Book of the week: Milo Yiannopoulos, Dangerous
Book of the week purely based on the fact that we won’t actually ever have to read this steaming pile of vulgar trolling fascism-lite. We’ve dodged a bullet. Rejoice. Kent’s most basic bad boy, the bye felicia of fascism, has finally come-a-cropper. After being professionally misogynist, Islamophobic, transphobic, homophobic, racist, and generally miscellaneously evil, it turns out you can’t get away with advocating for the love between a man and a boy. Oh well. Bye bye Milo! Don’t let the door hit your badly hightlighted hair on the way out!
Film of the week: Moonlight
Big, sparse, beautiful, human, epic, emotive, glorious, sad, great script, incredibly acted, wonderfully directed, Moonlight’s got it all. Go see it. And read our interview with Ashton Sanders here.
Book this, this week: David Wojnarowicz at The Horse Hospital
Celebrate the life and legacy of artist David Wojnarowicz with this event at The Horse Hospital in March. Wojnarowicz was an incredible artist, queer icon, and AIDS activist whose life was tragically cut short by the disease in 1992. Before he died, he released Close to the Knives, an incredible memoir of his life and times, and collection of his still vital writings. Now being brought back into print, The Horse Hospital are organising a night of celebration of Wojnarowicz’s life, with an incredible array of talent reading passages from the book. David Hoyle, La John Joseph, Charlie Porter, Ali Smith, Huw Lemmey and more.
Gig of last week: Princess Nokia at Cambridge Uni
Princess Nokia cancelled a performance at Cambridge University mid-gig after being sexually abused by a member of the crowd – she hit him, thankfully, after he shouted “get your tits out” at her – the perpetrator has spoken out. In an interview with a magazine called The Cambridge Student, the anonymous bad dude said: “I was standing in the audience and was told by a fellow audience member that the name of the performer was ‘Abigail’. Given that I was enjoying the performance, I shouted out ‘Let’s go Abigail!’. After I shouted this, she came down from the stage. She slapped me and threw drinks on me.”
You had all this time to come up with at least a half decent excuse, or at the very least a grovelling apology of your bad behaviour, and all you could think of was “Let’s go Abigail!” How did you even get into such an elite institution of learning? Anyway, go Princess Nokia. Punch more bad dudes please.
Read more about that jerk here
Throwback of the week: ICA Video Library
For 12 years, between 1981-1993 the ICA ran a video library of documentaries, independent and artist-made film. A valuable resource in a time when you couldn’t just google the name of something and whack “watch online free streaming” at the end and get instant access to it. Now the ICA is throwing back the Video Library as part of its ongoing investigation into the overlaps between moving image and the arts. In the Fox Reading Room, they’re launching a new exhibition dedicated to the pioneering public access spirit of the original Video Library. There will also be a series of artists and curators formulating their own responses to the collection, as well as a series of events, talks and screenings.
Fashion drop of the week: LOL T-shirt
The instantly iconic T-shirt worn by the assassin of Kim Jong Un’s adorable, Disney-loving big brother can now be yours. Some shameless, ambulance-chasing huckster has started shotting knock off versions of the Lol-shirt. Spring/summer 17’s most viral, one laugh, item of clothing, could be yours, guaranteeing at least 40 extra likes on your next Insatgram selfie.
If you really want to you can read more about this here
Exhibition of the week: Eduardo Palozzi at The Whitechapel Gallery
Remember those mosaics that lined the walls Tottenham Court Road station, before BoJo riding a Crossrail bulldozer came in like a wrecking ball and “regenerated” the station? Well they were by Scotland’s finest Italian pop artist Eduardo Palozzi. Hailing from Trainspotting’s own Leith, the son of Italian immigrants, Palozzi roamed across Europe for much of his peripatetic life; taking in Munich, Berlin, Paris, California and Hamburg, but it was in London that he made his name and fame. And the Whitechapel Gallery is honouring his life, work and legacy in this big and beautiful retrospective. Tracing his influence from his groundbreaking collage works of the 50s, his colourful sculptural works of the 60s, his interest in public art in the 70s, and his return to more figurative forms in the 80s and 90s.
Architect of the week: Diébédo Francis Kéré
The first African architect to be commissioned to create a Serpentine Summer Pavilion. It is inspired by the trees of his native Burkina Faso. Speaking to the Guardian he said: “The tree was always the most important place in my village. It is where people come together under the shade of its branches to discuss, a place to decide matters, about love, about life. I want the pavilion to serve the same function: a simple open shelter to create a sense of freedom and community.” We can’t wait.
There is more about this on The Serpentine’s website
Credits
Text Felix Petty