Damien Hirst - Tate Modern

With a Damian Hirst exhibition you obviously go with pre-conceived notions, it's easy to jump on the conservative bandwagon and dismiss him but his work is interesting and profound, all about life & death and beauty, often represented by butterflies & ugliness, represented by cigarette butts. His most iconic work is probably the shark, ‘The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living’ although I prefer Pharmacy which reminds me of a Donald Judd minimalist piece. It is especially effective here as you enter it from a room kept humid to support butterflies flying around living out their life, you then progress from the heat of the butterfly room to the cool of Pharmacy, cool in both senses of the word.
  
'A Thousand Years' must also be mentioned. Within a glass box a life cycle is played out. Maggots hatch, develop into flies, then feed on a severed cow's head while other flies fly around and either meet their end in an insect-o-cutor or survive to continue the cycle. It's the artist playing God and it is amazing, horrific but amazing. The randomness of life and death, it seems so unfair, but that is how life and death works I suppose.

There's always going to be bits you don’t like as well. His spin paintings don’t do much for me and I didn’t bother with the diamond encrusted skull as there was a big queque and it's not my favourite. Without the artist the diamonds are still worth enough for an ordinary person to retire on whereas with the shark for example there is no value without Hirst’s creative flair and ideas.

Bram Bogart 1921-2012

The Dutch-born Belgian (via Paris) abstract artist Bram Bogart has died aged 90. Bogart pioneered a form of abstraction that quite literally stood out. His thick gestural application of paint produced works that are more sculptural than anything easily recognisable as painting prompting one critic to describe them as 'canvases that were both sensuous and with the quality of rock faces' while also being infused with colour, light and optimism.

Leytonstone post box given silver makeover

A traditional red post box in Leytonstone has been completely spraypainted silver in an act of wanton vandalism that should be condemned by all right thinking people. Mind you as an onlooker observed, 'it's absolutely superb...everyone has stopped to take a picture of it and it's putting a smile on their faces.'

Marley; dir.Kevin Macdonald

My favourite Bob Marley joke is either:

Q: How does Bob Marley like his doughnuts?
A: Wi' jam in!
or
Q: What did Bob Marley say when his wife left him and took the TV?
A: No Woman No Sky.

My favourite song is definately Redemption Song...or possibly Three Little Birds.
Anyway I digress, as someone who likes Bob Marley rather than loves him I was expecting to enjoy this documentary but not sure how much. It's certainly long at about two and a half hours and its not a hagiography, Marley's many girlfriends are featured along with his wife. There is much interesting footage, including the (violent) Jamaican election of 1976 and a Marley concert to celebrate Zimbabwe's independance in 1980. There are also interviews with Bunny Wailer and Lee 'scratch' Perry who are both always good value but its the music of the third world's first superstar that shines through.

Georgina Hunt 1922-2012

The abstract artist Georgina Hunt has died at the age of 89. She used 6ft canvases, producing work of subtly varied colours. The critic William Packer described them as "rich in the mysteries of space and light" and Guy Brett, in his introduction to the catalogue for Hunt's big show at Camden Arts Centre, north London, in 1982, referred to "their stilling of visual tensions and associational imagery in a luminous presence of colour".

Georgina Hunt has a retrospective showing at The Cello Factory, 33-34 Cornwall Road, Waterloo, London SE1 8TJ from 16 - 20 June 2012.

http://www.georginahunt.co.uk/

Palestine Film Festival

My Father from Haifa; dir. Omar Sharqawi

My Father From Haifa tells the very personal story of Danish Palestinian director, Omar Shargawi’s bid to persuade his father Munir to embark on an emotionally fraught journey back to Haifa, with the aim of finding his childhood home.

Munir Shargawi says his entire life was shaped by one event - his family's forced evacuation from Palestine in 1948, when he was a boy of eight. He then wandered the world before ending up in Denmark, where he married and raised a family.

As much a personal as a political exposition, the documentry opens an intimate window on a father and son vying bitterly for control over memories of their family history, yet ultimately growing closer mentally and emotionally as they confront that past together.

Palestine Film Festival

Eid and My Land

“Eid” is a delightful short film about a young man (called Eid) who lives in a small village in the West Bank.  He combs the land and finds scrap materials which he uses to sculpt miniature models of the vehicles of the occupation.  The film shows how Eid strives to cope with the occupation and the hardships that come from this by channelling his energy into creating art.  It is an incredible example of how an ugly and tragic situation can be turned into something beautiful through the positive outlook of one individual.

