I want to be like Kruger when I grow up.

Barbara Kruger called Supreme "totally uncool jokers", where to get your fancy fresh pasta in London, how to network, the importance of play, Paloma Faith and 7 exhibitions on my radar this weekend.

Feb 23, 2024

Hello and happy Friday! In case you missed it, this week a U.S spacecraft landed on the moon for the first time in 50 years, Bernie Sanders was in Manchester (listen to an interview with

The Mill

here) and the Arts Council England (ACE) has been forced to backtrack after an uproar in response to their recent guidance which told organisations who receive their funding to be wary of work that was “overtly political or activist”. They are wisely reconsidering.

I come to you with a fortnight’s worth of news including:

Hot take: Private views are so last year…how to network more effectively (applicable to everyone!).
What is the “with or without you” mentality, and why do creatives need to adopt this unapologetic stance?!

Lessons about play from orchestrating a film residential for highly vulnerable children.
My growing obsession with Barbara Kruger thanks to her sassy reply to a scandal with Supreme (“The cheek, the nerve, the gall, the audacity and the GUMPTION!”).
A comparison of central London fresh pasta options. I give the people what they want.
The exhibitions that are on my radar this weekend and some reading and listening recommendations! (Including a baboon/ Trump comparison which I enjoyed).

Ok, let’s get into it.

The Recap:

Last week, months of planning came to fruition at the London Screen Academy. SHiFT and LSA collaborated to put on a 3-day residential for vulnerable young people to experience a taste of the film and TV industry in front of and behind some serious camera and sound kit!

Big reflection: The ability, the time, and the space to play should be accessible to everyone AND prioritised by everyone.

These young people have grown up very quickly, and been exposed to lots of experiences that most adults will never understand. The adultification of children who come into contact with the justice system, or are caught in the destructive cycle of crime, is just one devastating element of how we look after (or don't!) our children. Children are, by default, vulnerable, and part of what makes them vulnerable is naivety, imagination, optimism, playfulness, and curiousity. When children experience harm, those wonderful qualities are dampened, or even erased, and so it was incredibly heartening to give our young people the safe space to explore those qualities once again.

How can you prioritise play in your life and the lives of those around you? How can you connect to your inner child, to tease out that imagination and optimism in your day to day?

This spirit of play is something I have been trying to cultivate in my practice, and after a group workshop on the 10th Feb, (in which I felt I was coaching myself as much as anyone else!) I was so enthused that I committed to an afternoon in my ‘studio’ playing. Playing with colour, paint, and materials.

The bulk of the workshop was about vision and strategy, but we also spent a portion dedicated to problem-solving discussions - and unsurprisingly networking was a source of stress.

I talk about this often, I put up a simple step-by-step for networking on Instagram last November (which by the way works for all professions), but feel I need to hammer home a hot take on the source of much anxiety with many artists.

You don’t need to go to Private Views for the sake of your career.

To loop you in; Private views of exhibitions (which are not private 99% of the time)… are often billed as THE thing to go to if you want to network and push forward your career in the art world. They happen every week, all year round. You will always have one to go to.

If you want an evening out with free drinks, in a gallery setting, if you’re a huge extrovert who will strike up conversation with anyone and everyone, if you are there to support the artist or curator - then great! Go!

BUT they are mostly busy, noisy, and crowded, an excuse for people to enjoy an open bar, you can’t fully enjoy or experience the art, they are mostly filled with other artists all looking to network with industry professionals (who aren’t there!). You’ll be there for less than an hour, having travelled halfway across London for the pleasure.

Instead, network intentionally and effectively by doing these three things:

Create a dream date list: Work out what kind of people you want to connect with in the next few months who will help you move towards your goals. Make it super specific. Flesh out the characters of 3-5 people. Identify one thing you want to offer them and one thing you want to ask for.
Track them down: Prioritise the events and places where your dream date people might be. Use your energy for these. Intentionally scroll around on Instagram and Linkedin. Look out for keywords, and connections. You've found what you want to find online before... this time let's use the sleuthing skills for good! Ask friends if they know anyone matching your descriptions. Ask your existing connections.
Offer and Ask: Meet people at cafes or have a 15-minute virtual coffee date, do a gallery walk around, or organise a studio visit (bring them a hot drink). Prioritise intentional, meaningful, relationship building. Ask for what you want and offer what you can give. And remember that not every connection is going to be life-changing or lifelong, but networking like this is MUCH more effective than standing awkwardly in a corner and making friends with someone's partner who works in (insert irrelevant job). It gives you a sense of purpose and a plan! And helps you identify WHY you're even out and about in the first place.

Your other option is something bespoke and tailor-made like the All About Art networking events where all of the above has already been done for you!! It’s the right people in the right rooms.

This is your permission slip to stay in, take the evening off, to not feel guilty for not being seen at a private view. Go when and if you want, and when and if you have a real reason. And if you want to network, do it with some intentionality, and do it in the spaces and places that feel good to you.

