Painting by Nude for Thought artists (l-r): Martin Ireland, Neil Groom and Richard Dickson
What is wrong with the naked male form? From Monty Python’s The Life of Brian to The Full Monty, men’s rude bits continue to be exploited for comedic value, their innate beauty hushed up and kept firmly behind closed doors.
But a group of male artists seeks to change all that, by holding an exhibition that reconsiders the raw form of the naked male body and reestablishes the tradition of the male nude as an object of beauty and bearer of meaning.
Re-Defining Beauty, which opens at the Leyden Gallery this month, provides a contemporary take on traditional art historical portrayals of the male nude form.
Inspired by the British Museum exhibition Defining Beauty, which looked at the origins of representing the human body in art, the week-long show features a range of mixed media art works that question terms such as ‘beautiful’, ‘powerful’, and ‘masculine’ in relation to the male form.
Nude by Brian Dennis
Artist Martin Ireland founded Nude for Thought after becoming frustrated at the tendency for life drawing groups to use mainly female models.
In 2004 Ireland created a life-drawing group that used male models exclusively.
As the popularity of the life drawing sessions increased, discussions arose about the relevance of the male nude in 21st century art.
Many of the artists had experienced difficulty in exhibiting male nudes in commercial galleries, or were rejected when entering paintings of the male body in open competitions.
It was from those discussions that Nude for Thought was formed. The group, which brings together painting, drawing, sculpture and performance art, held its first exhibition in Southwark last November.
“Is there a place for the male form in contemporary decorative art,” a statement on the group’s website reads. “And if so, who will look at it through fresh eyes?”
Nude for Thought is at Leyden Gallery, Leyden Street, E1 7LE from 3–7 November. leydengallery.com
Karlina Grace-Paseda in Sarai at the Arcola Theatre. Photograph: Sarah Hickson
Scriptural tale Sarai begins with the audience being plunged into literal and figurative darkness, as Abraham’s companion Sarai laments her childless state in an unforgiving ancient land.
It’s a thunderous opening to a story of migration, family and fulfilment, with Karlina Grace-Paseda as Sarai announcing herself as the play’s titular character and central force using the full force of her body and voice.
The production uses a minimal set, with music the only accompaniment to the performance. Sarai manipulates her on-stage environment to show the camp she has left, while costume changes accompany different circumstances.
Mood lighting reflects Sarai’s state-of-mind and invites the audience into her physical and symbolic journey. The live musical accompaniment is a fusion of cultures and could easily find a home at experimental jazz venue Cafe Oto next door.
Musical director Byron Wallen has assembled a quartet from the African, Middle Eastern and Japanese traditions, which provides a wholly original backdrop to events. Dynamic range is conveyed with the diverse array of instruments including cellos, trumpets, flutes, harps, percussion and drums. This pan-continental approach voices Sarai’s tribulations and is played with verve and precision, converging with her movements in moments of epiphany.
The production tells a religious story, all the while endowing it with wider significance. Grace-Paseda’s performance is full of classical intensity and poise, as she dominates the material in a multi-faceted, towering performance. Sarai is an enveloping theatrical experience that brings to life its source material and a reminder of the power and quality of Old Testament narratives.
Sarai is at the Arcola Theatre, 24 Ashwin Street, E8 3DL until 7 November. arcolatheatre.com
Mirrors, the new multi-venue event from the promoters behind Dot to Dot, proved that festivals should not be restrained to those carefree summer months.
Held this weekend on Halloween, organisers eschewed the traditional theme and provided an eclectic musical line-up on the stages of three stellar venues: Oslo, St John at Hackney and the Round Chapel on Lower Clapton Road. Ticket holders had only to walk five minutes between each site and despite 2,000 attendees, there was no time wasted queuing for drinks or entry.
Headliners at the sell-out festival included The Wytches, Nadine Shah and The Thurston Moore Band but true gems were the lesser-known acts. 4AD’s new signing, Pixx (also known as Hannah Rodgers) donned elf ears to croon to the crowd at Oslo, although her melancholic vocals would have been better suited to one of the church venues.
