6 November 2014. Wildfire at Hampstead Theatre

I went to the first public night and came away feeling that it was a pretty complicated production of a rather unsatisfactory and obvious play. Complicated in the sense that it seemed to have a large cast and tons of action - but all this seemed to give for my simple mind was that the Met is a world of compromises and fudges in which the lofty principles of an individual easily get subsumed by the norms of the force.

Basically, Wildfire is the nickname for Gail Wilde, a policewoman posted into the Met who starts out rather innocent but quickly becomes corrupted by the tired cynicism of her male colleagues. A key figure in the play is a distinctly untrustworthy 'grass' that leads to her downfall and that of her boss. Early in the play the team are trying to get an abused woman to lay a charge on her partner. Wildfire's colleague who uses the grass gets killed and in trying to identify the killer she betrays to the grass the fact of an impending raid that would have clinched her boss's promotion. She later confesses to this betrayal. Meanwhile, her commitment to her job is mirrored by the backseat given to her husband and daughter, with predictable consequences.

In the final scene, another new squeaky clean officer arrives - a Gail as she was but it is unclear if the audience is meant to think 'here we go again' or what.

Whilst entertaining enough to sit through, I really did not get that much out of the play, an opinion I found shared by some professional reviewers.

5 November 2014. Germany at the British Museum.

A very interesting and informative exhibition, covering the break up of the Holy Roman Empire up to the fall of the wall.

Assembled by the BM's Director and Germanphile, Neil MacGregor, my only complaint would be that at times the mainly chronological presentation became thematic and it was somewhat easy to get lost.

Aside from the handholding on the history of the pulsing of the German borders, for example to include/exclude Northern Poland, I will remember the exhibition for individual pieces such as:

The amazing clock - like a domestic version of that in the Prague Square
The handcart used by migrating Germans at the end of WW2
The Richter painting of his daughter
The hyperinflation banknotes
Nazi party propaganda

All in all, for those ignorant of German history, such as myself, this was an excellent opportunity to acquire at least a veneer of knowledge.

3 November 2014. Moroni at the Royal Academy

For me, this exhibition suffered by contrast to the Rembrandt just down the road. Moroni's works just did not hit me quite as hard.

He is said to be one of the 16th century greats, passed by because of his location in Counter-reformation Milan. However, it was really just The Tailor from the National Gallery's collection that stood out for me.

3 November 2014. Ming: 50 years that changed China at the British Museum

I went to the exhibition, preceded by an introductory talk. The talked was packed out and I was accommodated in an almost packed overflow room. Clearly people had an appetite for this 'blockbuster'. However, I never found myself grabbed by the exhibition that focused on the years 1400 to 1450. Maybe it was just too crowded but I found myself trooping past the exhibits rather than stopping to learn a great deal. I guess that's because the objects themselves were simply not to my taste or preoccupation and I entirely accept that the exhibition itself was no doubt excellent.

31 October 2014. Jazz

At the Vortex

30 October 2014. The Cherry Orchard at the Young Vic

A new translation by Simon Stephens resulted in a no interval reduced version of this classic. I thought it worked well but somehow lacked the richness one might have expected of a classic. Maybe something went missing in the reduction. Nonetheless the tale of the stubborn resistance to even well-intentioned new money by the down at heal aristocrats was well-conveyed and the set intoned the oppressive parochialism of the old house in the country. It reminded me of some of the characters in the Kentish village where I grew up. Most tantalising to me was the refusal to consider a rexcue plan that would involve the cutting down of the treasured orchard in favour of a non-rescue plan that had the same result. The implication that it is harder to live amongst one's compromises than to be exiled from them perhaps attests to the mind's ability to move on if the body has done likewise.

The ending of this particular production did not quite work for me. Firs shuffling around the locked up house seemed in this production to have been all but murdered by Yasha, the duplicitous love them and leave them manservant of the mistress of the house.