Other highlights:

Pasta 🍝 I had an exceptional Valentine’s dinner at Lina Stores (a favourite of ours), but the crucial information is that you can buy their fresh pasta from the deli on Brewer Street. It’s about £10 for two portions, so cheaper than a takeaway or meal out, and feels like a treat! Whole Foods has less expensive fresh tortellini which are very very good too. But the real star is PaStation by Goodge Street station which has been all over TikTok and Instagram and has hot, fresh pasta, for around £6/7.
A flying visit to Belfast to see the opening night of my sister’s play that she has written and directed. It’s called ‘Sunday Lunch’ and was ‘loosely’ based on our family… extremely funny, fast-paced, and like looking in a distorted mirror!! Grateful to see creativity in all forms emanating from my loved ones.
I inspired myself to get into the studio! After last Saturday’s workshop, I felt so encouraged that I committed to an afternoon of painting and collaging. It felt good (obviously!).

The Review:

The Serpentine have opened“Thinking of ~~You~~. I Mean Me. I Mean You." Barbara Kruger’s first solo exhibition in London in 23 years and it’s free to the public. Video tour here.

Barbara Kruger came to prominence in the 1980s when she began making boldly graphic art juxtaposing striking images with provocative statements in what would become her signature aesthetic (white-on-red Helvetica and Futura fonts). If her work reminds you of political propaganda, that’s because it kind of is: it’s anti-consumerism, advocating for women’s rights, equality, and the power of critical thinking. So… the good kind!

Barbara Kruger might not be a name you know, but you probably know her work and/or the many stylistic imitations she has inspired. The founder of Supreme landed on his logo for the brand after leafing through a book of Kruger’s work, although rarely acknowledges this, and Shepherd Fairey was allegedly inspired after seeing knock-off Kruger posters in the 80’s and 90’s.

Supreme, founded in 1994, happily adopted Kruger’s style and plastered it on everything from crowbars to skateboards - ironically given that they are the epitome of commercialism, capitalism, and fickle superficiality (all that Kruger astutely criticises). Kruger never commented directly referencing this blatant copying (only saying vaguely that she didn’t own a font or a colour, and therefore didn’t care much) UNTIL Supreme filed a lawsuit against Leah McSweeney’s brand ‘Married to the Mob’ for creating celebrity-worn t-shirts and hats with 'Supreme B*tch* emblazoned across them in the Supreme logo style. Kruger chose this moment to release a statement.

‘What a ridiculous clusterf*ck of totally uncool jokers. I make my work about this kind of sadly foolish farce. I’m waiting for all of them to sue me for copyright infringement.”

*mic drop*

I’m obsessed.

Barbara Kruger studied at Syracuse and then Parson's School of Design in New York and began working as a graphic designer for Mademoiselle magazine, owned by Conde Nast. As a pager designer, Kruger learnt how to capture and hold the attention of the reader. She became a visual artist in 1970 and began addressing issues of language and sign, Kruger has often been grouped with such feminist postmodern artists as Jenny Holzer, and Cindy Sherman.She uses the techniques of mass communication and advertising to explore gender and identity. Barbara Kruger's work is engaged, political, and philosophical, and confronts us with our consumerist and sexist habits. Get ready to question your relationship to power and sex, racism, and objects, through images and texts. On until the 17th of March. Have a gander.

The Recs:

Reading 📖

“How to be both” Ali Smith, this took me a second to get into but it’s a conversation about the feminine experience, the arts, history, and the versatility of creative expression. Winner of Women’s Prize for Fiction 2015. I picked it up at the airport on my way to Belfast and finished it by the following day on my way home.

The craft of carving sculptures out of giant thorns, in Apollo magazine. Preview here.

The urban surrealism of Gregory Herger, Hi Fructose.

Listening to 🎶

What is a “with or without you mentality“? And why do you need to adopt it to get sh*t done? It’s so very applicable for creatives, who often toe the line of being a business manager, sales associate, and visionary all at the same time!

This brilliant podcast summarises key points of the non-fiction big-hitters in under 20 minutes. I’ve recently enjoyed it to refresh my memory of books I read a while ago but which I know I need an injection of wisdom from!

Is free will a myth? If we decide that we don’t have free will, what implications does that have on the justice system and how we react to failure and harm? Bonus: Why comparing Donald Trump to a baboon is an insult to baboons.

Paloma Faith discusses why she went from whimsical eccentric creativity to commercial music and what work/life balance looks like when you live, breathe, and love your work.

This playlist is made from the soundtrack of ‘The Boat That Rocked’ - one of my favourite films. It’s marvellous.

Art-ing 🖼️

I went to The Artist Room (Soho) yesterday to see “Shatter Zones” by Justin Rui Han. “Densely composed, Han’s paintings are… comprised of shards of ungoverned material.” Each painting has an extraordinary tale wrapped up in the warped perspectives, the shadows and monochromatic palettes.

Some exhibitions I’m planning to see over the weekend, if you’re in London take them as your recs and if you’re not… I’ll give you the lowdown on my Instagram. (All shows are free unless stated).

Maja Djordjevic, “Hope and Rebirth”, Carl Kostyal (Mayfair)

Group Show, “A Dream Within A Dream”, Haricot Gallery (Shoreditch)

Group Show, “stop and smell the roses”, Morrell House (Shoreditch)

The Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure, The National Portrait Gallery (Soho) (You can get £5 tickets if you are under 25)

Yan Ping, “Love Between A Fish and A Bird”, Massimo de Carlo (Mayfair)

Ellie MacGarry, Echo, Cedric Bardiwell (Soho)

Group Show, Beyond Boundaries, Guts Gallery (Hackney)