10 minute read
WHAT'S ON
The AgendaEVENTS NOT TO MISS IN LONDON
EXHIBITION
In Plain Sight
UNTIL FEBRUARY 2023, WELLCOME COLLECTION
Sight holds a central place in society, which is interesting considering more than two million people in the UK live with some form of sight loss. This new exhibition seeks to question this centrality and invites visitors to encounter the di erent experiences of sighted, partially sighted and blind people. It brings together 140 objects and artworks, including fascinating medical studies and examples of eyewear that date back to the 1600s.
THEATRE The Lavender Hill Mob
14 – 19 November RICHMOND THEATRE Witness one of the “greatest British fi lms of all time” being brought to life on stage by acclaimed comic actors Miles Jupp and Justin Edwards. This theatrical adaptation of the delightful heist comedy is arriving at Richmond Theatre, and it's sure to be full of missteps and misbehaviour. lavenderhillmobplay.co.uk
THEATRE Reasons You Should(n't) Love Me
5 - 26 November KILN THEATRE Londoners will once again have the opportunity to experience Amy Trigg’s remarkable debut play when it returns to the Kiln Theatre for a limited series of shows. Equal parts frank and funny, the monologue chronicles the story of a woman with spina bifi da as she clumsily navigates her twenties. kilntheatre.com
EVENT
FIREWORKS FESTIVAL
November 5 ALEXANDRA PALACE The 'Glastonbury of Fireworks' will be returning once again to light up London's skyline. This legendary Bonfire Night celebration has been held on the grounds of the palace for over a century and this year’s display promises to be more explosive than ever. Pyrotechnics aside, there will be plenty on offer to keep attendees entertained. fireworks.london
ART Cezanne
Until March 2023 TATE MODERN A pivotal fi gure in modern painting, Paul Cezanne has encouraged generations of artists to challenge convention. This exhibition brings together around 80 works from collections all around the world and is giving UK audiences their fi rst opportunity in over 25 years to explore the breadth of the artist's career. tate.org.uk
This Month’s Must See
KENSINGTON DOLLSHOUSE FESTIVAL
DECEMBER 3, KENSINGTON TOWN HALL
Dollhouse enthusiasts have been fl ocking to Kensington Town Hall since 1985 and this year’s showcase will see around 170 of the industry's best craftsmen, artisans and suppliers gathered together under one roof. Not only will attendees be able to fi nd everything they could need for their house or model, but they will also have the invaluable opportunity to meet the artisans, discuss their projects and ask for their advice. dollshouseshowcase.com
Art
TO WATCH
From the Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair
•The Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair is the UK’s largest art fair dedicated to highly collectible print works. Expect the very best of contemporary print including a curated selection of independent international artists chosen through an open call, many well-known names, and specialist gallery booths at London’s historic Royal Arsenal.
•New this year, the Prints & Multiples department at Bonhams auction house will present a showroom at the fair for the fi rst time. They will showcase a selection of works by renowned contemporary artists including The Connor Brothers, Harland Miller, David Shrigley and Tracy Emin and many more. Additionally, Jealous Gallery, a stalwart of the London print market, will be releasing a brand-new David Shrigley print, exclusive to the Fair.
•Meanwhile, the Living With Art booth o ers an exclusive free 20-minute one-to-one consultation with Fair Curator, Lizzie Glendinning, who specialises in curating art in the home. This personalised interior service will review your current art collection, introduce you to new pieces within the Fair, and look to develop innovative, bold and exciting ways to engage with them in your home.
Email info@woolwichprintfair.com to book your free and exclusive consultation.
woolwichprintfair.com
Which WITCH?
An intense and relevant new production of The Crucible
By PENDLE HARTE Photography JOHAN PERSSON
CADENCE WILLIAMS (BETTY PARRIS) AND FISAYO AKINADE (REV. HALE)
BRENDAN COWELL (JOHN PROCTOR) AND RACHELLE DIEDERICKS (MARY WARREN) It's an interesting time to revisit The Crucible. Arthur Miller's dark 1953 play that links the 17th century Salem witch trials with the McCarthyism of his age, resonates in a divided 21st century. It's an intense performance, a claustrophobic and hysteria-filled three hours that's as gripping as it is stylish.
Because the set, designed by multi awardwinning Es Devlin, is impressive – minimal and stark, mostly empty, with chairs that are moved around in various configurations, but also graphic and striking, with an increasing depth that emerges throughout the show, as the sense of urgency rises.
The audience enters to a curtain of rain pouring onto the stage, and the characters dutifully mop it up before chanting a sinister overture. Erin Doherty is nervy and vulnerable as Abigail Williams, and the group of children, dressed in frilled smocks, give a spooky act of quaking as though possessed by witchcraft. The story, with its tangle of allegiances, religion, fear, self-righteousness and flawed justice, is an emotional ride: exchanges between John
Procter (Brendan Cowell) and his wife
Elizabeth (an excellent, troubled Eileen
Walsh) are full of depth and expression.
