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REPORTING ON ART AND FOOD from Troubled Places

Warning : This is a modern-primitive writing website, of impressionist rather than informative character.

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                          برای آزادی سانچو  

                                        Because of Freedom Sancho


"Ultimately, just beeing a woman is controversial whatever you do".

                                                                                                 Caitlin Moran

















Shohreh Mehran

Realism/ ريليسم Dastan Gallery/Frieze Exhibition at 9 Cork Street



Frieze vsThe Two Big Devils



Realism/ ريليسم Dastan Gallery/Frieze Exhibition at 9 Cork Street is showing a handful of formidably accomplished Iranian artists.


In these difficult times when the Ungodly Regime of Tehran has bowed to its master, the Even Greater Shaitan of Moscow by sending weapons and men to support its war against the Human Race in Ukraine, it is very important for us to see contemporary art from Iran.


Hence, I was delighted to discover how defiantly brave by being overtly militant are Iranian artists in the face of persecutions and oppression. 


Against all odds art always wins. Like life. And like the women of Iran, who according to the latest news

 "The Law Enforcement Command (LEC) in Iran has executed the new veiling enforcement plan it presented on April 8.Several LEC officials stated on April 16 that the LEC had sent warning messages to thousands of unveiled women.Iranian media confirmed the details of the LEC enforcement plan on April 17, publishing a video that outlines how the LEC identifies and subsequently messages noncompliant individuals. LEC Commander Ahmad Reza Radan announced on April 8 that the LEC will begin using advanced surveillance capabilities to identify unveiled women and issue “warning texts” on April 15, as CTP previously reported. "*

are subjected to coercive techniques close to the once exercised on the Uyghurs by China


Of the opening of Realism/ رياليسم exhibition Frieze did quite an event combining it with two other shows of different character and texture : 


Vendelmans shows a beautiful Belgian fin painter Alice Frey from times gone by. Whilst FF Projects' Manifold is a  group exhibition of Black female artists from across the globe. Frieze thus mixes three types of audience  opening pollinating windows until 29th of April. 


Curious, yet perhaps not accidental, fact is the Stork  a contemporary pan-African pop diner next door, on the terrace of which I spent a delightful half an hour sipping on a pink tequila with fresh grapefruit juice and rose bitters cocktail while waiting for the queue at 9's gate to decrease. It was a Polite or Dubai cocktails, as I call them - rich in flavour, low on alcohol.  Nice, but not my thing. Yet, their portrait of Grace Jones I'll have it anytime. 


*

https://go.aei.org/NDc1LVBCUS05NzEAAAGLMX4u16AZLh0_klsHkQEGqTdz__i7jRrXlLolF7BzpQM7jRACOMKVrANa1uuM2z0Xjqbet6o=


Extremely Unlikely

On my relations with One.com: One.com automatically renewed my contract despite not offering the services for which I've signed with Laaf's previous hoste Simple Sites.

 

Other than that here is some last weeks updates:


Other season appropriate phenomenon are two holly reads: 


Making Palestine's History, Women's Testimonies by Jehan Helou 


The Palestinian Revolution which is neither Nakba, nor Intifada. In this Unknown Revolution Women had a significant role and the book is giving voice to these women.


This read is in tune with the seson not only because it talks about events taking place in the Old Jerusalem and other Holly Lands, like up and down the Jordan River; but also because only few days ago it was the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, which makes it a perfect Christmas Read. 






In case you've missed the launch of the excellent 'How to be (a bad) Muslim' by Mohamed Hassan and the fantastic poetry recital by his poet-friends at P21 Gallery - which you certainly did - It is a good time to by the book. It will be good as a Christmas Present for all your friends who are: of mixed origins, foreigners, migrants and/or other sorts of frustrated marginals be them Muslims or not. 


 'How to be (a bad) Muslim' is engaging read, yet the launch was extraordinary. It featured a fantastic Zohab Zee Khan from Australia and his Penjab - Urdu -English poem which literally blew my mind despite or because I only got a third of it. 

A sweet-talking Naveen Krishnasamy with an epic poem about Locdown in Istanbul and his break-up with the "woman who is the first thing on my mind in the morning ing and the last thing on my mind in the evening".

And a queer Amani Saeed with outstanding poems about what's like to be a Muslim and a queer.


This immensely talented lot concluded "There are no bad or good Muslims. There are just Miluslims."


In 'How to be (a bad) Muslim', a compilation of essays and poems; Mohamed Hussain, a man born in Egypt raised in New Zenland sounds like an European to my ears.


