barkingstars

Exhibitions

Victor Hugo – Royal Academy of Art

I was vaguely aware of Victor Hugo as an author (I’ve not read any of his books) but was completely unaware of his art. That was a shame because his art is fantastic. It has an oddly gothic character to it. Dark castles emerge from the fog, a hanged man dangles from a scaffold that points like an accusation, a poisonous mushroom grows menacingly to overshadow all life around it. The octopus that has been used to advertise the exhibition is glorious. He stares at you threateningly, surrounded by his tentacles, as if to say “two years ago you tried to turn me into calamari. Now you are in my domain I shall have my revenge!”

Adding to the atmosphere is the fact that these artworks are rather fragile and must be protected from light, making this a dark and atmospheric gallery. Highly recommended.

Art Fair – Somerset House

Notionally this was free but they asked for a recommended donation of £5 each so I coughed up. I was then quite surprised to find myself and my wife in a small room with probably all of eight tables in it (some of which were not artists) and remarkably little art to buy. We were outnumbered by artists which made me feel very self conscious. It’s quite uncomfortable to be perusing art and having some rather bored artists (many of whom I’m sure would rather be at Pride rather than this stuffy little room) watching us wandering from one end of the room to the other. I tried to contain my disappointment (we’d rescheduled another exhibition to do this) but I don’t think I was hiding it too well. We did buy a couple of excellent prints from an artist and chatted with her for a few minutes as she explained her process and inspirations – which was great. But I did feel this was a bit too small to be called an art fair. Art Soirée perhaps?

Anyway, I think Somerset House should do some expectation management with this next time. I would do it again, but I’d probably combine it with something else and plan to keep it to less than half an hour.

Books

I read The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. My review is here.

Films

I saw Meet the Millers, a film that is only really remembered now as a meme. My review is here.

Music

I’ve been casting about for inspiration for my own music and I’ve been drawn back to that high-gloss expensive production from the eighties. Back then they really would spend a week building and layering just the rhythm track, using equipment that cost more than a house, in a studio that cost thousands of pounds per week.

One wonderful discovery has been that there are multitracks available of Its My Life by Talk Talk. I won’t say where but les just say they’re incredibly easy to find. I’ve always loved this track, but being able to load up the tracks, remix them and hear how it was put together is a revelation.

Here’s the video if you need a reminder:

I also have been listening repeatedly to White China by Ultravox. I remember being very keen on this when I was about 12 years old. Now I think the song is bobbins, but the production is top-notch. Start with some samples of breaking glass (why did everyone who got hold of a sampler in the eighties start with breaking glass?). Combine a sequencer driven bass line married to a talkbox effect on a separate synth. Take the bass drum sound, hard pan it on alternate beats and raise the pitch over a single bar. Then throw in that rich, tremolo guitar sound on the verse. The song maybe crap but they threw the kitchen sink at it, and it sounds lush. Anyway, I’m deffo going to nick that drum fill idea at some point!