#London Collage Of Communication

[lukolabrainrot]

Hey there, what do we think about Nicola’s IG post for Camilla’s bday. It’s a collage of 4 pictures taken by paparazzi of her and Camilla last year and in the caption she said something like remember when the paparazzi took photos and you protected me by covering my face. I feel like that is for sure throwing shade at a certain someone. Like she could’ve chosen any photo with Camilla. She has sooo many, why that one and why this caption. Also the way the photos were stacked looked like A’s recent soho house photos with her friends.

I feel like Nicola’s being very cryptic and sending messages through her posts recently including the scrabble board. I don’t know what that was about exactly but I feel like she posted it for a purpose and the person who that was aimed at would understand. I dunno I might be over analyzing but I think we should paying closer attention to her posts.

I also feel like that means we are headed in a positive direction because it means she cares about Luke and feels protective over him and is letting everyone know, even if there is currently a bit of tension between them. Not saying there is tension but just a feeling that she’s not very happy with how he’s handling things at the moment.

What do we all think?

Ok I just reblogged a post about this, but I am going to add this (and a lot of this is just based on my gut feelings/opinions based off of everything I've seen, so these are all just THEORIES):

First, I want to start by saying we will NEVER know exactly what anyone's SPECIFIC intentions are on SM posts unless the publisher publicly clarifies it.

HOWEVER, N is VERY intentional on SM. So is A. L... not so much (I've known a lot of dudes like him who just don't really care to put a lot of energy/thought into SM, EVEN if they have it and utilize it). So I get the impression this might be the case for him as well. Intentionality takes thought and energy, so I do agree that N and A's recent SM posts are VERY intentional, but what those exact intentions are, again, we will probably never EXACTLY know. What/who is the common denominator between these two women though? L. Sooooo, I feel pretty confident that he is at the root of most of these more "cryptic" posts/stories on N and A's SM.

Now, normally, I would say WTH is a 37 y/o woman doing playing petty and shady SM games with a 23 y/o woman that wants the attention?? Well... I think SM is the only way for them to communicate with each other, and these two women have a LOTT to say to each other (which totally makes sense if ANY of our theories on L/N or the PR tour/papgate/A are accurate). Which is why I do think a lot of N's recent SM activity has been shade, but more directly towards A. Since the London premiere, I personally think L/N are dealing with their complex feelings over everything in private mainly because people are analyzing EVERYTHING they do.

If you have read my other theories on this blog, I don't think L/N are in a terrible place rn (but are very likely having to work through a LOT of complex things in private). I am sure they BOTH aren't happy about how this all publicly played out. And as I have mentioned, I think EVERYONE in this situation has made some mistakes (some more than others though). Please look through my "timelines" posts if you have any more questions on my thoughts on this.

I have also said this before, but I will say it again. N AND A WILL NEVER, NEVERRR BE FRIENDS. Based off of everything I have seen and know about these two women, they have VERY little in common (and A is very insecure and envious of N). Therefore, these two women are probably NEVER going to talk alone face-to-face (I personally don't think A has the cajones to address anything with N to her face). A (based on her public image and actions and everything else we know about her) seems like such a selfish, two-faced mean girl (just my opinion). N appears to be the opposite of that, and I believe would be more inclined to address things with A face-to-face. Since that is not an option though, N has utilized SM to share her real opinions/feelings with A. And yes, I do believe N is protective of L (BECAUSE THEY REALLY LOVE EACH OTHER). I don't have any solid proof on this, it is just a gut feeling, but I think a lot of N's most recent "cryptic" posts/stories are hinting that L/N's connection is not going to be ruptured by immature, selfish, and insecure behavior from A. And I think that is a really good sign for us Lukola fans.

Lastly, who again is the common denominator here? L! Could he have handled this WHOLE situation better? Yes! I've mentioned before though, he got ANNIHILATED on SM after Papgate. And he has been getting hate on SM from people in the fandom for years (him AND N already had to leave Twitter because of all the hate they were receiving). Therefore, I believe he is FED UP, but also TRYING to stay engaged just a LITTLE bit on SM. Yes, N has also gotten a lot of hate on SM, but she and L are very different people, and I get the sense that she is able to navigate the hate a little better than L. Therefore, L has taken a major step back from his public engagement online, and to be really honest, I don't believe he will be returning to his typical public SM activity anytime soon. Now, what other people AROUND him post on SM, I think that has a lot more to do with THOSE INDIVIDUALS than L himself (again, just my opinion). How aware/involved L is with any of these posts/stories that adjacent people in his life are posting, we will probably never know. L is a chronic people pleaser though, and I got the sense from what I have seen that he is not very good at setting firm boundaries with people in his life (which likely played a role in SOME of the SM activity we have seen recently from adjacent people in his life). I think there is a lot of self-reflection going on for him at the moment in terms of determining HOW he wants to move forward in his career and HOW he wants the public to see him. I think he is still figuring it out...

Anywhooo, like I have mentioned multiple times, the whole situation seems to be REALLY messy (and I am almost certain that both L/N didn't want all of this to play out on such a public stage). And we will never know the full story of what was/is going on BTS for everyone. However, a lot of the recent posts/stories from N have been very interestingggg 🤔

[murdleandmarot]

4, 6 and 10 for the jellicle ask!!!

