WOW: WOMEN OF THE WORLD FESTIVAL 2014

Don't miss out on this brilliant and thought-provoking event at the Southbank Centre. >>info

On Saturday 8th: Victim of fear-mongering extremism from the Taliban turned Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Malala Yousafzai speaks out for equal education rights for girls

Listen to her on Woman's Hour here 

MASCULINE / MASCULINE AT THE MUSEE D'ORSAY

I was lucky enough to be in Paris at the time of this exhibition, Masculine/Masculine: The Nude Man in Art from 1800 to the Present Day, which took place in my favourite space in Paris, the Musée d'Orsay.
The exhibition was really thorough and contained a surprising amount of contemporary depictions of the male nude.

ANA MENDIETA: TRACES

I went to see Ana Mendieta's first UK retrospective Traces at the Hayward Gallery and was really taken by how powerful the work was. My understanding of this kind of very raw, confrontational and at times disturbing work is partially limited as I am part of a very different generation of feminist artistic expression and am aware that a lot of her explorations as a young artist were relevant to her location and the time in which she was working. However, this Cuban American artist and sculptor had big things to say throughout her varied life and now posthumously, once again had a voice.

I thought of all the works displayed in this retrospective, her reaction and subsequent recreation of the rape and murder of a student at the University of Iowa was particularly resonant. Friends and classmates were invited to enter her apartment (finding the door ajar) and walked in to find the distressing scene of a murdered Mendieta tied up and covered in blood.

Throughout her works she repeats themes of life and death, feminism, belonging and identity. Her body-earth work is particularly beautiful. It reminded me of a mixture between Antony Gormley's recurring motif of the human form and Andy Goldsworthy's often delicate manipulation of elements of the natural world. However, uniquely Mendieta's work has its own theatrical, often eery, film-like quality.

It's often hard to separate an artist's life and their work, but even harder with an artist such as Mendieta, who's legacy has been somewhat overshadowed by her tragic and premature death. In 1985 she fell 34 floors from her New York apartment block at the young age of 36, inciting speculation of murder by her fellow artist and husband of eight months Carl Andre. This being said (and given I was largely unfamiliar with the artist's work) I really wanted to experience Traces as neutrally as possible, without consideration of the artist's scandalized baggage and entirely in it's own right- as I felt it should be viewed.

Through fire, mud, blood and water I stepped in and back out of the ballsy world of this intriguing artist, finding that sometimes I was able to connect to her ideas and sometimes I was not; it felt like a journey and I think that is exactly what she would have intended.

FUNNY? HANG ON A TICK AND YOU MIGHT FIND OUT

Tonight I went to a recording of the BBC Radio 4 show Bridget Christie: Minds the Gap. Though I found that her comedy wasn't exactly my humour, I can confirm that she was indeed funny and her jokes were clever. Crucially, I made this judgement after her show and thus, having heard her material. It was really interesting to hear about a woman comedian's experiences- or rather struggles- in the world of stand-up comedy. Her overall message was that women seem to have a deficit to pay off before they even get on to the stage, immediately deemed 'unfunny' because of their sex. She urged people to by all means judge women comedians, but to give them the same chance to be unfunny as their male counterparts, instead of assuming they won't be because...well obviously women just aren't funny and also (lest we forget) cannot drive. 

If anyone reading this has recently felt the sharp burn of being negatively stereotyped, for whatever reason, be thankful you aren't trying to break through as a female comedian. 

R B KITAJ: OBSESSIONS

I wrote copy for the Art Fund's R B Kitaj exhibition page. I find Kitaj to be a really intriguing artist. Read it here.

Image courtesy of L.A Louver Gallery and Marlborough Gallery, Inc

RAISING AWARENESS

Watch this great sound bite Latimer Creative Media produced. I carried out the interviews and got to meet an array of inspirational women. 

And eat an array of pretty tasty buffet food. Mmm yum. 

Look out for my nodding head and peachy top!

TELEPHONE CALL

WEIRD BLOG ALERT...My very brave, and recently widowed aunt reminded me today, that there are so many amazing support groups out there. Scary? Yes. Worthwhile? Massive YES. Accepting you might need support from others is only ever a good thing! After checking out her recent find, I was reminded that interacting with those who have been through similar tough times is vital and can manifest itself in a variety of WAYs.