28 October 2014. Four minutes twelve seconds at Hampstead Downstairs.

This excellent and topical play at Hampstead was all about Jack, who never appears in it. He is a teenager who has uploaded a video of him forcing himself on his girlfriend, Cara. He was destined for great things with good grades leading to university and career. The girl, on the other hand, is a bit more of an average achiever - A Croydon harpie, as one commentator describes her..

The cleverness of the play is in watching Di and David, the parents, in their different responses to this event which is like a wedge between them. They consult one of their son's friends and gradually it dawns on them that he is the rapist that he has been accused of being.

24 October 2014. Rembrandt at the National Gallery.

This is an amazing collection of late works. I revisited it at least five times - which was made particularly easy by having taken out a membership of the Gallery.

The first and perhaps most haunting room was a small etching self portrait together with four oils. The ageing face of the artist looking out from various walls creating an overall most sobering and poignant effect. The next room had a further self portrait (from Kenwood), as well as the first of two portraits of Lucretia and the striking Conspiracy of the Batavians. Through into the next room was the most incredible sketch of a lion that looked almost contemporary. Then, we had the large portrait of the Amsterdam Drapers' Guild (The Syndics) as well as the pair of portraits of Jacob Trip and his wife - two sobre figures. The latter was the first of several portraits of woman of a certain age, marked out by their determined but in some cases warm expressions. One such was the Old Woman reading, in the next room. This also contained a magnificent portrait of the artist's son, Titus, lost in day-dreaming thought at his desk. The provocative composition had him coming out of the picture frame to join us. This room also contained the well known Jewish Bride. The final two rooms contained a further portrait of Titus as well as the second one of Lucretia and Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph.

Really each of the works was incredible - marked out by a simplicity and dignity. The only picture in the whole exhibition that I didn't care for was that of Frederik Rihel on Horseback.

It was a shame when the exhibition closed. These works had become like old friends!

23 October 2014. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

This National Theatre production came with great reviews and high expectations. Inevitably, perhaps, I was disappointed. The set was clever and engaging, particularly the handling of the train trip to London and his (for him) terrifying ride on the tube. On the other hand, the actual mystery of who had killed the dog didn't amount to much and was solved quite early. Which leaves the third strand of the offering, namely the play's and the actor's portrayal of Asperger's. No doubt this was well-done but it left me somewhat cold. I don't think it added much to Dustin Hoffman's Rain Man performance of the autistic Ray.

In the end, then, I was not entirely sure that I saw the point of this play, though it did provoke me to do some research in autism and Asperger's.

21 October 2014. Here Lies Love at the Dorfman

A musical of the Marcos era in the Philippines. High in energy, if you had a standing ticket for the arena of the Dorfman you were very much part of the action. This seemed a much better place to be than upstairs watching the goings on.

Frankly, this all seemed more like a bit of fun than anything else. The music was by David Byrne in collaboration with Fatboy Slim and the story line - key moments in the lives of the Marcoses - was projected at either end of the room.

I can't say it made me think or gave me a new understanding of Philippines politics. However, to be fair, it did convey very strongly the neediness of Imelda - where she was coming from psychologically.

17 October 2014. The Trial at The Linbury

With music by Philip Glass and a libretto by Christopher Hampton, this opera of Kafka's novel was staged by Music Theatre Wales. Being a fan of both Kafka and Glass, I went along with high expectations. The were largely met, as they were for the FT's critic.

The music was unmistakably Glass and, coupled with the set and costumes, evoked perfectly the Kafka world. The cast were excellent, all apart from Johnny Herford (Josef K) playing multiple roles.  - I particularly liked and remember the bowler-hatted gents who entered Josef's world.

16 October 2014. Bartok's Violin Concerto (Janine Jansen) at the Barbican

The LSO under Pappano delivered an excellent programme that comprised:

• Ravel Mother Goose - Suite
• Batok Violin Concerto
• Tchaikowsky Nutcracker - Suite from Act 2

I had really bought my ticket to see the violin concerto and Janine Jansen fully lived up to expectations. She played with great passion which earned sufficient applause for an encore - for this she was joined by the LSO's lead violinist in playing two of Bartok's duos.

