Approaching each of the twenty-six boxes creates a sense of both anticipation and trepidation: what unfortunate creature will be behind the next door? The coffin-like boxes, dead flowers, and velvet drapes blocking out any daylight create an appropriately funereal atmosphere.
07 October 2015
Memento Mori?
Approaching each of the twenty-six boxes creates a sense of both anticipation and trepidation: what unfortunate creature will be behind the next door? The coffin-like boxes, dead flowers, and velvet drapes blocking out any daylight create an appropriately funereal atmosphere.
03 October 2015
Je Suis Charlie
The documentary includes interviews with most of the editorial staff who survived the attack, with the exception of Renald Luzier (known as Luz). Luzier drew a defiant Mohammed cover illustration only a week after the murders, though he recently announced that he is leaving Charlie Hebdo.
(One of the original 2005 Mohammed cartoons was reprinted last month. Kurt Westergaard's caricature, first published by Jyllands-Posten, was reprinted by the Chinese newspaper Global Times on 28th September.)
30 September 2015
A Rape On Campus
The rape victim, identified only as Jackie (a pseudonym), recounts her ordeal in graphic detail: "seven men took turns raping her, while two more - her date, Drew, and another man - gave instruction and encouragement." She also describes her friends' reactions following the attack, explaining how they discouraged her from reporting it: "The three friends launched into a heated discussion about the social price of reporting Jackie's rape".
After the article was published, a police investigation found no evidence that a rape or assault had taken place. In fact, many of the details Jackie provided turned out to be incorrect. For instance, she said that her attacker was a Phi Pappa Psi member who worked as a lifeguard, though no members of that fraternity were employed as lifeguards at the time. There was also no party or social function on the date Jackie claimed to have been raped.
Jackie's story was discredited, and Rolling Stone retracted the article, deleting it from its website. The magazine also commissioned an investigation by the Columbia University School of Journalism, which it published on 23rd April. That report, titled What Went Wrong?, found that Erdely had relied on Jackie as her only source for the rape story, and had not attempted to verify the information Jackie gave her: "the problem was that she relied on what Jackie told her without vetting its accuracy."
Jackie's three friends launched the first legal action in relation to the article, though their case was dismissed earlier this year. Lawsuits issued by the University and Phi Kappa Psi are still in progress. Rolling Stone's managing editor, Will Dana, left the magazine last month.
24 September 2015
Filmvirus In Weimar Germany
GW Pabst's The Joyless Street (1925) will be shown on 15th November. Pabst's film, starring Greta Garbo, was one of the first cinematic examples of Neue Sachlichkeit ('New Objectivity'), a movement which also influenced German painting and photography in the 1920s, favouring realism over Expressionism. The Joyless Street is also the most famous of the Strassenfilme ('street films') depicting poverty-stricken life on the city streets.
Arnold Fanck's The Holy Mountain (1926) is being shown on 29th November. This is one of a series of Bergefilme ('mountain films'), a genre pioneered by Fanck, and it stars Leni Riefenstahl, who would later become notorious as the director of Triumph Of The Will.
22 September 2015
Japanned Papier Mache & Tinware
Japanese lacquer was produced from the sap of trees native to South-East Asia, and Western craftsmen "began a long search to formulate a suitable substitute. Their enquiries show that the meeting of art and science was very characteristic of the time and ran parallel, for example, to the similar search for a European ceramic body that would equal that of Oriental porcelain." (Western ceramicists attempted to replicate the translucence of the kaolin found at Jingdezhen in China.)
The book includes introductory chapters on tinware, papier mache, and the origins of japanning. The main focus is on the manufacturers of japanned items, and the detailed profiles of each company and decorator are unprecedented. Most fascinating are the extensive chapters on the various techniques of japanning decoration and the wide range of japanned products. The bibliography is limited (reflecting the lack of previous literature on the subject), though there are thorough notes and hundreds of beautifully-reproduced colour photographs.
Lacquer: An International History & Illustrated Survey (1984), a global survey of lacquerware, contains several pages on English and American japanning. The Penguin Dictionary Of Decorative Arts (John Fleming and Hugh Honour, revised in 1989) and World Furniture: An Illustrated History (edited by Helena Hayward, 1965) both include brief descriptions of japanning.
20 September 2015
Elle Men Film Festival 2015