Fifa World Cup @maisonartc Marakesh

Which is the Better Team? Team Iran vs Team Ayatollahs

A new episode of the series ‘Scrying through FWC2022’  under Little East here 

UK GOVERNMENT ESTOP* SUPPORTING THE MOLLAHS .

SHUT DOWN IRANIAN EMBASSY

FREEDOM FOR IRAN/FREEDOM FOR UKRAINE

JUSTICE FOR IRAN/JUSTICE FOR UKRAINE UK GOVERNMENT

GIVE UKRAINE THE ARMS YOU PROMISED.

This is a recap for Chuchu Richi, our beloved Especial* Needs PM, in case he was sipping too loudly at his tea this Saturday the 5th of November afternoon and failed to hear what was shouted by few of hundreds of people at his doorstep; or in Case Whitehall is outside the parameter of his attention.

CATCHY HEADING HERE


- and a smaller descriptive one here

Double-click here to add your own text.

And because people with this particular type of special needs love numbers, here are some:

The Iranian procession (1) was composed of three (3) fractions, which I will name ** roughly as 1st Peshmergas *** A group of 10-15 boys with balaclavas and other face-covering gear shouting obscene, I can only guess, slogans as all present were morts de rire, but then refusing to translate the slogans for me saying "My English is not good enough to translate". 2nd The Royalists, a group of about 50 or so supporters of the Shah Reza Pahlavi. Which is not to worry for in each and every country there are people called Monarchists or Royalists and in some countries there are even more than 50, like in this one. 3rd about 300 Zan☆Supporters. Fortunately, the group of Women, Life, Freedom was the most prominent of all three groups, the best organised and with the ongoing communication with the MetPolice.

Which reminded me once more how madly you appreciate British Police when you come from a dictatorial country. Not simply you appreciate them you just love them. You want to go and kiss them each and everyone by one. Yesterday, there were plenty of them and they did an excellent job, whilst Whitehall was a very complicated field with numerous diverse actors. Met Police was a warm, positive and reassuring presence. Which is precisely why I will repeat myself and say: Populate your front houses like they were populated before. So that the population knows that you are available to serve. The inaccessible or depopulated fronts of your houses are a disgrace. Whosoever has invented the void  front of Police Stations houses is a villain. Roam the streets as before, so your glory as the best Police in the World might be re-established. I will repeat it : The Police that serve people and don't beat them with a baton on the head are the most glorious of all Police forces. The Police that protects and doesn't rape women is the mot blessed amongst police forces. Therefore, don't get cynical and don't forget that you serve P E O P L E. 

Back to the Iranian procession the slogan BBC SHAME ON YOU was shouted only three times and then forgotten, possibly not unlike BBCs oblivion of Iranian processions around the world.

* "Why Estop", I asked two enthusiastic sloga shouters. "We tried saying Stop, but it didn't work" the two fabulously young and pretty girls told me. This is how melodical this Nation of Poets kidnapped by Ayatollahs is. They can't just say " Stop"  - and possibly this is why the Ayatollahs are not stopping - They have to say a nonsense like estop so that it is smoother for the ear. 

** all names are mine

 *** The Peshmerga (Kurdish: پێشمەرگه, romanized: Pêşmerge, lit. 'those who face death')[25] is the Kurdish military forces of the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq.☆ ZAN woman in Farsi 

6th of November

Say her name, say her name # mahsaamini

The Credit Suisse Exhibition  LUCIAN FREUD  NEW PERSPECTIVES  'I go to the National Gallery rather like going to a doctor for help.'  LUCIAN FREUD

The Credit Suisse Exhibition LUCIAN FREUD NEW PERSPECTIVES 'I go to the National Gallery rather like going to a doctor for help.' LUCIAN FREUD

Curator Christine Riding and Directore Gabriele Finaldi frame Turner's  'Cologne, the Arrival of a Packet-Boat: Evening'

Curator Christine Riding and Directore Gabriele Finaldi frame Turner's 'Cologne, the Arrival of a Packet-Boat: Evening'

Iranian Women Saits icons at the NG. Better photo next time

Iranian Women Saits icons at the NG. Better photo next time

NG's Triptych

I don't want to possess art. I just want to live in the National Gallery. Alternatively, a weekly visit at great great aunty NG is not too bad. Not visiting NG, together with the perspective not to go to ROH ever again, were amongst the scariest thoughts during the First Lockdown. Anyway these fears are now gone. At least for us - Iranian women still have to go with masks on their hairs. Virus or no virus sorry lice or no lice.

Back to the pleasures and joys of life, these days mainly contained in the National and other galleries.

Turner on Tour in conversation with Lucian Freud's New Perspectives are different in scale, yet complementing each other's exhibitions.

