On Paula Rego’s Feet

“And, they tell us, we at home Live free from danger, they go out to battle: fools! I’d rather stand three times in the front line than bear One child.” Euripides, Medea (431 BCE) So it’s been one year and nine months since I finished my MA at Chelsea College of Arts, and in the… Continue reading On Paula Rego’s Feet

On Pervy Old Men

“But the picture of the Madonna went with him. Continually, even as he sat in his small hard narrow room or knelt in the cool churches, it stood before his outraged soul with its sultry, dark-rimmed eyes, with a mysterious smile on its lips, naked and beautiful. And no prayer could exorcise it.” Thomas Mann,… Continue reading On Pervy Old Men

‘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 shows. 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… Continue reading On ‘Deadwind’