I must admit the Ravel and Tchaikovsky had less of an impact and I was interested that a reviewer had the same legacy.

5 October 2014. Taverner at the Barbican

A pretty emotionally exhausting programme, this Sunday evening concert was the culmination of a day of Total Immersion in Tavener.

The BBC SO started with his Little Ceremonial and this was followed by the Akhmatova Requiem. The closing piece and the only one with which I was familiar was The Protecting Veil.

The second and third pieces were particularly demanding and I think it would have been hard to come away from this concert with an unaltered mood, described by the Telegraph as bleakness.

2 October 2014. Dirty Butterfly at the Young Vic

A somewhat claustrophobic and menacing atmosphere in this play about two sets of neighbours, the one who listens in on the other. Appearing on stage are Jo from one house and Jason and Amelia from the other. Jason and Amelia are siblings and the ones listening in - on the passionate and now abusive relationship of their neighbours. Jason is ineffectual and Amelia frustrated by the situation. Towards the end, Jo turns up to where Amelia is working as a cleaner, leaving a disturbing bloody trace on the newly cleaned white tiles.

Not a bundle of laughs but arresting theatre by the Genesis Future Directors winner, Tinuke Craig.

17 September 2014. The Illusion of Light at Palazzo Grassi and Prima Materia at Punta della Dogana

Two very contemporary exhibitions in Venice at these linked venues.

I first visited the Palazzo Grassi and one is immediately drawn into the space of Doug Wheeler's installation which has one feeling one is moving forward in an impenetrable fog despite the fact that all was clear looking back.

Most of the exhibition was up the staircase, the climbing of which gave a chance to view the outside of Wheeler's installation. On the first floor, I was particularly struck by:
Marcel Broodthaers - Le Salon Noir. A gothic horror movie atmosphere.

Troy Brauntuch. Very clever works Criminal and State Trooper that only reveal themselves on close inspection

David Claerbout - A film of Nigerian Shell workers sheltering from torrential rain

Robert Irwin. 8x 8 fourfold

Claire Tabouret - Les Veilleurs. An eery group of children

Then it was on to the Punta Della Dogana. There, I was particularly struck by:
Loris Greaud. An amazing installation called 'does the angle between two walls have a happy ending' that included a rotating monkey foetus amidst the ebb and flow of light and sound.

Lynn Foulkes. Deliverance, showing the killing of Mickey Mouse.

Adel Abdessemed's Decor - Four crucifixions from razor wire.

Sherrie Levine - 12 crystal skulls

Diana Thater. Six colour sun vertical stack

Thomas Schutte's Fratelli.

Quite apart from all the art, I was struck by the ceiling of the amazing building we were in.

21 August 2014. Medea at the NT

The harrowing 4th century BC story of revenge by Euripides. Medea had done everything for Jason (of the Argonauts), including killing her brother and father. They have two sons and move to Corinth where falls for Glauce, the king's (Creaon) daughter. In revenge, Medea gives the bride a poisoned garment which kills both her and her father. Not content that this will exact sufficient ruin on life, she decides she must kill their sons as well.

The play fully captures the seeming inevitability of the unfolding of tragic events while Helen McCrory portrayed excellently her agonising but compulsion to come up with the most horrific prescription. 

13 August 2014. Mondrian at the Turner Gallery, Margate

An interesting exhibition showing the dramatic transition, lubricated by theosophy, of Mondrian's work from more conventional representational work to the famous grids of primary colours, black and white. I found particularly memorable the pictures of his small Paris studio in which he lived alone for many years as well as the description of his voyage to New York in a convoy, during which he spend much of his time on deck as a precaution. A very interesting life, only really gaining recognition once he was in New York and taken up by Peggy Guggenheim. Most of the works came from the Hague.