Hi hello!!!!!!! Ty for the ask :)))

4. I wish I could just say the entire cast of Thunerspiele because hollllyyyyy shit they’re all SO gorgeous to me. My favorite ever. But I’ve narrowed it down to two, one Tecklenburg and one Thunerspiele

For Thunerspiele, it’s Victoria

Just so unbelievably gorgeous ma’am marry me immediately. Every day I curse and shake my fist at the sky that we don’t have a readily available proshot or bootleg. A disappointment on so many levels.

For Tecklenburg, it’s this unnamed ensemble member that I am completely head over heels for

I would follow her into the underworld. I would do anything for her.

6. I have a couple that I’m a really big fan of, but probably my favorite is Cettie and Pouncival are queer-platonic soulmates. I love them both so, so much. The runner-up was Bombalurina and Mistoffelees, but SPECIFICALLY the 1981 London Bomba and Misto, because I can imagine them making fun of Tugger together in his song. SO fun. Love them.

10. Oooo this is a good one!!! I actually came up with a ‘The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musical’ au at like. 1 am innnnnn Vienna? But I didn’t write any of it down, so I literally have no idea what the hell I was talking about.

ANYhow, I read this one fanfiction on ao3 that was basically an au about Misto being Macavity’s son???? It drove me absolutely fucking insane, (it was the same night as previous tgwdlm shenanigans), and I left a flurry of comments that I have not revisited since bc I do not remember making them. Anyways it was SO fucking cool and if yall want me to find it again and post it, I 100% will, because it’s one of my favorites ever.

Also at the top is @diorlusional’s cats apartment au, (which I SWEAR I’m writing something for. It’s just. Hard. Motivation is hard to come by these days 😔😔😔). Anyhow, this apartment au is everything it’s ever wanted. It’s a collage, it’s an I-spy book, it’s a pintrest board, it’s a community garden, it’s the hundertwasserhaus in Vienna. It’s everything to me forever

[mybeingthere]

ANGIE LEWIN, Printmaker, b 1963 in Cheshire, England.

Angie Lewin studied BA (Hons) Fine Art Printmaking at Central St. Martins College of Art and Design between 1983 and 1986, followed by a year’s part-time postgraduate printmaking at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts.

She says: "After working in London as an illustrator I studied horticulture and a move to Norfolk prompted a return to printmaking. Inspired by both the clifftops and saltmarshes of the North Norfolk coast and the Scottish Highlands, I depict these contrasting environments and their native flora in wood engraving, linocut, silkscreen, lithograph and collage. These landscapes are often glimpsed through intricately detailed plantforms. Attracted to the relationships between plant communities on an intimate level, even the fine lines of insect eggs on a flower bud are observed in my work. Still lives often incorporate seedpods, grasses, flints and dried seaweed collected on walking and sketching trips."

[hit-song-showdown]

Year-End Poll #27: 1976

[Image description: a collage of photos of the 10 musicians and musical groups featured in this poll. In order from left to right, top to bottom: Wings, Elton John & Kiki Dee, Johnnie Taylor, The Four Seasons, Wild Cherry, The Manhattans, The Miracles, Paul Simon, Gary Wright, Walter Murphy & The Big Apple Band. End description]

More information about this blog here

Disco has officially breached containment.

I've talked a bit about the stylistic origins of disco from the Philly soul scene and it's growing popularity in the Black and gay community. However, I haven't talked much about disco's presence in mainstream America. And now, since this is the year that Billboard started publishing their national Dance Club Songs charts (the previous two years gathered their data from dance clubs in major cities), this seems like the perfect chance.

To set the stage (or dance floor) for what will happen eventually, disco was everywhere at this moment in time -- not just in the clubs and also not just on the disco stations. As disco became the hot new thing, it seemed like everyone was scrambling to tear off a piece for themselves.

We're also seeing more disco fusions this year. Silly Love Songs by Wings is notable for its disco influence. However, the true sign of the times for me is Wild Cherry's Play That Funky Music. Twenty years before, there was a song on the Billboard Charts called The Rock and Roll Waltz, in which Kay Starr sings about seeing her parents try to dance the waltz to a rock and roll song. For the 1956 poll, I wrote about how this signifies the cultural shift in the mainstream (I like it when songs on here are about music. Gives me more to talk about). Play That Funky Music is notable for similar reasons, as even though it is a blend of these two styles. However, the lyrics seem to suggest that for a rock band to evolve, they had to incorporate funk and disco into their sound. Needless to say, not everyone was thrilled by that message. Parallel to the rise in disco's commercial popularity, the anti-disco backlash was growing as well -- and it was about to get ugly. But we'll get to that later.

Also, the first wave of punk rock was growing in popularity around this time in New York and London. Sadly, we won't see much of this movement represented in these polls. I still felt the need to mention it here, both for its place in music history, and we will be discussing the various descendants of this movement in due time.

[delciastudies]

Welcome to the internet café ˚✧₊˚ ᗢ₊˚✧ ﾟ

get comfy and get connected ᯤ

***

What is the internet café? The internet café was born from the memory, nostalgia, and aesthetic of internet cafes of the 2000s. The first Internet cafe was the Cafe Cyberia in London’s West End, which opened in 1994. The Internet cafe, with its dial-up connections and as one of the first public and communal means to access the digital world, is now a heart for lofi and vaporwave nostalgia and aesthetic, as we continue to navigate the digital world and our digital lives.

I’m a firm believer that we need communal liminal spaces. Two of my absolute favorites are gaiaonline (gaiaonline.com) - which includes Rally and other digital virtual worlds where moving and chatting is possible - and the Vaporwave Plaza (plaza.one), the space captured through their radio emission and communal discord space. The internet cafe is an extension of these two ideas, bringing together a discord and digital resource-sharing that we may find in a material Internet cafe.

