hairy women: moustaches and graffiti

(L.H.O.O.Q by Duchamp -source Wikimedia Commons) Back in 1919, artist Marcel Duchamp re-presented  Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa by pencilling-in a moustache and goatee. He placed the initials LHOOQ beneath, which when pronounced sound like “elle a chaud au cul”, literally translated as “she is hot in the ass” apparently suggesting sexual restlessness and “fire … Read more

the wise son and the wicked son

Tonight is the eve of the Jewish festival of Passover. Traditionally the first night is marked with a big meal – a Seder  – where you recount in a certain order the story of how the children of Israel were liberated from slavery in Egypt (also innocently referred to in the text as the “House … Read more

mannequins and illusion this week

Here are a couple of images I took this week that feature mannequins.  The male mannequin shot looks like a composite photo but it isn’t (I don’t superimpose or manipulate images in that way) and was taken in Golders Green, with the railway bridge reflected. The image below was taken on The Strand; I like the … Read more

Graffiti and “chochmah”

I’m off to a gig in Mornington Crescent this evening. Last year I came across this graffiti on the way to Mornington Crescent just off Camden High Street; to me it sums up a type of jokey witticism that is manifested in the Yiddish “Chochmah”, derived from the Hebrew for wisdom. This is chochmah NW1 … Read more

Voices and Images from the Banlieue

The other day I attended the exhibition opening and book launch of Voices and Images from the Banlieue, organised by Banlieue Network. The exhibition runs until May 1 at the Glass Tank Gallery, Oxford Brookes, Oxford. I’m a contributing artist to the project. Here’s some information about it from the Oxford Brookes University site, followed … Read more