13 August 2014. Marina Abramovic at the Serpentine

I only had a short queue to get in and partake of the performance art of Abramovic. I clearly didn't get as much from it as some. There are three rooms - all involving wearing ear masks to muffle/eradicate sound. In the first central room some were on the central stage and others sat facing them or with their backs to them. In the room off to the right approximately 30 were accommodated on dormitory beds. The third room was for me the one with impact - one was masked and had to feel one's way around the room; a disconcerting experience.

7 August 2014. Franz West at Hepworth Gallery and Ai WeiWei at YSP

The work of Franz West joined up well with the Allan Kaprow tyres in the neighbouring Calder gallery. Both encourage the viewer to engage with the work - West offering his Adaptives and Kaprow simply letting people do what they like.

The YSP featured work by or instructed by Ai WeiWei at the Chapel - The metallic tree outside was beautiful in the late afternoon sun. The park also featured a large exhibition of work by Ursula vo Rydingsvard, who makes huge sculptures from quite small blocks of wood.

4 August 2014. A streetcar named desire at the Young Vic

This acclaimed production certainly lived up to its reputation. The acting, not just by Gillian Anderson (Blanche) was brilliant. The theatre provided a high level of intimacy, particularly being in the front row, with the actors sometimes coming off stage and being within touching distance. The stage itself slowly rotated most of the time, which got slightly tedious but also added to the sense of impending craziness, especially when it speeded up. The whole unravelling of Blanche's proud persona was chillingly portrayed.

1 August 2014 Push at the Coliseum

The four pieces, all choreographed by Russell Maliphant made up a showcase for him and Sylvie Guillem. The third piece, 'Two', which was her on her own, was for me the most arresting, mesmerizing in its speed. All the pieces were set off by the lighting, most notably in his solo piece 'Shift' which made substantial use of his shadows cast on the panelled screen behind.

29 July 2014. Summer Exhibition at the RA

The usual wide-ranging hang with most successfully sold. Exceptions included two rather graphic paintings on the subject of female genital mutilation.

28 July 2014. Dennis Hopper at the RA

A large collection of photographs in the Lost Album exhibition evokes the 1960s. I found the most interesting the portraits of known names, particularly those of artists (e.g., Lichtenstein) who all looked remarkably conventional. https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/22

13 July 2014. Digital Revolution at Barbican

An interesting exhibition tracing the evolution of digital technology from the 1970s (with PETs and the Apple IIe) up to the present day. The contemporary exhibits were pretty amazing, particularly Pyramidi by will.i.am and Yuri Suzuki

9 July Ai Weiwei at Lisson Gallery

An excellent exhibition at the Lisson, featuring Ai Wewei's bicycle sculptures. All the bicycles were in bright stainless steel, welded to create captivating wholes. The exhibition also featured a film 'discard the old path of closed doors and rigidity and reject evil attempts to change the Party's banner' which dealt with the removal of taxi windown crank handles and sealing of bus wiindows to prevent the distribution of leaflets in TiananmenSquare.

12 July 2014. Theo Parrish at Barbican

A sell out for Theo Parrish and an excellent band plus four dancers. The music varied from get-to-you-feet to more sit-and-listen.

21 May 2014. Serenade, Sweet Violets and DGV at ROH

A very good value triple bill, capped off in my view by DGV. Serenade is a Balanchine, apparently non-narrative piece, for which I could not help wanting to find the narrative; then Sweet Violets is most definitely a narrative piece but you cannot make much headway without reading a synopsis; finally, DGV, feeling the most contemporary, choreographed by Wheeldon to the music of Mike Nyman and gaining the lion's share of the applause. Sweet Violets, looking back on it, seems unremittingly gloomy both in its story of murdered prostitutes and its staging in half-darkness.