How do I get connected? The discord server is the main space; it can be accessed at this link >>> https://discord.gg/7N2jdbza

Is it free? Yes! Everything posted in the discord is free, open-access.

However, I do sell exclusive materials (which helps fund my art, which I hope will become full-time). Exclusive resources (printables, downloads, and also tier membership to connect to 3G, 4G, 5G, and ETHERNET) can be found on my ko-fi here >>> https://ko-fi.com/delciax

About the artist (me!)

My name is Delcia, recent graduate living in CH. I am an anthropologist and writer with an ethnographic, research-based artistic practice. My current research works around colonial and capitalist ruin in Western Colorado with a specific focus on the processing of collective trauma via affect theory and archival disruption. I revolve my thinking around epistemic disobedience, auto-ethnography, curation, and contemporary art as a means for engaging with current pedagogies and epistemologies in the field of research and imagining artistic creation and affect as important sites of knowledge production.

My mediums of focus are photography, writing, film, graphic design, collage, and installation.

On the side, I love blogging, writing, reading, working on my tumblr, teaching (which pays the bills), moseying around on gaiaonline, traveling, having brunch in coffee shops, and taking care of my plants.

✧

Topics of interest: engaged anthropology; archives and collective memory; trauma studies; environmental politics; decolonial theory; more-than-human epistemologies; queer and feminist theory.

Aesthetics of interest: lo-fi, mundane, 2000s, anime, glitch, grunge, pixel, vaporwave

✧

Favorite authors: Michael Taussig; Donna Haraway; Jason Pine; Sophie Chao; Anna Tsing; Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi; Julio Cortázar; bell hooks

Reading list: The Thing Around Your Neck (Adichi); The Cornwolf (Taussig); The Night Face Up, Continuation of Parks (Cortázar); In the Shadow of the Palms (Chao); The Mushroom at the End of the World (Tsing); The Magic of the State (Taussig); Art on my mind (hooks).

Currently reading: Clay’s Ark (Octavia Butler); Leonora Carrington: The Image of Dreams (Giulia Ingarao); The Body Keeps the Score (Bessel van der Kolk); The Killers of the Flower Moon (David Grann)

Currently listening to: NIGHTS LIKE THIS radio (Spotify), Nightwave Plaza

Please do not hesitate to reach out to me if you want to chat or talk about really anything at all. I will drop my corresponding pages, as well, below. ♥

✧

Age: 26

Pronouns: she/they

Star sign: Sagittarius

Fields: anthropology and sociology, contemporary artstudies

*CRITICAL CURATORIAL CYBERMEDIA, MFA2022 - 2024 // Geneva University of Art and Design (HEAD - Genève), Geneva

*ANTHROPOLOGY & SOCIOLOGY, MA 2020 - 2022 // Geneva Graduate Institute (IHEID), Geneva

*ANTHROPOLOGY, BA2016 - 2020 // University of California, Santa Barbara

✧

Instagram: @delciax

gaiaonline: @delcia x

tiktok: @delcia.x

tumblr: delciastudies.com

discord: @delciax

✧

[kolajmag]

THIS WEEK AT KOLAJ MAGAZINE

Frankenstein, Human Intersubjectivity, & Day Jobs

CALL TO ARTISTS Frankenstein A four-week, Collage & Illustration, virtual/online residency with Kolaj Institute in August 2023

COLLAGE ON VIEW Day Jobs at the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas, USA

COLLAGE ON VIEW Unseen Neighbors: Community, History & Collage Artists in the Archives at the Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History in Middlebury, Vermont, USA

FROM THE ARTIST DIRECTORY Human Intersubjectivity Alexa Wright, London, England, United Kingdom

FROM THE ARTIST DIRECTORY Restore a Sense of Wonder Michael Joshua Rowin, Astoria, New York, USA

COLLAGE COMMUNITIES Wilder Collage

COLLAGE BOOKS Chocolates from Tangier by Jana Zimmer

Read the full update

*****************************

Kolaj Magazine, a full color, print magazine, exists to show how the world of collage is rich, layered, and thick with complexity. By remixing history and culture, collage artists forge new thinking. To understand collage is to reshape one's thinking of art history and redefine the canon of visual culture that informs the present.

SUBSCRIBE | CURRENT ISSUE | GET A COPY

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[thegreenwallrabbit-blog]

Explaining One of VTMB Paintings (part 17)

The Sisters, oil on canvas (Circa 1890) by Percy Harland-Fisher

Percy Harland-Fisher (1867-1944) was a British painter born in Dulwich, London, UK the youngest of three brothers who all attended the Dulwich Collage which at the time was known for its connections to the art world of the time. He presented artistic paintings at the Royal Academy starting at age 17. As with many artists he painted subjects of interest though tailored to what would sell. This included paintings depicting domestic scenes of the Romany families that lived on the local common. He also had a deep love of animals which often appeared in his more formal portraits. His paintings of children were particularly popular. Most of his paintings are of idilic, simple moments of domestic life, often of subjects from the rural or lower middle class.[1]

