Kim Dong Yoo's 'Elizabeth vs. Diana'

With Britain teetering on the brink of the Diamond Jubilee, the National Portrait Gallery’s latest show The Queen: Art and Image is aptly timed. The exhibition has arrived in London after a highly successful tour of Edinburgh, Belfast and Cardiff, and offers an intimate view of the life of Elizabeth Windsor. Alongside posed portraits and formal photographs, you can expect to see images of the Queen in a relaxed state without guarded body languages or forced smiles.

Tracing the Queen’s life from her ascension to the throne to the present day, the variety of images is impressive, highlighting societal shifts, and evolution in the art world, as well as key moments during Elizabeth’s reign. There are controversial occasions, as highlighted in Kim Dong Yoo’s striking ‘Elizabeth vs. Diana’. Although it’s more than a decade since Diana’s death, the Chinese whispers surrounding the Queen and her relationship with the former Princess of Wales add to the ambiguous theme of the collage piece; an enormous scarlet portrait of Elizabeth composed of tiny images of Diana.

Chris Levine combines old and new in ‘Lightness of Being’; taking a rather unsettling image of the Queen mid-blink in full majestic regalia and diluting the photograph using a hologram effect. The result is breathtaking, with the over-exposed colours creating an almost otherworldly radiance. Created in 2007, the work is displayed in a special black-out section of the gallery, further adding to its impact and allowing it to really stand alone.

No special effects are employed in Dorothy Wilding’s portrait of the monarch when she first took up office. Dating from 1952, the hand-coloured image allows the Queen’s young beauty to shine forth, exuding a charming shyness quite different from the self-assured woman we see in later years. A recent photograph by celebrity snapper Annie Leibovitz adopts a similar aesthetic; with deep, majestic tones capturing a very regal presence. The Queen is resplendent in fur, diamonds and a full length gown, seated in one of the imposing rooms of Buckingham Palace, gazing out of opened windows. It’s easy to se the distinction between the young Elizabeth and the one that has survived the highs and lows of adoration, criticism and condemnation.

There’s a sense of fun in the exhibition too – ‘The Queen’ by Justin Mortimer has cheeky undertones, appearing to show the monarch beheaded thanks to its abstract style. A clash of cultures and generations is evident in a photograph of the Queen meeting with the Spice Girls – an excellent informal addition to the exhibition. One single frame seems to demonstrate that neither really understands the other, but appreciates their mutual existence. Other exhibition highlights include portraits from contemporary artists including Lucian Freud, Andy Warhol, Gerhard Richter and a specially-commissioned image of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh by Thomas Struth.

To see the Queen’s life spread out as visual timeline, it’s easy to become fond of a woman that is usually revered and seen as a formidable character. Paul Moorhouse, Curator of The Queen: Art and Image, and Twentieth-Century Curator at the National Portrait Gallery, says: ‘The Queen is the most represented individual in history – but she remains an enigma. All we really have are images. This exhibition explores the creation of The Queen’s public persona and the way such images reveals a world of changing ideas and values.’

The Queen is a ubiquitous presence in our lives, and yet many of us may feel that we don’t really know that much about a woman who has spent so much of her existence in the public eye. In the year of the Diamond Jubilee, the exhibition presents an opportunity to get to know Elizabeth II a little better, to step back and consider her role over the past 60 years with a critical eye – whether you’re a fervent anti-royalist or support the role of the monarchy in British society.

The Queen: Art and Image is showing at the National Portrait Gallery in London until October 21st 2012. For more information and to book tickets, see the NPG website.

The Queen is a ubiquitous presence in our lives, and yet many of us may feel that we don't really know that much about her...

1923: a Bauhaus puppet made for children

At the Barbican Centre in London, Bauhaus: Art as Life displays more than 400 works of art spanning painting, sculpture, ceramics, textiles, furniture, graphics, theatre, architecture, photography, film and product design. Fittingly, the last time there was a Bauhaus retrospective in the UK was in 1968, a year comparable to our current times in terms of turmoil. And to those living through such an age, past or present, the Bauhaus art movement offers a compelling alternative vision of how best to live.

Established in Germany in 1919, as Europe adjusted to a new world after the horrors of World War One, the Bauhaus movement aspired to change society by fusing art, work and life. With its aim of creating art for the people and wide social inclusion, the movement’s founding roots were firmly entwined with socialism and was a driving forces behind modernism. As the exhibition unfolds, roughly along chronologically lines, you’re hit by the speed at which the collective found its style, confidence and belief. Its ambitious ideology is matched by its output over its brief 14 years of existence before the Nazi’s came to power in 1933.

The early years were marked by an inward-gazing arts and craft feel as its members began to build their aesthetics. A series of macabre puppets – made for the children of the Bauhaus collective and often in the image of its members – reveal a clash between the craft style materials of wood and wool and the movement to geometric shapes, as do a collection of pitchers in earthen colours and soft glazes from the same year.

Move forward to 1924 and the rate of development astonishes; homewares have been transformed into metal teapots and water jugs, some designed by the head of the Bauhaus metal workshop Marianne Brandt, and all a striking ensemble of geometric shapes and highly polished surfaces. By this point Bauhaus had started to open up to the world, establishing a printing press to disseminate its style and creating uniform designs that could be replicated on the production line. The collective was actively involved in working out how to earn a living and sustain itself independently.

