culture

The Vaccines 'Come of Age'

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 23:23:03 +0100

The Vaccines first album used an interrogative ‘What did you expect from the Vaccines’ to draw us in, this time round it is a command ‘Come of Age’.

If they’d entitled the album coming of age it would have implied there was some kind of growing up which needed to be done or an immaturity to their first album, their second album is not so much a maturing, full of angsty relationship struggles, but a continuation of the sheer streak of brilliance which ran through ‘What did you expect?’.

The favourite song thus far is ‘I wish I was a girl’ with verses such as

Cause your appeal's an open door
That you float through in your haute couture
Dolce & Gabbana, McQueen Armani Prada
Von Furstenberg on Mulberry, Givenchy and Escada

It becomes very clear when you watch The Vaccines music videos that they are creating an air of indie band elite, self conscious of their genre and type yet fully embracing. The Vaccines video for ‘I always knew’ has no less than the great writer Ernest Hemmingway’s great granddaughter, model Dree Hemmingway. We’re now into the leagues of elite rock band come fashion icon image and The Vaccines fully adorn themselves in this persona.

For anyone who fancies seeing Justin Young pre-Vaccines, check out his recordings as a solo artists under the name of Jay Jay Pistolet.

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Mumford and Sons Babel

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 23:09:41 +0100

Mumford and Sons second album Babel is a little less Shakespeare and a little more biblical. Exactly what you’d anticipate perhaps, Sign No More the title of the debut album and the first song from it, is taken from the great William Shakespeare’s comic tragedy Much ado about nothing and the strong vain of Shakespearean language and direct quotation proliferates their debut album. To the extent that I successfully convinced myself that listening to Sigh No More whilst revising for my Elizabethan and Jacobean drama exams was aiding my productivity.

Babel is somehow darker, still singing of love and against some higher power of repression you experience the same melancholic yet determined lyrics with a more hymn like quality. With a heavy dose of biblical metaphors and language one could get carried away in an interpretation of a folk band turning against religion, but Marcus Mumford carefully interweaves this language into love songs and the effect is beautiful and mesmerising.

Babel 'Lover's Eyes'

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No Doodling Here, Please: The Artistic Act of Vandalism

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 23:00:19 +0100

By Harriet Cash

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The news of the vandalism of a Mark Rothko painting in the Tate Modern seems to have been met mostly with frothing outrage and indignation – and rightly so, you might well argue. Down the ages, works of art have fallen victim to sabotage and defacement for more or less artistic reasons; from Two Naked Men Jump Into Tracey’s Bed (a performance piece in its own right), to pissing in Duchamp’s Fountain, via the firing of a shotgun at a Da Vinci painting, the art establishment really has seen it all.

The interesting thing is that most of these historic acts of vandalism have been motivated by artistic concerns and a serious engagement with the work, if not of the traditional reverent, contemplative sort. One disgruntled Guardian journalist* claims that Vladimir Umanets’ “tagging” of the Rothko should not be labelled thus, since the term implies some sort of creative action. I am an art fan, a Rothko fan, but although every fibre of my being recoils from the idea of tampering with the great painter’s original idea, I can’t help but tend to disagree.

At the very least, there is something strangely fascinating, titillating even, about this and other acts of artistic vandalism. It forces us to confront our preconceptions about art, originality and authorship. And while I wish Umanets’ hadn’t altered (I really hesitate to say ‘defaced’, which feels to strong a condemnation) that wonderful painting, I can’t help but be intrigued by the public reaction to his action. Possibly it has to do with the fact that he chose as his target a work of modern art. I could imagine scholars and curators of Botticelli or Da Vinci exploding in blustery outrage at someone doodling on a great old work. Some part of me, though, expected those in the sphere of modern art to be a bit less, well…uptight.

Couldn’t we see Umanets’ scribbling as the ultimate level of engagement with a piece of art, a kind of postmodern pastiche or collage of ideas? No, maybe not. How about as the art equivalent of a Youtube video response? Well, no again, probably. Although Umanets’ self-created theory of “Yellowism” and the mental creativity behind it (contentious, maybe, but I think there is creativity there) fit this analogy, there is the unavoidable fact that an internet comment or response does not involve altering the original piece, merely the presenting an oppositional argument or reaction.