Different in scale, as Turner on Tour features two grand paintings, temporarily loaned by the Frick Collection, Fifth Avenue Garden, while they are doing some redecoration - unseen next to each other before. Whilst Frieud's New Perspectives exhibition features many a painting. For this and many other reasons I reckon they should be seen together.

Both Turner and Freud make an extensive use of yellow. It was curious for me to learn from the curator of the Turner on Tour exhibition, the excellent Christine Riding, that Turner's use of yellow monochrome was " innovative and modern, engaging with new colours coming on the market". Yellow, therefore, wouldn't have been a novelty at the time of Freud, yet he too uses it extensively depicting women and men's hairs, floor deckings, armchairs, flesh and other. Admittedly not in the "blinding" way of Turner and fortunately.

Apart from the unifying yellow the two painters are diametrically opposed in a very complimentary way.

Turner on Tour features two large scale port-scapes. One of Dieppe and one of Cologne. Of the two I linked the ``anti-picturesque" as Christine Riding described it, 'Cologne, the Arrival of a Packet-Boat: Evening' because of the rusty iron roads entangled at the front ground.

Seeing Freud after Turner helped me - eventually and after fifteen years of wondering - understand why exactly I don't like Turner. The Veiled Man, I now call him. The man with a big ambition and a vail on his head. For in the centre of most, if not each, of his massive paintings there abides a big misty vail. A huge ... nothingness. It might be that the colours have faded with time, which's why they don't "blind" me the way Turner wanted to "blind" his contemporaries like "Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus ", as Christine Riding explained. Hence, I am not blinded so much as to think that there is something at the place of nothing.

Turner's skies are so voidish to my eye that when I stood under ' Harbour of Dieppe: Changement de Domicile ' I thought "What a strange hole. And why would the restaurer put white into this hole instead of the same yellow as of the surrounding sky? How very strange!" Much later, when listening at Christine Riding explanation on how the painting depicted mostly women working near a gutter and how these women were a kind of reference to Cologne's patron Saint Ursula; and looking at the painting from far only then I realise that the strangely restored white hole in the middle was actually Turner's... sun....

Seeing the self-portraits and portraits of Lucian Freud next door made me think that Turner's vails hide a void. In this void there is Fear. This is the fear of one looking into other human beings in order to avoid looking unto oneself.

Which is why, I don't like the Veiled Man Turner, I perceive him as, dare I say, pompous coward. Which is how Freud's exhibition complements Turners, by being the exact opposite. In the centre of each of Freud's paintings there is a being : man, woman, dog, himself, described with a brave candid stare.

Last but not least, the third exhibition, the one outside NG's doors, towards Trafalgar Square, with the paintings on the pavement, adorned with flower wreath. The Iranian Women Saints Exhibition, already half washed by the rain, but still visible for so many people to spare a thought and to pay respect minute after minute.

While I am sitting there watching for people's reaction at the sight of the Three Iranian Saints icons, three men approach, they contemplate the icons in silence, then sit next to me. At this moment the sun starts to shine, I take off my raincoat, roll up my sleeves and my trousers - I am a sun-addict not wanting to waste a single sunray. The three men talk quietly Farsi, their glances pass through me not registering : my blonde hair, my naked arms and calves. The three men don’t give any symptoms of feeling provoked nor excited nor agitated at all.... Just normal men like so many others around. Now I wonder, what does this mean? Does it mean that they too much or not at all want to go to Heaven? May be they don't want to go to Heaven at all as Iranian men that want to go to Heaven, I am told, lose control at the sight of women's hair, thus faithfully paying respect to their Prophet, who, I am told, as well used to lose control at the sight of women's hair.* Shouldn't we then make some checks at airports to make sure that only men that are able to be in control at the sight of women's hairs may travel the world? Or in order to be non-discriminatory, like Islamis State of Iran is non-discriminatory to women and requires of all to wear the hair-mask (virus no virus, lice no lice); so the world should be non-discriminatory to all Iranian men and distribute horses' blinders to those of them travelling abroad (provoked or not-provoked, agitated or not)? Questions, questions...

To some or all of these questions - treat whatever sounds as a statement in this writing also as a question - each and everyone can find an answer this coming Saturday the 5th of November. And here is the schedule:

Get yourself into Turner on Tour free exhibition in the morning.

Have lunch. Get a ticket for Lucian Freud New Perspectives exhibition in the afternoon.

Have a coffee.

Attend the Iran Protest at 4pm and bring tools to draw more portraits of Iranian Women Saints. Hopefully on a different support than the pavement. These Saints have already been washed away from life, now seeing their portraits washed away from the pavement seems only too cruel.

