“Ah! thou wouldst not suffer me to kiss thy mouth, Iokanaan. Well! I will kiss it now. I will bite it with my teeth as one bites a ripe fruit. Yes, I will kiss thy mouth, Iokanaan. I said it; did I not say it? I said it. Ah! I will kiss it now .… Continue reading On Severed Heads
Category: Art
On Everyday Filmmaking
The Mundane and the Magical: Filmmaking of Every Day Nalini Malani: ‘Can You Hear Me’, film projections, Whitechapel Gallery (2020 – 2021) I would like to write an article about the intimacy of everyday artmaking. This is not that article; the following text is adapted from a proposal I've recently submitted to a writing prize… Continue reading On Everyday Filmmaking
On Andrea Rocha
Andrea Rocha: Cutting Skin, Cutting Paper Fig. 1: ‘Wash Your Hands’, photographed collage, 2020 Two energies, or two competing forces, are at work in the photographic montages of Andrea Rocha (b. 1964, Rio de Janeiro). These warring visual phenomena, which we could refer to as what Sartre called the real and the ‘irreal’, can… Continue reading On Andrea Rocha
On Saint Sebastian
Detail of 'St. Sebastian' by Sandro Botticelli, 1474 Forbearance in the face of fate, beauty constantly under torture, are not merely passive. They are a positive achievement, an explicit triumph; and the figure of Sebastian is the most beautiful symbol, if not of art as a whole, yet certainly of the art we speak of… Continue reading On Saint Sebastian
On the MA Show
Rosie Dahlstrom: 'Delphyne and the Oracle', performance and installation, Chelsea College of Arts, July 2019 From 26th June to 4th July, we finally got into our MA Show spaces at Chelsea to start installing our work in time for the grand opening on Friday 5th July. Then the show was open to the public from… Continue reading On the MA Show
On Glasgow Drawing Club
Starting a new series of articles in 2020, in which I go back and reflect on some of the experiences I had last year. This is the first one: 'Glasgow Drawing Club' was a group exhibition of 12 Glasgow-based or Glasgow-connected emerging artists in the Cookhouse Gallery, Chelsea College of Arts, 7th - 11th November… Continue reading On Glasgow Drawing Club
On Delphyne: Part 4
Smoke and Visions Rosie Dahlstrom: digital collage of Delphyne with a cigarette, 2018 'Feet don't fail me now,Take me to the finish line,Oh, my heart, it breaks every step that I take,But I'm hoping at the gates, they'll tell me that you're mine.'Lana Del Rey, 'Born to Die' (from Born to Die, Polyador/Interscope Records, 2012)… Continue reading On Delphyne: Part 4
On Confessions
“The confession has spread its effects far and wide. It plays a part in justice, medicine, education, family relationships, and love relations, in the most ordinary affairs of everyday life, and in the most solemn rites; one confesses one's crimes, one's sins, one's thoughts and desires, one's illnesses and troubles; one goes about telling, with… Continue reading On Confessions
On Manon
A week or so ago, I was briefly back at Chelsea College of Arts for an exhibition of Chelsea and Hong Kong artists who had completed an exchange residency, showing the results from their time in either London or Hong Kong. As part of our conversation, I mentioned the 'Sex or Death' game; something daft… Continue reading On Manon
On Delphyne: Part 3
Gender Many female figures involved in Christian history have transcended their given gender roles in varying ways, as we remember from the earlier examples of Joan of Arc, Abbess Benedetta or Pope Joan. For some female would-be saints their male guise was to prove how special and godly they were, that their divine purpose could… Continue reading On Delphyne: Part 3
Sertraline Dreams 