Arts & Culture
Originally published on Tuesday, 31st August 2010
The Culturist - SEPTEMBER
September’s a big deal on the event circuit. Especially as it’s the month where the whole city gets to trade in all those music and art festivals in favour of something a little more debonair… So while you’re keeping busy with (or busily hiding away from) London Fashion Week, Fashion’s Night Out, London Design Festival and all the other myriad ‘distractions’, we thought we’d rustle up a tasty selection of cultural salves for your poor, overly-distracted soul...
FILM
London International Animation Festival
Renoir, Brunswick Centre, WC1N 1AW
www.liaf.org.uk
Aug 27 – Sept 5
Back for its 7th year, the LIAF is one of those delightful beasts that neatly decimates all of our pesky preconceptions about the limitations of an art form. Hand-picking the very best auteur animations from over 30 countries around the world, the comprehensive line-up includes films from newcomers and veterans alike, premiere and archive screenings, featuring every possible technique you’ve ever seen… and then some. Pop along and draw your own conclusions about the future of animation.
ART
Hussein Chalayan: I Am Sad Leyla (Üzgünüm Leyla)
Lisson Gallery, 29 Bell Street, NW1 5BY
www.lissongallery.com
Sept 8 – Oct 2
If last year’s sexy Hussein Chalayan exhibition at the Design Museum left you head-over-heels, prepare for even more of an adoring tumble. His new installation at the Lisson is set to explore “music as a cultural form, creating a ‘disembodied experience’ of a performance by … one of Turkey’s most successful female singers, accompanied by an Ottoman orchestra.” Internationalism, performance theory, music, neo-traditionalism, and you just know it’s going be cool. Need we say more?
STYLE
Radio Hair Salon
Unit 5, 93-97 Redchurch Street, E2 7DJ
www.radiohairsalon.com
Open Now
Shortly after Hostem and 11 Boundary opened, we could be heard pining for a good hair salon to make Redchurch Street perfect. Well, snap. Finally the Bumble & Bumble hoarding has gone, the phone line and credit card machine installed, and the doors to the ‘Ditch’s newest salon are open. Called ‘Radio’, it’s not only the new B&B flagship but also the brainchild of Corrado Tever (who’s styled for Vogue, Q and The Times and shows for D&G and McQueen). The official launch is on the 9th but it’s technically open now.
ART
Noughtie Nightlife
Rich Mix, 34-47 Bethnal Green Road, E1 6LA
www.richmix.org.uk
Sept 9 – Oct 6
When was your first Trash? Where were you when Jodie’s Circus really found its legs? Boombox, Nag Nag Nag, Durrr, Anti-Social – these were the nights that helped shape a decade of after-hours fabulousness for the new millennium. Thankfully it was also a decade filled with talented nightlife-photographers including Ellis Scott, Christopher James and our own beloved Billa Baldwin to capture the action. And this exhibition pulls together some of the boldest, most wonderful moments of the new nightlife era. So where were you?
ART
David Bailey: Sculpture & Photography
Pangolin, 90 York Way, N1 9AG
www.kingsplace.co.uk
Sept 8 – Oct 6
David Bailey: Legendary fashion photographer. There… job done. Except that it seems the iconic snapper wants to avoid such simplistic pigeon-holding – and he’s got a new exhibition at the Pangolin to prove exactly that. The subject? Skulls. Lots of them. Big ones, small ones, enormous ones, all cast in stunning silvers and bronzes and set alongside a series of gorgeous images. Apparently all the skulls are actually his too – so bear that in mind next time you see one of his delicate fash-wan shoots in Vogue…
COMEDY
Fitzrovia Radio Hour
Wilton's Music Hall, 1 Graces Alley, E1 8JB
www.fitzroviaradio.co.uk
Sept 10
If you’ve never experienced the old fashioned hilarity that is The Fitzrovia Radio Hour, then you really must treat yourself. Harking back to the days of true wireless thrillers (when that meant huddling around the radio, rather than hunting down erratic internet hotspots), the Fitzrovia chaps are back from storming the Edinburgh Fringe with a show at East London’s ancient music hall. Visual gags, hysterical tales and some of the best sound props in the business. I say!
ART
Hands On: Design Brought To Life
Arts Gallery, University of Arts London, 272 High Holborn, WC1V 7EY
www.arts.ac.uk
Sept 16 – Oct 29, Mon-Fri 11am-6pm
Ever wandered what it would be like to be Alice, shrunken after the little Wonderland hiccup with the ‘Eat Me’ cake? Well now you can live the dream via Hands On – the first exhibition at the newly relocated Arts Gallery – where studioXAG have created a perfect (perfectly bizarre) dolls’ house parlour room, complete with Reiko Kaneko’s Witty Drip Tease teacups and David Clarke’s quirky Gore Blimey spoons, sash windows that lead to trompe l’oeil escapes and a whole room of oddities to discover.
FILM
Ladies and Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones
At Showcase, Vue & Picturehouse cinemas
www.cinerock.net
From Sept 16
The Beatles versus the Stones. Wasn’t that the old battle? Growing up with my mother’s LP collection, I was always very much the latter. So while most of my friends were arguing for the prowess (and hideous bowl cuts) of Paul and the boys, I was much more of a long hair and blues riffs kid. In fact, Exile on Main Street was one of the first albums I ever bought. Even now, the release of this re-mastered film of the ’72 Exile tour with an interview from Mick himself still sets my (now much shorter) hair on end with joyous anticipation.
DESIGN
Anti Design Festival
www.antidesignfestival.com
Sept 18-26
While the London Design Festival is out tooting the old aesthetic horn around town, this collective have a lightly different project on their hands. And the most exciting aspect to the inaugural Anti Design Festival is the sheer energy: “As a response to 25 years of cultural deep freeze,” they declare, “the Anti Design Festival will attempt to unlock creative fires and ideas, exploring spaces hitherto deemed out-of-bounds by a purely commercial criteria.” A bunch of top artists and designers with a real mission. Could be great.
OTHER
The One Room Hotel
Hostem, 41-43 Redchurch Street, E2 7DJ
www.theoneroomhotel.co.uk
Sept 18-26
Retail is your life? Hotels set your ticker a-flutter? Boutiques simply not boutique hotels enough? In that case, take a peek at Hostem who are converting their gorgeous store’s ever-changing back room into a pop-up hotel/exhibition for one week only. Curated by restoration-loving designers James Plumb, the space is naturally stunning, has it’s own private entrance, is available for only one night per couple and is free to apply for. But it’s also part of the Design Festival tour during the day – so you’ll have to skip that breakfast in bed…
LAST CHANCE: ART
Polly Morgan: Psychopomp
Haunch of Venison, 6 Burlington Gardens, W1S 3ET
www.haunchofvenison.com
July 21 – Sept 25
Nothing brings together a group of people quite like being scared witless at the cinema. Curled up behind a cushion, hands over your eyes, stuffing popcorn into your terrified mouth. And if that is your cup of tea, then you need to be all over this year’s FrightFest with everything from gore-ridden schlock to artier fear-mongering (eyes peeled – not literally, mind – for We Are What We Are, Mexico’s answer to Let The Right One In) alongside various Hellish talks and distractions.
