In lieu of going on an actual holiday this August I got a change of view by attempting to look at some of the things I thought I knew by looking anew...
“Why don’t you cover a big cork bulletin board in bright pink felt, banded with bamboo, and pin with coloured thumb-tacks all your various enthusiasms as your life varies from week to week?”
Questioning our ways of seeing...
Someone first brought John Berger to my attention with the still-in-print book to his ‘eye-opening’ 70s TV series on art and how we look at it. It happens to be on YouTube. And so I watched it. And it percolated. Until I was compelled to revisit it this month. Maybe Berger was in the ether - last year he turned 90 and this year he died.
As one obituary read:
“With the series spanning topics including the role of the critic, the way art is constructed for our ‘gazes’, how it depicts women and possessions, and even the way that advertising works, it remains deeply relevant today.”
Check out this Dazed & Confused magazine piece by Emma Hope Allwood where Berger’s contemporary relevance is highlighted via the Three Graces meets the Victoria’s Secret Angels.
#AugustBreak2017 - bursting my bubble
Speaking of honing the old attention muscles I took part in another of Susannah Conway’s photo challenges. There’s been a lot of talk of bubbles recently. Media bubbles. Housing bubbles. The London bubble. So, it’s always good to have a go at bursting your own self-imposed bubble. It’s amazing what you see once you remove the blinkers with the help of an unexpected prompt.
For more see: Susannah Conway here
The Italian film that inspired the French New Wave...
Journey to Italy: a middle-aged, middle class couple teeter on the edge of marital breakdown amongst ancient ruins and a steamy, volcanic landscape in Roberto Rossellini’s film. For the most part we follow a lonely and childless Ingrid Bergman following shouty male tour guides or peering at prams. While her husband - George Sanders - drowns his sorrows on Capri.
But no man (or woman) is an island. Things will be faced - holiday or no. And, so a trip to Pompeii to watch the subterranean imprint of a couple, caught up in the ancient eruption, filled with plaster, excavated and presented, like a giant chocolate, with the words: "They found death together – united," only serves to emphasise the gaping hole in the present day relationship...
Because it's Never Not a Lovely Moon
As Journey to Italy all too painfully illustrates if there’s one person you can never getaway from it’s yourself. Then, when we realise we’ve maybe managed to lose sight of ourselves, we’re driven find ourselves again.
Well, Caroline McHugh reckons being yourself IS the path. Not the other way around. Remember the ‘you are enough’ mantra taught by motivational speaker and hypnotherapist Marisa Peer? And, McHugh builds on this, writing:
“Your only job while you’re here, on this planet is to be good at being you as they (your role models and whoever you look up to) are good at being them.”
A beautifully illustrated book for grown-ups who need the courage to be who they are.
A reading challenge...
Personally I think the power of the negative affirmation is underrated. Heaven knows no fury like a goal scorned by a significant person - be it lover, teacher, parent. A finely worded: “You’ll never do X, Y, Z!”delivered at the right time can do wonders for the motivation.
My friend’s reading challenge is a case in point. The goal: one book a week (52 books a year). His ex said it would be more like, er, 10. It wound up being 80!
From actually reading books he thought he ought to read to discovering books he never thought to read the challenge - which he’s shared on social media - has proved satisfying, stimulating and soothing in, well, challenging times.
A little shop of colours in London
“With colour one obtains an energy that seems to stem from witchcraft.”
Artist Henri Matisse once said.
Which is perhaps why L Cornelissen & Son, the Harry Potter-esque art shop, a stone’s throw from the British Museum, is so spellbinding. Too awestruck to step inside a recent Radio 4 show did if for me, revealing a Dickensian interior stacked with:
“Jars of pigment [which] ‘glint like jewels in the semi-dark’ (as Derek Jarman put it), full of vibrant powders with mysterious names and long, strange histories - Lapis Lazuli, Rose Madder, Naples Yellow, Potters Pink, Egyptian Blue, Caput Mortuum.”
Pure [pigment] magic.
A guide to how art can make you happy
“Why is art magical? How does it make you happy?”
Bridget Watson Payne asks.
Which is definitely why her slimline volume - How Art Can Make You Happy - is proudly bound in limoncello yellow. Eye-catching, effortless and energising it’s a perfect summer read:
“This little guide makes it easy to add art to your life - with tips on how to go to blockbuster shows (or not), how to talk about art at cocktail parties, how to look at art without leaving the comfort of your sofa, and how to let art wake you up to the world around you.”