This is the Triptych Schedule, in and outside the National Gallery. To be done this and few more Saturdays to come.

1 November

* A universal phenomenon : When men lose control they say women provoked them. When women lose control men tell women that they are mad.

@anniezamero' THE KISS AND MAKE UP' [Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin], (after 'The Kiss' by Rodin, 1888-98) oil and acrylic on canvas, 107x159 cm. On exhibition at Bermondsey Project Space, private view Wednesday 9th November, 7.30-9pm with guest speaker Pandemonia at 6 for 6.30pm.

@anniezamero' THE KISS AND MAKE UP' [Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin], (after 'The Kiss' by Rodin, 1888-98) oil and acrylic on canvas, 107x159 cm. On exhibition at Bermondsey Project Space, private view Wednesday 9th November, 7.30-9pm with guest speaker Pandemonia at 6 for 6.30pm.

Trevor vs Rishi vs Putin under Digestions 2022 here 

We Invoke the Culture of Heretics (W.I.T.C.H), Anna Bunting-Branch at Summerset House Horror Show

We Invoke the Culture of Heretics (W.I.T.C.H), Anna Bunting-Branch at Summerset House Horror Show

Witch Is the Greater Horror?

Now that is a question with a very simple answer.

Usually simple questions require complicated answers. Not this one though. For there is no Greater Horror than the Terror and oppression imposed by the Islamic Republic of Iran on its population men and women alike from one side; and on the World from other by supplying Russia with camicadze drons.

Luckily, the fabulous Horror Show to open doors at Summerset House tomorrow, Thursday 27 October, doesn't, even the slightest, rival the Islamic Republic's horrors but intrigues and fascinates with humans' endless ability to resist to crisis - economic, political and other - with art, imagination and rebellion.

The show is a vast one starting somewhere in the beginning of the 70s with David Bowie's ❣️ Dimond Dogs passing through all the politico-economical crises this country has seen and art forms they have stimulated ending up today with the magnificent galore of art-resistance and rebellion formats the last decade and a half - post 2007 - has generated culminating into sublime art witchery, sorcery and magical work. Of witch - saving the h for other occasions - my personal favourites are Anna Bunting-Branch with her posters We Invoke the Culture of Heretics (W.I.T.C.H) and Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell (W.I.T.C.H). Witch gains Anna all my hearts ❣️and smiles😀.

Here I should probably admit that this Horror Show made me laugh a lot. Just like despite the brutal murders of Mahsa Amini, Shirin Alizade, Hadiz Najafi, Nika Shakarami Juwad Haidari, Neda Agha Sultan, Navid Fkari, Suriname Esmailzadeh and nameless others and the rape by the IR police followed by dissapearance of Armita Abbasi and nameless others; the head of Ayatollah Khamanai, and Ayatollah Khomeini before him, still look ridiculous and funny to me. Other favourites in the Horror Show, the one in the Summerset House I mean, are the two tarot decks of Sophy Hollington and Suzan Treister. Unfortunately one can't get those in the Horror Show Shop, yet, other curious tarot decks are available there of witch the most curious is called something like New Archetyps. The Fashion Tarot Deck is also quite funny. Julie's tiny skull ceramic plate is one of the items in the shop which merits a praise. Julie Goldsmith is sublimely sinister in a particularly sweet way. Hence, the not only the Horror Show but also the its shop requires special attention with endless curious items and titles on display.

Ideally, one should dedicate three and not merely two - as I did - hours to the Horror Show because of the many video and sound installations on display, all of witch very interesting and some of witch very long. Here my favourite is Derek Jarman's Blue despite having caught only the last 15 of the 76 min of the film.

In a word the Horror Show is the show to be seen this autumn. Its richness and fine diversity nursed me to forget. To forget for at lest an hour the real Horror. The Horror on display in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

PS by the way TB, no, not tuberculosis, merely Toni Blair was also there nicely framed as a Horror Icon. Thanks to him now half the Middle-East is aligned with Putin.

26 October

TB as a Horror Icon by Paul Heartfeild, 2014. Paul could make a business mass-producing those and supplying them to Greek Taverns frequented by Iraqi tourists

TB as a Horror Icon by Paul Heartfeild, 2014. Paul could make a business mass-producing those and supplying them to Greek Taverns frequented by Iraqi tourists

Julie Goldsmith's fabulous 'Clown Minature' is to be purchased for only £300 at the Delta Gama Contemporary Art Academy show at Saatchi Gallery.

Julie Goldsmith's fabulous 'Clown Minature' is to be purchased for only £300 at the Delta Gama Contemporary Art Academy show at Saatchi Gallery.

