Since 1997, Sadler’s Wells has presented The Snowman every December at the Peacock Theatre and what a smashing Christmas show it is! Just like the book and the film, there are no words, apart from the lyrics of the central song “Walking in the Air”. This song accompanies a major scene in the show with special effects including the Snowman and boy flying high over the stage (with assistance of wires and harnesses). Hearing this song brought back childhood memories – something about it fills your heart and breaks it at the same time. Both my five-year-old nephew, my companion on the evening and I, were mesmerized by this scene, and I was transported into a childlike world of imagination.

The rest of the story is wordless and is told through actions, movement and music, scored by Howard Blake. The production has no doubt had several revisions over the years like the inclusion of Jack Frost and an ‘ice princess’ beautiful ballerina, but most of it feels familiar to the story and you get a real sense of calm from the much-loved ‘Snowman’ character. The lack of dialogue allows you to focus on the uplifting music, eye-catching costumes, magical stage design and lighting, and amazing choreography by Robert North. The ballet dancing is effortlessly flawless. The show is charming throughout with unexpected surprises like the arrival of leaping animal characters making us sit tall in our seats to capture it all. The cat character is fabulous in her slick black costume! And then there is the arrival of Father Christmas himself, which the kids lapp up, just like the pretend ‘snow’ falling in our part of the auditorium at the end of the show.

Although we know the ending would be sad, the cast do a fantastic job of quickly digressing away from it with a quick scene change and all of a sudden, the audience is clapping away to scenes of joyful dancing and get swept away in all the fun. Other scenes of snowmen dancing earlier in the show add to the party vibe. What with all the kids in the audience you kind of feel like you’re at a kid’s Birthday party most of the time!

To think the picture book was first published in 1978 and the film came out in Dec 1982, this story will forever remain a Christmas classic and seasonal favourite. Sadlers Wells’ stage version of this timeless and magical story about imagination and friendship, as well as love and loss is enchanting till the very end. My nephew gave it 100 out of 10.

Tickets: The Snowman – Peacock Theatre – Sadler’s Wells (sadlerswells.com)

Image (c) Tristram Kenton 

Written by Jules Nelson

Read Julia’s latest review here Review: The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary! – Four actors tell the tragic story in Jermyn Street Theatre’s playful adaptation-on until 17 Dec – Abundant Art

Footnote:

25th London Season – dedicated to creator of The Snowman, Raymond Briggs CBE 1934-2022

A magical stage adaptation of the much-loved picture book by Raymond Briggs and the film directed by Dianne Jackson

The Snowman is directed by Bill Alexander and features music and lyrics by Howard Blake, including the song ‘Walking in the Air’, spectacular design by Ruari Murchison, magical lighting by Tim Mitchell, and amazing choreography by Robert North, all of which is accompanied by a live orchestra.

The Home of The Snowman™

Lyttleton Theatre-Now on until 21 Jan 23

Othello at the National, directed by Clint Dyer (who is the first ever black director of Othello), plays out like an exposed wound – raw and painful, with all the uncomfortable truth about anti-black racism in the play revealed. Representations of racism throughout the production include a chorus wearing blackface whilst holding police shields, a network of laceration scars across Othello’s back and an opening scene featuring a mob with flaming torches wanting to lynch Othello. Amongst other major themes, including misogyny, jealousy, mental anguish and domestic violence, the themes of racism and hatred remain the most central and significant in this production, as I am sure Clint Dyer intends them to be.

Giles Terera as Othello is an astonishing lead. His physical presence is formidable, and the opening scene elegantly references his success as a military commander and his physical dexterity, as Terera brandishes a training stick on a set that resembles a harsh stadium (with three sides of steep, grey steps). Terera’s opening movements set the scene for more of this kind of dramatic, stylised movement throughout the play, and indeed the choreography struck me as dance-like from the beginning, featuring mimed sequences and symbolic expressions of emotion. Terera’s impressive physicality continues, as he embodies the emotional torture that Othello undergoes, his body becoming writhing, erratic and skittish as he is slowly consumed by fear and doubt.

The production is dark – literally monochromatic in its staging, lighting and costumes, bleak in its narrative and hopeless in its ending – so what was to love? Like the flaming torches which begin the performance and punctuate the play with moments of heightened tension, there are only sparks of light in this show. One of them is the resilience and vulnerability of Emilia (Tanya Franks), wife of Iago and domestic abuse survivor.

Emilia’s quivering presence somehow simultaneously comes across as grounded, fierce and defiant. Her right arm is largely immobile and bandaged, presumably from an injury inflicted by her husband, and her right cheek is cut and bruised. Emilia’s body language is tightly knit and tense – all her limbs are hugged closely into her body as if to protect herself instinctively from harm (a stark contrast to Desdemona’s relaxed elegance). And yet her voice, even when her body language is telling a different story, conveyed strength and conviction – especially towards the climax of the play when she performs her speech about wives and husbands and then verbally defends both herself and Desdemona against her husband. The most exquisite moment of the play for me features Desdemona and Emilia sat on the front edge of the stage, staring forward but more connected than we have seen them before – a powerful and surging female energy rising between the two of them as they realise, with horror, all the torment that has been tossed into their lives by the men they are married to.