In the painting a pair of young sisters in night gowns are opening a wood door to let a flock of all white morning doves in during the day. Two of the doves that face the girls have their tail feathers spread. I was unable to find any online analysis of this piece or of the meaning behind the doves act of flailing their tails. So I'm not sure if the doves are trying to impress the girls in a sign of mating behavior with the girls looking down in amusement on the birds for their foolishness or ifs the two doves trying to assert dominance over each other other in an attempt to determine a pecking order and to impress the rest of the doves just outside the door while girls are watching as outsiders in amusement. There is some importance to the doves displays as they are the only two doves fully in the fore ground, with their light feathers contrasting to the dark woods and are what the two girls are looking at. And while Percy Harland Fisher painting idyllic scenes did not mean that they were all just meant to be surface value beauty devoid of meaning or commentary. Even choosing to paint Romany families ( who at the time were referred to as Gypsies and still to this day face discrimination) and where with the same level of care that he applied to his own family members was a subtle but impactful choice. (see Below)

Gertrude Fisher by The Lake. Pastel (c1911) by Percy Harland-Fisher

"Gertrude Fisher was Percy’s younger sister. She lived with Percy prior to his marriage to Catherine Hudson at The Knightons in Gordon Road. The Fisher family was a close knit family."[1]

Gypsy child (also known as Gypsy Girl or Temptation) Oil on Canvas. (c1930) by Percy Harland-Fisher

"The gypsy community living on the local common were a favourite subject for Fisher. Many of the paintings left in the family’s possession after his death are sketches, watercolours and drawings of the local gypsy community. Although the painting is apparently a young Romany girl, when the museum first acquired the painting a local lady made contact to explain that her sister was the sitter for the picture. She was a Camberley school girl whose look had caught the artist’s eye. She recalled that her sister became bored while sitting for the picture and began picking at the apple in her hands. Mrs Fisher was called into the studio to tell stories to distract her." [1] The alternate title of Temptation is a reference to the apple the girl is holding and the story of Adam and Eve.

Citation

[1]“Percy Harland Fisher (1867 – 1944).” Exploring Surreys Past, Surreys Heath Musem, www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk/themes/people/artists/fisher/. Accessed 7 Jan. 2024.

[grumpy-potat]

Controversial Public Art

I am not someone who believes art is just meant for museums or for hanging in your homes. Although those are amazing places for them, I feel art is meant to be experienced in aspects of our every day lives. Out in the world as we walk through it. So I am a huge advocate for public art.

Very briefly that is defined as:

"Public Art is Artwork in the public realm, regardless of whether it is situated on public or private property, or whether it is acquired through public or private funding. Public art can be a sculpture, mural, manhole cover, paving pattern, lighting, seating, building facade, kiosk, gate, fountain, play equipment, engraving, carving, fresco, mobile, collage, mosaic, bas-relief, tapestry, photograph, drawing, or earthwork" -Jack Becker Monograph 2004

Public art is a way to beautify your spaces, express the unique aspects of your community and express the different culture and values of the people who live all around you. It can Commemorate events, people, or important groups that and their impacts to society. However, as with all art, you can't avoid controversy. Whether it be from who paid for the installation, to the subject matter. From proper representation, to where the piece is placed. What medium is used in its creation, or who the artist is. All of these things can lead to communities having a strong backlash to artistic pieces being displayed and some even turn to violent outbursts against the art or even their creators.

This is a list today I would like to discuss some controversial public art pieces. Maybe I will go more in depth about some of them later, but these are some big ones that stick in the public conscious today.

Richard Serra's Tilted Arc

This is a 12 foot tall, 120 foot long tiled steal plate that ran through Manhattan's federal plaza from 1981 to 1989. This wall forced people to take an inconvenient route through the plaza for most of the 80's. The goal of the piece was to inspire the viewer to become aware of themselves and their movement through the plaza, but it caused an imposition on government workers. The piece had a lot of support of modern artists,but by 1985 there was a hearing to remove the Arc and a court voted 4-1 to remove it. Due to the artists insistence that it never be displayed again it is now in government storage.

How Ya Like Me Now? by David Hammond

Painted in 1988 and commissioned by the Washington Project for the Arts for an exhibition on black culture and modernism this 14 foot by 16 foot billboard was poorly received to say the least. Local youths did not connect with the artists intended message of how popular culture was co-opting and commodifying black identity and whitewashing it. They interpreted it as racist so they tore the display down with sledgehammers. The piece was later reinstalled with the sledgehammers as part of the final piece incorporating the vandalism and backlash into the final work only this time it is inside the gallery and not on a street corner across from the National Portrait Gallery in D.C.

Just kidding , I couldn't find a good artist photo

Traffic Light Tree by Pierre Vivant

A sculpture originally located in Canary Wharf London in 1998 after a competition run by the Public Art Commissions Agency. It was moved to Billingsgate Market. It stands at 8 meters or 26.24 feet tall and has 75 sets of traffic lights. Vivant stated that it was to represent adjacent plane tree and the restless rhythm of the city. It was installed to replace a dying plane tree in the center of a roundabout, but the controversy arose when motorist confused the installation as an actual traffic light. Despite the initial controversy it has won over the city and is now viewed as one of the most pleasing roundabouts, although it still does cause confusion with tourists.

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial by Lei Yixin

Built in 2011 this sculpture was controversial from start to finish. Recognized as a master sculptor in China and having sculpted monuments that included the communist leader Mao Zedong, his appointment to sculpt the Dr King statue was protested due to members of human rights organizations decrying the appointment of his visual support of the CCP. Others felt that the statue should have been done by an African American artist. They disliked the use of Chinese granite and not American granite. The quote engraved on the side was abridged in a way that changed the meaning and upset many, to the point where a year later it was removed to now only show abstract striations.

