Spare Rib

There is an excellent programme playing on BBC Radio Four right this second on the creation and run of the women’s magazine Spare Rib, and it has brought together a group of Spare Rib’s founders to discuss their role in the first feminist magazine in the UK. It has been a really interesting insight into the reason why there was a need for such a magazine at the time, the trials the women writing for it were facing and how they created such a radical and important magazine out of these experiences.

Definitley catch it if you can, it is part of Radio 4’s reunion series.

Image of the Day

Jonathan Yeo. Girl Studying (Malala Yousafzai). 2012.

I visited the National Portrait Gallery yesterday to view the BP Portrait Prize, as I do every year but though it was, as ever, enjoyable, I found it less impressive as a whole collection as previous years shows. In a side gallery down the hall there is a small exhibition of portraits by the artist Jonathan Yeo, a largely self-taught artist who is famous for his paintings of celebrities and political figures. His skill as an artist is beyond all doubt, though the paintings on show of celebrities seemed to fail to reach past more than the surface and their beauty. We were seeing familiar faces in the way we are always used to seeing them. There was one painting however that captivated me, and this was probably more on account of the sitter than anything else. This is because Malala Yousfzai is well known not for a celebrity status, but because she was shot by the Taliban at age fourteen for being courageous enough to campaign for a girl’s right to education. Yeo works from both life and photographs, and the connection between the sitter and the viewer is one I found very strong, with Malala staring directly out of the painting, engaging the viewer on a human level and reminding us of her own personal strength, struggle and campaign. Whilst this may all seem as sugary and sentimentalist as Mark Hudson of the Telegraph has argued in his piece on the exhibition, I still couldnt fail to be engaged with such a subject as Masala.

 

 

 

 

 

Image(s) of the Day

 

At a traffic intersection, Johannesburg, 2011

Green Point Common, Cape Town, 2013

Both photos are from Pieter Hugo’s current exhibition Kin at the Yossi Milo Gallery in New York until 19 October.

 

 

 

 

From now on…

this blog will mainly focus on photography, specifically contemporary photography and the  role it plays in the 21st century, from the professional exhibition and the front page news to the humble selfie.

Image of the Day

Tim Hetherington. Infidel. 2010

From the exhibition You Never See Them Like This at the Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool.

6 Sept – 24 Nov

Image of the Day

Rose Finn-Kelcey. The Restless Image – A Discrepancy Between the Felt Position and the Seen Position. Self Portrait. 1975.

Upon finding this photograph in a magazine I was immediately capitavted more by the picture’s title than the actual photo itself, although it is still a very arresting photo. I guess I like the fact that the title questions where the ‘self’ is in the photo, behind the camera, or the body in the image. It is a comment on the medium of photography as a whole.

How I Feel Right Now

Image of the Day

Roger Hiorns. Youth. The Hepworth Wakefield. 30 August – November 2.

Image of the Day

Sworn Virgins of Albania. Jill Peters. 2012.

In this work Peters has photographed Albanian women who have sworn celibacy and lived all of their lives as men in order to have the same freedoms and rights as Albanian men have traditionally held. It’s a capitivating series documenting a fading way of life.

Fringe Favourites

As always I was at the forefront of cultural affairs this month by making it to Fringe on its final two days, but what a glorious two days they were. The sun was out (as much as it could be in Edinburgh), the city was buzzing, and with plenty of acts still to choose from I could not have been happier to be spending a bank holiday away from the dispiriting task of job hunting and instead sipping Pimm’s and paying strangers to make me laugh. I have never before been to the Fringe festival but I can safely say that I would happily roll up again next year for a longer stay. It certainly helps that, along with the absolute smorgasbord of entertainment available, the city itself is beautiful to behold. Boasting a stunningly cohesive wealth of architecture situated in equally picturesque hilly surroundings,  Edinburgh really is a gorgeous place.
When I wasn’t swooning over my surroundings I had time to pick some acts to actually go and see, and there were two who really stood out from the rest.

The first was Craig Campbell, a Canadian comedian who is, not to mince my words, hilarious.  Campbell’s Thrilling Mic Hunt (say it out loud) was given an extra late show at the historic Assembly Rooms in the heart of Edinburgh’s New Town. Despite the iconic venue the show was held in a small and intimate room, with only about fifty seats, and Craig greeted everyone at the door as we entered. Sitting in the front row meant that we recieved a full-blast of Campbell. And this isn’t just referring to his booming voice as it seems that so many late-night comedy sets these days aren’t complete without at least one or two graphic tales of masturbation (I was treated to about five such stories over my two days at the Fringe). But of all the stories I heard of bashing the bishop and spanking the monkey, Campbell’s was by far the funniest. However this was only a small feature of a largely non-crude show, in which Campbell demonstrated what he is best at, which is taking aspects of other cultural oddities he has noticed in the countries he has stayed in and people he’s met, and presenting them back to them through his own eyes and experiences. His takes on the Scots and the English were particularly accurate, yet never does Campbel lcome across as mean-spirited and he is always comfortable ripping himself as much as others. But one thing that is most important about Craig Campbell is that, no matter what he is saying, he is almost always constantly, side-splittingly funny. This was the only comedy show I visited where I laughed very loudly for a very long time. Having already gained some notoriety on British television, and with a show up mount Everest scheduled next year, he is a comedian who I think will go as far as he will high.

Craig Campbell will be performing across the UK as part of The Lumberjacks with Stewart Francis and Glenn Wool, from the 19th September to November 2nd.

After a day of semi-funny stand-ups and a rather underwhelming macaroni cheese pie (a Scottish specialty I was told) it was such a relief to see and act as delightful and spirit lifting (more than can be said for the pie) as the Wellington International Ukelele Orchestra. Their takes on well-known songs by groups such as The Smiths, Blondie, Outkast, Paul Simon and the Starland Vocal Band were given their own personal and joyful touch. Definitely worth seeing.