Whilst characters such as Othello, Emilia and Roderigo are captivating, some of the acting feels unconvincing. The chorus, or ‘System’, as the programme refers to them (perhaps a signpost to the hierarchical systems which dictate the events of the play) often feel too melodramatic, and ultimately quite distracting.

The production reminds the viewer that racism and poor mental health are inextricably linked. Othello’s descent into paranoia, under the influence of Iago’s lies and manipulation, reveals just how easily Othello’s thoughts are able to become terrifyingly self-destructive, when he has lived his whole life in a society which finds it so easy to hate him.

Running at the Lyttelton, London, until 21st January 2023 https://events.nationaltheatre.org.uk/events/85242

Review by Lucy Evans

Lucy’s passion for the arts began with drawing and painting at a young age and developed later on into a love of landscape painting and a degree in Art History, with a focus on Modernism and gender. Lucy has grown to love literature and acting in particular, and her experiences acting at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival have been formative, convincing her that performance can be an essential tool for communication and connection, as well as of course being a valuable source of entertainment.

Abundant Art’s Reviews can be found here Review Page | Abundant Art

A hidden gem tucked away in SW1, the Jermyn Street Theatre, is taking an unorthodox approach in its choice of what to show pre-Christmas this year. Running until 17^th December, writer John Nicholson’s theatre adaptation of ‘The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary’ mischievously reinvents Gustave Flaubert’s novel about the tragically frustrated Emma Bovary. Obviously aware of the fact that there are loads of film versions of the story (but hardly any adaptations for theatre) Nicolson seized an opportunity here. Nicholson believes that ‘there’s more laughter in theatre and the collective experience is everything’ and having sat in this studio-like theatre amongst a laughing audience, I get what he means.

Directed by Marieke Audsley, the play begins with the cast speaking directly to the audience (they break character on some occasions, like when Emma stands up for Madame Bovary) and asks whether we have actually read the book. Not everyone had (including me), and I begin to get more intrigued about why Madame Bovary’s life ended in such a massive tragedy. We are told that ‘every tragedy can have a silver lining’ and the inclusion of two rat catchers in Nicholson’s adaptation buying all the arsenic that Emma wants is a theatrical framing device added to allow for a happy ending.

Emma Bovary is in fact a very passionate woman who didn’t want to fit into a box. Although she did what she could to find meaning in her life, she didn’t really fit into the confines of societal expectations of nineteenth-century France (I don’t blame her). Ultimately, Madame Bovary wants to find love, feel love and give love, but did she succeed in doing this? I sympathise with Emma’s desire for something exciting, beyond going for walks and buying dresses – ‘at the bottom of her heart..she was waiting for something to happen’. It appears that marrying a doctor is not the cure for her boredom, and instead, she has multiple affairs. When asked once about her marriage she responds unenthusiastically by saying ‘marriage resolves being unmarried’, like it simply just ticked a pointless box.

Jennifer Kirby as Emma brilliantly portrays a woman who feels scattered and unfulfilled, tragically frustrated and often bored with the dullness of everyday life. She is reckless I suppose and lives beyond her means, yet you can’t help but admire her bravery in breaking the rules and not doing what is expected of her. She may come across as broken, bitter and exasperated at times, but you are somewhat impressed that she is experiencing life with much more passion than her peers no doubt. Emma is married to the passive and lacking-in-personality Charles (Sam Alexander) and has affairs with handsome men she encounters here and there (all played by Dennis Herdman). The other two members of the cast fly in and out alternating roles in different attires. The audience is never bored, and the pace is fast throughout. Alistair Cope is particularly funny in his varied roles as Emma’s servant, Charles Bovary’s mother, the pharmacist, the nun, a cow etc – he’s a wizard at playing eccentric characters and has all the makings of a fantastic stand-up comedian.

The way the cast use the modest space on stage is very creative. The first time you see one of them drawing a tap on a little blackboard, you have no idea where this is going and then it becomes clear that this is how water gets magically turned on behind the scenes. The same technique is used to produce eggs out of thin air when they draw a duck and musical sounds when they draw a record player. They use toy horses on sticks in a riding scene and use props in such original ways sometimes involving the audience in the front row. The music adds to the emotion and drama, and I particularly liked hearing Edith Piaf in one of the scenes.

Although the cast and theatre are small, I like how the playwright has taken a risk with this and how these great actors perform just a feet away from the audience. I’m not surprised that hundreds of young actors and writers have started out at the Jermyn Street Theatre. It’s a small theatre with big stories and proves that less is more sometimes.

