Subversive Spaces at the Whitworth Gallery

Seán and I visited the exhibition on a rare day off without kids (It was Purim, so the school I work at was closed). It was excellent, thought-provoking and absolutely fascinating.

I wasn't so sure about all the stuff relating to explorations of hysteria - but I could definitely understand the work of the artists relating to enclosed private spaces. These are supposed to be our comfort zones, the protected spaces where we feel safe. For anyone who has experienced abuse or violence within the home or felt besieged by hooligans chucking eggs and insults at your windows, those spaces are not the haven we feel they ought to be.

I also found the explorations of "unheimlichkeit" fascinating. It's the feeling of the uncanny, of suddenly encountering something odd, out of place and unexpected in a familiar and comforting setting, capturing the shiver-down-the-spine moment or the feeling of deja vu, the "glitch in the matrix" that there's something not right here.

Another thing that caught my eye was the work relating to the "renovation" of Paris, and the destruction of the old Les Halles marketplace to make way for the Georges Pompidou Centre. The situationists, surrealists and flaneurs of the time felt keenly that this was part of the city's repression of working class spaces under the guise of beautification. The parallels between this and the "gentrification" of our own most beloved Northern Quarter hit me instantly. Again, it's the repression, the squeezing out of the underclass by the bourgeois.

I also love, love, love the short films of Francis Alÿs. He views walking, strolling aimlessly, as a resistance to the "speed culture" of our modern world. His film of himself (view it here) walking along drumming on railings, streetlights and parked cars (running off when he set off an alarm) filled me with a childlike glee. I wanna do that. Seriously - I want to do a percussive derive around Manchester. I want to know what a streetlight sounds like, I want to beat out a rhythm on a litter bin and the bars in front of shop windows. I am so inspired by this guy!

If you've not been to see this exhibition - go. You must, and then come join me on a percussive dérive.

Love and sparkles
Sara

In Honour of Bettie Page

Bettie Page, possibly the last great icon of the 1950s has passed on following a heart attack last week.


Her legacy will live on for a long long time to come. Cheesecake Pin-up and Fetish Queen, she developed a cult following.




Her agent Mark Roesler said that "she captured the imagination of a generation of men and women with her free spirit and unabashed sensuality." For many, she was the embodiment of beauty. She had a distinctive style all her own that many admired and emulated - and still do!




After giving up modelling, she became reclusive, a born-again Christian and worked full time for an evangelical minister. On resurfacing in the 1990s, she never allowed herself to be photographed. She preferred that people remember her as she was. She never felt any shame in being photographed nude - she said that "God approves of nudity. Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, they were as naked as jaybirds"



Bettie Page is one of my cultural heroes. She survived a turbulent childhood and never lost her inner beauty and innocence. I salute you.

Rest in Peace.