Still, although I’m not going to condone defacing (interacting with?) public works of art, I think this particular act of so-called vandalism has raised enough interesting, important questions about the state of art and our feelings toward it not to warrant serious repercussions for the vandal. Many have pointed out that although there is a certain intellectualism behind Umanets’ action, he is no Rothko, no great artist himself. Well, says who? When did we become so precious about who is and isn’t an artist? What really separates Duchamp, say, or any other great controversial artist, from Umanets, besides a canon of work and the fact that they’ve been dead for years?

I’m not advocating drawing on great masterpieces. I’m really not. But I have honestly been a little startled by the art and media establishment’s great rush not to understand, not even to try and understand or think about what this signifies. The backlash from the whole thing will likely result in more bulletproof glass and alarmed barriers between us and artworks as the creators intended us to experience them. That kind of reaction amounts to putting our fingers in our ears, putting a buffer between ourselves and outside ideas, and that will never be a good thing.

Maybe Umanets and his Yellowist comrades really are just publicity seekers, maybe they’re just yanking our chain. They have some interesting ideas, though, which you can read more of here.

www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2012/oct/08/rothko-vandalism-painting-attacked

http://www.dontpaniconline.com/magazine/arts/yellowism-interview-with-the-rothko-vandals

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Anna Karenina Review

Sat, 06 Oct 2012 15:17:01 +0100

When I first heard that Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy’s masterpiece, was being made into a film starring Keira Knightley and Jude Law, I admit I was sceptical, however, when I heard that Tom Stoppard was writing the screen play, I became oh so very interested.

Those of you familiar with Russian literature of this period will know all too well the Russian realist authors love of minutely detailed description of events and deep inner contemplations by their protagonists, which is why Russian novels are generally thick books, which take a long time to read. Combine this with Tom Stoppard’s style of minimalism you can understand how a 900 page book can be condensed into a 130 minute film which has a sense of constant motion.

Director Joe Wright’s whole production is an intricate dance, a waltz if you will, such as the one which Anna and Count Vronsky dance. The rhythm and interplay of conversation, the hustle and bustle of stage movements and the constant circling of servants around their masters along with the intermittent music and chugging of the train line create a film with such a sense of pace that events hurtle through just like the horse race and each emotion develops at shotgun speed.

The majority of the film is set on a Russian theatre stage, heightening the drama and perfectly placed for the stunning costume. A hybrid of 1870s Russia and 1950s French couture which is breathtaking, created by Jacqueline Durran, the costume designer who also worked with Director Joe Wright on the film Atonement. The sumptuous dresses are the finishing touches to what is an aesthetically brilliant and stunning narrative which overall amounts to a beautiful adaptation that which may not please traditionalists but certainly embraces and enthrals the modern.

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What would Dorian Gray do?

Sun, 19 Aug 2012 12:48:44 +0100

The Dandies of the 1920's have long captured the romantic and artisitc imagination, in this academic essay I explore the function of the Dandy to an understanding of the decadent literature of the fin-de-siècle period.

The fin-de-siècle period was one in which Dandyism could flourish. Jules Barbey D’Aurevilly, a writer who was influential on Decadent artists, and one of the early Dandy figures regarded ‘Dandyism as a complete theory of life which springs from the unending struggle between propriety and boredom in a declining society’ (Beckson 1998: 59) The fin-de-siècle Decadent period is defined as a declining society and in the literature of this time we find examples of characters whose life ideology is consumed by their own aristocratic notions, a sense of ennui and repulsion for the rest of society. In the examples of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) and Joris- Karl Huysmans’ Against Nature (1884) the fascinating and eccentric Dandy characters are given centre stage and function to demonstrate the degradation and detachment from a society in flux by those in an aristocratic position. Dandy’s are, as Charles Baudelaire describes, who wrote academically on the subject of the Dandy in The Painter of Modern Life (1863) ‘the last burst of heroism in the midst of Decadence’ (28). This definition goes some way to explain the lavish and flamboyant nature of the Dandiacal characters of Dorian Gray, Lord Henry Wooton and Jean Des Esseintes, amongst many more Dandy characters which were constructed in the fin-de-siècle period alongside the real life Dandies such as Oscar Wilde and Charles Baudelaire.