Tree by Paul McCarthy

Displayed in October 2014 at the International Fair of Contemporary Art in Palace Vendôme in Paris this abstraction of a Tree in a reminiscent way of a modern impressionist was a 24 meter or 78.74 foot tall green canvas butt plug shape because he thought they looked similar to trees so he created it as a tree abstraction. He was actually assaulted by someone while installing it, and it was destroyed two days later because some people thought it was offensive to children. Tree was displayed again in 2016 at Paramount Ranch 3 and it was well received by visitors.

Dirty Corner by Anish Kapoor

I feel a list of modern controversial art wouldn't be complete without Anish Kapoor, but my feelings are not why he is on the list. It is because he is a controversial artist. All his controversies deserve a post of their own, so only one is on this list. This art piece was created in 2011, but when it was brought to the Palace of Versailies in 2015 is when it hit its peak. The 60 meter (196.85ft) long and 8 meter(26.25ft) tall cone was described by Kapoor as "the vagina of a queen who was taking power". Critics hated the sexual nature and its nickname is "the Queen's Vagina." The idea was to enter the cone shaped piece and loose your perception of space the deeper you went into it. People vandalized the piece with antisemitic slurs as Kapoor's mother is Jewish. After some legal fights and wanting to leave the vandalism as a statement to the horror and intolerance of humanity, he was ordered to cover or remove the vandalism. He chose to cover it with gold leaf as "a royal response" the piece is no longer on display in France.

Mount Rushmore National Memorial by Gutzon Borglum

Sculpted from 1927 to 1941 This might be a controversial one to add for many Americans. But I wanted to focus on the 20th and 21st centuries and so I feel I would be remiss to not add this monument to America. Carved in the Black Hills of South Dakota by a close friend of Teddy Roosevelt and known Klan associate. This monument to the greatness of American expansionism in the early 20th century is also a monument to how American presidents directly participated, through policy or active participation in the taking and desecration of Native American lands. The Black Hills are considered a Holy Site to the Lakota people, and in the Fort Laramine Treaty of 1868 it was considered exempt from white settlement forever. But gold was discovered so the treaty was violated. Where Mount Rushmore is located is also home to Custer State Park, named after an American general who actively participated in the violation of the Treaty. Mount Rushmore was meant to be a Monument to America's Greatness as embodied by our Presidents, but it at the same time is a symbol of our expansion, treaty violations, and exploitation of the land and people of this nation. It remains a site of protest, the rock itself isn't great for carving and people think about adding more to it. The National Park service have dismissed the idea of altering it at all. People are divided about the site to this day. Some want it destroyed, some want to use it for education, but i have to say the National Park splash page doesn't help much with the education, and some just want the Lakota people to have their Holy Site back. The Lakota won a lawsuit for 17+million dollars, but they also just want the Land and not money as it is a holy site, and they continue to protest. The carving can not be undone, so the site remains a divisive reminder of American History that is often just a footnote in the education of most.

If you can think of any public artwork that you think is controversial please share it! Even if its just a public art work that someone has in their lawn that people in your community cant stand. Art should promote discussion, learning, and growth!

[belovedsemi1995]

Shahed Saleem creates mosque pavilion as a "reconstruction of migrant histories"

London-based architect Shahed Saleem has created a colourful pavilion in the shape of a mosque, which has been erected at the V&A museum as part of this year's Ramadan Festival.

Saleem, who is of Indian heritage, designed the pavilion for the Ramadan Tent Project's annual festival, which celebrates the holy month of Ramadan.

He drew on his own lived experience as a second-generation immigrant for the design while aiming to capture the collective feelings of distance that are sometimes endured by the wider Muslim diaspora.

This led him to design the pavilion as a reconstructed mosque with different architectural motifs and bright colours acting as various fragments of identity.

"As a child of immigrants I have experienced and learned how to negotiate different cultural worlds," Saleem told Dezeen.

"I have seen how migrant communities deal with loss and distance from homelands, and how they attempt to reconstruct and reassemble cultural memories and histories in a new place," he continued.

The pavilion is made up of elements found in mosque architecture including arches, a dome, a staircase, a roof and a mihrab – a semicircular niche that orients the direction of prayer.

"The pavilion represents this by showing historic fragments as being collaged and held together in a new structural frame," Saleem said.

"There is an overall sense of porousness and precarity, suggesting that the new narratives created through the reconstruction of migrant histories and experiences is an ongoing and dynamic process."

Saleem built the Ramadan Pavilion from plywood sheets glued and screwed together with steel brackets and fixings, while glulam timber was used for its structural and reinforcement elements.

Meanwhile, the minaret – the red and pink striped tower – has a vertical steel post and steel-framed base. In traditional mosques, the minaret is built into or stands next to the mosques and is used to call Muslims to pray.

"Through the colours, finish and shapes, I wanted to give a sense of fun and playfulness, to suggest a childlike innocence and also to give joy," Saleem explained.

"This is because issues around migrants and Islam in Europe are highly politicised, and the aesthetics of the pavilion suggests that joy and commonality is also possible and offers another way of engaging with other cultures."

For reference, the architect turned to the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A's) collection of prints and photographs of mosques and other examples of Islamic architectural design, as well as the architecture of British mosques from the 1960s to the present day.

"Each of these elements has been derived from 19th and 20th-century drawings and photographs in the V&A prints and drawings collection which depict historic Islamic architecture from north Africa to India," Saleem said.

"I have taken references from these images to create the elements for the pavilion. The pavilion is therefore a postcolonial reinterpretation of colonial representations of the Islamic world."