People's willingness to demonise each other in order to clear their own names is shown in terrifying clarity, and this show's brilliant lighting and sound amplifies the sense of panic and foreboding that creeps up throughout. Director Lyndsey Turner's dark production is memorably unsettling.
ERIN DOHERTY (ABIGAIL WILLIAMS) AND THE CRUCIBLE CAST
ALASTAIR PARKER (THOMAS PUTNAM), TILLY TREMAYNE (REBECCA NURSE), MARTIN JOHNSTON (ENSEMBLE) AND ZOË ALDRICH (ANN PUTNAM)
THE CRUCIBLE
Until 5 November, National Theatre NT Live will release The Crucible in cinemas from 26 January 2023 nationaltheatre.org.uk
NEW
LOOKS
1TYLER MITCHELL, UNTITLED (HIJAB COUTURE), NEW YORK, 2019, FROM THE NEW BLACK VANGUARD (APERTURE, 2019). © TYLER MITCHELL
Inside the Saatchi Gallery’s celebration of Black creativity
JAMAL NXEDLANA, JOHANNESBURG, 2019, FROM THE NEW BLACK VANGUARD (APERTURE, 2019). © JAMAL NXEDLANA
The Saatchi Gallery’s new show The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion is a groundbreaking exhibition featuring 15 international Black photographers, all contributing to a new vision of the Black figure and reframing representation in art and fashion.
Curated by Antwaun Sargent, the exhibition focuses on fashion portraiture that is celebratory of Black culture, freeing the Black figure from photographic histories dominated by a white aesthetic. It is a celebration of Black creativity both in-front of and behind the camera. Featured works include Black stylists, models, make-up artists and creative directors who are bringing a radically new set of references and experiences to image making. American writer and critic Antwaun Sargent is interested in exploring a new aesthetic of Black portraiture while examining the crosspollination between art, fashion, and culture in the making of images. He says: “This exhibition is an exploration of this generation’s Black image makers who are bringing fresh perspective to photography. Image by image, they have created a loose global network around their art that powerfully centres identity, community and desire. The artists in this show profoundly reanimate the possibilities of contemporary photography.”
The New Black Vanguard presents artists whose vibrant portraits and conceptual images fuse the genres of art and fashion photography in ways that break down
DANA SCRUGGS, FIRE ON THE BEACH, 2019, FROM THE NEW BLACK VANGUARD (APERTURE, 2019). © DANA SCRUGGS
QUIL LEMONS, NEW YORK, 2017, FROM THE NEW BLACK VANGUARD (APERTURE, 2019). © QUIL LEMONS
long-established boundaries. Their work has been widely presented in traditional lifestyle magazines, ad campaigns, and museums, as well as on their individual social media channels, infusing the contemporary visual vocabulary around beauty and the body with new vitality and substance. The images open up conversations around the representation of the Black body and Black lives as subject matter. Collectively, the works celebrate Black creativity. Seeking to challenge the idea that Blackness is homogenous, the works serve as a form of visual activism delivered by emerging talents who are creating photography in vastly di erent contexts — be it in New York or Johannesburg, Lagos or London. The results — often made in collaboration with Black stylists and fashion designers — present new perspectives on the medium of photography and the notions of race, beauty, gender and power. This exhibition includes selected works from these groundbreaking contemporary photographers, as well as a salon wall presentation of images created by other young Black photographers contributing to this movement. Vitrines of publications, past and present, contextualize these images and chart the history of inclusion, and exclusion, in the creation of the Black commercial image. The exhibition proposes a brilliantly re-envisioned future.
The exhibition means a lot to its featured photographers. Campbell Addy said: “Many
NAMSA LEUBA, SARAH, LAGOS, NIGERIA, 2015, FROM THE NEW BLACK VANGUARD (APERTURE, 2019). © NAMSA LEUBA
RENELL MEDRANO, 1984, HARLEM, NEW YORK, 2018, FROM THE NEW BLACK VANGUARD (APERTURE, 2019). © RENELL MEDRANO
moons ago, as a newly graduated student, Antwaun Sargent came to me to talk about the experiences in the industry and what's needed. Speaking about the book he hopes to create, I implored him and said: "If only I had seen a book like that when I was younger, a project of profound joy and happiness, that showcased Blackness in its variety in visual media. Maybe then it wouldn't have been such a struggle for me to just imagine myself as one of those artists." Seeing what The New Black Vanguard has done, and its evolution through many cities, brings me so much happiness. As I know there is a young creative from a similar background to that of the exhibiting artists that is going to feel seen and feel acknowledged. Who may also feel challenged to create work. So it brings me profound joy and immense pride, that it is also going to be in London – in the same city that Antwaun and I met to talk about said book – many, many years ago. This moment in itself feels incredibly full circle.”
The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion, curated by Antwaun Sargent is at the Saatchi Gallery until 22 January 2023.