If you like a good debate, ticket holders can attend a pre-show debate called ‘It’s time to bin monogamy – Is the reverence for monogamous marriage outdated and damaging?’ on the 30^th of November at 5:45pm. Lasting 45 minutes the debate will host guest speakers and welcome questions from the audience. Every good play starts a conversation and I’m intrigued to hear more.

The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary! runs at Jermyn Street Theatre until 17 December.

Box office: https://www.jermynstreettheatre.co.uk/show/the-massive-tragedy-of-madame-bovary/

Photo Credit: Steve Gregson

 Written by Jules Nelson

Footnote:

Flaubert is explored more at Jermyn Street Theatre in the forthcoming Promise Season with the debut play by historian Orlando Figes.  The Oyster Problem tells the story of the French novelist’s catastrophic search for a day job.  The Promise Season, which runs for the first six months of 2023, also includes the world premiere of Timberlake Wertenbaker’s stage adaptation of Henri-Pierre Roché’s autobiographical novel Jules and JimJim, Misha Levkov’s In the Net, Katherine Moar’s Farm Hall and the rediscovery of Miles Malleson’s drama, Yours Unfaithfully.  Full details can be found at www.jermynstreettheatre.co.uk

Read Jules’s latest review here Klimt: The Immersive Experience – step into the world of the Austrian genius Gustav Klimt-Now on until 27 Nov at The Boiler House – Abundant Art

Tucked away in former warehouse, the Boiler House, just off Brick Lane, is popular Austrian modernist painter Gustav Klimt’s life story and art. Organized by Exhibition Hub Entertainment and global platform Fever, visitors can get to know the artist and his art via in-depth storytelling and technology. Included in the exhibition is a dazzling wonderland of trippy floor-to-ceiling 360-degree projections of Gustav’s paintings with soothing music, a VR experience featuring more projections of the artist’s most compelling artworks and an open-house artist’s studio for visitors to make their own paintings and have them displayed on the walls.

It’s hard not to rush through the typically gallery-hung wall-paintings and content and head straight to the ‘golden universe’ to relax in the deck chairs and enjoy the multisensory 360-degree experience. I found this part of the exhibition very peaceful and relaxing and particularly liked Klimt’s colourful landscape artworks. You get a clear sense that Klimt loved colour, women and intimacy and gold leaf, as these feature continuously throughout the elaborate moving paintings. During Klimt’s successful golden phase, many of his paintings included gold leaf, such as hugely famous erotic ‘The Kiss’ (1907-1908) painting. Whilst I sat there absorbing all the shapes, colours, sounds and details, I asked myself whether a fully immersive appreciation of his art would be what the painter Gustav Klimt would have wished for, as this seemed to be the main idea behind this exhibition. If you want to experience all the elaborate details of Klimt’s artworks up close this is for you.

Review by Jules Nelson

Klimt: The Immersive Experience

The Boiler House
152 Brick Ln, E1 6RU

Get your tickets here before the exhibition ends on 27 November! 

Footnotes:

Klimt: The Immersive Experience is a 360º digital art exhibition that invites you to step into the world of the Austrian genius Gustav Klimt. It is brought to you by the organisers of a collection of widely successful exhibitions present in cities across Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Abundant Art reviews can be found here Review Page | Abundant Art

When everything was needed, we are everything. This is an exhibition that demands your spectatorship!

 The New Black Vanguard titled after the book of the same name curated by American writer and critic Antwaun Sargent is a group photography show that declines the performatively whole. This photography presentation includes 15 established photographers, some of whom are new to the institutional guises, some who originate their authorship as digital natives, and some who grew up as their resident hometown documentarians. The once analogue is now evaluated as democratised through the digital. This democratising of access pervades every edge and corner of the exhibition. Saatchi’s white walls have been broken up with as the rooms open to landscapes of black portraiture – light emits from new background walls of fuchsia pink, scarlet red, and midnight blue. No compression, only brilliant saturation permeates – we, the viewer implicated in the eye, of a relationship where the artist and subject are in conversation and dynamic exchange. Photography is deliberate and purposeful as their chosen medium of expression, the works are raised by their image, – there are no false pedestals on display here, instead present are the multiplicities of blackness and a rich diaspora of cultural identities.

The New Black Vanguard brings an unclenching chasm to the homogenous depictions of blackness and the black body. Image by image forging a monolithic global network between these artist & fashion photographers and their gloried portraits of Black creatives from all sides of the lens and the world, touring London, Lagos, and New York. The camera is held as a documentarian in total symbiotic reverence by the artist, showcasing vanguards of power, representation, and revolution, – in all its many wrappings.

In wrappings of the fluid, Daniel Obasi, for instance in Moments of Youth, is held as the artist’s own, as the futurists’ own, as the subject’s own, as these four men at the helm of a seemingly traveling boat’s own – it is irrevocable. This visual activism is what we hold to the vulnerabilities of these instructional, and institutional infrastructures. These interrelationships of companionship and community in commonality take the front stage instead.