The Elle Men Film Festival 2015 opens on 24th September, and runs until 30th September at the EmQuartier CineArt cinema in Bangkok. The films have been selected by members of the Thai film industry, including director Pen-ek Ratananruang and critic Kong Rithdee.
The Festival’s theme is ‘18+’, and this is most clearly demonstrated by Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac, which contains hardcore sex scenes. Nymphomaniac will be shown in an extended director’s cut, in two parts: part one on 27th and 28th September, and part two on 27th and 29th September.
The Festival’s theme is ‘18+’, and this is most clearly demonstrated by Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac, which contains hardcore sex scenes. Nymphomaniac will be shown in an extended director’s cut, in two parts: part one on 27th and 28th September, and part two on 27th and 29th September.
16 September 2015
International Arts & Crafts
The exhibition catalogue, edited by Karen Livingstone and Linda Parry, includes multiple chapters on British, American, and Japanese Arts & Crafts, and essays on several other countries: Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, Finland, Sweden, and Norway. The final chapter is by Edmund de Waal, author of The Pot Book. There is also an extensive bibliography. The V&A has also organised other international decorative arts exhibitions, including Baroque 1620-1800, Art Nouveau 1890-1914, and Art Deco 1910-1939.
15 September 2015
Nokta
Erdoğan has a long history of suppressing any criticisms of his leadership, both as Prime Minister and President. He filed lawusits against Cumhuriyet newspaper in 2004 and the magazine Penguen in 2005. Artist Matthew Dickinson was charged with insulting Erdogan in 2006; he was charged again shortly afterwards, though was later acquitted. Two Penguen cartoonists received jail sentences earlier this year, after caricaturing Erdoğan in a 2014 magazine cover.
Cameron at Ten:
The Inside Story 2010–2015

Cameron at Ten, by Anthony Seldon and Peter Snowdon, profiles David Cameron’s first term as UK Prime Minister. (Matthew d’Ancona’s In It Together covered the progress of Cameron’s coalition government during the same period.) More than 600 pages long, and based on 300 first-hand sources, including interviews with Cameron, this is another of Seldon’s exhaustive political biographies.
In fact, according to the blurb, it is “the most intimate account of a serving prime minister that has ever been published”, though Seldon’s previous Tony Blair biographies are equally revealing. Written in the historical present tense, it’s divided into forty chapters, each focusing on a different event or policy. The subtitle, The Inside Story 2010–2015, echoes those of In It Together (The Inside Story of the Coalition Government) and Andrew Rawnsley’s Servants of the People (The Inside Story of New Labour).
Cameron is a relatively bland subject in comparison to his predecessors Blair and Gordon Brown, though the book does have a headline-grabbing quote from an SMS he sent to Boris Johnson: “The next PM will be [Ed] Miliband if you don’t fucking shut up.” More ominous is his comment on the European Union referendum during a private meeting with Angela Merkel: “I need to make a pitch to the country. If there is no acceptable deal, it’s not the end of the world; I’ll walk away from the EU.”
In fact, according to the blurb, it is “the most intimate account of a serving prime minister that has ever been published”, though Seldon’s previous Tony Blair biographies are equally revealing. Written in the historical present tense, it’s divided into forty chapters, each focusing on a different event or policy. The subtitle, The Inside Story 2010–2015, echoes those of In It Together (The Inside Story of the Coalition Government) and Andrew Rawnsley’s Servants of the People (The Inside Story of New Labour).
Cameron is a relatively bland subject in comparison to his predecessors Blair and Gordon Brown, though the book does have a headline-grabbing quote from an SMS he sent to Boris Johnson: “The next PM will be [Ed] Miliband if you don’t fucking shut up.” More ominous is his comment on the European Union referendum during a private meeting with Angela Merkel: “I need to make a pitch to the country. If there is no acceptable deal, it’s not the end of the world; I’ll walk away from the EU.”
The World of Tattoo:
An Illustrated History