Rising in the period of revolutionary Europe, Dandyism located itself in the centre of a political and ideological flux, as Baudelaire writes in The Painter of Modern Life ‘The Dandy’ (1995)

‘Dandyism is especially likely to appear in those transitional ages in which democracy is not yet all-powerful and the aristocracy is only partially faltering and debased. In the confusion of such times certain men, déclassé, disgusted, idle, but all endowed with native strength, may conceive the project of founding a new kind of aristocracy, which will be all the more difficult to destroy as it will be based on the most precious and indestructible faculties, and on the God-given gifts which work and wealth cannot bestow.’ (28)

Baudelaire indicates that Dandyism rises as a result of a weakness in democracy and the faltering of the aristocracy. The Decadent writers were writing in the wake of revolutions across Europe, including the 1848 revolution in France which ended the Orleans Monarchy. The Italian revolutions which also climaxed in 1848 where various states in Italy demanded to be granted a constitution, which King Ferdinand conceded to and led the way for the unification of Italy as one country as opposed to several differing states. What these revolutionary acts create is a climate where the aristocratic power across Europe was in trouble, their power being challenged and their status beginning to decline, however, democratic power was by no means certain. Young men saw this absence of absolute power as an opportunity to begin a new kind of aristocracy.

James Laver in his book Dandies (1968) wrote that‘The doctrine of “art for art’s sake”, the repudiation of moral and utilitarian values, inevitably brought back an admiration for the dandy, who does not do anything useful but is content to “exist beautifully”. In fact the whole fin de siècle attitude implied a Dandiacal pose’ (100). Therefore, the fin-de-siècle period defined in Decadence as a degrading and that in this decadence it was better to go out with one last flourish. The Dandy is not a part of or a conformist to society; due to their aristocratic status and money they are at liberty to pursue their own pleasures in leisure, culture and in the performance of the self.

Oscar Wilde is one of the most famous Dandy figures, and he constructs the character of the Dandy into many of his plays and specifically into his only novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. One of Wilde’s famous aphorisms which can be found in An Ideal Husband (1983) spoken by the witty Dandy figure of Lord Arthur Goring: ‘To fall in love with one’s self is to begin a lifelong romance.’(Act III Scene I line 17), this mirrors the ‘cult of the self’ (Baudelaire 1995:27), the egocentricity and narcissism which define Dandyism. In Who is a Dandy? (2002) George Walden explains that ‘Dandyism is defined as vanity, frivolity, hedonism, a preoccupation with externals and above all a posture of ironic detachment from the world, such vices or virtues will persist through social and political change’(35). Wilde lived through the period of social and political reforms across Europe, in England and was outspoken concerning the issue of Irish Nationalism, however, what his literature conveys is often boredom with politics and society.

The preoccupation with the external appearance and for fashion and clothing has been interpreted by Aileen Ribeiro, in "On Englishness in dress" (2002) as a political statement in itself, as she makes the link between clothing, with political protest as an English characteristic during the 18th century. Given these connotations, Dandyism can be seen as an act of protest against the social reforms which came in the wake of revolutions across Europe, ones which gave more rights to lower class people. This thought reappears as voiced by Lord Goring, in An Ideal Husband: ‘Fashion is what one wears oneself. What is unfashionable is what other people wear. Other people are quite dreadful. The only possible society is oneself.’ (Act III Scene II line 7-8) To be fashionable was of high importance but to separate oneself from the rest of society was also of utmost importance for the Dandy.

In The Picture of Dorian Gray, the protagonist, Dorian, is impressed and influenced by the Dandy character Lord Henry Wooton who informs Dorian that to be young and beautiful is really the only thing of any use and that Dorian is the most fortunate person to have both youth and beauty. The Picture of Dorian Gray makes direct reference to Dandyism stating:

‘Fashion, by which what is really fantastic becomes for a moment universal, and Dandyism, which, in its own way, is an attempt to assert the absolute modernity of beauty, had, of course, their fascination for him [Dorian]’(150).

Both Lord Henry Wotton and Dorian Gray embody the qualities of Dandyism, having money at their disposal and a heavy sense of ennui, they go about their lives pursuing pleasures in literature and theatre. Dorian’s narcissism leads him into a life of debauchery and immorality but he at all times maintains an appearance of aristocracy and beauty.

Commenting on Lady Agatha’s attempts at philanthropy and appealing to her rich friends to entertain those who are disadvantaged in Whitechapel and the East End by donating money and performing, Lord Henry is most critical. He says at the dinner party:

‘I can sympathise with everything except suffering,’ said Lord Henry, shrugging his shoulders. ‘I cannot sympathise with that. It is too ugly, too horrible, too distressing. There is something terribly morbid in the modern sympathy with pain. One should sympathise with the colour, the beauty, the joy of life. The less said about life’s sores the better.’ (50)

This verbalises the disinterest with the rest of society, especially the bourgeoisie masses that were challenging aristocratic power and pushing for democracy, a symptom of society which was new to the modern world. What Lord Henry wants to focus on is the beautiful but the meaningless, therefore avoiding political or social debate and enjoying instead the fleeting pleasure of the age, which is what Dorian follows the example of and embraces to the full extent possible.