This year, Ramadan begins on Wednesday 22 March and lasts for 30 days. The month is observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting, prayer, reflection and community.

The Islamic calendar follows the lunar cycle, which means that Ramadan falls approximately 10 days earlier each year in the Gregorian calendar.

Visitors to the Ramadan Pavilion will be able to attend a series of curated events, performances and workshops.

Mosques have been used as sources of inspiration for other installations around the world. Saudi Arabian artist Ajlan Gharem's Paradise Has Many Gates installation reimagines the traditional mosque as a cagey, steel-wired structure.

At the Islamic Arts Biennale in Saudi Arabia, Pakistani architect Yasmeen Lari designed three dismantlable mosques to demonstrate the potential of bamboo.

The Ramadan Pavilion is on display at the V&A's Exhibition Road Courtyard in South Kensington until 1 May 2023 as part of the Ramadan Festival. 

The photography is courtesy of V&A.

[dancingdanvers]

Welcome to Aurora Bay, [CAROLINE JAYME]! I couldn’t help but notice you look an awful lot like [BRITT ROBERTSON]. You must be the [TWENTY EIGHT] year old [EVENT PLANNER]. Word is you’re [LOYAL] but can also be a bit [PEDANTIC] and your favorite song is [THE SHOW - LENKA]. I also heard you’ll be staying in [OCEAN CREST APARTMENTS]. I’m sure you’ll love it!

[[ Cancer mention tw]]

Thanks to Caroline’s father being English, the girl was born in London after her mother moved there to live with him. They’d been married for five years when they found out she was expecting a baby and even though that was known to bring two people together it only drove Mr and Mrs Jayme apart, escalating into loud frequent rows until he walked out on them not long after Caroline’s sixth birthday. 

The woman took her husband’s leaving incredibly hard but after two further years of living in England she decided the best thing to do was return to her hometown of Aurora Bay with her young daughter to be closer to what she knew and around the people she’d grown up with. 

The move made Carrie very nervous, going to a place she’d never been in her life, she clung onto her mother even more than she did before. A mommy’s girl through and through the girl already considered the woman her best friend, she was effectively her mini me. To cope with the transatlantic move she started to read even more than she already did, escaping into fictional worlds where she could be instantly transported wherever she wanted to be. It was a way for her to cope with her anxiety which was something she’d always suffered with but was only made worse by the significant life changes that had been inflicted on her. 

Life passed uneventfully for the next ten years as Carrie made her way through school, a naturally academic girl, she did well in most of her classes and while she didn’t have a huge number of friends she had a those she trusted the most which worked for her. Loyal in nature trust was very important to her, the social intricacies of high school especially left her utterly baffled. Not understanding why so much judgment was passed over what someone wore or what they did or did not have, not seeing the attraction of cheerleading or football as something to be revered. Finding it pretty boring on the whole. 

Caroline was twenty five when her mother got sick. The cancer was already stage three when the doctors discovered it during what was meant to be a routine physical, and less than a year later she had passed away leaving Carrie all alone. Never having had any siblings and her father no longer in contact with his only child, she’d lost her only family as well as her best friend all at the same time. It wasn’t something she dealt with very well, going out a little more than she usually did, drinking to try to cope. Not too much but since she’d never really been one for alcohol before that it would easily go to her head, allowing her to fall asleep a little more easily. 

One night stands were something the blonde had never had before so when she did have her first with Gavin Carrigan the last thing she could have imagined in a million years would that it would result in her falling pregnant with his child. Effectively a stranger she didn’t have any concept of how to communicate the information with him, tell him she was pregnant, so instead she just left town. Avoiding having to do it altogether by moving entirely, selling her family home which felt like it was ripping a void inside her as she did. Caroline headed to the East Coast to live with some friends from collage, choosing to stay there even after she gave birth to her son Hindley Jayme, named after the character from Wuthering Hights which had for a long time been one of her favourite books. It was also possible that she’d subconsciously remembered from the one night they spent together that Gavin was into music, the song Wuthering Hights by Kate Bush being one of Carrie’s other favourite things, but it was also possible this was entirely a coincidence. 

Offered a well paying job as an event planner in a company run by a long time friend of her mother’s back in Aurora Bay the logical side of Caroline knew that she had to take it. It would allow for her to provide for her son easier, not to mention the guilt she’d been feeling over the last couple of years keeping the little boy from Gavin when he was almost a mini version of his father to look at, drove her back to the town. Getting them an apartment at Ocean Crest she holds the dream in her heart of being able to buy back the home she shared with her mom, but for now she was happy just trying to find her footing once more in the town she had called home for so long. 

Sweet, a little nervous, pedantic, the kind of person who zones in on tiny details (which works well for her job but less well in her general life), Caroline is honestly the kind of person who is just trying to do her best. Trying to juggle being a first time single mom as well as working a full time job, while all the time not crumbling under the various life pressures that everyone has to deal with. Her son is the apple of her eye, there is no one Carrie dotes on more, but that also means she spends a lot of time worrying about him. However she is growing in confidence as a mom as time passes. A big reader, lover of baking, very type A in the way she chooses to work, you’ll never find her using the calendar on her phone, instead choosing always to use a paper diary to keep track of what was going on in her life. With Hindley at  nursery three mornings a week those are the times she’s using to rediscover who she is as a person outside of being a mother which is actually something she’s really enjoying. 

