Tuesday 28 December 2010

They Are the Last

For Beverly

Behind her tongue
with its language of grass
and passion for salt,
behind the heavy tongue
deft nevertheless
as a blind man's hand,
a cow in good health chews
approximately fifty times
before reswallowing the cud.

It appears the animals
Beverly
are emigrating: their America
the constellations in the sky
Lizard, Lion, Great Bear,
Ram, Bull, Crow,
Hare . . .
perhaps the more prudent
like the agouti
have chosen the milky way.

Put your ear to her flank
and you will hear
the tide of her four stomachs.
Her second, like a net,
has the name of a constellation:
Reticulum. Her third,
the Psalterium, is like
the pages of a book.

When she falls sick
and lacks the will to chew
her four stomachs fall
silent as a hive in winter.

Each year more animals depart.


Only pets and carcasses remain,
and the carcasses living or dead
are from birth
ineluctably and invisibly
turned into meat.
'I believe it's completely feasible,'
said Bob Rust
of Iowa State University,
'to specifically design 
an animal for hamburger.'

Elsewhere 
the animals of the poor
die with the poor
from protein insufficiency.

When fetched from the pastures
they bring into the cool stable
the heat of the orchard
and the hot breath of wild garlic.

To clean out the cowshed
scatter a little of
the mare's dung
it absorbs their shit
liquid as springtime
and green with grass.
And fasten them well tonight
bed them with beech leaves
Beverly
they are the last.

Now that they have gone
it is their endurance we miss.
Unlike the tree
the river or the cloud
the animals had eyes
and in their glance
was permenance.

It was the same fox for ever and ever.
To kill him
was to drag him
momentarily
from the earth
of his eternity.

Once flies and crows
when devouring the dead sheep
began with the eyes.
Yet the ewe
had already lambed
her permenance.

The buzzard circled
biding his everlasting time
as repeatedly
as the mountain.

Out of the single night
came the day's look,
the wary glance
on every side.

Once the animals flowed like their milk.

Now they have gone
it is their endurance we miss.

*

'The breeding sow,' it is said,

'should be thought of and treated
as a valuable piece of machinery
whose function
is to pump out baby pigs.'

*

Sometimes still,
when you are pouring
from the white jug,
the milk
reminds me of the geese
who like dogs
guarded the house.
John Berger, 2001.


Monday 27 December 2010

Friday 24 December 2010

Fatten your pig

Darlings, Merry Christmas to you all. Lets hope that 2011 is wonderful, but we'll worry about that next week... In the mean time, enjoy the shit out of this festive video extravaganza....













Coz nobody wants to be all alone on Christmas xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Monday 20 December 2010

I WANNA BE WEIRD
LIKE HEATHER
NOT CRAZY
LIKE WINONA

Tuesday 14 December 2010

The Show [Part One]

Here are some images from The Show, which I sort of posted about a few weeks ago.
The Show was a performative exhibition, in which the artists all played characters in a 3 hour durational performance, where the viewer was encouraged to wander freely through three rooms of installations. Each installation represented the 'home' of each character - a place where they had become stuck in time, never able to leave, never able to let go from the past. We were lucky enough to be invited to fill three large spaces in the form of empty shops within a shopping arcade. This included the use of basements, back rooms and window boxes.
In terms of my own involvment in The Show, I created an environment for a collector of animals - the taxidermist. Collecting dead pets, the dead performing animals from travelling shows and eventually the half human half animal hybrid freak show entertainers, preserving them all perfectly within his workshop.
The idea was to create an obsessive environment full of pictures of animals, animal ornaments, taxidermy and human-animal sculptures. I wanted to give the sense of preserving beauty, but in doing so actually creating a place of fear and sadness.





 

I don't know why the format of these pictures is so jangly and all over the place and I literally cant be bothered to try and fix it. I sort of like the wobbly effect though, its fun.

Wednesday 8 December 2010

Lanvin, H&M and Me.


Hi babies how have you all been? I feel like I havent posted on here properly in ages, and this is actually the truth. I have been hella busy with art shows and visiting friends and getting into the festive spirit and generally living, time has slipped by. Well hello here I am, and I expect soon I shall have more time to have fun here.
So yeah this week I was in Birmingham visiting my BFF. Well can you imagine my surprise when I went into H&M into the bullring and saw a pair of the much desired (on my account) Blue shiney Lanvin X H&M Oxfords??? Oh man, I died. I really thought they had all sold out, and oh what better luck when the very pair was my very size. Well of course, me being an impulse buyer I grabbed the (slightly beaten) box and skipped my way to the till.
On purchasing the shoes of joy, I felt instant guilt. And not good guilt. I suddenly realised I'd spent a hard earnt (Yes, Im a student with a student loan but I also have a job thank you very much) £60 on disco shoes I would probably only wear once or twice with caution, which would probably give me blisters and also at the end of the day are from H&M, not exactly renowned for their quality.
Still, I skipped on. I popped into Pop Store which is just opposite, where they have loads of nice jewellry and and actually some decent menswear too. While here I got chatting to the sales girl and ended up showing her the shoes, which she seemed to enjoy. Even the sales boy came over and seemed impressed... However neither of them enjoyed the shoes in the way that I was, that they were blue and ineteresting but also, importantly, they were from the LANVIN collection!! They seemed oblivious in fact, that such a thing has ever existed. Somehow I didnt get the usual sense of satisfaction at having bought something really nice. This is hard to explain.
Still I skipped on, next thing I knew I was in another shoe shop gazing adoringly at some amazing purple canvas dr Martens with a thick white sole. Although I do have a few pairs of boots I have actually never owned any DMs (well, I have some cherry red shoes with a reallllllly thick bouncy sole which are pretty heavenly, but not boots) although I have actually wanted some for a million years. It was while looking at the dr martens, which were actually all the same price as the shoes Id just bought, that I knew I had definately made a mistake. I looked into the lanvin box, inspecting the shoes further. There were loose threads, and you could see some of the glue on the soles. Compared to the lifetime quality of the DMs they looked flimsy, and well, pretty shit. It was then I knew I would have to make the painful sacrifice of taking the shoes back for a refund. Although I had all these reasons in my head for why I shouldnt keep them, it was still difficult. You know sometimes you just need NICE LOOKING THINGS, you know what I mean? Well my friends, it just wasnt to be. A mere hour after purchasing the prized L4H&M shoes, I was back in the queue to return them. And thats just what I did. And now all that remains is this nifty little dust bag which I guess I sort of stole from the box....
Well the next day I went back and bought some amazing green docs, which actually with my student discount were only £53.99, almost £10 cheaper than the oxfords. And you know what I think I sort of love them.
Moral of the story, I think about shoes too much.