An exhibition highlight to move to is the moving-image projection room featuring a reel of 10 of the photographer’s videos which only builds on the visual language and further livens the photography of the preceding rooms. Like Kenny Germe’ of the New Gazes [ – one of 53 artists – an extension of the New Black Vanguard], their portrait The God Father takes to sun peeking to spotlight – to illuminate the once draped – it’s a full circle moment.

I am hopeful, growing from New Gazes, that the New Black Vanguard is not a singular project but rather a new norm, – is a powerful standard for future iterations. These are not new gazes but the significance of more access to the medium, as a platform to expand, where sensitivity has emerged in wanting to be seen. This show endeavours to be marked as a cry for access, for a systematic value change. A small legacy to hold against the white western hegemonic frameworks of photographic practice. This exhibition is a new precedent for the movement of agency, humanity, and the ignition of different consciousness and changed perspectives: as re-born rhetoric, one of more critique and more intention. When everything was needed, we are everything.

Review by Devika Pararasasinghe

Devika is currently living and working in London, by trade an artist and snake oil salesperson. Devika graduated, as of September with a research MFA at Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford.

Image: Campbell Addy, Adut Akech, 2019, from The New Black Vanguard (Aperture, 2019). © Campbell Addy

Footnote:

The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion, is a groundbreaking exhibition featuring 15 international Black photographers contributing to a new vision of the Black figure and reframing representation in art and fashion. This exhibition is a celebration of Black creativity both in-front of and behind the camera. Featured works include Black stylists, models, make-up artists and creative directors who are bringing a radically new set of references and experiences to image making. The New Black Vanguard is curated by American writer and critic Antwaun Sargent who explores a new aesthetic of Black portraiture while examining the cross-pollination between art, fashion, and culture in the making of images. Sargent adds, “This exhibition is an exploration of this generation’s Black image makers who are bringing fresh perspective to photography. Image by image, they have created a loose global network around their art that powerfully centres identity, community and desire. The artists in this show profoundly reanimate the possibilities of contemporary photography.”

Featured Photographers:
Campbell Addy, Arielle Bobb-Willis, Micaiah Carter, Awol Erizku, Nadine Ijewere, Quil Lemons, Namsa Leuba, Renell Medrano, Tyler Mitchell, Jamal Nxedlana, Daniel Obasi, Ruth Ossai, Adrienne Raquel, Dana Scruggs, Stephen Tayo

Exhibition Supporter:

The New Black Vanguard at Saatchi Gallery is generously supported by Burberry

Organisation:
The New Black Vanguard is organised by Aperture, New York, and is made possible, in part, by Tasweer Photo Festival, Qatar and Airbnb Magazine

New Gazes, more work to be seen by:

AB+DM (Ahmad Barber and Donté Maurice), Djeneba Aduayom, Lawrence Agyei, Rasharn Agyemang, Araba Ankuma, Bafic, Daveed Baptiste, Malick Bodian, Kennedi Carter, Jorian Charlton, Christian Cody, Faith Couch, Delphine Diallo, Rhea Dillon, Philip-Daniel Ducasse, Christina Ebenezer, Yagazie Emezi, Justin French, Alexandre Gaudin, Erica Génécé, Kenny Germé, Denzel Golatt, Yannis Davy Guibinga, Travis Gumbs, Tyrell Hampton, Seye Isikalu, Adama Jalloh, Manny Jefferson, Kreshonna Keane, Ekua King, Joshua Kissi, Casper Kofi, Olivia Lifungula, Myles Loftin, Mahaneela, Ronan Mckenzie, Tyra Mitchell, Fabien Montique, Sierra Nallo, Manuel Obadia-Wills, Travys Owen, Amber Pinkerton, Marc Posso, Caio Rosa, Silvia Rosi, Lucie Rox, Makeda Sandford, Cécile Smetana Baudier, Justin Solomon, Texas Isaiah, David Uzochukwu, Juan Veloz, Isaac West, and Joshua Woods.

Admission-Tickets £10, Concessions available; under 10s go free (T&Cs apply). Free entry for Saatchi Gallery Members.
Tickets-Walk-ins welcome but pre-booking is advised. Tickets can be booked in advance online on http://saatchigallery.com/tickets

Read our latest reviews here Review Page | Abundant Art

This month Almeida Theatre opens its doors for a debut production by an all-star team. Elton John’s score, the Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears’ lyrics and playwright James Graham’s script harmonise perfectly. 