Within two years the Bauhaus took ownership of its new home in Dessau and the movement’s aims were at its most realised. One of its early leaders, Johannes Itten, announced that he wished to lead “all creative activity back to its roots, play” and this concept flourished in the mid-twenties. The collective’s centre, itself epitomising the modernist architecture style of space and form developed by Bauhaus, included work/live studios and large central spaces that served as canteen, lecture hall, theatre and party venues.

Throughout this period the movement began to document its members in extensive black and white photography, as it pursued its experiment in joyful living. Theatre was prolific, with all aspects of the building used to stage productions. Costume parties and gift-giving were integral to the ideology of the group, and one feels an urgency in its demand for playfulness that counters the destruction and terrors of the previous decade, with performance becoming part of everyday life.

By 1926, Bauhaus furniture designs had evolved into the timeless pieces that are so familiar and intrinsic to what we consider contemporary, modern style. The tubular steel frame and stretched material seat of Marcel Breuer’s club chair, has been repeated endlessly since its creation. The same can be said for his practical but colourful series of nesting tables in hues one step removed from the primary colours that his fellow Bauhaus member, Kandinsky, was driven by just half a decade before.

But if this interplay between the aesthetic concerns of its members was so intrinsic to its output and its socialist principles, it also was a rising source of tension. Long before the Bauhaus community was disbanded in 1933 after growing hostility from the Nazis, the community struggled with the pragmatic concerns of how to make money and generate sales. Its members didn’t fail to notice the irony that its desire to create ‘art for the people’ often resulted in products that were priced out of the reach of ordinary citizens. This conflict between art and economic sustainability finds resonance in today’s society just as much as the Bauhaus’s loftier desire to build a better society through the principles of creativity.

As Kate Bush, Head of Art Galleries at the Barbican, explains: ”The Bauhaus was inspiring not just because of the extraordinary group of brilliant, visionary people who worked and made art there, but because it was fuelled by an idealism and a commitment to creativity and experiment that remains ever more relevant today.”

Yet ultimately the sheer audacity and ambition of the Bauhaus makes this exhibition exhilarating viewing as one leaves feeling that this experiment in social and artistic experiment can only encourage a new vanguard.

Bauhaus: Art as Life is showing at the Barbican Centre until August 12th. For more information and to book tickets, see the Barbican website.

The Barbican displays Bauhaus design: Josef Albers' set of four stacking tables from 1927 and Marianne Brandt's 1924 'Tea Service'

Fox&Squirrel's Penelope Sacorafou

Penelope Sacorafou is one half of the talented young team behind Fox&Squirrel; a London based company which creates curated walks around the city. Rather than focusing on traditional tourist attractions and historic sites, Fox&Squirrel’s unique tours offer participants an authentic view of London, curated by creative professionals who love their city and are excited to share it with others. Guides include art experts, stylists, photographers and foodies, all brimming with local knowledge and fascinating tidbits that show a different side of the city and how diverse creative currents contribute to London’s evolution – on a daily basis.

Aside from heading up Fox&Squirrel, Penelope has many other strings to her bow, working on fashion communication campaigns, contributing to various art and fashion publications, and undertaking academic research on the effects of the Rich Mix arts venue on East London and its ethnic minorities. Plus she’s currently running in heels preparing for the Fox&Squirrel pop-up shop, a project in collaboration with Guts for Garters! We spoke to the entrepreneurial wunderkind to find out a little more about Fox&Squirrel’s fashion, vintage, art, architecture and food walks, and why she’s still every bit as in love with London.

Have you always wanted to be an entrepreneur?

To be honest it came into place rather organically. I graduated from King’s College with an MA in the arts at the peak of a recession. Every other young lady wanted to be involved in the arts, so in the midst of this rat race I had to distinguish myself from a very talented and highly-educated crowd. I set up a blog, Fox&Squirrel, which gave me a platform to write  about the arts while my great friend JoJo wrote about fashion. This immediately became a platform for us to showcase our knowledge and expertise. As our audience was mainly foreigners wanting to find out creative happenings in London, we eventually started to receive requests from our readers to not only inform them but to also offer them the experience. And, that is how Fox&Squirrel Walks came about, and I suppose how I ended up as an entrepreneur.

Why did you set up Fox&Squirrel?

Initially, Fox&Squirrel was a blog – a platform for creative exchange – through which I spoke to my compatriots in the Balkans about London. I wanted to tell them there was much more to the British capital than Oxford Circus and Piccadilly. At the same time, it offered me the opportunity to meet people in the creative industries. The blog eventually grew and became so popular our readers started to request that we guide them through London. I realised that a number of talented and highly educated people were in the same position, and so I set up the walks element. The mission was, and remains to showcase London’s creative make-up whether that’s the guides who are art curators, art historians or stylists, or the talent we feature on our itineraries.

What do the lifestyle walks involve?