“My Land” is a bold documentary style film which explores the attitudes of mainly young inhabitants from different parts of Israel towards the Palestinians that used to live in the houses and land which they now occupy.  The director records a series of moving testimonials by Palestinians now living in refugee camps around the region.  These refugees talk about a range of historical, political and social aspects of their past and present lives showing how they went from being happy, content and living normal and productive lives to having virtually no prospects at all in their current situations.

In the film he interviews the Israelis about their lives and their love of the land before showing them the Palestinian testimonials he recorded.  It was very interesting to see emotions ranging from those who were obviously affected by guilt and discomfort to others who were apparently not affected at all!  Another aspect of the film showed that some of these Israelis had not previously been aware that Palestinians had been forced out of their homes through fear of being killed and had thought that they had moved on through choice. An excellent film which unfortunately demonstrated the impossibility of finding a mutual solution to the Palestine/Israel conflict.

Duke of Uke end of term concert, Bedroom Bar, Rivington St, London EC1

The Duke of Uke is the place to buy a ukelele in London, or learn how to play it. Recently they had an end-of-term evening which enabled all the classes to have a public performance of the pieces they had been learning. It was a joyous occasion, with the classes giving their all, and the assembled friends and relatives encouraging them vociferously. It is surprising how good a class of people who have only had 10 lessons can sound, even if individually many of them wouldn't be able to perform a convincing solo. The lion's share of the performing time was taken by the most advanced class.

All the pieces involved a combination of ukelele and singing, and it was interesting to see the different approaches. One of the classes of complete beginners (doing a a mash-up of 2 songs called Crazy, one by Gnarls Barkley and one by the better-known Patsy Cline) was accompanied by the teacher and a classmate, while another class concentrated on their playing and had a group of singers accompanying them, a group of teachers, friends and players from other classes. Many of the other pieces, by the more advanced classes, took the latter approach, and while it made for a good performance, especially with one particularly fine solo singer, they were rather upstaging the ukelele players sometimes.

The venue was the Bedroom Bar in Rivington St in Shoreditch. It had a look I associate with Shoreditch, a stripped-down look with lots of old and reused materials - very good. No decent beer on hand-pumps unfortunately, but at least they had Belgian beer in bottles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxq-sFCBMsg
 

PALESTINE FILM FESTIVAL

SOAS, Khalili Lecture Theatre

PALESTINIAN REFUGEES AFTER THE IRAQ WAR: SCREEN TALK
Palestine in the South | Ana Maria Hurtado | 52' | 2011 UK Premiere
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Displaced Lives | João Marcelo Gomes | 14' | 2010
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Talk by Abbas Shiblak on the impact of the Iraq war on Palestinian refugees

These were a pair of fascinating films about the recent migrations of Palestinians to Chile, echoing earlier migrations from Palestine during the British colonial era. It appears that a whole Palestinian community exists in Chile, which continues to identify itself as Palestinian and which has known family histories dating back up to 100 years. Imagine my surprise to see flashed up on screen a group photo of migrants to Chile from Beit Jala, a small village on the outskirts of Jerusalem in which my last known relatives in Palestine lived and died, and where my father and mother went regularly as children. Hurtado's film traced the recent migration of Palestinian refugees from Iraq, who suffered terribly from recrimination and reprisals following the fall of Saddam Hussein and fled to camps in the desert, to Chile. This was as part of the UN arranged refugee programme allowing tiny numbers of Palestinians from Iraq to travel to often far-flung destinations to try and make new lives for themselves yet again. It raised a number of issues about integration and the desperate attempt to preserve identity and culture. The main protagonist, a baker, strove hard to earn a living for his growing family, became more politically active and potentially reactionary, and moved me tremendously when describing how no opportunity to see his father before he died had arisen.

But it was perhaps Gomes' shorter film that contained the most memorable moment, describing how recent Palestinian refugees in Chile only had identity cards which did not allow them to return, with the consequence that they could not travel out of Chile to see their families anywhere else in the world. The utility of skype takes on a new meaning in such circumstances. As Shiblak suggested after the films, the securing of a passport is itself an achievement for Palestinians, who just want to live normal lives like other people. Shiblak was knowledgeable and informative on refugee matters, but the questions he faced were extraordinary in their ignorance, dullardliness and insensitivity. Note to self: avoid staying on for audience questions in future!

Palestine Film Festival 2012

British Colonial Film in Palastine: 1917 TO 1947 - Barbican

Britain’s colonial rule in Palestine was closely recorded on film. This selection from the imperial archives included a number of silent home movies by amateur film makers, usually soldiers and Portrait of Palestine, a film made by the Colonial Office in 1947 which had the aim of giving a positive spin to Britain's chaotic withdrawal from Palestine. This was followed by a very interesting commentry by Francis Gooding of the Colonial Film project who gave the story behind the film and the many political decisions made on the wording of the commentry.