The production tells the true story of Tammy Faye (Katie Brayben) and husband Jim Bakker (Andrew Rannells), American televangelists who shot to fame in the 1970’s as founders of Christian TV talk show, the Praise The Lord Club. With their modern approach to preaching, the couple brought the church directly into people’s homes and at the height of their success reached millions every day. As their fame soared, they began diversifying – opening resorts, selling merchandise and taking more and more donations. Ongoing feuds with other preachers caused trouble for the couple, but ultimately their own greed was their downfall and Jim was sent to prison for fraud. 

Despite her husband’s incarceration, Tammy Faye went on to become a television personality in her own right, hosting her own prime time show and reaching new and increasing audiences. Most notably, in 1985 she interviewed Steve Pieters, a young gay pastor and activist, living with HIV. It was a time when there was a lot of fear around the illness and has since seen Tammy Faye become an icon to the LGBTQIA+ community. 

Tammy Faye sees the couple’s story told through outstanding performances and with consideration, humour and tenderness. Brayben (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical) delivers Tammy Faye flawlessly, with a powerful voice that has the audience completely captivated. Rannells (The Book of Mormon, Hamilton) plays Jim well and with faultless comedic timing.

The musical is long, at just under 3 hours, yet flies by as you watch. A heart-warming and hilarious production with an important takeaway – we could all be a little more compassionate. Tammy Faye is a must see. 

Tammy Faye is showing at Almeida Theatre until 3 December and tickets are available here.

Image by Marc Brenner

Review by Amy Melling:Amy is a Curator and Creative Producer whose practice is centred around community-led arts projects. Her current research is focused on curatorial methods for exhibiting artworks outside. Amy has a keen interest in the arts and recently completed an MA in Curating and Collections at Chelsea College of Arts, UAL.

Read Amy’s latest review here Review: Curious, experimental, charming – Hayward Gallery’s latest exhibition, Strange Clay, lives up to its name! Now on until 8 Jan 23 – Abundant Art

Footnotes:

World Premiere-TAMMY FAYEA
Music by Elton John; Lyrics by Jake Shears; Book by James Graham
Director: Rupert Goold; Choreographer: Lynne Page; Designer: Bunny Christie; Costume Designer:Katrina Lindsay; Lighting Designer: Neil Austin; Sound Designer: Bobby Aitken; Musical Supervisor, CoOrchestrator and Arranger: Tom Deering; Co-Orchestrator: Mark Dickman; Video Designer: Finn Ross; Musical Director: Oli Jackson; Casting Director: Pippa Ailion and Natalie Gallacher

“It’s time to bring America back to God”
From a studio in South Carolina, Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker revolutionised religion.Preaching to millions 24 hours a day, Tammy just wants to put the fun back into faith.But a new wave of ministers wants you not to just feel God in your heart, but in your homes, in your schools and in the law too.This true story, directed by Almeida Artistic Director Rupert Goold (Spring Awakening), is a testament of faith, resilience and the temptations of success.

Full cast: Kelly Agbowu, Amy Booth-Steel, Katie Brayben, Ashley Campbell, Peter Caulfield, Danny Collins, Richard Dempsey, Fred Haig, Georgia Louise, Andrew Rannells, Robyn Rose, Nicholas Rowe, Martin Sarreal, Steve John Shepherd, Gemma Sutton and Zubin Varla.
Presented in association with Rocket Stage and Greene Light Stage. The production is supported by The Ruddock Foundation for the Arts.

The show features 23 international artists pushing the boundaries of ceramics. The artworks explore a range of themes including domestic life, the body and social justice. Delicate hanging objects, fantastical creatures and room-wide installations form this display, which presents ceramics in a whole new light. Curator Cliff Lauson said the aim of the exhibition is to “turn the old image of clay on its head and make it really exciting”, and that “The idea of clay as a serious art form has been bubbling at the forefront of contemporary practice for a while, alongside a wider consideration of craft”. 

Downstairs, various large-scale artworks stand out against the Hayward’s Brutalist architecture. In one space Lindsey Mendick’s Till Death Do Us Part sees a recreation of a home overrun by warring creatures. Mice with AK47s, hiding behind sandbags and even peeking out of a Trojan cat. The work explores the domestic as a battleground, reflecting the everyday conflicts that pervade our personal spaces. 

Upstairs, David Zink Yi’s giant squid Untitled (Architeuthis) is particularly eye-catching. Spanning almost 5m on the floor surrounded by a thick puddle of ink, the sculpture is so lifelike it requires a close look to determine the material. 

However, the exhibition’s highlight is just around the corner, where Klara Kristolova’s Far From Here engulfs the room. The scent of the work hits you before you even see it – earthy vegetation, like walking through a forest after rain. The work features 18 stoneware figures surrounded by a landscape of moss, dry leaves and branches. In this work, Kristolova explores transformation and myth. This is evident in the figures – part human, part animal – seemingly taken straight out of a fairytale. 

Strange Clay: Ceramics in Contemporary Art showcases the possibilities of clay. Here, we see artists innovatively explore a medium that can be tactile, messy, funny, exquisite and fragile – with extreme skill. This exhibition is eclectic, exciting and one not to be missed.