We came up with lifestyle walks as an umbrella term for our walks and services that conveyed the message that our walks were centred around our client’s lifestyle and our walks were an experience that showcased the way London caters to every individual lifestyle. We also came to the realisation that our individual lifestyles dictate where and what we do in our city. Coming to terms with this we realised that our mobility is restricted by our lifestles.  So, our walks were also about getting out of those self- imposed territorial boundaries.

Why London?

Well, for one I live here so it naturally made sense. But, I also think that London is the perfect city to start our luxury walking company. Geographically, London is very flat, therefore walking is easy, it is large and diverse so many nooks and crannies to explore. It is constantly changing and evolving, which makes many people feel a bit lost and unable to keep up. It is the world’s cultural and creative hub but it is not accessible to all. Londoners and visitors are both fascinated by this – but need a service such as Fox&Squirrel to assist in experiencing these scenes.

What are the virtual walks?

Virtual walks are the main feature of our bi-weekly newsletter. We ask a London personality to suggest a walking route in an area in London, pinpointing their favourite bars, cafes, shops, and in general local independent businesses. Our mission is to support indies but to also get people out walking and discovering their city.

What kind of people come on the tours generally?

That is an interesting question. We attract quite a diverse demographic. Our public art walks that take place once a month on a Saturday afternoon attract anyone from young professionals to pensioners, both female and male. Our private fashion walks tend to attract more women, and we cater to clientele from teenagers to recently retired ladies. We also have had several walks for men, and though these are mainly booked by their female partners, our gentleman fashion walks have been great successes.

Participants on a London fashion walk...

How did you get to where you are today and would you do anything differently?

I have a good team of creative, dedicated and innovative individuals. Natasha Hoare- who heads the art walks- is a great team player. She loves the brand and the art walks so we are constantly talking about ways we can improve and other projects we can get involved in. Cassie Beadle and Rachel Chudley who head the vintage walks are an encyclopedia of vintage destinations and are constantly researching and sharing their knowledge.

And, finally Fox&Squirrel’s business developer Alexia Latham is so energetic and in love with Fox&Squirrel, I cannot think of a better person to spend my working days with steering Fox&Squirrel into new avenues. I think communication and a good team are essential for any start -up and I would advise anyone at the beginning of their project to seriously consider creating a team of people that share the enthusiasm before starting. I think that is what I would have done differently, I would not have started solo. It is too much to do and you need others to make sure you give yourself reality checks.

Who helped you along the way?

Everyone I mentioned above, but also my family. My father gave me the confidence to start off. He is an entrepreneur so he knows the highs and lows that come with starting your own business. He also gave me vital advice on company structures. While my mother has always been a source of comfort whenever I have had a tough day.

Who inspires you?

My grandfather. From a young age he told me to make sure I love my job as that is where I will spend most of my life. From my Greek side I stem from a long line of entrepreneurs who are self-made. All of them at some point in their lives have become refugees, losing their homes and left with nothing.  But, they all managed to make it for themselves with sheer determination, and great work ethics.

What do you think is the biggest problem in British society today and what is the most positive thing?

Implementing sterile regeneration programmes that as a result break-up  communities and drive the less fortunate out… London has thrived and developed because of its diversity and we need to make sure that it remains so. Generating regeneration programs that are based on shopping malls is destructive. Communities and areas need to be able to develop organically, in a bottom up way rather than a top down manner. The most positive thing is the diversity and the sensitivity towards achieving equality.

Do you feel British or European?

This is a difficult question. My father is Greek and my mother is English, while I grew up in Cyprus. European would be ideal as it could include all of those nationalities and cultural influences, however, with the current European crisis and particularly the financial turmoil in Greece I am feeling more and more upset with the European nationality. In London, this question is rather mundane. London is such a melting pot of nationalities it does not matter what one feels. I would like nationalities to devolve to the cities. I feel like a Londoner, (and that is not playing into  Ken Livingstone re-election campaign!)

Who are you listening to at the moment?

Radio 4…

What couldn’t you live without?

I am not sure actually. I could not function without my laptop but then sometimes I long for time away from it- so I suppose holidays!

Fox&Squirrel's monthly public art walks attract anyone and everyone; from young professionals to pensioners, both female and male

Dream purchase?

A house with a garden and wooden floor boards.

Favourite movie?

Labyrinth with David Bowie. I used to watch it all the time when I was a child, and to this day it still has the same effects on me as it had when I was 10.

Favourite European city and why?

London, is home so naturally I favour London. But, saying that my origins are in Athens, and with the current dire straits it is in I am morally obligated to promote Athenian beauty, life, and culture. It is the crossroads between the Middle East and Europe and as a result of that the culture is unique , diverse and lively. I would suggest everyone visits it. Plus a myriad of islands are a short boat ride away from Athens, and they are all unique.

How do you stay motivated?

When people like Alice Revel, editor of Running in Heels, shares my enthusiasm for Fox&Squirrel. When managing a start up its absolutely mandatory to feel encouragement by other entrepreneurs. (Ed: Thanks Penelope, back at you!)

Desert island book?

I have recently challenged myself to read every single classic. At the moment I am reading 1984, so if I was stranded on an island tomorrow that would be my book.

Favourite bar?

