iranian revolution and testing if ChatGDP can describe my homeland as intimately as myself and my family. A test of human memory/experience vs data.

Example One

The state of Iran is known by two names, Iran and Persia, both homes of the Persian Empire. In the early 20th century, Persia experienced a pivotal change. In 1925, the Pahlavi dynasty took over from the Qajar dynasty, and with that came the fall of the Persian empire. Reza Pahalavi, also known as Reza Shah, was declared the new king of Iran. He implemented new values in Iran; there was a secular push and a focus on modernity. A push that his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, also known as the Shah, continued after he took over from his father’s reign in 1941. Although the Pahlavis, like the Qajars, were overthrown,

This event was known widely as the Iranian Revolution of 1979, a series of mass demonstrations that resulted in the dethronement of the Shah. Ruhollah Khomeini, a dogmatic Shi’ite leader, replaced the Shah, shifting Iran from a monarchal secular state to a conservative Islamic fundamentalist republic. These series of events can be used to contextualise the change in focus in both visual discourse and Iranian thought. I’ll introduce the philosophies and concepts of many Iranian politicians, thinkers, and movements, such as "Khomeini’ism" , The Shah," and the Iranian Green Movement. The new government implemented a series of policies aimed at the Islamization of Iranian society, including the imposition of Islamic law, the elimination of western influence, and the promotion of traditional Islamic values.

Example Two

The Iranian Revolution was a massive upheaval that took place in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was a time of intense social and political unrest, as people from all walks of life came together to protest against the corrupt and oppressive regime of the Shah. Iranians were fed up with the government's corruption, economic inequality, and westernisation policies that seemed to be eroding the country's traditional Islamic values. The revolution was also driven by a desire to establish an Islamic government in Iran. When the Shah was overthrown in February 1979, it was a moment of immense joy and relief for many Iranians. However, the establishment of the new Islamic Republic of Iran also brought with it a new set of challenges. The new government implemented strict Islamic law, which restricted personal freedoms and led to the suppression of dissent. Despite this, many Iranians were hopeful that the Islamic Republic would lead to a better future for their country.

The Iranian Revolution had a significant impact on the region, particularly on the relationship between Iran and the United States. Following the revolution, the US and Iran became estranged, and relations between the two countries deteriorated rapidly. The revolution also inspired similar movements across the region, particularly in countries with Muslim-majority populations, where the idea of establishing an Islamic state was appealing to many. Today, the legacy of the Iranian Revolution is still felt in Iran and the wider region, as the country continues to grapple with issues of political and social change.

For the answer, please see page 47

Screenshot of ChatGPT homepage.

Fragility, Art’s reminder of our

Written by Amir Dehghan

transience

"Sometimes making something leads to nothing." Francis Alys drags an ice cube through Mexico City for 9 hours until it melts entirely. Alys’s paradoxical endeavour presents a balance between absence and presence, between the idea and the object, and between what isn’t there as well as what is: the space between things in which transformation occurs. This metaphorical act nods to the transience of the human and natural condition that, after enough exposure to the world around us, will evaporate. Alys's metaphorical actions refer to fragility and a change of perspective. Like the mirror that is present when looking out to sea, at the stars, or down at us from a height, realising the insignificance of ourselves as individuals within a wider epoch. Art utilises expressions of futility to stimulate empathy, allowing us to come out of our individual states. As Brené Brown would say, "Empathy fuels connection; connection fuels reflection."

Discourse that can introduce a shift in thought, by focusing on mortality, leads to a greater appreciation of presence. Alys’s 1997 performance, though considered an absurd use of one’s effort and time, was done to symbolize the frustration that everyday residents of Mexico City were enduring in an effort to improve their living conditions. Paradoxical expressions of fragility throughout visual language are becoming increasingly more relevant in today’s society, characterised by our automatic lifestyles within a world in crisis.