16 May 2014. Alexander Whitley at the Linbury

The programme started with All that is solid melts into air, featuring two male dancers and a traditional balerina in tutu, acting rather as a puppet. The on stage cellist played amplified music by Daniel Bjarnason

The second half was The Measures Taken, featuring a quintet of three male and two female dancers. The idea was to look at the relationship between the music, the lighting installation and the dance. However, the music and lighting fusion took me back 40 years to Pink Floyd and the dancing symbiosis only worked haphazardly for me. It was great to start with but unfortunately it didn't seem to go anywhere in particular. The music by Rutgar Zuydervelt was new to me and definitely worth discovering. 

14 May 2014. The Testament of Mary at the Barbican

A real tour de force by Fiona Shaw in this solo performance of Mary remembering Jesus's life - particularly the resurrection of Lazarus and the Wedding at Cana and ending up with the crucifixition - told in harrowing detail. The audience seemed quite spellbound for the entire 80 minutes which starts with Shaw in a glass case which is lifted for her to take charge of a live vulture. The bird imagery is told as if part of a dream later when she recounts how she took her mind of the crucifixion by watching a man feed live rabbits to a caged bird that half-killed them.
The ending is controversial but provocative - the resurrection of Christ as a shared dream by Mary - as is the depiction of the disciples as a bunch of misfits.

13 May 2014. Kronos at 40 at the Barbican

The anniversary concert for the Kronos Quartet started with a brief video run through of their forty years. Then the first half of the concert featured Terry Riley's the Serquent and Glass's String Quartet no 6. For the second half, they were joined firstly by Bryce Dessner on electric guitar for his 40 Canons; then by Jarvis Cocker on saw for his KERF; then Mariana Sadovska singing and playing harmonium for Chernobyl, The Harvest. Finally, there were two encores which kept those wanting to get their trains on tenterhooks.

19 April 2014. Matisse cut-outs at Tate Modern

I got there early to avoid the crowds and largely succeeded. The exhibition progresses from smaller to larger scale pieces and for me it is the larger that have real impact. It is also fascinating to see Matisse actually executing the cutting with his large draper's scissors, seemingly working with utter assurance and speed.

Despite everything, however, I found the two paintings in the exhibition the most arresting exhibits of them all.

17 April 2014. Pests at the Royal Court

It would be difficult to forget this play. The story, set and characters each etch themselves in one's memory. The story is of two sisters bound together in dysfuntion, the younger one pregnant and trying to get off drugs and go straight, the elder determined not to let her go; both carrying a history of abuse. The story, depressingly, is based on the writer's research amongst prisoners and so cannot be dismissed as inauthentic. They talk in their own version of 'street'. The set features the elder sister's Tracy Emin installation. There is plenty of language and a rather Sloany girl in the front row bolted at the end, presumably back to a more comfortable world.

16 April 2014. The Winter's Tale at ROH

Being more an attender of triple bills at the ROH than full length ballets, this new Christopher Wheeldon piece was refreshingly unusual for me. The cast list helpfully had a synopsis but the dance and choreography were expressive enough almost to make explanation unnecessary. However, only almost as the story is fairly dotty. Leontes, King of Sicilia, becomes obsessed by the notion that his pregnant wife Hermione is having an affair with his friend, the visiting Polixenes.
Polixenes returns to Bohemia; Hermione has the baby - a daughter - which also fetches up in Bohemia.and is brought up by shepherds. Hermione goes into  a swoon and their son Maximillius dies from the stress of it all. Leontes starts to regret.
Fast forward sixteen years and it is time for the daughter, Perdita, to fall in love with Florizel, the son of Polixenes. Her true identity becomes apparent, the two young lovers sail to Sicilia, followed by Polixenes. He has a reconciliation with Leontes and the feel good factor is capped off by Hermione coming back to life from a statue, having been in suspended animation for the intervening years.
The night I went featured an A++ casting rather than the A+++ (Watson, McRae, Cuthbertson and Lamb) that the critics had seen. I'd certainly go again but try and catch the mega-stars.