I have many- but I recently discovered a speakeasy in Old Street that is still a bit of a secret and I like that so won’t be revealing it  but instead prompting you to go walkies and try to find it.

Favourite London places?

I love food so it must be St John’s Spitalfields, and I love going to the movies so my favourite cinema is Screen on the Hill.

Where do you see yourself in five years?

In London, working for Fox&Squirrel.

What’s next for Fox & Squirrel?

You will have to follow us to find out. It is all go go go at the moment so many things are happening – most I cannot reveal.

Can you run in heels?

I can run in heels, I can even  play football in heels!

An Architecture & Food Walk with Fox & Squirrel and creative duo Art For Eating

A detail from Rego's 'The Abortion Series'

Dame Paula Rego is seen by some as the greatest living British female painter; an iconic artist, her works are renowned for their feminist sentiment, magical realism and storytelling. Although Rego has been involved in the arts for most of her life, attending the Slade Art School from 1952 to 1956 (where she met her artist husband) and exhibiting ever since, her career only really took off in later life.

However, Rego has certainly made up for lost time; in 1990 she was named the first Associate Artist at the National Gallery, where she created some of her most famous paintings. Her work is housed in major galleries across the world and she has received honorary doctorates from various universities, not to mention her MBE in 2010.

Rego was born in Portugal in 1935 three years into the dictatorship of António de Oliveira Salazar to an upper middle-class family. Having spent most of her life (including her education), between Portugal and the UK, she is a naturalised British Citizen and currently lives in London. Her upbringing and dual nationality have certainly influenced her work; shining through each piece is undeniable class consciousness, ardent feminism and unapologetic political activism.

In response to a controversial referendum in Portugal during 1998 which rejected a law to legalise abortion, Rego created The Abortion Series; a collection of etchings, drawings and paintings which capture the harsh reality of illegal abortions. Each piece shows a young woman during or immediately after the procedure, alone and connecting only with the viewer. The images convey pain but also a staunch determination, as the women choose to abort despite the rulings of the state, working as a snapshot into the lives of women across the world, but also as a call for change.

Throughout her work Rego inverts female passivity, creating tough, independent women who dominate scenes where men are either absent or victims. Of equal importance to sexuality and gender in her work is the nature of storytelling; by taking the familiar childhood stories told to her by her grandmother and maid, Rego upsets the established order and distorts our impression of truth.

Speaking of her work she says: “My favourite themes are power games and hierarchies. I always want to turn things on their heads, to upset the established order, to change heroines and idiots. If the story is ‘given’ I take liberties with it to make it conform to my own experiences, and to be outrageous.” Celestina’s House is the epitome of this style. Based on a character from 15th Century Spanish literature, Rego’s interpretation is a sinister fairytale showing the passage of a woman’s life; it is an intense, upsetting scene with sexual overtones and hints of taboo.

The Nursery Rhymes series is another prime example of Rego’s typically subversive style; as a gift to her granddaughter, she created a series of etchings from familiar tales, compiling them together in a portfolio. Little Miss Muffet shows a larger than life spider creeping up behind a young girl, and Sing a Song of Sixpence, features a queen wearing white and a suspicious king in black counting coins.

Speaking with The Guardian a few years ago, Rego admitted to working for up to twelve hours per day, six days a week: “Even if I’m tired when I start working, by the end I have a lot of energy. It’s very important for women to keep working.” This year marks the artists 77th birthday and we have a feeling she won’t be stopping any time soon. “Hopefully [my life] will end at my easel – I’ll just fall down sideways.”

Celestina's House is a sinister fairytale showing the passage of a woman’s life; an intense, upsetting scene with sexual overtones

The Art of Colour: Georgia O’Keeffe

A year in art, music, cinema and literature features and there have been some fascinating, thought-provoking pieces on everything from banned books to cinema in Berlin. For your reading pleasure, we’ve rounded up the best of best; a look back over Culturelle in 2011…

Brits and the Boards: Women in UK Theatre

Alice Stride edits a go-to guide to the brightest and most brilliant women working in British theatre today: an inspiring must-read for any budding theatre-luvvies out there.

The Enigmatic Artists

Plum Woodard takes a look at five of music’s most enigmatic female artists, from rock and pop, soul to blues – and from ceaselessly out there to near on unknown…

The Art of Colour

In considering the works of celebrated artists, the exploration of the expressive use of colour can unveil ardent sensitivity and insight into some of the great masters in history and how they inspire us, even today. Kaiti Vartholomaios looks at the art of colour.

Ten of the Best… Historical Novels

As a fun and engaging way to learn about the past, historical novels offer more than your average ‘airport’ read. Viola Levy noses through ten of the best.

Street Art Now

Spray cans at the ready; SJP takes a look at the progression of street art, key artists and where you can see the best tags, bombs and burners…

Banned Books: The Novels You Weren’t Supposed to Read

Banned by governments, Brogan Driscoll presents an edit of some of the most famous outlawed titles – and a few that might surprise you.

