Madge Gill 'Myrninerest'

There is a major retrospective of the work by the visionary outsider artist, Madge Gill at The Nunnery in Bow, London till 16 August. Madge Gill (1882-1961) had no recognition in her lifetime - she was a spiritualist and created work through a spirit guide she called 'Myrninerest'. Many pieces include a female figure - possibly self portraits. She is included in Jean Dubuffet's Collection d'Art Brut in Lausanne, but most of her output is owned by Newham Council. Quite a few years back I bought a magical drawing by Madge - here it is.

Machines of Man Ray and Duchamp

Man Ray's Object To Be Destroyed (1923) combines a metronome with a photograph of an eye.  He said: 'I had a metronome which I set going when I painted - like the pianist sets going when he starts playing - its ticking noise regulated the frequency and number of my brushstrokes. The faster it went, the faster I painted. A painter needs an audience, so I also clipped a photo of an eye to the metronome's swinging arm. One day I did not accept the metronome's verdict, the silence was unbearable and since I had called it, with a certain premonition, 'Object of Destruction', I smashed it to pieces.'  In 1920, Marcel Duchamp made an optical experiment with the help of Man Ray. Making use of the fact that the eye retains an image for a fraction of a second after it disappears, he built a motorized machine. Segments of a circle were painted on glass plates and mounted on an electrically operated metal axis. Apparently the experiment was not a success. The objects from these 'experiments' are at MOMA, New York

Leah Fusco Gallery

The Leah Fusco Gallery opened in Rye, Kent a few months back. Leah has made some really interesting and sensitive work exploring a place through 'psyco-geography' - the hidden stories and formative histories of specific sites. She mainly makes work around the Kent coast, including a series about Beachey Head (the famous suicide landmark) and Dungeness (the windswept site of a strangely placed nuclear power station, and incidentally where artist and filmmaker, Derek Jarman lived). The image below comes from her work at Dungeness. Get along and have a look!

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

I found Heddon Street, off regent Street, on street view - the road where David Bowie posed for the cover of his 1972 album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. The original light has since been replaced by a faux victorian streetlamp with hanging baskets attached! Ziggy would have been a lot more spooked to have landed in 2012! The photo was taken by Brian Ward and artworked & coloured by illustrator Terry Pastor.

Poetry Review

Had an interesting commission to do a cover for Poetry Review which has just come out. I was privileged to read some really stunning work. Here's a link to the Poetry Review website, where you can read some of the poems. George Szirtes, Guest editor writes about this volume: '“Poetry today seems to me more a delta than a single river... we cannot help but be aware of the currents around us... But I know where the less explored areas are and wanted to invite writers to open them up through a sense of shareable enthusiasm, to show us not so much the fascination of the difficult, but the fascination of poetry as a whole: the full delta."

Feminism, Paxman, Smith, cats, mice & Tories

Just illustrated an article in the Guardian's 'Comment & Debate' section (Sat 30 June 2012) written by Tanya Gold about Jeremy Paxman's recent mauling of Chloe Smith on Newsnight. 'How dare Chloe Smith's anonymous colleague describe her as a 'mouse' while Paxman gets to be a cat.... except that such a stand, although tempting, is a distraction, a (mouse) trap and a waste of time. Defend Chloe Smith from her sniggering colleagues? Why? Why stand in solidarity with a woman who stands in solidarity only with herself? Full article on Guardian website

Library of Lost Books

I have been sent a book by the 'Library of Lost Books', an ongoing project to rescue old, discarded and damaged books to be re-made or re-imagined by 40 artists. The book I have been sent is a catalogue of books in the lending department of Richmond Library. As I opened the book it fell apart between the entries for 'God' and 'Gold'. Is this prophetic? I'll start developing ideas soon...  The final works will be shown as part of the opening festival of the new Library of Birmingham in September 2013 and will then travel around the UK.