Strange Clay: Ceramics in Contemporary Art is showing at Hayward Gallery until 8 Jan 2023, tickets are available here.

Image: Installation view of Klara Kristalova-Strange Clay Ceramics in Contemporary Art at the Hayward-Gallery.

Photo: Mark Blower, Courtesy the Hayward-Gallery.

Review by Amy Melling: Amy is a Curator and Creative Producer whose practice is centred around community-led arts projects. Her current research is focused on curatorial methods for exhibiting artworks outside. Amy has a keen interest in the arts and recently completed an MA in Curating and Collections at Chelsea College of Arts, UAL.

Read Amy’s latest review here Review: Barbara Chase-Riboud: Infinite Folds at Serpentine North Gallery, now on until 29 Jan 2023 –Abundant Art

Footnote:

Strange Clay: Ceramics in Contemporary Art is the first large-scale group exhibition in the UK exploring how contemporary artists have used clay in unexpected ways.

Featuring 23 international artists working across recent decades, the exhibition examines the plasticity and the possibilities of ceramics.

The artworks on show encompass fantastical creatures and uncanny representations of the everyday, as well as ranging from small abstract works to large-scale installations that take the medium beyond the kiln.

Ahead of your visit, download Bloomberg Connects, the free arts and culture app, and explore the Hayward Gallery’s guide.

Available for download for free on the App Store or Google Play

DOWNLOAD BLOOMBERG CONNECTS

First introduced to the world at Brighton Festival in May 2022, Charlotte Spencer’s Written in the Body is a provocative performance touching upon the memories and experiences of being within the body, exploring this through the lens of touch and movement, This performance comes on a smaller scale than Spencer’s previous outdoor works such as “Walking Stories.”  This is a duet between dancers Petra Soor and Louise Tanoto. Through a series of combinations of abrupt, slow and swift movements they create a gripping portrayal of their embodied experience. Spoken words along with movements, and the accompanying music enhance the experience and provoke audience interpretation.

Written In the Body is an intimate and interpersonal journey of Spencer’s relationship to touch, yet it is relatable to us all. It urges us to reconsider our bodies as not just the physical host for our state of being, but rather a site of empowerment, a tool for radical action and a sacred space which we should have complete control over. The performance explores the body in relation to a range of different experiences and emotions, striking and powerful ones being consent and relationships. The dancers portray the ever changing and shifting nature of consent in a manner that encourages audience introspection on the power of touch and how the physicality of our bodies is able to speak for us when we are unable to use words. This thought-provoking concept underpins various choreographic segments. Particularly the one in which the dancers are locked in what seems to be a loving and affectionate embrace at first, but as one dancer squirms away from the other, we see the ideas of shifting responses to touch and the voices of our bodies filtering through.

 The piece conveys the joyous memories and experiences of the body through movements. Tender and soft movements are used in a scene which portrays the nerve wracking yet exhilarating feeling of holding a romantic interest’s hand for the first time. The audience feels this endearing moment through the slow, yet impactful words portrayed in movements.

The piece explores a dramatic mix of both harsh and soft light designed by Marty Langthorne to encourage and highlight change in emotions. Long drapes of soft fabric as part of the set design languidly move with the dancers and occasionally intertwine with the choreography, lending a layer of beauty and depth to the visual effect.

Charlotte Spencer’s Written in the Body is a profound experience that encourages us to think about the bodies in which we all inhabit, the impactful stories they tell through movements both subtle and powerful.  In her own words Spencer describes the piece as “a space to process your own joy, sense of aliveness and collective healing in an increasingly divided, disembodied world.”

Reviewed by Lian Lakhope.

Lian is a MA Global Media and Communications student at SOAS and a volunteer writer for Abundant Art. Lian has written for a number of different publications, mostly about music, culture and film and she is enthusiastic about expressing her passion for creating art and media.

Lian’s latest review Yellowman – Orange Tree Theatre, 5 Sept-8 Oct 22, Review (abundantart.net)

Photo credit: Rosie Powell

Footnote:

Charlotte Spencer’s work is motivated by interests to engage with important social and ecological questions and to find ways to express those enquiries through intimate live encounters with audiences. She often makes work for unusual spaces, inviting people to reencounter their bodies and their environments through action and participation. Making processes are deeply collaborative, involving long immersive residency periods which have included 3000 Km cycle rides and building camps in forests. Charlotte is perhaps best known for her performances through headphones: Is this a Waste Land? (2017), made for vast disused urban spaces; and Walking Stories (2013), a group audio walk for parks. She has made performance work with young people, older adults, community groups as well as professional artists. Her work has been presented nationally and internationally with a wide variety of partners, in lots of different kinds of spaces including Dance Umbrella (2015 & 2017), Brighton International Festival, Sadler’s Wells, Greenwich Dance, Tramway – Dance International Glasgow, Siobhan Davies Dance, South East Dance, Coastal Currents – Hastings, Turner Contemporary – Margate, Jerwood Gallery – Hastings, Salisbury International Festival, Festival DDD – Portugal, Deep Roots Tall Trees – Corby, Festival Plages Des Danse – France, Dance North, The Place, Welcome Collection. Charlotte was recipient of a Bonnie Bird Choreographic Development Award in 2020. She was a Sadler’s Wells Summer University artist 2015-18 and an Artist Activator for Greenwich Dance 2014-17. She trained at London Contemporary Dance School. Charlotte is a mother and has been building a house in Brighton for the past few years with her husband.