Brushstrokes and Bitch Fits: Women who Changed Art

It’s certainly not that female artists don’t exist – it’s simply that they’re not given the wall space that their male counterparts are. Sandra Smiley considers ten key female figures from the art world…

Magathèque: Volume 20

It’s your final Magathèque and the best ever yet! To conclude two years of short film exploration,  Pippa Rimmer reminds you of some of the best shorts we’ve profiled…

On Location: Greece

It’s been a long time since Greece was one of the globe’s greatest exporters of culture, but that hasn’t stopped international production companies from turning its landscapes into cinematic starlets…Kaiti Vartholomaios explores the Greek cinematic landscape past and present.

Upper Class Reads

The fictional – and not so fictional – adventures of the rich and fabulous have fascinated readers for centuries, and it is hardly surprising, thinks Katie Byrne.

Running in Heels: Jasmine Cullingford – Artistic Director

Alice Revel  takes a peek behind the curtains and meets the lady who makes the on-stage magic happen at one of the UK’s most inspiring, eclectic arts venues.

Meet Diana Athill 

Speaking to Harri Sutherland-Kay , the legendary, award-winning British writer and editor adresses the important themes of writing, political activism, feminism, education, religion and the afterlife.

The Ex Factor Playlist

SJP presents your essential guide to the best break-up tracks of all time. Grab a bar of chocolate, arm yourself with tissues and press play to listen to the Ex Factor…

Work by artist Yolanda Dominguez

A Space to Write

Monique Rubinslooks at how a woman needs time, a means to live and her own space if she is to find form for the muddled – but wonderful – ideas that for too long have been buried somewhere at the back of her brain.

Blogging in Heels: Katy Evans-Bush – Baroque in Hackney

Alice Revel quizzes fascinating books and culture blogger Katy Evans-Bush about her sharp, witty musings on literature and London.

Bitches of the Big Screen

Audiences love them, actresses love playing them, the only question is why don’t we see more of them?! Victoria Todd give you our best Bitches of the Big Screen.

Meet Yolanda Domínguez

Jem McCarron meets the young Spanish artist, whose ground-breaking work investigates and challenges our gender conceptions through new, innovative art forms.

Cinematic Cities: Berlin

Continuing your cinematic journey of Europe, Francesca Robson takes you to a city which has inspired some of the most dedicated depictions on celluloid: Berlin

Beach Reads: The Guilty Pleasures

Unfold your towel, settle into the sunshine and enjoy the dog-eared pages. Alexia Healy chooses some of the best literary junk food for snacking pleasure!

Meet Rose Balston

Fran Harris talks classical treasures, architectural anecdotes and bringing London’s artistic heritage to life with the young, passionate founder of Art History UK.

Five of our Favourites… Northern Soul

Not so familiar with the genre? Plum Woodard takes a look five of top Northern soul tracks that are bound to get you spinning on your heels in no time…

The Magic of Writing: Patricia Duncker

Literary doyenne and idea aficionado Patricia Duncker speaks to Deirdra Eden Keane about love, suicide cults, literature festivals and everything in between…

One of our five Northern Soul picks, Dobie Gray’s Out On The Floor

Lipstick and wine: Here Come the Girls

It is immediately apparent on entering Agnew’s Gallery on London’s Albemarle Street that a woman’s hand is behind the work in front of you; a chandelier of cascading wine glasses hangs from the ceiling. Each glass is stained with lipstick and on a nearby wall is the title, Here Come the Girls. This transformation of a feminised everyday object into something else, with all its ironic and humorous references, appears to be a common feature of the work of British artist Susie MacMurray.

Starting out her professional life as a classical musician (a bassoonist to be precise), MacMurray turned to art in the late 90′s, graduating with an MA in Fine Art from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2001. Since then, her rise up the art ranks has been impressive. She has exhibited in major galleries all over the world and currently has a piece showing at the Victoria & Albert Museum as part of its exhibition, The Power of Making.

At her debut solo show in London, The Eyes of the Skin, the whole remit of her work – installation, sculpture and drawing – is represented. There are sketches, pen ink on paper, of hairnets and bandages and sculptures made from balls of Clingfilm or wax and fishhooks. From a distance the works have a strange, mysterious quality; you can’t quite tell what they are or you mistake them for something else; the Clingfilm balls in Feast, for example, look like balls of translucent silk thread. As one gets nearer, the reality reveals itself. This can be confronting, sometimes causing a ripple of shock or disgust or disbelief. Often the object embodies opposites: beautiful and grotesque, extraordinary and mundane.

The choice of material is central to the work. Although MacMurray claims that what she creates is by no means gender-specific, the domestic items she works with and what she transforms them into do, inevitably, make references to gender and sex and directly link her work to certain ideas about femininity. This is particularly overt in A Mixture of Frailties, where inside out rubber gloves have been sewn together and hung from a tailor’s dummy to create a meringue-shaped wedding dress. In this unusual couture creation there are numerous implications regarding the role of women within the patriarchal structure of marriage. The dress is also a fine example of craftsmanship, with the durability of the gloves subtly juxtaposing with the delicacy of the structure. It is not the only time that MacMurray has played with the idea of fashion either: in 2009 she made Widow, a life-sized evening dress from 43kg of dressmaker pins stuck into a black leather skin.