In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian becomes obsessed with a book given to him by Lord Henry, he explains it has follows:

‘It was a novel without a plot, and with only one character, being, indeed, simply a psychological study of a certain young Parisian, who spent his life trying to realise in the nineteenth century all the passions and modes of thought that belonged to every century except his own, and to sum up, as it were, in himself the various moods thought which the world-spirit had ever passed, loving for their mere artificiality those renunciations that men have unwisely called virtue, as much as those natural rebellions that wise men still call sin. [...] One hardly knew at times whether one was reading spiritual ecstasies of some mediaeval saint or the morbid confessions of a modern sinner. It was a poisonous book. [...] For years, Dorian Gray could not free himself from the influence of this book […] The hero, the wonderful young Parisian, in whom the romantic and the scientific temperaments were so strangely blended, became to him a kind of prefiguring type of himself. And, indeed the whole book seemed to him to contain the story of his own life, written before he had lived it.’ (145-7)

This book, which Dorian views as a guide to how he wishes to live his life and embodies the cult of the self, and which is not named in The Picture of Dorian Gray has been assumed by many critics, and understandably so, to be Joris-Karl Huysman’s Against Nature. In Against Nature, the protagonist Jean Des Esseintes rejects bourgeoisie society and other people, to create his own extravagant and eccentric world within the four walls of his home and pursuing a life of intellectual and aesthetic contemplation. Describing his feelings towards society before he makes his break from it and begins his solitary existence, Des Esseintes explains:

‘During the final months of his stay in Paris, when, having lost faith in everything […] during that period the touch of a human form, brushed against in the street, had been one of the most excruciating torments […] Lastly, he loathed with all the intensity of which he was capable the rising generations, those new classes of dreadful louts who feel the need to talk and laugh loudly in restaurants and coffee houses.’ (22)

This extract demonstrates the repulsion for public life by Des Esseintes and his motivation for locking himself away from the rest of the world, to explore the indulgence of the senses in perfumery, home décor, literature, cuisine and music, each of which subjects are given lengthy and comprehensive description in their own chapters in the book. For Des Esseintes the only thing worth pursuing are his own whims and he takes explicit care to avoid interacting with others.

At the end of the text Des Esseintes is forced to return to Paris due to his erratic lifestyle, and the closing chapters are a railing against common society in which the aristocracy is in decline ‘After the Aristocracy of birth, it was now the aristocracy of money’(179) commenting on a rise in capitalism and the rising working classes. On the stupidity of the masses, he says: ‘More villainous, more vile than the despoiled nobility and the clergy in its decline, the bourgeoisie was borrowing their pointless ostentation and their obsolete arrogance, which it debased with their lack of good breeding’ (179). Des Esseintes shares and furthers the vehemence and disdain preached by Lord Wooton in The Picture of Dorian Gray, preferring a solitary existence to any interaction with society.

Des Esseintes exclaims: ‘To think that I will be rejoining the depraved and servile rabble of this age!’ (180). Des Esseintes compares having to rejoin society as an atheist who attempts to embrace religion, hinting back to the idea of the Dandy as the cult of the self, Des Esseintes has made his religion in the worship of the self and in the pursuit of pleasures, the house which he has constructed is the religious building at which he worships.

Dandyism can therefore be seen as hedonistic, frivolous and a pursuit in vacuous, fleeting pleasures, but what these texts and theoretical writings demonstrate is that the Dandy functions as a comment on the decadence of society. By playing on the homonym of decadence, the Decadence of the Dandy is overly luxurious and self-indulgent but this type of decadence is a reaction to the decadence of society and of the time which is in a moral and political decline.

Cambridge Shakespeare Festival

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 15:21:22 +0100

Cambridge is the city of bicycles, history and academia and during the summer it really comes into its own. For six weeks during the summer the revered colleges of Cambridge University open up their immaculate gardens and play host to some of the Bard’s greatest works, celebrating history, comedy, and tragedy, Cambridge Shakespeare Festival is an idiosyncrasy of the city which for me is the highlight of the summer.