14 April 2014. Faust at the ROH

This seems  a somewhat gloomy - literally - production which only brightens up for the devil's cabaret and a hell of a party in the final act. The singing seemed uniformly excellent as was the acting. However, it is a long evening, recounting a dotty tale with Faust falling in instant love with Marguerite and she portrayed as the girl of complete virtue who nevertheless rapidly conceives his child.

10 April 2014. Messiaen and Scriabin with LSO at the Barbican

The Messiaen L'ascension seemed to go very well with Scriabin's Prometheus. Both are at what most would find an acceptable end of the avant garde spectrum. The Scriabin featured the pianist Denis Matsuev as well as the London Symphony Chorus. The second half was Scriabin's Symphony No 2. All under the masterful Valery Gergiev.

9 April 2014. Lest we Forget at Barbican

The English National Ballet performed four pieces, three overtly related to World War I, together with Firebird which seemed included for no obvious reason. I thought the pieces were, by and large, moving, though in an obvious way - soldiers leaving and rejoining their mutition-worker women in No Man's Land; soldiers being mowed down in the trenches in Second Breath. 

Clement Crisp seemed to hate it and wrote an unsupportive review in the FT. Most other critics seemed more positive. 

I thought Akram Kahan's piece - Dust - was exceptional as was Laurretta Summerscales realisation of the part of Firebird.

8 April 2014. A View from the Bridge at the Young Vic

This powerful production at the Young Vic features a minimalist stage area, like a giant shower tray, with no props apart from a chair used for a trial of strength between the two opposing forces. Eddie, an old-style Italian docker has a somewhat blurred boundary in his relationship with the late-teen niece, Catherine, who lives with him and his long-suffering and neglected wife. Two illegal immigrants arrive and stay with Eddie, one of whom starts an affair with Catherine. Eddie takes exception to him and rationalises his antipathy by declaring that all he wants is marriage and a green card. Eddie also sees him as effeminate and one is left wondering whether Eddie himself becomes aware of an attraction that he would consciously find impossible.
Matters progress on a predictable tragic path with Eddie eventually denouncing the two illegals, which results in the expected bllodbath - in this case literally as they battle it out with the stage turning red.
The play is apparently autobiographical in that Miller was working through his awareneess of his father's adoration of his sister. Clearly it is interesting in articulating the tussle that can go on in the father-daughter relationship, especially issues of letting go. However, it seems to be a play lacking twists - it follows the path that was obvious at the outset.

21 March 2014. Good People at Hampstead

An excellent play, excellently played and produced. The plot revolves around Margie, played by Imelda Staunton, a South Bostonian who never made it out of her underprivileged background. She has a grown up but disabled child and the play tantalises us with the idea that this isn't, then is, then isn't, then is the child of an ex-boyfriend with whom she resumes acquaintance in the play. He has made it into a prosperous (lace curtain) life as a medical specialist. We still don't know for sure at the end but the play allows us to consider whether Margie's deprivation is because she lacks motivation and focus or because of her deprivation and handicaps.

27 February 2014. The Mystae at Hampstead.

The set is most striking from the moment one enters the theatre space. It consists of a convincingly constructed cave, complete with water lapping up at one end. The three actors make their way through this onto the set and so unfolds their overnight rite of passage around a camp fire with a plentiful supply of perception-changers.

The philosophical side of the dialogue struck me as a bit tedious and what I got out of it was a convincing portrayal of adolescents' belief in their ability to engage in adventure - well away from the adult gaze.

The performance lasts a little over an hour, at which point the three depart from whence they came with no customary reappearance for a bow, leaving the audience to shuffle out slightly bemused.

26 February 2014. Sensing Spaces at the RA

I thought this was a great exhibition. Unlike most architecture exhibitions that involve viewing drawings or models, this one had a series of installations by different architects which one is invited to walk though or, in one case, climb. It afforded a real chance to explore and experience the emotions evoked by the different  exhibits. It was an exhibition that could be enjoyed by children as well as adults and it seemed - in some ways - a pity that it is not enjoying a larger audience.