It’s fair to say that MacMurray’s art, with its surrealist and Dada influences, is not always easy to define, sometimes it is difficult to decipher what it is or even what it is made of, yet this is exactly what makes it interesting. Imagine, if you will, Maiden, hanging in a discreet corner of the gallery’s ground floor. At first you barely notice that the framed sheet of cream paper has anything on it, you could walk past without stopping so delicate are the small fishhooks and the strands of fair human hair that are looped through them. On closer inspection, however, the recognition is instant, this ‘maiden’ is the woman as ‘a catch’; this ‘maiden’ is also the woman using her wily female charm, her beautiful locks, to ‘hook’ a man. It’s funny and it’s clever, and it is telling that this small, seemingly simple piece of art can say so much.

Susie MacMurray’s The Eyes of the Skin is on show at Agnew’s Gallery until December 4th. For more information, see the gallery’s website.

A Mixture of Frailties displays the numerous implications regarding women's role within the patriarchal structure of marriage...

The snare drum featured in Answer Me

Winner of the Young Artist award at the Venice Biennale in 2001, Anri Sala has long been pegged as one of the world’s most promising leading contemporary artists. The 37-year-old Albanian originally turned heads back in 1999 with Intervista. This film installation opens with Sala’s discovery of 16mm newsreel footage of his mother giving a speech at a Communist Party conference. The footage has lost its sound so the young artist goes on a mission to decipher what his mother said. Finally, thanks to a lip reader, he is able to show his mother the film with the speech subtitled and she is, for the first time, confronted with her own history, a version of the past she had consciously or subconsciously forgotten.

If the absence of sound propelled Sala’s first work, the presence of sound has been pivotal to a number of his works since, as the artist puts more and more emphasis on the relationship between what we hear and what we see. This exploration certainly lies at the heart of his current exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery in London: a multi-sensory installation in which musical performances are either the starting point or the potential outcome of each piece of art.

Tucked away in a rabbit warren of dark rooms, three large screens play four films on a loop. Two of these, shown simultaneously in different rooms, pull apart then reconstruct The Clash song Should I Stay or Should I Go. Two more, Answer Me and Long Sorrow, are played alternately on the same screen and feature, respectively, a set of drums and a saxophone. Punctuating the screenings is 3-2-1: a 30-minute live improvised performance by the saxophonist Andre Vida, in which he ‘duets’ with the film Long Sorrow. Confused? You might well be but stick with it because it doesn’t take long to succumb to the cacophony.

The films are beautiful in themselves. Frames are exquisitely composed; some shots are still like paintings, others are rooted in movement and the medium of film. In Long Sorrow, for example, different parts of musician Jemeel Moondoc’s face is held in close up: his forehead wrinkling, his bulging eyes flickering and his lips contorting around the mouthpiece, moving in time with the rhythmical scat of his saxophone. The camera then pans out and we see Moondoc suspended on the window ledge of an 18^th floor apartment in a public housing block. In this instance, as with all the films here, the location forms a visually arresting backdrop. Other locations featured include a derelict, graffiti-covered concert hall in Bordeaux, ruins in the Tlatelolco district of Mexico City and an abandoned surveillance station dome in Berlin.

Although the concept of the work may sound rather abstract and serious, it is, in fact, full of humor and light touches. Perhaps this is most evident in Answer Me, which depicts a woman trying to talk to a man who only responds by banging his drums. “Answer me,” she says. He bangs. “It’s over,” she persists. He bangs. In the exhibition’s entrance a snare drum plays along to the inaudible low frequencies of the film, extending the rhythm further into the exhibition space. In a similar play with sound and space, holes have been cut into the Serpentine’s walls, which allow the noises from inside the gallery to merge with the noises from the park outside and vice versa. The holes replicate those of the musical score for the barrel organ featured in the film Tlatelolco Clash.

These connections and overlays between image and sound, what we hear and see and where, multiply in this relatively small art space; for some, it will create a fascinating mix whilst for others it will be an unwelcome assault on the senses. Either way, it is worth seeing (and hearing) with your own eyes (and ears). The rigorous choreography of the screenings and overall effect of the event is impressive, although be prepared to spend at least an hour in the space if you want the full impact.

Anri Sala is showing at the Serpentine Gallery in London until November 20th. For more information, see the Serpentine Gallery website.

Part of Anri Sala’s video installation Le Clash 2010

'Poses' questions the nature of fashion

You can see the original version of this interview on Women’s Views On News.

Yolanda Domínguez is a Spanish artist who investigates and challenges our gender conceptions through art. Born in Madrid in 1977, Domínguez describes herself as a visual artist and performer. She studied Fine Arts and has a Masters in Art and New Technologies and in Concept and Creation. In 2010 she received a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Culture for the Promotion of Spanish Art abroad.

Yolanda also teaches in Spanish women’s institutions and associations, lecturing on “Art as a tool of social transformation” and “Creativity”. She challenges the viewer with her art through “Livings”, explained on her website as “experiences in which the spectators find themselves involved, while they are taking a walk, shopping or going to a restaurant.

Your video entitled ‘Poses’ took an ironic look at the positions in which models are photographed in the name of fashion. How does this ‘fashion obsession’ affect women in Spain?