Midlands electronica duo Shelter Point were first at the atmospheric St John at Hackney and their astral sounds, overlaid with Liam Hearne’s wistful lyrics bore a strong resemblance to the music of James Blake or Thom Yorke. By the second act, festival goers had begun to migrate to the church’s upper tier pews for the best view of the stunning grade II-listed building. The formidable Nadine Shah brought a darker edge to the evening, with her heady combination of gothic acoustic guitar and brooding lyricism.
But it was Rhye who stole the show at Mirrors, the band’s clicking beats, swooning bass lines and androgynous vocals matching perfectly with the echoing expanse of the church. Singer Mike Milosh opened with a slowed-down version of ‘3 Days’, gathering momentum and confidence throughout the hour-long set.
After a two-year hiatus, Rhye took the chance to sample some much-anticipated new material and closed with the sublime ‘Last Dance’.
And with that, festival goers spilled out into the night, to wreak Halloween havoc or retire to their homes, happy they now have a new arsenal of musical earworms to keep them going until summer. Maybe winter isn’t so bad after all.
Soldiering on: Lines at The Yard Theatre. Photograph: Ben Hopper
A surprising fact little trumpeted is that 2015 is the first year since the start of the First World War in which British troops are not engaged in warfare.
But what are the implications for the army’s 81,700 full-time service personnel, and what does it mean to be ‘at peace’ anyway? These are questions explored by Lines, a new play that has opened at The Yard Theatre in Hackney Wick.
The play focuses on four young recruits who join the army for different reasons. The audience witnesses the boys transform into soldiers, but in a time of peace these new warriors play out their days cleaning their guns and ironing, a situation that soon becomes combustible.
“There’s a line in the show that says peace is just a gap between wars, that peace is bullshit,” says the play’s director and Artistic Director of the Yard, Jay Miller.
“We rationally try to want peace and desire it, but blimey look at what happened in Ankara – at a peace rally. This show tries to explore that really human need to be violent, regardless of who we are, where we are or what we’re doing.”
Miller, along with the writer Pamela Carter and the creative team, visited barracks and spoke to soldiers whilst preparing the script. Some of the soldiers, Miller says, were deeply disillusioned and bored and have subsequently quit. Following these visits they felt confident enough to create characters that were true to real life.
“Sometimes we literally took lines, sometimes there was just a sense of someone,” Miller says. “What we did do explicitly is spend time researching the process the army takes young recruits through, what they do on day one, what they do on week one, week two, etc. And we’ve been very, very careful to mirror that process on stage. All of these things that you’ll see the soldiers do on our stage, they do in real life as well.”
But how to make a play about violence with it being violent itself? Miller assures that Lines is not the theatrical equivalent of an action movie –a Rambo Goes East, if you will.
“It’s about an everyday violence,” Miller says. “A lot of male relationships are formed on a bed of violence, because they take the mick out of each other, so violence is represented through those relationships that are formed on stage.
“We see the characters become very aggressive, and although there is physical violence it is used very sparingly. Then what we do is that we fire the audience’s imagination to make them imagine and feel what these boys do.”
Promising explosive techno and angelic choral singing, Lines is The Yard’s third in-house production, following The Mikvah Project in February and last year’s Beyond Caring, which was transferred to the National Theatre. How important is it for the Yard to be making its own work, I ask.
“It’s really important,” Miller replies. “It’s just as important to define contemporary theatre as to be responsive, and I really believe we’re defining what is contemporary in theatre today.
“We want to be pushing theatre in new directions and working to try to figure out what tomorrow might look like.”
Lines is at The Yard Theatre, Unit 2A Queen’s Yard, White Post Lane, E9 5EN until 21 November. theyardtheatre.co.uk
Last May’s Arts Emergency Response exhibition at the Cass. Photograph: Steve Blunt
More than 2,000 people have signed a petition against plans to close an art school with “deep roots” to East London.
Last month London Metropolitan University approved plans to consolidate all teaching to its Holloway Road campus, allowing its buildings at Moorgate and Aldgate to be sold.
The Cass Faculty of Art, Architecture and Design, on Commercial Street, described as the ‘Aldgate Bauhaus’ by artist Bob and Roberta Smith, will have to relocate to Holloway Road by September 2017.
Mayor of Tower Hamlets John Biggs said he was “deeply shocked” at the decision to relocate the campuses.