No Saffron-Cooking Untill Freedom*

We all should pay a personal price for Persian Women's Freedom. I suggest we stop saffron-cooking until Freedom.

*Iran Iran is the largest producer of Saffron in the world and has over 90% Saffron production worldwide. Khorasan Razavi province and Gonabad region are part of central Iranian plateau with arid and semiarid climate.

Also known as Saffron is out of fashion for now

برای آزادی سانچو

 „Свободата, Санчо, е едно от най ценните блага, с които Бог дарява хората. С нея не могат да се сравнят нито съкровищата, които крие земята, нито тези, които таи морето."

"Freedom, Sancho, is one of the most precious gifts that heaven has bestowed upon men; no treasures that the earth holds buried or the sea conceals can compare with it" Don Quixote, 1605 (!)

@londonish_citizen

@londonish_citizen "Woman Life Freedom" زن زندگي ازادي

Happy Birthday Mister President

Aka Death Note

Happy Birthday Mr. President

Congratulations, on your 70th birthday half of the human raise wishes you dead.

Admitedly the other half wishes you victorious. Obviously, you'll fail the second, rather sooner than later.

Hence, your legacy will be disastrous. You and Adolf... sure when you're deprived of all talent causing the death of many people counts as a sort of achievement. Well done (without the encore) .

خامنه اي و رئيسي در جهنم. الله أكبر.يا فتاة

Khamenei and Raisi in Hell. God is great.O girl.
Original video and song..

Old Fashioned - Islamic Revolution? No, thanks.

"Yes thanks alot 💜 I'm fine. I went to the protests for two days but few people were there and honestly I was scared so I didn't go the following days.

They are arresting all the famous people who supported these protests."

Fereshteh, 30 September 2022

.مهسا اميني - ملکه من مرده  .ملکه ایران هم مرده  دوستت دارم. من تو را گرامی میدارم، آرزوی تو را دارم، ملکه بزرگتر از همه ملکه ها

.مهسا اميني - ملکه من مرده .ملکه ایران هم مرده دوستت دارم. من تو را گرامی میدارم، آرزوی تو را دارم، ملکه بزرگتر از همه ملکه ها

Comments

MZ

02.10.2022 19:22

I knew how much you were concerned about the violation of women's rights in Iran .Thanks for your prayer and for being so inspirational. So much LOVE.

London Art and Food

29.10.2022 12:37

Thank you my dearest MZ for the kind words. Much love to you in return❣️

LAAF

21.05.2021 21:15

Much appreciated Mr Moto... Moto or Mojo? :)

Mr Moto

An oasis of sanity and stimulation

Doroteya

21.05.2021 17:46

18.09.2020 08:03

So Non-comersial, great!

Торта Павлова

21.06.2020 18:38

Загадки в чинията?! Опасно вкусно!

Crudgie

21.05.2020 08:02

Let them eat cake

Ellie

06.04.2020 20:27

Get well Borko!

Teatime

05.03.2020 22:55

Thank you for posting the article about Abney Cemetery, what an intriguing place, I didn’t know it existed until today and so many events on there.
Thank you London Art and Food

Caroline

26.02.2020 16:16

I enjoyed the article on Masculinities and feel it is in a way perfect timing. I think to reset the balance between men and women more exhibitions like this are needed.

Youko Shimitsu

01.01.2020 18:03

明けましておめでとうございます!

Lucas

01.01.2020 17:56

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Bonne année! Merci pour le matériel de lecture de qualité.

Natalie

03.09.2019 06:56

Great job..

Philip

15.07.2019 08:54

.... the beautiful London streets.. thanks

Jessie

14.07.2019 21:40

The city of Jasmine! Such a great new way to think about London. I am definitely try a little blossom in my mimosas:)

Natalia

12.07.2019 18:29

Great review! I will love to see it ( with old friends of course)!

Ellie

11.07.2019 18:48

Project Zoltar at The Rave Room, great stuff.....

Imroz

Lucas

06.07.2019 12:48

30.06.2019 11:55

Lol.....

Simon

24.06.2019 18:53

Incredible video from Primrose Hill. Continue to keep us informed about cultural events in London, and not just...

Doroteya Hristova

26.05.2019 13:40

#Here We Go Again or Screaming Brexit - Brexshit

Takeshi Kitano

15.05.2019 07:03

Amazen

Crudgie

14.05.2019 16:21

Now gallery . PV. Greenwich peninsula

Adele Davies

14.05.2019 07:59

#Sofia or Idlib? How it is possible for this to happen in a European country in 2019?

Kristian F

11.05.2019 07:42

LuciFairian Games рулира!

21.04.2019 15:40

Doroteya Hristova