The World of Tattoo (De wereld van tatoeage: een geïllustreerde geschiedenis), by Maarten Hesselt van Dinter, is an attempt to write a modern, illustrated equivalent to Wilfred Dyson Hambly’s The History of Tattooing, published in 1925. The author praises Hambly’s book for its “brief descriptions of all known tattooing cultures”, though he also notes that it “contains little illustrative material to fire the reader’s imagination.” The World of Tattoo is subtitled An Illustrated History, and the key word is ‘illustrated’, as it contains many more photographs and drawings than Hambly’s book.
Whereas Hambly focused on the magico-religious meanings of tattoos, The World of Tattoo highlights variations in tattoo design. Also, of course, it contains more recent findings, such as the mummified body of the tattooed man known as Ötzi. In his preface, the author claims that he gave up his job, his girlfriend, and half his furniture during the eight-year writing process; the result isn’t quite the definitive tome that such sacrifices would suggest, though it is a comprehensive history of tattooing in every continent, with an extensive bibliography.
Whereas Hambly focused on the magico-religious meanings of tattoos, The World of Tattoo highlights variations in tattoo design. Also, of course, it contains more recent findings, such as the mummified body of the tattooed man known as Ötzi. In his preface, the author claims that he gave up his job, his girlfriend, and half his furniture during the eight-year writing process; the result isn’t quite the definitive tome that such sacrifices would suggest, though it is a comprehensive history of tattooing in every continent, with an extensive bibliography.
14 September 2015
เสาร์.. สะดวก
(‘convenient Saturdays’)

Thammasat University’s regular film season, เสาร์.. สะดวก (‘convenient Saturdays’), continues this year with screenings of three classic Hollywood musicals. Busby Berkeley’s 42nd Street will be shown on 17th September, followed by a Gene Kelly double bill — An American in Paris and Singin’ in the Rain — on 17th October.
12 September 2015
International Pop
While the catalogue breaks new ground in its coverage of Asian and South American Pop, some more familiar works - notably Richard Hamilton's collage Just What Is It That Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing? - are missing. Movements influenced by Pop, such as German Capitalist Realism and French Nouveau Realisme, are represented in the illustrations, though they don't have their own chapters. (Lucy Lippard's Pop Art, published in 1966, has more on American and European Pop.) International Pop was edited by Darsie Alexander and Bartholomew Ryan.
11 September 2015
Rebel Heart Tour
The show contains no tracks from her previous MDNA album, though it does feature songs such as Who's That Girl, True Blue, and Love Don't Live Here Anymore that she hasn't performed for more than twenty-five years. Holiday returns to its traditional position as the encore. Madonna's previous tours are: The MDNA Tour, the Sticky & Sweet Tour, the Confessions Tour, the Reinvention World Tour, the Drowned World Tour, The Girlie Show, the Blond Ambition World Tour, the Who's That Girl World Tour, and The Virgin Tour.
The set list is: Iconic; Bitch I'm Madonna; Burning Up; Holy Water; Vogue; Devil Pray; Messiah (accompanied by the Ghosttown video); Body Shop; True Blue; Deeper & Deeper; HeartBreakCity; Love Don't Live Here Anymore; Like A Virgin; S.E.X. (preceded by lines from Justify My Love, and accompanied by the Erotica video); Living For Love; La Isla Bonita; a medley of Into The Groove, Everybody, Lucky Star, and Dress You Up; Who's That Girl; Rebel Heart; Illuminati; Music; Candy Shop; Material Girl; La Vie En Rose (performed in French); Unapologetic Bitch; and Holiday. Ghosttown was added to the set list after the first few shows, and she also performed Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend, Frozen, Fever, Secret, Take A Bow, Crazy For You, and Like A Prayer at some concerts.
The Art Of The Album Cover
Though it's less than 200 pages long, the book is almost unique in its coverage of early album covers from the 1940s. Organised chronologically by decade, it covers seventy years of cover art, starting with the very first illustrated sleeve, Smash Song Hits, released in 1940: "a collection of four, ten-inch 78rpm singles in a book-format package with its own unique design on the front." Nick de Ville's Album: Classic Sleeve Designs is less glossy, though it covers album artwork since 1878.
10 September 2015
Dada
Like other histories of Dada, each chapter is devoted to a particular city (Zurich, Berlin, Hannover, Cologne, New York, and Paris, though Japanese Dada events in Tokyo are not covered). Each city essay is followed by a series of colour plates, and there are more than 600 illustrations. The appendices are also extensive: artist biographies, a chapter on Dada films, a chronology, and a bibliography.
Drawing In Silver & Gold
The first exhibition devoted to the history of metalpoint and silverpoint, Drawing In Silver & Gold includes 100 drawings dating from the Middle Ages onwards, an extraordinary collection of works by masters such as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Durer, and Rembrandt. The exhibition catalogue is the first comprehensive study of metalpoint.
Drawing In Silver & Gold
The catalogue, edited by Barbara Cristen, includes essays on Renaissance metalpoint throughout Europe, the Victorian revival of silverpoint in Britain, and modern metalpoint. Each essay is followed by full-page plates illustrating the 100 drawings featured in the exhibition, most notably Leonardo da Vinci's Bust Of A Warrior, which curator Stacey Sell describes as "one of the most widely admired drawings in the history of art."
05 September 2015
Push › Start:
The Art of Video Games