“The loss of all the student places in the Aldgate area is a blow, but the decision to relocate the Sir John Cass Department of Art, Media and Design is particularly upsetting,” the Mayor said.
“The Cass through its predecessor institutions has deep roots in the East End and has a wonderful reputation for combining academic study and creative production.”
But Professor John Raftery, Vice Chancellor of London Met, defended the decision, saying: “We are excited about this project, which aims to create a one campus, one community university.
“We believe this will benefit our students, who will enjoy an enhanced student experience, and our staff, who will have more opportunities to collaborate.
A change.org petition led by Cass Faculty Officer Amanda Marillier has already attracted over 2,000 signatures.
“The proposed closure of The Cass and Moorgate campuses represents a massive attack on students, staff and access to education,” the petition states.
“These cuts can potentially lead to courses being ‘discontinued’, staff losing their jobs, and prospective students losing the opportunity to study as the number of student places are reduced.”
Hannah Hutch stars in Jane Wenham: The Witch of Wenham. Photograph: Richard Davenport
The decision to cancel a performance of a play co-produced by the Arcola has been described as “akin to censorship”.
Jane Wenham: The Witch of Walkern was due to be performed at Ipswich High School for Girls on 13 October before it emerged the performance had been cancelled due to concerns about its content.
The play, which is touring small venues outside London before a run at the Arcola in January, looks at accusations of witchcraft in 18th-century Hertfordshire from a feminist perspective.
Written by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, the co-writer of Oscar-winning film Ida, the play looks at what happens after a woman is blamed for a tragic death and charged with witchcraft.
A statement by Out of Joint explained it had made the story of the cancellation public because “decisions akin to censorship should not be made easily or without consequence, and should be known about”.
Max Stafford-Clark, Out of Joint’s Artistic Director said: “It is deeply troubling that a play which so eloquently examines witch persecutions from a feminist perspective, and looks at the way society treated and continues to treat women, is considered inappropriate for an audience of young women.
“The school has also said that the inclusion of swearing is inappropriate, a policy which presumably rules out much contemporary drama or fiction for study. There is nothing gratuitous in the play. Theatre is the way we examine our world and our history. The school’s decision not to learn from the past seems spectacularly perverse.”
But a spokesperson for the independent girls’ school defended the decision, saying that it had been prompted by a change of personnel at the school.
“The new teachers in the drama department reviewed the script on their arrival at the school this September, and had grave reservations about the content and inferences,” the spokesperson said.
“The concern about the use of swear words was secondary to the references made to child abuse which are explicitly detailed.
“Teachers have a legal duty of care which includes being aware of the content of their work and the impact it may have on children, young people or vulnerable adults.”
The axing of the play follows the furore surrounding Homegrown, the National Youth Theatre play about Islamic radicalisation that was pulled two weeks before it opened.
Jane Wenham: The Witch of Walkern is co-produced by the Arcola Theatre, Out of Joint and Watford Palace Theatre, in association with Eastern Angles.
Rodrigo Felha’s Favela Gay, Genesis Cinema, 26 November
Queer film and arts festival Fringe! returns this month, with screenings, talks, panels, workshops, performances and parties taking place in 14 venues across East London from 24–29 November.
This year sees the festival branch out to the Barbican and Genesis Cinema, and there’s a distinctly international flavour to programme, with representation from more than 20 countries and a special focus on Brazil.
Documentary Favela Gay, directed by Rodrigo Felha, looks at queer life in the slums of Rio de Janeiro (26 November), while Gustavo Vinagre’s hybrid documentary Nova Dubai explores sex, urban spaces and gentrification (28 November).
Other highlights include Eisenstein in Guanajuato, Peter Greenway’s camp and provocative biopic of filmmaker Segei Eisenstein’s trip to Mexico in 1931 (24 November), the Lithuanian Oscar-nominated Summer of Sangaile, a coming-of-age story of two young girls (25 November), and the documentary The New Black, which follows activists, families and clergy on both sides of the campaign to legalise same-sex marriage in Maryland, USA (27 November).
From its humble beginnings five years ago, Fringe! has blossomed into one of London’s premier queer arts festivals.
