London December 05
“Nothing is ever the same as they said it was. It’s what I’ve never seen before that I recognize.” - Diane Arbus.
I’ve been to London more times in 2005 than any other year since moving to the USA in 1989 and each trip has brought more surprises than the last. In January I stayed at a hotel just off the South Bank and was able to spend many hours wandering the halls of the nearby Tate Modern and then, outside, marvel at it’s umbilical link to the City across the River Thames, the Millennium Bridge.
In summer I discovered the newly refurbished (gentrified is probably the correct term) Bermondsey High Street, home to the Garrison, one of London’s many and fashionable gastro-pubs, as well as the Fashion & Textile Museum.
This December I managed to miss by just a day an exhibition at the Fashion & Textile Museum called i-Dentity. i-Dentity is an ambitious and comprehensive touring exhibition that marks the 25th anniversary of the highly influential British magazine i-D. Directed and curated by the magazine’s founder, editor and creative chief, Terry Jones, contributers to the project include Alex McDowell, David Bailey, Agnes b, Nick Knight, Terry Richardson and Xu Zhen. “The revolutionary aesthetic and philosophy of i-D Magazine have provided us with a bold monitor of our times” says Gity Monsef, Creative Director of F&TM.
Although the exhibition ended December 3rd, the F&TM is giving a series of talks and workshops based on the theme of ‘i-Dentity.’ Updates and touring information are available at www.i-dmagazine.com.
Across town at the Victoria & Albert Museum an exhibition featuring the work of Diane Arbus titled ‘Revelations’ can be seen until January 15th 2006. The legendary photographer whose work captured 1950s and 1960s America, transformed the art of photography. She is one of the twentieth century’s most important artists. Arbus’s frank treatment of subjects and her faith in the intrinsic power of photography produced a body of work that is often shocking in its purity and in its steadfast celebration of things as they are. www.vam.ac.uk/arbus
Meanwhile the Barbican offers ’sex.life.death’ an exhibition of the work of Nobuyoshi Araki who is arguably Japan’s greatest living photographer and certainly its most controversial. The exhibition runs until January 22nd 2006 and displays more than 4000 images in a show that reflects Araki’s extraordinary breadth of work from the shocking to the sublime. Influenced by Shunga, the erotic art of the Edo period (1600 - 1867), as well as the glossy imagery of commercial culture, Araki’s work confronts taboo subjects such as sex, nudity, bondage and death head on. Not for the faint of heart. www.barbican.org.uk