For the full tourist experience or just sheer enjoyment of all that is Cambridge, a day spent on the river punting, wandering around the historic buildings and then topped off with a picnic, a bottle of wine and a viewing of one of Shakespeare’s masterpieces is a must for any visitor to the city. Come rain or shine the actors continue, a rainy spell can heighten the drama of a play such as The Tempest but not much can top a beautiful warm sunny evening to watch A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

There is something humbling and special about being sat out in the open gardens on a summer’s eve, surrounded by families, academics, teenagers, children and international visitors to Cambridge. All able to interpret Shakespeare in their own way but appreciates nonetheless. Shakespeare has an uncanny ability to transcend time, space and culture, his plays resonate as much today as they did in his time and with evolving meaning but the eternally poignant confrontation of core human emotions and values which are challenged, broken down and restored.

http://www.cambridgeshakespeare.com/programme/

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Hemmingway Vintage Festival

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 20:43:04 +0100

Wayne and Gerardine Hemingway brought their award-winning Vintage festival to the Southbank Centre Royal Festival Hall on the 29 – 31 July 2011 as part of the Festival of Britain’s 60th anniversary. Celebrating seven decades of British cool: the music, dance, fashion, food, art, design, and film from the 1920s to the 1980s. The event includes catwalk performances, DJ sets, dance lessons, vintage retailers, hair and beauty makeovers and arts and crafts experiences.

Arriving at the Royal Festival Hall on the Sunday afternoon, the atmosphere was electric, men and women dressed to the nines from their favourite decades ranging from 1920’s flapper girls to 1940’s war time austerity tailored pencil skirts and blouses to 1960’s miniskirts and cropped tops. The large performance area in the centre of the hall showcased dance lessons where hundreds of people were taught the Charleston and played host to catwalk shows by British Airways, the London School of Fashion student design show and a special collection by Pearl and Daisy Lowe. The Royal Festival Hall was compartmentalized into areas in which you could have your hair and makeup transformed into the style of your favourite decade (courtesy of Benefit cosmetics), rooms dedicated to Vintage clothing and accessory retailers, and several rooms dedicated to live music, DJ’s and dancing.

The arts and crafts section of the festival was one of the most interesting and quaint features, where you could learn to crotchet, create clothes from scraps of materials and create kitsch flower brooches from buttons and material scraps. Large tables were set up for everyone to sit, take part and create something unique, recycling old materials whilst chatting and making new friends. This I feel is at the heart of vintage fashion and clothing, re-using clothing and material which is perfectly good and needs to be loved again by those confident enough to appreciate it and put the work in.

The Pearl and Daisy Lowe catwalk collection was, for me, the best part of the day. Introduced by the mother and daughter models turned design duo, and opened by a pair of ballet dancers in tulle ballerina skirts, ballet shoes and corsets, pirouetting and chasseing along the catwalks to Bjork’s ‘It’s Oh So Quiet’. All of the models were dressed as ballet dancers and the show started with subdued pastel shades of yellow and blue with soft tulle skirts and gentle tops, but as the show and the music became more dramatic the design turned to heavier corseting and netting in deep mauves, crimson and pewter. The show moved to a more upbeat tempo and style to the soundtrack of The Cure’s ‘Love Cats’ which pushed the ballet movements to a fusion of pirouettes and Charleston steps. The last ballerinas appeared in cat and fox masks with tulle headdresses and the final outfits hinted at the influence of the decadence of the French court in the time of the revolution: Marie Antoinette style hooped skirts and corseting with chalked up faces. Daisy and Pearl Lowe walked the catwalk together at the close of the show, Daisy Lowe wearing a deep red velvet dress with a white ruffle collar whilst Pearl Lowe wore a more demure knee length subtly shiny red dress with a lace overlay.

The Hemingway Vintage Festival has all the potential to be a fashion must attend event, but perhaps due to its low profile it has retained an intimacy and an atmosphere of cordiality which I have not before experienced at similar events. Everyone being dressed in such a unique way left no room for gossiping or judging, everyone had a mutual appreciation of each other’s clothing and style and the effort and forethought put into people’s outfit selection was clear.

This year the Hemmingway Vintage festival will be held at Wilderness Festival in Oxfordshire on the 11-12^th August and is a great alternative festival for fashion and vintage lovers alike.

http://www.vintagefestival.co.uk/landing/index.html

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