It’s amazing how many blogs about fashion and trends exist on the Internet, it’s a social phenomenon. The excessive value given to physical appearance coupled with the consumer desire of developed countries is generating a new kind of people who only live for fashion. Wanting to be beautiful and attractive is natural (and necessary for the reproduction of the species!) but is really reaching worrying limits and Spain is no different to other countries.

My ‘Poses’ piece arose precisely from the need to question where the line that separates the healthy from the absurd of this “ideal” world they sell in the magazines lies. Increasingly the models are younger, thinner, with more unhealthy postures. Is this what we want to emulate? Is this art, as some consider in fashion editorials and so acceptable or does it have wider consequences?

“Livings” are a great concept, challenging art that involves the audience. Do the reactions of your audience ever surprise you?

Almost always! It’s wonderful to take your concerns and expose them through this medium and see how others react. I learn so much from the participants. Somehow it’s the viewer who becomes the creator of the work, without them the work is not active and depends on them to take one path or another. If in the project ‘Poses’ nobody cared about the actresses it would have been totally different, valid, but different. I never know what will happen … I just put in the ingredients and leave the rest to the viewer.

What are your formative influences, what prompted this particular focus for your work?

I began my studies at the University of Fine Arts but soon I looked for more contemporary mediums. I love painting but I think it had its moment and now no longer serves to make art. Art is directly linked to its time and ways to communicate today have changed, it will inevitably be reflected in art. Art is communication, feelings or emotions, but communication, there are posts and receivers so the language has to adapt to the times. Classical artistic languages: painting, sculpture etc. now only have an aesthetic function, without content.

Today I especially like the work of artists who not only have an aesthetic purpose but provide something to the viewer, which serves as a stimulus. Such as Santiago Sierra, Alicia Framis, Marina Abramovic and Maurizio Cattelan (I love irony and humor as a vehicle to discuss critical issues). In order to reach people I decided to do my work on the street or insert them into everyday life and language.

One of those new communication forms is of course the Internet and you created a blog under the pseudonym of Katy Salinas, documenting her obsession with staying beautiful no matter what the cost. How do you feel about this work in light of the recent anger generated by other ‘fake’ blogging characters, such as ‘A Gay Girl in Damascus’?

Today the line between reality and fiction is virtually invisible in all areas and tends to fade more and more: what we see on TV, magazines, what we read, what we buy…how much is truth and how much illusion or manipulation?

Yolanda posing as blogger Katy Salinas

Art has always been a fiction that aims to reality. Film, theatre, painting … all always sought to be as real as possible to make the viewer feel more. Now the art is trying to sneak into reality through many strategies, such as street art and theatre set in private homes. It’s an area that has yet to be explored and is going to generate many questions, but it is unstoppable.

Does the end justify the media? That’s something each artist has to consider according to their ethics and of course with full responsibility for what they produce. That debate will undoubtedly be much discussed in the coming years.

Would you call yourself a feminist?

Sure, feminism is an ideology that advocates equal rights for men and women, everyone should be feminist. But my work has no feminist intention and arises only from the interest to know myself, to think about what happens to me and my worries as a human being and, of course, as a woman! I raise these questions and thoughts out loud through my work so I can share with others who are involved and see it.

You believe that art can be used as a tool for social transformation, how do you see this working in practice?

Art does not change things but it changes people and people change the world. In that sense art itself is involved in building the world around us. Anything we launch into the world (pictures, words or actions) are issuing messages and have consequences. Every time I create a piece of work I receive numerous emails from people who have formed some conclusion about what it means, what issues it raises and that is incredible. “Ever since I saw ‘Poses’ I do not see women’s magazines in the same way” …this is to change the world.

One of your stated goals is to challenge the established attitudes of women. What are these attitudes and who do you feel presents the greater challenge when it comes to change?

I think it is the job of each and every person to see what they can do to contribute to change. Many women talk about “patriarchy” and what is “imposed on us” and believe it is men who have to change whilst maintaining attitudes that don’t benefit or help that change.

Gender roles are not independent and must be modified in both directions. This added to the social changes (legal, cultural, ideological) will enable a movement. Everything counts.

For more information on Yolanda, see her website.

Women’s Views On News is the women’s daily online news and current affairs service, operating on a ‘not for profit’ basis. The site provides up to date news on all the major national and international stories of the day, in much the same way as any newspaper or online news service, but the stories featured are always about women.

Yolanda’s 2011 work Poses

Image by Danziger: Dzidza, Srebrenica

In the vast, high-ceilinged space of the Salle d’exposition, Quai Antoine Ier, 120 photographs hang against stark white walls. The images depict women in times of peace and war. The subjects are from different places – Columbia, Afghanistan, India, Rwanda, Cambodia, Sierra Leone, Bosnia – they are at different stages of their lives and they are facing different problems yet all are linked by their innate sense of humanity and their struggle for survival.

Given the subject matter, the work of photographer Nick Danziger in the exhibition Guerre et Paix: Femmes dans le XXIème siècle would be powerful no matter where it was being shown. There is, however, something particularly profound when viewing it in Monaco, with the superyachts bobbing in the port outside. The contrast couldn’t be more appropriate: the world’s most poverty stricken and destitute sitting in the home of the world’s most wealthy and privileged.

