“The problem for us is not whether our desires are satisfied or not. The problem is how do we know what we desire? There is nothing spontaneous, nothing natural about human desires. Our desires are artificial - we have to be taught to desire. Cinema is the ultimate pervert art. It doesn't give you what… Continue reading On ‘The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology’
On the Paintings of Rouen
I've been writing a bit about painting recently. Oddly enough, it actually took a couple of years of writing this blog to get going on painting analysis; I started writing mainly about film, literature, and other assorted cultural ephemera (lesbian vampires); I would continue making my own work in watercolour and oils, but painting remained outside my writing.
On Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s Birds
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: The Counter (oil on canvas, 2010) "At Ease As The Day Breaks Beside Its Erasure And At Pains To Temper The Light At Liberty Like The Owl When The Need Comes Knocking To Fly In League With The Night." Lynette Yiadom-Boakye With a borrowed Tate membership card in hand, I recently managed to… Continue reading On Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s Birds
On ‘Tàr’
On my thirtieth birthday I returned again to the Castle Cinema for another double bill, same as last year's celebration when Titane blew my tiny mind. This time around it is Tàr, the first of the double feature, that I am going to discuss.
On Marina Abramović and Pornography
“Simone was tall and lovely. She was usually very natural; there was nothing heartbreaking in her eyes or her voice. But on a sensual level, she so bluntly craved any upheaval that the faintest call from the senses gave her a look directly suggestive of all things linked to deep sexuality, such as blood, suffocation,… Continue reading On Marina Abramović and Pornography
‘Looking for Mushrooms’
Georg Dahled: Exhibition View, Looking for Mushrooms at CATHY, Furth Im Wald, Germany . Email from Rosie Dahlstrom to Georg Dahled, Tuesday 4th October 2022 “Hey Georg, I've attached here a draft of what I've written up for your exhibition. I already happened to be thinking about this idea but I wasn't sure what to… Continue reading ‘Looking for Mushrooms’
On ‘Paradise Lost’
“Farewell, happy fieldsWhere joy forever dwells: hail horrors, hail Infernal world, and thou profoundest hell Receive thy new possessor: one who brings A mind not to be changed by place or time.The mind is its own place, and in itselfCan make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.” John Milton, Paradise Lost (1674) Poster for Paradise Lost… Continue reading On ‘Paradise Lost’
On ‘Antichrist’ and ‘MEN’
“The definition of women as demonic beings, and the atrocious and humiliating practices to which so many of them were subjected left indelible marks on the female psyche and in women’s sense of possibilities. … For the witch-hunt destroyed a whole world of female practices, collective relations, and systems of knowledge that had been the… Continue reading On ‘Antichrist’ and ‘MEN’
On ‘Titane’
Poster for Titane (dir. Julia Ducournau, Arte France Cinema, 2021) I saw Titane, the second picture by French director Julia Ducournau, at the Castle Cinema in Hackney on my birthday. I was originally booked to see Licorice Pizza, Paul Thomas Anderson's new film, which was TERRIBLE, almost impressively crap; I forgot most of it the… Continue reading On ‘Titane’
‘Sea Creatures’
Rosie Dahlstrom: Cover for 'Sea Creatures' (limited edition book, 2021) This is a short piece of writing that is kind of poetic, kind of prose, that re-tells the story of the Gorgon sisters in a collage of ancient and contemporary references. I wrote it while painting a series of watercolours illustrating scenes from the narrative,… Continue reading ‘Sea Creatures’
Sertraline Dreams 