"Blue of the bugloss, and self-sown cornflower; Blue of the sage and winter hyacinth; Pink and white roses blooming in June; And the scarlet rosehips, fiery in winter; The bitter sloes to make sweet gin. Brambles in the autumn, And gorse in spring."Derek Jarman, Chroma: A Book of Colour - June 1993 (1993) This is… Continue reading On ‘Chroma’
On Decisions
"In passing from history to nature, myth acts economically: it abolishes the complexity of human acts, it gives them the simplicity of essences ... it organises a world which is without contradictions because it is without depth, a world wide open and wallowing in the evident, it establishes a blissful clarity. Things appear to mean… Continue reading On Decisions
On Severed Heads
“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
‘Traces of a Future Portland’
Rosie Dahlstrom: 'Belleisle', Still from 'Traces of a Future Portland' by Portland Collective, 2020. Image credit: Belleisle Conservatory, Ayr The isle has been the site of quarries for centuries, but the growth of cities like London, with the capital status as the world’s most important urban centre, built on the wealth gained plundering people and… Continue reading ‘Traces of a Future Portland’
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 ‘Deadwind’
This is an overdue love letter to one of my favourite things in the world: Nordic Noir TV. Deadwind (Karppi in Finland), Netflix, 2018 - 2022 So, I moved back to London last week which has been very surreal. Starting work again doing what I was doing before lockdown did indeed, as I thought it… Continue reading On ‘Deadwind’
On ‘The Imaginary’
I started reading The Imaginary: A Phenomenological Psychology of the Imagination by Jean Paul Sartre (1940) on Monday 23rd March, on the train back home to Glasgow where I would be staying until this whole pandemic thing blew over. I just finished it as lockdown is slowly lifting. It's a book deconstructing the imagination: such as… Continue reading On ‘The Imaginary’
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 Esmeralda
During quarantine, we've been drinking a lot of vodka and watching Disney films, which has been cathartic as I cry every time (a good way of releasing pent-up emotions). Even though I regularly watch my favourite Disney flick The Hunchback of Notre Dame, (mostly when very hungover) I have more clearly realised how fabulous the… Continue reading On Esmeralda
Sertraline Dreams 