CHARLOTTE SPENCER PROJECTS

To celebrate the 30^th anniversary of releasing their sophomore album Going Blank Again, Ride played almost the full album front to back at Here at Outernet, a new venue that opened this September less than 30 seconds’ walk from Tottenham Court Road station. The venue is underneath Denmark Street – a historic street colloquially known as ‘Tin Pan Alley’ – which first earned renown for being the home of many music publishers, and since then for its music shops. As a spritely 14-year-old, I visited London with my family and went through that street playing a new guitar in each shop for as long as I could before being politely ejected by the staff.

Eventually, I bought a gorgeous Washburn hollow body for about £300 of birthday money I’d saved from Wunjo Guitars on Denmark Street; I cherished it and for some reason covered it in stickers of metal guitarists. And for this reason, Denmark Street always conjures up fond memories and a feeling of safe paradise.

It’s fitting therefore that Here at Outernet is underneath Denmark Street, because as I descended the stairs leading to the auditorium, I felt like Dante entering Hell in his Divine Comedy. Presumably a wordplay on ‘here’ (i.e., ‘the artist is here’) and ‘hear’ (i.e., ‘you can hear the music live’), Here is an undeniably cool venue, cool in all the same ways as Boxpark – that is, in none at all. The whole place is decorated minimally in matte black, and as you watch the music, attendants skirt around you – like Pacman around the maze – to clean up the floors and purge the room of any of that vile, unwanted grit which gigs are so infamous for.

The above only applies if you’re able to watch the music, however. The venue is planned in the most ingenious way: despite being 2000 cap, its lines of vision are comparable to that of a festival main stage. It recreates the intimacy of the ‘big venue feel’ – oft missed in smaller ones – by making about half of its punters watch the performance from screens if they intend on actually seeing anything. Simulating a huge stadium in the middle of Soho must have taken architecture’s greatest minds to engineer, and it is in keeping with the Outernet complex’s really cool ‘internet but outside’ thing.

Most laudable by far however is Here’s energy efficiency. It may have been early November, but you wouldn’t have known that at the venue, which had all the comforting warmness of the Jubilee line at rush hour. During Ride’s set, I foolishly wanted to step outside for a minute to get some fresh air – but in the spirit of conserving energy in our current fuel crisis, the bouncer rightly informed me that there was no re-entry.

Now, for the band: with the scene now well pictured, imagine me trialling out various vistas throughout the show, imagining the pros and cons of each. Mark Gardener and co played an excellent set: it turns out there are excellent sound systems in Hell. Either that, or Ride have really good gear – also a strong possibility, given their roots in shoegaze. At any rate, the sound was huge, and that is most important.

One of Ride’s very pleasant surprises was their capability. Gardener still has the voice that has first made Ride so recognisable, and all four of them play with gusto, precision, and energy; the most impressive by far was Loz Colbert on drums (more on this later). None of the sloppiness of many other loud 90s bands. The reason this surprised me is that both on stage and off, the gig looked like a meetup of rejects for an upcoming Paul Weller biopic: I don’t think I’ve seen so many Harrington jackets in one room since I saw the King of the Mods himself at Plymouth Pavilions in 2015.

It makes sense that both band and crowd were in their smartest Freds and Clarks though. Going Blank Again was the point where Ride finally did what Nowhere threatened to do: they leapt faithfully into the melodic, Beatles/The Who/Stone Roses, lalala, ‘Sally Cinnamon’ sound that will never fail to put middle aged bums on seats. Mixing it with their thick, lush walls of sounds and washed-out vocals though, it injected life into a subculture otherwise known by outsiders exclusively for its tiredness.

On the subject of Going Blank Again, they did what any good anniversary set does: played (almost) the entire album. If you just play a few more songs from it than you ordinarily would, it risks feeling like a greatest hits set marred by some lesser tracks, or worse still, an opportunistic money grab. That the album start to finish worked excellently is testament to both Ride as performers and songwriters. After finishing with ‘Grasshopper’, they finished their set proper and did a seven-song encore of old hits and songs recorded since their 2015 reunion. They finished with ‘Chelsea Girl’, the first track from their first EP, and also my personal favourite Ride song. In the super loud, epic ending, I could feel Colbert smashing the pans so well.