Organisers are promising a packed programme of thought-provoking new work from across the globe, and to complement the films expect a series of talks on issues such as LGBT immigration, workshops about spanking and shibari, and live performances from the likes of Portuguese ‘post-porn’ collective Quimera Rosa.
Hitchcock mosaic from Rebecca at Leytonstone tube. Photograph: Russell Parton
Momentum is gathering for a museum in Leytonstone dedicated to the life and work of one of its most famous sons, the filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock.
Ros Kane, a charity founder who has lived in Leytonstone since 1974, is looking to create a steering group to secure a site for the museum, claiming the “time has come” for the filmmaker to be properly commemorated.
Hitchcock, known as the ‘master of suspense’ for the directorial techniques he pioneered in films such as Birds and Vertigo, was born in Leytonstone in 1899, where a blue plaque marking his place of birth can be found at a petrol station on Leytonstone High Road.
“Waltham Forrest has got William Morris and Hitchcock, these two famous people. We managed to save the William Morris gallery and this is the second thing we need to do,” said Kane.
“There are murals underground, but this is a poor area – or has been – and could do with a bit of building up.”
Kane has already identified a potential site, a large office with a basement close to Hitchcock’s place of birth, and is looking for support from residents to get the campaign going.
“I met a woman who moved to south Leytonstone because of Hitchcock and was then appalled to find that there was no museum,” Kane said.
“It would put Leytonstone on the map and considering Hitchcock is one of the greatest filmmakers of all time it’s just so obvious that it needs to be done.”
If you would like to be part of the steering group for a Hitchcock museum in Leytonstone (wherever you live), email roskane@btinternet.com
Son of a grocer: Mosaic showing Alfred Hitchcock’s father’s shop. Photograph: Russell Parton
The state that they are in… revellers at How Does it Feel to Be Loved? Photograph: Ian Watson
If you’re wondering if you’d fit in at How Does It Feel To Be Loved? ask yourself a question: do you like Belle and Sebastian? This, says Ian Watson, is the band that lies at heart of HDIF.
There are other ways you might classify the archetypal HDIF punter though: “My favourite ever description,” says Watson, “was from the head of security at The Phoenix in central London, where we ran the club for nine years. One evening he said: ‘I’ve finally worked your night out – it’s a disco for the computer club’.”
Belle and Sebastian aside, at any given HDIF you’re likely to be plied with juggernaut indiepop hits like ‘This Charming Man’ to lesser-known-but-nonetheless-worshipped anthems such as the Magnetic Fields’ twee romp ‘The Luckiest Guy On The Lower East Side’.
“If you’ve ever wanted to go to a club where those songs are joyously received as the classics that they are”, says Watson, “then here we are”.
A music journalist from the late eighties to 2005, Watson wrote for the likes of Melody Maker and NME, simultaneously forging a club called Smashed along with Steve Lamacq, and Simon Williams of Fierce Panda.
Watson’s credentials also helped him secure a roster of indie ‘celeb’ DJs for HDIF when it was born in 2002, at The Buffalo Bar in Highbury. “I wrote a lot about the bands we play at HDIF,” he says, “and was one of the first people to champion Belle and Sebastian, Camera Obscura, Hefner, and so on, which made it easy when I started the club because I just asked the bands I used to write about if they’d like to DJ, and they all said yes.”
Indeed, the first night at The Shacklewell – in January this year – was graced by David Gedge from The Wedding Present. Watson’s favourite HDIF guest slot though was the first time Kevin Rowland of Dexys Midnight Runners DJed in Brixton: “He didn’t just ask what kind of music was popular at the night,” says Ian, “he wanted to know what people wore, who they were, what the atmosphere was like at the night, everything. And he sang! We set up a mic for him, and he sang over certain songs.
“As you’d imagine, the response was huge – everyone clapping along and cheering.”
HDIF regulars Franic Rozycki and David Tattersall from The Wave Pictures
But it’s not all been a picnic. HDIF, it would appear, is cursed by the gentrification of its venues; The Buffalo along with two of the club’s Brixton venues – The Canterbury Arms and The Grosvenor – have recently been closed down to become luxury flats. Something, says Watson, has got to be done.
“This club is the kind of stuff we need in this city, it’s what’s made London famous the world over – our adventurous, groundbreaking cultural life. If you don’t have small venues supporting new clubs and bands, there soon won’t be anything interesting or fun to do in London.”