Push › Start: The Art of Video Games, by Stephan Gunzel, features screenshots from over 200 classic video games. Many of the games (especially arcade games, such as Space Invaders) have low-resolution graphics, producing a kaleidoscopic effect. The book itself is lavishly designed, with full-page, colour illustrations throughout, embossed front and back covers, and even a 10" coloured vinyl EP featuring remixes of video game theme tunes (including the iconic Super Mario Bros. theme) by Big Twice.
The games are classified broadly chronologically according to their technology (8-bit, 16-bit, 3D, and HD), providing “a comprehensive exposition of video games from their inception to the present day.” Steven Poole’s Trigger Happy has more analysis of video game aesthetics, Leonard Herman’s Phoenix is a more detailed history of the gaming industry, and Tristan Donovan’s Replay has more international coverage, though Push › Start is unrivalled as a visual celebration of more than forty years of video games.
The games are classified broadly chronologically according to their technology (8-bit, 16-bit, 3D, and HD), providing “a comprehensive exposition of video games from their inception to the present day.” Steven Poole’s Trigger Happy has more analysis of video game aesthetics, Leonard Herman’s Phoenix is a more detailed history of the gaming industry, and Tristan Donovan’s Replay has more international coverage, though Push › Start is unrivalled as a visual celebration of more than forty years of video games.
04 September 2015
The Independent
Kurdi's body was washed up on a Turkish beach, and photographed there by Nilufer Demir. Yesterday, her images of Kurdi appeared on the front pages of every UK national newspaper. While most UK national newspapers used photographs of a policeman carrying the toddler's body away (an image resembling the Pieta), The Independent was the only one to print an even more disturbing image of Kurdi on its front page.
The photograph used by The Independent shows the dead boy lying face-down at the edge of the water, before his body was moved by the police. Some other UK newspapers included this image on their inside pages yesterday, and the Scottish title The National used it on its front page. It appears on the front page of French newspaper Le Monde today.
The images of Kurdi have immediately come to epitomise the desperate plight of refugees seeking asylum in Europe. In this sense, they are as significant as two other distressing photographs of children, both of which won the Pulitzer Prize: Nick Út's picture of Kim Phúc after a napalm attack during the Vietnam War (printed by The New York Times on 9th June 1972), and Kevin Carter's photograph of a vulture following a starving child in Sudan (also printed by The New York Times, on 26th March 1993).
03 September 2015
Forking Paths Month
Jam organised a Resizing Month season earlier this year. Their previous seasons have included Banned Month, Doppelganger Month, American Independent Month, Anime Month, 'So Bad It's Good' Month, Philip Seymour Hoffman Month, and Noir Month.
01 September 2015
The Victoria & Albert Museum
25 August 2015
The History of Tattooing

The History of Tattooing and Its Significance, by Wilfrid Dyson Hambly, was originally published in 1925. The first English-language survey of tattooing across all regions, it was essentially a compendium of anthropological material in the dubious tradition of The Golden Bough, focusing on the “magico-religious” (spiritual and ritualistic) meanings of tribal tattoos. The book was reissued in 2009 as The History of Tattooing, with an additional twenty-two pages of illustrations from the same period as its first publication.
‘Tattoo’, derived from a Polynesian word, was first popularised by James Cook, and Hambly quotes Cook on the proliferation of tattooing: “The universality of tattooing is a curious subject for speculation.” The World of Tattoo (De wereld van tatoeage), by Maarten Hesselt van Dinter, is the most comprehensive tattoo history. Also, Body Decoration (Geschmückte Haut, by Karl Gröning, is a well-illustrated guide to tattooing and other forms of body art.
‘Tattoo’, derived from a Polynesian word, was first popularised by James Cook, and Hambly quotes Cook on the proliferation of tattooing: “The universality of tattooing is a curious subject for speculation.” The World of Tattoo (De wereld van tatoeage), by Maarten Hesselt van Dinter, is the most comprehensive tattoo history. Also, Body Decoration (Geschmückte Haut, by Karl Gröning, is a well-illustrated guide to tattooing and other forms of body art.
18 August 2015
BBC Radio

