Art review: Marlene Dumas at Tate Modern February 6, 2015 Tate Modern | ★★★★★ Working from photographs, South African figurative painter Marlene Dumas doesn’t represent life, she gives it. Indeed, it’s tempting to see her paintbrush as a defibrillator, jolting dead images to life. But no-one is being raised here; she doesn’t resuscitate her subjects so much as give them an afterlife, investing the long [...]
Theatre review: Di and Viv and Rose February 6, 2015 Vaudeville Theatre | ★★★☆☆ The programme for the Vaudeville Theatre’s production of Di and Viv and Rose features two pages of anecdotes from a wide range of women, from doctors to preachers, MPs to celebrities, about how they met their best friends. Infusing them all is a sense of effortlessness, of falling into friendships that [...]
Film review: Selma depicts a pivotal moment in Martin Luther King’s life February 6, 2015 Cert 15 | ★★★★☆ Selma does what Lincoln did so successfully and what Long Walk to Freedom made the mistake of not doing – instead of compressing a great life into two small hours, Ava DuVernay’s Martin Luther King biopic depicts a pivotal fragment of that life, one in which the greatness of the whole [...]
Film review: Jupiter Ascending leaves plenty of space for improvement February 5, 2015 Cert 12a | ★☆☆☆☆ Sean Bean probably resisted at first. I picture bitter arguments, impassioned pleas, point-blank refusals. Contracts will have been brought out, threats made against the future of his career, the safety of his family. Eventually he capitulated, agreeing to read the line. “Bees are genetically programmed to recognise royalty.” Jupiter Ascending’s [...]
Something for the weekend February 5, 2015 WATCH SIX NATIONS AT THE FALTERING FULLBACK The Six Nations Championships gets underway tonight and everyone knows watching rugby is as much about the craic as it is about the game. If you’re after somewhere lively to watch Wales vs England you could do much worse than Finsbury Park’s Faltering Fullback. Visit thefullback.co.uk BOW TO [...]
Audio visual: Iranian-American artist Ali Banisadr comes to the UK February 5, 2015 East meets west in Iranian-American painter and synaesthete Ali Banisadr’s first ever UK show Celestial and earthly, east and west, figurative and abstract – worlds collide in the work of Ali Banisadr. The Iranian painter specialises in a kind of ornate chaos where the ruffs and plumes of material finery tumble and swirl into spectral, [...]
Rights and wrongs: Examining the humanitarian legacy of photojournalism February 5, 2015 A new exhibition considers the humanitarian legacy of photojournalism in the post-war era. The effect of photojournalism in furthering humanitarian objectives can be explained by the simple fact that it’s harder to ignore wrong-doing when you can see it in plain view. A new exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery examines the political legacy of photojournalistic [...]
Wood carving February 5, 2015 This winter, treat yourself to Bogner’s achingly cool, lightning quick luxury bamboo ski set Plastic, fibreglass, kevlar, carbon fibre – none of the fancy materials used to make modern skis can match bamboo for flexibility, durability and tensile strength. The qualities of this naturally occurring material make it ideal for carving, gliding and slaloming down [...]
Seeing red February 5, 2015 Salvatore Ferragamo tears up the rulebook and enters the world of casualwear When it comes to fashion, some rules are made to be broken. For 100 years, the craftsmen at made-to-measure connoisseurs Salvatore Ferragamo used only the finest Italian leather to make smart, red carpet-worthy shoes for its Hollywood patrons. Now, in the year of [...]
A weekend of gourmet indulgence with Heston Blumenthal on the Mont Blanc slopes February 5, 2015 You know a Heston Blumenthal meal is going to be something special. The same, it turns out, goes for a Heston Blumenthal holiday. The concept is a foodie’s wet dream: four days of crisp slopes, fine Italian wine and haute cuisine cooked by some of the world’s top chefs. Here’s how it came about: “Heston [...]