The Shacklewell is – you’d hope – under less immediate threat from drooling developers. But isn’t the venue a bit hip for a club that’s used having elderly punters round one side of the pub, supping lager whilst flicking through the sports section?
Not so, says Ian. The Shacklewell nights, he claims, are for Dalston people who want something different. “In fact,” he says, “we’ve had people say how delighted they are we’ve come to Dalston as they’re sick of the regular indie nights and wanted something a bit more hardcore.
“If me playing The Field Mice and Jens Lekman counts as hardcore, then I’m happy to help out!”
The unassuming nature of the club – no fancy lighting, no dress code, no likely lads prowling around the dance floor – is second only to the music, whether spun off vinyl or CDs excitedly pulled from plastics sleeves.
Old school himself, when asked if the concept of rare vinyl is dying out, Watson is taken aback: “What? You’re joking! Songs may have been released on repros or bootlegs, but they hardly compare to the originals, some of which are like the Holy Grail.
“A copy of ‘Love Finds A Way’ by Margaret Little surfaced a few years ago which had a chip in it, so you couldn’t play the first few seconds of the song, and that still went for thousands. Insanity!
“The most I’ve spent on a seven inch single was £130 for ‘Do It’ by Pat Powdrill. My favourite northern soul single of all time and worth every penny!”
You can see Ian and guest DJs spin ‘Do It’ and other hits for far less than £130, at regular nights at The Shacklewell Arms, and other venues across London. Visit howdoesitfeel.co.uk for more information.
Eco bites… Poco Broadway Market. Photograph: Thomas Bowles
One of the top-voted one-liners of the Edinburgh Fringe was: “Jesus fed 5,000 people with two fishes and a loaf of bread. That’s not a miracle. That’s tapas.”
But nothing could persuade this Londoner, recently returned from Andalucia where piles of crispy whitebait and oil-drenched chorizo are conjured up just as companions for your cerveza that tapas is not heaven sent.
Poco is the newest arrival on Broadway Market, where it replaces bike shop Lock 7 (they have upsized over the canal). So far, so Hackney. But this little place, offering tapas inspired by Spanish and Latin American cuisine and trialled and perfected in Bristol, has something special.
That would be Tom Hunt, the ‘eco-chef’ gaining a rep for his conscientious cooking, for how many restaurant websites do you know with an ‘ethics’ section? Like a proud parent in the Christmas round-robin, his menu reels off its credentials: 100 per cent seasonal, organic, sustainable, all fresh produce sourced within 50-100 miles of the restaurant. It’s right-on right down to the ‘non-mafia’ certified Sicilian wine.
We sit at a smart wooden table where only a few months previously I had stood bartering over the cost of a bike service, and order a carafe of red with help from our smiley waiter.
A tasty beetroot puree arrives, decorated with beetroot leaf crisps and served with crunchy crispbread (E5 bakehouse), swiftly followed by rich merguez sausages with spoons of earthy puy lentils and burnt shallots draped on top.
Photograph: Thomas Bowles
The corn fritters with English chillies were slightly dry but, embracing the spirit of non-wastefulness, became great dunking tools for the beetroot dip.
Throughout, the quality of the ingredients is stark – but the lamb neck, served rosy pink with anchovies, caperberries and Swiss chard is the hands – down highlight.
We panic-bought a couple of beautiful Mersea oysters, thinking we would still be hungry, but then got blindsided by the arrival of the punched potatoes, served with lashings of garlic, rosemary and an alioli.
Tom Hunt emerges from the kitchen decked in his apron and, after receiving instruction from the pudding pedagogue himself, it would have been rude not to order both the desserts he recommended. On paper it sounded a bit adventurous for your average churros aficionado but the Peruvian goat’s milk chocolate pot, with caramelised beetroot ran away with all the prizes.
There is a thin and often ill-trodden line between tapas and its in vogue cousin the ‘small plate’. At around £40 a head (factoring in non-mafia wine and oysters) this might be no place to drop-in for alcohol-sponge appetisers but you pay gladly for the quality, and the knowledge that the ingredients’ journey to Poco’s plates hasn’t cost the earth.