[burlveneer-music]

James Holden - Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space Of All Possibilities

“I wanted this to be my most open record, uncynical, naive, unguarded, the record teenage me wanted to make,” says electronic explorer James Holden of his generically unconstrained new album of rave music for a parallel universe 'Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space Of All Possibilities'. “I used to balance my clock-radio on a wardrobe to catch the faint pirate FM signals from the nearest city, dreaming of what raves would be like when I could finally escape and become a New Age traveller. So it’s like a dream of rave, a fantasy about a transformative music culture that would make the world better. I guess it’s also a dialogue with that teenage me.” Standing in contrast to the expanded band and live take recordings of its predecessor 'The Animal Spirits' (“Dramatic, colourful and Holden’s fullest-sounding work yet” 9/10 Loud And Quiet), Holden’s fourth solo artist album is more of a continuous sound collage, artfully juxtaposing audio worlds in his own inimitable manner, with a respectful hat tip to the pastoral classics of his early nineties youth (notable mentions to The KLF’s timeless 'Chill Out', and the sprawling radio soundscapes of Future Sound of London). But where his first wave forebears pilfered freely from the history of recorded music to date, Holden’s sample sources are custom generated, drawn from recordings of his own performances on the modular synth, keyboard, organ and piano plus the lesser explored drones of his childhood violin, cut-up bass guitar, overblown recorder, all manner of percussive trinkets and the serendipity of the odd field recording, as well as guest contributions from various members of the wider Animal Spirits live family: long-time touring companion drummer Tom Page, tabla-championing percussionist Camilo Tirado, multi-instrumentalist for hire Marcus Hamblett (here, on double bass and guitar) and saxophonist Christopher Duffin (on loan from Xam Duo and Virginia Wing). 'Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space of All Possibilities' will be released via Holden’s own proudly DIY Border Community label on 31st March 2023, on double vinyl, CD, digital download and streaming. For the album’s distinctive hand drawn artwork and accompanying twelve page comic booklet insert, Holden called upon Amsterdam-based illustrator and musician Jorge Velez to help flesh out the visual component of the immersive fantasy world that is conjured up in 'Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space of All Possibilities'. The result is a twelve panel storyboard (one per track) documenting the rave rituals of an alternative reality populated by magical creatures, which owes much to the pair’s shared love of the soothing retro-futurist colour palettes of the late and truly great French cartoonist Moebius (included in pdf form exclusively with Bandcamp downloads). Cover artwork and all illustrations by Jorge Velez. Instagram: @jvelezdrawings

[adarede]

Some excellent Scruton epithets from the London Review of Books:

[ID: The only really stupid critique of Isaiah Berlin that I have ever read was by that recreational vulpicide, Roger Scruton, who accused him of being soft on Communism.]

And Scruton’s response to the above:

[ID:  10 December 1998. Christopher Hitchens, reviewing Michael Ignatieff’s study of Sir Isaiah Berlin (LRB, 26 November), claims that I accused Sir Isaiah of being soft on Communism. This is not true. In the piece to which Hitchens refers (the only article I have ever written about Berlin), I praised Berlin for his hostility to Communism. But I criticised him for being soft on Communists and their fellow-travellers. Like many liberals, Berlin pursued a policy of pas d’ennemi à gauche. The wisdom of this policy, in a man not naturally given to feats of courage, is amply displayed by Hitchens’s review: a collage of mischievous gossip, innuendo and self-righteous contempt, the only ground for which is the support Berlin offered to those who were prepared to defend liberal democracy against revolutionary Communism. Were history called on to judge, would Berlin’s name come higher or lower than that of Hitchens, I wonder, on the list of those who have sided with political crime? Signed Roger Scruton, Brinkworth, Wiltshire.]

To which he receives the following reply:

[ID: 21 January 1999.  Roger Scruton, a remote and ineffectual don, takes up his quavering, corroded pen (Letters, 10 December 1998): ‘Were history called on to judge,’ he asks, ‘would [Isaiah] Berlin’s name come higher or lower than that of [Christopher] Hitchens, I wonder, on the list of those who have sided with political crime?’ Can Scruton cite a single political crime with which Hitchens has ‘sided’? If not, would he care to apologise for this libel – and, in future, to consign his malodorous ruminations to their proper place in his Wiltshire cesspit? Signed Francis Wheen, Pleshey, Essex.]

Correspondence continues here:

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v20/n23/christopher-hitchens/moderation-or-death

[johnbunkerart]

Bunker’s work is characterised by an obsession with those twin disruptors born of Modernism, abstraction and collage, and their continuing powerful presence in contemporary art.

Abstraction is often associated with high ideals, formal innovation and a preoccupation with purely aesthetic experience. Collage is, by contrast, the stuff of gritty satire, stark juxtapositions of imagery and the quotidian world of objects and images.

Bunker plays with the friction generated between these two modes, creating images and objects that are both allusive and elusive. Swinging from the delicate and poetic to the materially dense and brutal, the array of sculptures, paintings and wall-based assemblages on show- all of them made within the last decade– offer tangible proof of Bunker’s ability to conjure captivating and psychologically charged abstract images from a startling and diverse range of materials.

Whilst working on a house in Edinburgh in 1887, two itinerant labourers placed a message inside a whisky bottle and hid it under the floorboards. Bottle and contents have only now come to light; and John Bunker’s survey show at Tension Fine Art, ‘Our Dust is Blowing Along the Road’ derives its title from one of the message’s most memorable fragments. 

