Dr Who

One of the stranger things I have done has just been released...

I feature in a documentary on the special features of a 1970s Doctor Who episode 'The Masque of Mandragora'. I'm in 'Bigger on the Inside' about the changing design of the tardis throughout the decades and how it reflected changing attitudes about architecture and design... I don't quite no how I ended up on it... though the Dr Who credits are one of my earliest childhood memories.

Berlining

Back from Berlin. Where I saw this brilliant notice in the hotel lift.

The week was made brilliant by Oliver Laric, Paolo Chiasera, Aleksandra Domanovic, Cyprien Gaillard, Aids 3D, Margherita Beliaf, Carson Chan, Lukas Feireiss, Ana Finel Honigman, Emer Grant, Jean Gid Lee, Neil Rumming, Rupert Smyth and Ellie, Akiko and Alexis at Motto, among others. I also particularly want to thank Felix at the Forgotten Bar for the co-creation of what is now my favourite drink - vodka, soda and sliced fresh cucumber.

These are some of my favourite places in Berlin:

Food/Drink
Milchhalle (the Bircher Museli is so good), Auguststr 50, Mitte
Nil , Oppelnerstr. 4, Kreuzberg
Cafe Fleury, Weinbergsweg 20, Mitte

Shop
Motto Berlin, Skalitzer Str. 68, im Hinterhof, Kreuzberg
Do You Read Me?, Auguststr 28, Mitte
Konig Books, Burgstrasse 27, Mitte

Art
Peres Projects, Schlesische Str 26, Kreuzberg
Isabella Bortolozzi, Schoneberger Ufer 61
Hamburger Banhopf, Invalidenstraße 50-51
Forgotten Bar Project, Boppstrasse 5

Anders Petersen

I bought a book at the uber-Konig books in Berlin today... A beautiful edition of Cafe Lehmitz by Anders Petersen. Pics of the underbelly of Hamburg circa 1960. I feel a full on art crush coming on. Find. This. Book.

Forgotten Bar

Off to Berlin in the morning. And while i'm there I'll definitely be going to this.

Bedroom Music

My latest London Fields Radio show can be downloaded here:
Bedroom Music

I went for the idea of a relationship created through an hour of songs from the romantic dreaming to the hot and heavy build up to the aftermath. It also contains probably the most shocking record I've ever heard Lucille Bogan (pictured above) and her bordello blues number 'Shave Em Dry'. (I also sing a bit of More Than You Know half way through the show...).

Look Back in Anger

Kenneth Anger has a show opening this week at Spruth Magers.
The exhibition is going to include his film 'My Demon Brother' (which you can watch below c/o youtube). According to the release "a hypnotic montage of jarringly edited images, shifting intense colours and symbols with a repetitive synthesised soundtrack by Mick Jagger... The aim of Anger’s subliminal techniques is to get through to ’the great Collective Unconsious’ and evoke the idea of an alternative reality, which, in turn, adds to the viewers’ anxiety." I have a love hate relationship with Anger. The horror stories in his book 'Hollywood Babylon' were part of my childhood old movie obsession and the stills are always wild. But some of his films scared the hell out of me. If you want something a little less dark on Thursday, new shows at Seventeen on Kingsland Road and Collier Schorr at Stuart Shave Modern Art.

Graphic Detail

I never manage to sort it out to collect comic issues properly. These are my favourite graphic books where at least you can guarantee not to fail to grab issue 3 of some 8 part series...

Katsuhiro Otomo's Domu (Dark Horse)


Andrzej Klimowski's The Secret (Faber)


Hellboy, BPRD and everything touched by the hand of Mike Mignola. Recommend his novel of Dracula - he was the art director of Scorcese's film version.


Alan Moore and David Lloyds' V for Vendetta (Vertigo)


David Mazzucchelli and Paul Karasik's City of Glass by Paul Auster (Picador)

Oh. Yo. Radio.

I'm Djing on LFR again tomorrow afternoon at 3pm. (The show will be put up as a downloadable podcast in a week or two). I'm thinking of the concept of before and after as the theme to the show... but probably too difficult!

I read two books last week about the behind the scenes workings of the art world. I like your work: art and etiquette published by Paper Monument and Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Gallerists But Were Afraid To Ask by Andrea Bellini published by my favourite imprint of the moment jrp ringier. Both were very interesting, accessible and well written but at the same time I wondered if any other medium in the world could make the inner workings of what they do into something deep and meaningful? Would the music industry write books about how to behave or how their labels have reinvented the landscape of music production? I dont think so...

Freud's cocks

The image of today is a postcard purchased at the Freud Museum that sits next to my computer. It's an image of some of Sigmund Freud's phallic amulet collection. I'm personally felling the ivory numbers...

Splice

A lovely artist I know Ruben Cooke is creating an open submission mail art project 'Splice', inspired by the cancer treatment he is currently undergoing for Hodgkins Lymphoma. The splice theme has multiple definitions but contains the word ICE, referencing the combination of chemotherapy Ruben is receiving. I'm a big fan of mail art. Ray Johnson, Gilbert and George, lots of the Fluxus artists and On Kawara (above - note all postcards addressed to Baldessari!) have all done it. Its cheap, immediate, a bit punk and it must make postmen very happy.

Tokyo 2: Utrecht and Christian Holstad

My wonderful talented creative friend Naoko Higashi introduced me to a bookshop in Aoyama in Tokyo. Utrecht was hidden away above a garage on the 2nd floor about five shops past the Prada building. Inside was a brilliantly curated selection of independent publications, a small gallery and a sun terrace where I enjoyed a proper cup of tea. I bought an edition by Christian Holstad repped in Tokyo by Hiromi Yoshii . It was a box called 'Fellow Travellers' filled with facsimile photos that Holstad had collected across American flea markets of people in Halloween costume. The publication was created by Edition Nord. It is one of the weird fascinating things you travel around the world to find. I won't scan more than one as I don't want to ruin the surprise for those who search it out. It is worth the effort.

Tokyo 1: House

Foil is an amazing photography book publisher based in Tokyo. They make amazingly produced books which very excitingly you can now buy internationally online. Whilst in town I bought 'House' by duo Yu Ogata and Ichiro Ogata Ono, which is a series of works taken from Greece to China looking at strange amazing architectual structures - uber Baroque churches in Mexico, dovecotes on Tinos, houses flooded with sand in Namibia, Western style villas built by Chinese workers who built the US railroads in rural China. Fascinating stuff (with an English text at the back). There's a good review at bilingual Japanese art blog Kalons