Wednesday 1 December 2010

THE SHOW

THE SHOW
BY THE SHOW COLLECTIVE

‘THE WALK’, KINGS STREET, READING
Thursday 2nd December, 2010
...5pm-8pm

CURRENT READING UNIVERSITY FINE ART students and one recently-graduated artist will be collaborating in a performative exhibition that will occupy empty shop units in the Walk, Reading, for one evening. The Show will bring together performance, installation, video, sound and smell to playfully investigate the disintegration of once-successful entertainers and washed-up circus performers.

COME TO SEE these characters, and the relics of their past. Their depressive nostalgia is trapped in a time that is hard-to-grasp, such that their stories are disjointed yet inter-connected. The visitors will be given the chance to explore the live space and observe the characters residing there- The bearded showgirl; Tamer and Beast - Caged and Uncaged; a folk-singing Fortune Teller; an Animalistic Taxidermist; and OTTER, amongst others.

THE SHOW will become a static exhibition during the week following the 2nd of December.

THEY SHOULDN’T BE ON THESE PEOPLE’S TERRITORY!
BUT THEY’VE BEEN INVITED TO IT.


LIVING READING
GET READING
GET BRACKNELL

Thursday 25 November 2010

Sunday 21 November 2010

Rabbit Hole

Rabbit Hole is the debut art film by artist and designer Mundi Vondi which luckily for us Dazed Digital premiered on their site a few weeks ago.
The film is set in this beautiful earthy landscape where it could either be the future or the deep past.  I love that shit!! Featuring Vondi's designs to stunning effect to introduce a meandering group of characters ultimaetly tied together by the quest of one girl. Its a surreal adventure piece with an eerie clinking background, all of these elements coming together to form a poetic atmosphere, taking precedence over any concrete script or plot. Its really nice!!


 

You can watch the full film HERE!!!

Thursday 18 November 2010

Tuesday 16 November 2010

Things I like: CATS IN CLOTHES

FIRST THERE WAS THE UNITED BAMBOO CAT CALENDAR....


.... AND NOW THERES KITTY CITY!!!!!

NO FURTHER COMMENTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

VIA CATSANDCATSANCATSANDCATSANDCATS

Friday 12 November 2010

Hunting the Tokoloshe with Die Antwoord!!!



Ya I havent talked about Die Antwoord in a while coz to be truthful Im a fickle child and they have been starting to bore me quite rapidly. It sort of seemed like all they were doing is talking about next level shit while actually just producing all the same stuff, yagetme. Also theres only so much phallic imagary I can take.
HOWEVER! I really enjoyed this latest video of them in SA hunting the Tokoloshe, a strange piece of (I guess) folklore that everyone just completely believes as a truth. Everyone there is really superstitious so its really interesting hearing people talking about this creature as if its just a known fact. I also like how each persons description is different. More like this pls.

Sunday 7 November 2010

Monday 1 November 2010

Dang Bea





Im a little late, but HAPPY WEEN!!! Hope you all had beautiful pumpkin filled extravaganzas.

Tuesday 26 October 2010

The London Taxidermy Company

I seem to spend alot of my time these days looking at dead animals. Whether it be my real taxidermy (latest additions to my collection include bats and a two headed duckling), roadkill or dead pets...
My new favourite source for nice looking taxidermy is the London Taxidermy website for their amazing selection of domestic animals. Its not hard to see thousands of pictures of foxes, birds and deer heads, but theres something extra special about their collection of domestic animals - cats, dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs. theyre all so fucking nice!!!! Not even in a creepy way? I dont know maybe im desensitized - but all I want to do is stroke the shit out of these!!!!


I think this might also be a good time to introduce you to my new kittens....

JIMMY, BETTY AND FRANKIE!!!!!!!!!!! OH MANN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

that is all. busy busy.

Thursday 14 October 2010

Around the table

Halloween is coming!!! Ive been making some spookily good plans for the night and now I cant wait!! Im just trying to think of my favourite dead celebrity to dress as...