The irony of his images hanging in the exclusive Principality is not lost on the acclaimed photographer and he admits that he was a little surprised when the Monegasque authorities agreed to back the show. It is the first exhibition of this nature to be put on in Monaco and its realization has particular resonance for Danziger, who has been resident in the tiny state for the last 16 years. “In the past my images on war have always been deemed not right for Monaco,” he explains, “and it’s been frustrating to have my work shown all over the world but not where I live.”

Geographically, the ground the exhibition covers is extensive yet the themes remain intimate; Danziger has visited a number of these women several times and he has recorded the changes in their lives over a period of years: “I try not to take a photo of someone and walk away. These are women that I have come to know. They are my heroes.”

The different stories weave together to create a patchwork of tragedy and bravery: a bereaved woman searching for husband’s and sons’ remains in Bosnia; a young girl in Cambodia lugging around a pair of weighing scales in a futile attempt to make a living (they broke); Bridget from Zambia, who contracted HIV after sleeping with men to fund her studies; Mariatu from Sierra Leone who had her arms hacked off when she was 13 and who Danziger found years later living in Canada. There are also moments of hope: a classroom of children desperate to answer a question in Uganda, a family in a remote part of Bolivia who are educating their children and improving their quality of life. The captions beside each image reveal each tale, often in the words of the subjects themselves.

First imbued with the spirit of adventure by Hergé’s Tintin, Danziger’s work has seen him travel to the most remote and problematic parts of the world. Documenting the lives of people in these places is the ground most familiar to him. In many ways, exactly where these people come from is not important because their stories are universal. Take, for example, a striking photograph of a tiny boy, perhaps no older than five, posing with a coat hanger that has been wound into the shape of a gun, his camouflage trousers adorned with a little ammo belt fashioned out of plastic bottles. My mind flicks through different conflict afflicted African countries: Rwanda; Sierra Leone; Somalia, the Republic of Congo… It turns out to be Ethiopia. It’s the only image in the show that is not directly about women and Danziger debated whether or not it should be included. It is right that it was, because in that little boy playing at being solider are the roots of so many of the stories of the women being shown around him.

Guerre et Paix: Femmes dans le XXIème siècle is showing until September 30^th

Salle d’exposition, Quai Antoine Ier, Monaco. Free admission.

Mariatu by Nick Danziger in Sierra Leone, 2001: "I begged them not to cut off my hands. I said: 'Kill me instead'. I was 13 years old."

Detail of The Three Glorious Enigmas of Gala

The Pushkin Museum of Fine Art’s latest blockbuster exhibition brings works by Salvador Dalí housed in the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation in Figueres, Spain to the Russian capital. Organised as part of the Year of Spain in Russia cultural exchange, the exhibition takes Dalí’s Russian muse, and later wife, Gala as its central theme, showcasing some of Dalí’s most important works inspired by her. Dalí met Gala, born Elena Diakonova, in the Russian city of Kazan, in 1929 – the same year that Un Chien Andalou, a film Dalí co-produced with Spanish director Luis Buñuel gave the young artist his first taste of success.

Gala was married to artist Paul Eluard before meeting Dalí, but the pair moved in together in 1929. They later married twice, in a civil ceremony in 1934, and a Catholic one in 1958. Among the photographs displayed in the Pushkin Museum’s current exhibition is one of their second wedding, for which Gala (who had also married Eluard in a Catholic ceremony), had to get a dispensation from the Pope. Gala’s continuing ability to inspire the artist is reflected in the variety of images of her produced from Dalí’s early career until her death. Some of the more memorable images of her in the exhibition include ‘Portrait of Gala with Two Lamb Chops in Equilibrium upon Her Shoulder’ from 1934 and ‘The Three Glorious Enigmas of Gala’, painted in the year of her death. Gala was a source of inspiration to Dalí throughout his career, despite her affairs with numerous people including her ex-husband Eluard, as well as with other artists. Gala passed away in 1982, and shortly afterwards Dali stopped painting, her death marking the end of his career.

The exhibition can be split into roughly three sections – paintings, illustrations and photographs. While Gala dominates the paintings, the illustrations include an impressive series made to accompany ‘The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha’. The collection of photographs reflects Dali’s fame and reputation during his lifetime as much for being an eccentric as an artist. The collection features earlier shots of the artist with Federico Garcia Lorca – artist and muse together – and a few dating from the Dalí’s time in Hollywood. Escaping the war in Europe, Dalí and Gala spent much of the 1940′s in Hollywood and photographs at the Pushkin exhibition include those of Dalí on set – painting, and with Hollywood film stars Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman.

Unfortunately a few organisational issues let the exhibition down. If you don’t have at least a reading knowledge of Russian, getting an audio-guide, which are available in English, French and German as well as Russian, is pretty much essential, as none of the paintings have English labels. Also be prepared to wait – on the Sunday morning of opening weekend, queues were running at two hours, with no option to book a specific time slot.

The exhibition runs until 13 October, 2011.

Photographs of Salvador Dalí with Hollywood film stars Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman during the golden era of cinema...