My only real criticism of the band itself was the album/encore structure. Waiting a few minutes for them to come back out when they would obviously have to play some hits felt a bit forced. They could have just said, ‘That was the album, now let’s play some hits.’ A seven-song encore is also just a bit… weird. But if you actually got to the end of this self-indulgent review, I hope it’s evident that my bonfire night was one hell of a Ride (badoom-ch!).

Image credit: Loz Colbert

Review by Cian Kinsella

Cian is a Classics teacher and part-time pub quizmaster living in London who is primarily interested in music but is also interested in theatre, literature, and visual arts. He is particularly intrigued by the relationship between art, criticism, and the capital forces always at play. Furthermore, he believes that subjectivity – which is ultimately at the heart of all artistic and cultural criticism – should not be concealed, but probed and perhaps even celebrated. Who decides what we like? How do they construct widely held beliefs about what is good? These are two of the questions Cian looks to address.

Read Cian’s latest feature OCTOBER FEATURE: Brinson: Before He Cracks The Sky and 10 Things Every Christian Hip Hop Artist Should Know – Abundant Art

Footnote:

Ride plays a ‘Going Blank Again’ 30th anniversary show at HERE, Outernet 5th November. This ties in with the reissues of their ‘4 EPs’ and classic Creation Records albums, released 4th November via Wichita Recordings

thebandride.com
wichita-recordings.com

Ride live shows 2022

28th October Ride play Nowhere30 livestream
5th November Going Blank Again 30th anniversary @ HERE, the Outernet, Soho, London
11th – 12th November Rolling Stone Beach Weekender @ Weisenhäuser Strand,
Lübeck, Germany
14th November @ Festsaal Kreuzberg, Berlin, Germany – with GOAT
15th November @ ZAKK, Düsseldorf, Germany – with support from Tallies
29th November @ The Gov, Adelaide, Australia
30th November @ The Forum, Melbourne, Australia
1st December @ The Enmore Theatre, Sydney, Australia
2nd December @ Princess Theatre, Brisbane, Australia
4th December @ Freo Social, Fremantle, Perth, Australia
6th December @ The Studio, Auckland, New Zealand

All tickets are available from thebandride.com/tour

This Autumn, Serpentine opens Infinite Folds, the first UK solo exhibition of artist, novelist and poet Barbara Chase-Riboud. The exhibition is an in-depth exploration of the artist’s practice, presented chronologically from the 1950’s to the present day.

 One of the first works on display is Adam and Eve, 1958, a striking bronze sculpture. A rarity, as Infinite Folds sees the first public display of this piece. The work features two abstract figures embracing beneath a tree – thin limbs and textured metal reminiscent of a Giacometti. Here, we see Chase-Riboud’s early experimentation with technique and materiality. As the exhibition continues, the works chart the progression of her own signature style. Rope, metal, knots and braids are all manipulated in mesmerising ways. 

As well as an innovative artistic practice, Chase-Riboud is an accomplished poet and historical fiction writer. In her own words,  poetry is “very close to a discipline both familiar and dear to me: drawing. Both are dangerous searches for perfection…drawings prepared me for the demands of poetry”. Her first novel, Sally Hemings, published in 1979 gained notoriety for exploring the relationship between the enslaved woman, Sally Hemings and US President Thomas Jefferson. She has since published over ten texts, with some also adapted for film and television. 

In Infinite Folds, we see Barbara Chase-Riboud’s literary work convene with her artistic practice. Historical figures, legacy and power are recurring themes. Chase-Riboud’s widely celebrated sculptures from the series The Malcolm X Steles, take centre stage. The works – monochrome arrangements of sculpted bronze and braided fibres – are dedicated to the human rights activist who was assassinated in 1965. Of the series, Chase-Riboud says, “What they do is embody the spirituality of Malcolm, without having to depict him as a person”. Many of Chase-Riboud’s works explore figures under or misrepresented throughout history. Together they stand like monuments in Serpentine’s white-walled gallery spaces. 

Infinite Folds is a fascinating and comprehensive presentation of Barbara Chase-Riboud’s practice and one that is very much overdue.

Barbara Chase-Riboud: Infinite Folds is showing at Serpentine North Gallery until 29 January 2023. It is free to attend and more information is available here.

Image: Barbara Chase-Riboud: Infinite Folds, installation views, Serpentine North © Barbara Chase-Riboud 2022. Photo: © Jo Underhill, courtesy Serpentine.

Review by Amy Melling: Amy is a Curator and Creative Producer whose practice is centred around community-led arts projects. Her current research is focused on curatorial methods for exhibiting artworks outside. Amy has a keen interest in the arts and recently completed an MA in Curating and Collections at Chelsea College of Arts, UAL.

Read Amy’s latest review here Hallyu! The Korean Wave at the V&A – on now until 25 June 2023-Review – Abundant Art