Olafur Eliasson’s "Ice Watch" is a direct example of the use of highlighting transience to give feeling to something that is usually abstract and distant, to sensitize something as urgent as the changing climate. The piece consists of 30 huge blocks of Greenland ice, pulled from the waters of Nuup Kangerlua fjord in Greenland after having broken away from the adjoining ice sheet; 24 blocks have been arranged in a circular formation on Bankside outside Tate Modern, and six more are on display in the heart of the City of London outside Bloomberg’s European headquarters. "Greenland is literally out of our body and in our brain, and I wanted simply to change that narrative of the climate from our brain and emotionalize it into our bodies," says Eliasson. The spectacle of watching the centuries-old ice cubes vanish is an incisive action with the goal of sobering the individuals living in a metropolitan automatic existence. Eliasson presents us with Hegel’s Weltgeist and Zeitgeist, a world spirit and a time spirit. Olafur and Hegel identify and differentiate the mentality of one historical epoch that may differ very much from that of another, and that as individual minds we are very much creatures of our time and its historical climate. A spectacle stopping us in our tracks, attempting to disrupt our typical understanding and time, using fragility as an intimate stimulus.

In a post-internet age where addiction to social media dopamine factories is rife and phrases like micro-trends are coined, there is no mental breathing space left to be sincerely present and therefore reflective.

Eliasson’s and Alys’s works act as the antithesis to the typical paradoxical visual cycles ingested in our time: Tik-Toks, reels and endless scrolls. A constant attack of stories and images creates the illusion of endless possibilities, leading to a sense of urgency and the fear of missing out. Our current addiction to images and stories highlights a space where Alys and Eliason’s insightful use of vital language can be utilised, as it is now in our nature to intake information through short snippets of visual information. By identifying this parallel between the vital (social and climate matters) and the futile (endless scrolls and reels), we can utilise this key to create the empathetic connection that Brown talks about above, while becoming more enlightened by Hegel’s idea of self in relation to time, a potent homogenisation which can lead to an awareness of fragility within ourselves and our surroundings. Alys's act of dragging an ice cube through Mexico City for nine hours until it melted entirely is a powerful metaphor for the transience of the human (Zeitgiest). The melting of the ice blocks is a powerful symbol of the urgent need for action to prevent catastrophic changes to our planet's climate (Weltgiest). In a time where we are constantly shelled with messages about the importance of productivity and efficiency, Alys and Elliason’s act serves as a mirror to reflect on the fragility of life. By focusing on the space between things in which transformation occurs, reveals an art space that needs to be urgently created by artists and visited by humans.

Alÿs, F ., 1997. Francis Alÿs. "Sometimes making something leads to nothing."

Video courtesy of the Artist

Gordon French Local Hero

Gordon French came to London from Melbourne, Australia in 1985 on a two-year contract as part of the original team that built SKY Television. Ten years later, when a bathroom fitting shop on the corner of Kensington Court Place became available, Gordon retired from television and opened Gallery 19, an architectural art gallery and on-site framing workshop. There is an infamous story that when Rupert Murdoch received Gordon’s resignation he laughed and said he’d keep Gordon’s job open for a year. That was twenty-eight years ago. Gordon’s background in technical drawing and theatre set design adapted into a handsome architectural painting style which Gordon has used to pictorially document Kensington. The four sides of Kensington Square, Kensington Palace and the icons of Kensington Gardens, Holland House and Park, Frog Hollow, and the Builders Arms pub are just a few examples from the Gallery 19 Collection, a collection of giclee prints made from Gordon’s originals. House portraits by Gordon are also available on commission. Gordon goes to Italy at least twice a year - to Portovenere on the Ligurian coast in the summer and to Venice during the winter – where he paints and finds treasures to bring back to Gallery 19. For the past decade Gordon, with the help of his family, has been organizing The Friends of Holland Park Annual Art Exhibition which is held for ten days in April in the Orangery of Holland Park. Gordon, who turned 80 last year, can still be found in his gallery six days a week, dealing with clients or upstairs in his tiny studio, painting to commission or for personal pleasure.