summer drawing

Synecdoche, New York

Just went to see Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut, Synecdoche, New York, and thought it was brilliant. Kind of a crossover between 8 1/2 and a Woody Allen movie. It also reminded me in part of A Bothersome Man, a Norwegian film by Jens Lien which I saw at the Cinémathèque Français in 2006 and which made an impression on me for its strange, wacky kind of black humour and a delight in the grotesque.

Synecdoche, New York is a film about a theatre director who wins a prestigious MacArthur grant, with which he decides to direct a play about his own existence - and recruits an enormous cast of characters to (re)enact his life. However, things get more and more confusing as reality and fiction overlap.

Kaufman's film focuses on the great 'crisis of the artist' but also addresses a wider human fear of loneliness, failure and, ultimately, mortality. But like Fellini, Woody Allen and Lien, Kaufman combines these ponderings with humorous touches highlighting the banal superficiality of everyday modern life. In 8 1/2, Fellini exposes the contradictions of Italian society through his juxtaposition of showbiz, luxury, egotism and night-time decadence with the brisk, clean whiteness of nuns and doctors at a plush, sunny health spa. In Synecdoche, New York, Kaufman creates a running motif of sickness, hospitals and endless visits to a shrink. Ironically, the protagonist, Caden (Philip Seymour Hoffman), doesn't seem to know that much about what he is actually suffering from, and the director doesn't make it clear whether his illness is real or metaphorical. In tandem, his shrink - an attractive, middle-aged blonde who has published a prolific array of self-help books, many of which focus on her own beauty and sexual allure - seems more in need of psychological counselling than any of the other characters.

The emphasis on health - physical or psychological, and the presence and absence of it - also reminds me of another fantastic film starring Seymour Hoffman: The Savages, directed by Tamara Jenkins. This is another film set in the artsy, often pretentious milieu of American East Coast intellectuals, and a film which exposes the ridiculous side of human relationships.

Synecdoche, New York is a funny, disturbing, uplifting and saddening film - perhaps a little too long, but then again if it weren't, then maybe it would be too comfortable, too easy, and ultimately less satisfying.

Paris scenes

Here are some photos and sketches from my recent trip to Paris.

view, afternoon, Canal St. Martin

Mathilde

Sketch from a stunning Kandinsky show at the Pompidou. I recognised this painting from the Guggenheim founding collection. It looks even more spectacular in this show, surrounded by so many other works from different periods of the artist's life. I liked the way the exhibition is ordered chronologically, with a room for each phase in the artist's life, which also coincides with periods he spent in different cities. This chronological approach seems to have gone out of fashion in the UK, and I agree that sometimes it isn't the best way to show of an artists' oeuvre. But it works a treat with this show.


Flowers in the gorgeous jardins Albert Khan - we cycled across Paris on our vélibs to get there (well almost, we made it to the 16e and then hopped on the metro).


Dusk on the Rive Droite

Notre Dame, sunset

Street art in Belleville


St Martin mural


Took this at 6 am as I crossed the canal on my way to catch the Eurostar.

One and Other

So, I am officially in the draw to take part in Antony Gormley's One and Other performance piece on the Fourth Plinth this summer. People from all over the UK are invited to enter for a chance to win an hour's slot on the empty plinth on Trafalgar Square where they will become a kind of 'living artwork' (well, sort of). Out of curiosity I clicked on the official website and found out how easy it is to sign up. So I did so straight away. Shortly afterwards I received an automated email addressed "Dear Plinther", informing me that I have been entered into the draw. Places will be allocated by computer, with an equal number of men and women, and by proportional representation, apparently. Watch this space!

Musicians, Picasso and Helen

Here are a few sketches done in recent months - some more recent than others.


I did this sketch on Sunday night - my cousin Susie and her boyfriend Ed performed at an open mic session at a bar in Tower Hill (a bar where my other cousin Genevieve used to work). It was a lovely evening and I can't wait to hear more of Susie and Ed's music. I might play the 'cello with them soon too.



My friend Helen who is now living in Malaysia. I drew these in a Soho cafe whilst waiting for food to come. It was a dark January evening, and we were with another mutual friend, Milenna, who was visiting from Amsterdam. We'd just visited the Annie Liebovitz exhibition and were celebrating Helen's new job as well as Milenna's visit, and reminiscing about fun times spent together in New York last year.




Sketches from the Picasso exhibition at the National Gallery. I fell in love with the final room - especially Picasso's takes on Delacroix' Femmes d'Algers series.



Two of a series of sketches I did during a masked ball I attended over Easter weekend. I love sketching live musicians - there's something really liberating about having just a few seconds to capture their shapes and a sense of their movement.

etchings

Here is a selection of some of my etchings. The above scene was engraved directly onto a copper point using the drypoint technique (ie no acid was used). I didn't trace the original sketch so it's back to front, but I quite like the effect. I think the original drawing is in my archive from 2008 - it's one of several drawings I did sitting at Pink Pony restaurant in Ludlow Street in the Lower East Side, New York. The three jazz bar scenes below are part of a wider project I'm currently working on - I plan to have a series of canvases completed this summer. The images are based on sketches I did at a gig at the Knitting Factory, again in New York. Two of them are etchings made using hard ground and aquatint and the third is a monoprint. The final etching is taken from a small watercolour sketch based on the view from a train window, made during a trip to Kerala in South India in 2005. The original image was published in the Mays Literary anthology in 2007. I'm not sure if the etching captures South India's vibrant atmosphere so much, but it was fun experimenting with the soft ground technique and using coloured ink.