Bunker has this to say: “What struck me about this particular story was that the bottle was hidden in a house, rather than cast out to sea, and so long ago. I’d been thinking about putting together a survey show of my work for quite a while; and it occurred to me that, just like the bottle in this story, artworks get hidden away for years and then are rediscovered by the artist or curators. I liked the quiet poetry of those men’s words. They got me thinking: what messages from the past do artworks hold within the fabric of their peculiar singularity? How do they speak to us in the present tense and what might the future hold for them? Even an artwork I finished last week is already history!”

John Bunker was born in Norwich in the UK in 1968. He received BA Hons Degree in Art & Social Context from Dartington College of Arts, Devon in 1991. Since moving to London in 1996, Bunker has worked in various arts settings including community arts and Further and Higher Education. As well as maintaining his multi- disciplinary arts practise, Bunker also regularly curates exhibitions which have included artists as diverse as Sir Frank Bowling OBE RA and Harland Miller. He also writes regularly about art. Bunker has written numerous reviews, catalogue essays and articles and in 2018 co-founded instantloveland.com with Matt Dennis, a website dedicated to exploring the histories and potential futures of abstract art. Bunker has exhibited widely in the UK and abroad and has works in many private collections.

[annemarieroche]

"My practice encompasses paint, pattern and collage using paper, material and mostly oil paint. I work loosely from photography, found imagery and imagination. My work explores the built environment and lived experience in these spaces. The work is an emotive response to places I inhabit or frequent or pass by, spaces I find interesting or dull, that provoke an emotion, memory or atmosphere. The exploration of space, both indoor and outdoor is also an exploration of the recesses of the psyche, integrating thoughts and daydreams to the physical.

I am influenced by patterns, William Morris in particular and the idea of draftsmanship because it evokes feelings of domesticity and nature. I use patterns to reconstruct the aesthetic of the paintings and to create a tension in the work between nature and the built environment. I am interested in the theories around utopias and dystopias and their connection to modernist architecture and spaces. My work explores memories of places I have lived in, visited and imagined while exploring my own identity as autonomous artist."

[blogaboutartwww]

Critical Annotation

As I approach the end of my third MFA semester, I have engaged with critical frameworks that shape my understanding of memory and identity in relation to space through installation and expanded painting. The relationship between space, memory, and identity provides a theoretical approach that evokes nostalgia and personal experience through an architectural structure as a narrative tool. This framework has guided my approach to depicting time's movement within static visual spaces through mixed-media installation and expanded painting, where overlapping perspectives create a sense of fluid movement within a fixed space.

Throughout my posts, I consistently explore memory, spatial perception, engagement, and the interplay between internal and external spaces. Joëlle Tuerlinckx's work[2] revealed a shared interest in how physical structures encapsulate personal memories and shape identity within abstract spaces. The artist uses space as a narrative tool, employing installations that engage multiple senses and recompose everyday objects into architectural forms. This aligns with my goal of audience engagement, inviting viewers to interpret personal memories through interaction with the spaces I create. The thematic unity across my posts has shown me that using materials, colour, and fragmented perspectives builds nostalgia and forms a personal narrative through the absence of humans, resonating with my work. This community of practice is represented in my dossier, which includes contemporary artists and theorists exploring themes of spatiality, memory, and audience interaction. Artists like Yona Lee[3] and Do Ho Suh[1] merge architecture and installation to examine expanded space. These artists emphasise spatial experience and the audience's role, an effect I aim to create by designing installations to be experienced from various perspectives. This community encourages a dialogue between the artwork and the audience, which I seek to deepen in my practice.

Furthermore, my selection of artworks, texts, and films was guided by a personal connection to works that use space to evoke everyday memories from personal experiences. For instance, David Hockney's[4] photo collages stood out for their creative spatial and temporal fragmentation approaches. Sunday Morning, Nov 28th 1982, Mayflower Hotel N.Y.[4] aligns with my research goal of using physical and visual expressions of space to depict the intangible qualities of experienced memory. This dossier has also prompted me to question what these material choices signify and how each element can enhance and capture movements in daily life, even in the absence of humans within a space.

Ultimately, this dossier has given me a fresh perspective and enhanced my research approach. The artworks in this dossier encourage me to think critically about my material choices and how each element reinforces presence or absence within a space. Alongside selected precedents, this critical perspective delves into a visual language capturing the fluidity of temporal and spatial aspects through installation and painting to convey the effect of space. This dossier has enabled me to view my research as a means of engaging audiences both physically and emotionally, strengthening the intention of the work and evoking personal memories.

Word Count: 489

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[1]Cranium Corporation. 2014. “Home within Home within Home within Home within Home (2013), by Korean Artist Do Ho Suh, at the MMCA Seoul.” Cranium Corporation. August 28, 2014. https://craniumcorporation.org/2014/08/28/home-within-home-within-home-within-home-within-home-2013-by-korean-artist-do-ho-suh-at-the-mmca-seoul/

[2]South London Gallery. 2002. “Joëlle Tuerlinckx: In Real Time: Space Parts, Solar Room, Night Cabin.” South London Gallery. 2002. https://www.southlondongallery.org/exhibitions/joelle-tuerlinckx-in-real-time-space-parts-solar-room-night-cabin/.

[3]Tattersall, Hannah. 2024. “Saying Goodbye to a Legendary Milanese Palazzo.” T Australia. May 10, 2024. https://taustralia.com.au/my-work-and-i-have-gone-on-quite-a-journey-together/#.

[4]“David Hockney: National Media Museum Photo Collage, 1985.” 2011. In Milestones of Science and Technology: Making the Modern World, p. 234-235. United States: KWS Publishers. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/rmit/reader.action?pq-origsite=primo&ppg=235&docID=1059273.