I have been speaking to more BBC radio stations today, discussing the bombing at the Erawan Shrine that took place in Bangkok yesterday. Last night, I spoke to BBC Coventry and Warwickshire and another local station, BBC Hereford and Worcester. Tonight, I spoke to the regional BBC WM and the national BBC 5 Live.
17 August 2015
BBC Local Radio

I have been speaking to two BBC local radio stations today — BBC Coventry and Warwickshire, and BBC Hereford and Worcester — discussing the bombing at the Erawan Shrine that took place in Bangkok this evening. I previously appeared on BBC WM in 2011.
14 August 2015
The History Of Modern Fashion
While the book's main emphasis is on womenswear, each chapter also includes coverage of menswear and even childrenswear, both of which are often omitted from histories of fashion. The primary fashion centres (France, the US, Italy, and the UK) receive extensive coverage, though the book also recognises "the growth of the fashionable world over time", with Asian influences given more attention than in other histories of modern fashion.
Auguste Racinet's Complete Costume History (reprinted in two volumes, edited by Francoise Tetart-Vittu) ended where The History Of Modern Fashion begins. Francois Boucher's excellent History Of Costume In The West (updated as 20,000 Years Of Fashion) surveyed the history of costume in Europe. Millia Davenport's Costume Book (in two volumes) covered European and American costume history. Patricia Rieff Anawalt's Worldwide History Of Dress and Leslie Steele's Encyclopedia Of Clothing & Fashion (three volumes) have extensive coverage of non-Western traditional dress.
The History Of Modern Fashion's publisher, Laurence King, has also produced comprehensive histories of other fields of art and design, including A World History Of Architecture, A History Of Interior Design, Graphic Design: A New History, History Of Modern Design, and Photography: A Cultural History. Its flagship title is A World History Of Art.
08 August 2015
ห้องเรียนวาฬไทย
Transformations, by Ruangsak Anuwatwimon, is certainly the most fascinating piece in the exhibition. It's a sculpture of a whale's heart made from human ashes, similar to Ruangsak's Ash Heart Project installation shown at BACC in 2011.
The exhibition is intended to promote whale conservation, though whales have traditionally been associated with the art of scrimshaw. (E Norman Flayderman's book Scrimshaw & Scrimshanders is a comprehensive guide to these engraved whale bones and teeth.) ห้องเรียนวาฬไทย will close on 16th August.
07 August 2015
Bronze
The exhibition included two sculptures of bacchants riding on panthers, and the catalogue notes that their attribution "has been much debated, but remains unresolved." Earlier this year, they were finally and conclusively attributed to Michelangelo.
Wilhelm Lubke's History Of Sculpture (1872) was "the first time the attempt has been made to write a general history of plastic art." Carola Giedion-Welcker wrote the first history of modern sculpture, Modern Plastic Art (1937; expanded in 1954 as Contemporary Sculpture). Sculpture (1986-1991; reprinted by Taschen), edited by Georges Duby and Jean-Luc Daval, remains the most comprehensive history of sculpture available.
Washi
Paper-making was a significant cottage industry throughout Japanese history, and washi was used for interior decoration, clothing, accessories, toys, and packaging. It remains "a deeply evocative and significant material, craft and art form in Japan." Most of the examples illustrated in Casserley's book are decorated with floral motifs or geometric patterns, like sheets of wallpaper. Unfortunately, the historical examples are all unattributed and undated (though they're circa 1860s), and the contemporary examples are also undated.
Baroque 1620-1800

The catalogue is organised thematically rather than chronologically or geographically, though co-editor Snodin's chapter on The Baroque Style provides a useful overview. Snodin argues that the Baroque was "the first style to appear in both world hemispheres and all the continents except for Australasia." The catalogue takes a suitably international approach, creating a comprehensive survey of Baroque decorative arts and architecture.
Baroque 1620-1800 is a companion to two earlier, equally comprehensive V&A; surveys: Art Nouveau 1890-1914 (published in 2000) and Art Deco 1910-1939 (published in 2003). These three books illustrate the gradual decline of decoration, from the unrestrained ornamentation of the Baroque to the modern, decorative Art Nouveau and the streamlined Art Deco.