24 February 2014. Don Giovanni at the ROH

This new production has had mixed reviews. I liked the singing and acting and thought Mariusz Kwiecien was excellent as the Don. The set was also striking with a lot of projection, including an amazing moment when the Don is centre of a vortex of rotating imagery - a Dr Who moment. However, 3.5 hours of essentially the same set and gimmicks also grew a bit tedious for me.

The music is lovely but my problem is with the story. Here we have a totally unpleasant and selfish man, who is not beyond murder and rape received as some kind of loveable rogue by the audience until he meets his comeuppance towards the end of the evening.  

23 February 2014. Mahler's Titan and Watkins Flute Concerto at the Barbican

This was the premiere of Huw Watkins Flute Concerto, commissioned by the soloist, Adam Walker who is the LSO's Principal Flute. In three movements, the piece demands concentration rather than imposing itself on one and I felt I very much wanted to hear it again.

The second half of the concert was Mahler's first symphony, a very lusty piece which, as my neighbour remarked, there was no chance of sleeping through.

23 February 2014. Richard Hamilton at Tate Modern

This extensive exhibition is very educational. It demonstrates very clearly the range of Hamilton's work from 1950 through to his death in 2011.He comes across as a very cerebral artist, with a particular connecton with Marcel Duchamp. It does not seem too fanciful to imagine he influenced Damien Hirst - Hamilton's display cabinet seems a forerunner of similar work by Hirst.

I was particularly struck by the political dimension to his work. It seems a shame that his Shock and Awe of Blair is in a private collection.

20 February 2014. Rapture, blister, burn at Hampstead

I had high expectations of this play, egged on by the largely positive reviews it had received and having repressed the views of the FT that this was a dull play. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/c50d9264-923c-11e3-9e43-00144feab7de.html#axzz2trLuUlfr

Unfortunately, for me, the FT was spot on. The 'play' consists largely of a rehearsal of views on feminism and whether there is a dilemma between having a family and having a career. Much of the 'action' takes place in a contrived seminar with the characters debating the issues. Really, it would have been much easier to sit down and read the ideas rather than have them fed to us by the actresses. It felt like being at the 'start the week' studio.

The action was almost non-existent apart from the two main female characters swapping each others lives for a while. But we saw nothing of what happened to the erstwhile housewife who went to New York, so the supposed dilemmas where never really played out; just spoken about.

I fear this will be quickly forgotten despite the great set which was, for me, the best part of the experience. The only other redeeming feature was that the script captured well the tedium into which relationships and people can decend. The male character who has settled for under-achievement in his career and marriage is reported to spend his time smoking dope and wanking to porn. But his wife's willingness largely to put up with this, apart from her brief jaunt to New York, seemed somewhat lame. 

7 February 2014. Triple ballet bill at ROH

The star of the night must surely have been Steven McRae in the first work - Rhapsody, with choreography by Ashton to music by Rachmaninoff. This was followed by the premiere of a  new piece choreographed by Wayne McGregor, entitled Tetractys - The art of fugue. It featured tube lighting design by Tauba Auerbach, in the mould, I thought, of Dan Flavin. The piece itself felt less engaging than Rhapsody, even though McRae was also in the company. The final piece, Gloria by Kenneth MacMillan to the music of Poulenc was a suitably sombre evocation of WWI.

Needless to say Clement Crisp did not like the McGregor piece!
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/c50d9264-923c-11e3-9e43-00144feab7de.html#axzz2trLuUlfr

5 February 2014. LSO playing Dvorak and Panufnik at Barbican

The programme featured Sophie-Anne Mutter playing the Dvorak violin concerto, preceded by the New World. Also in the programme were two works by a Polish composer who was new to me and I was very glad of the introduction. The first work, Sinfonia Sacra, is dramatic in its use of trumpets spaced around the stage. The second, Lullaby, was - according to the prgramme - written in London in 1947, repressed under Stalinism in Poland and went on to influence Penderecki.

The evening was dedicated to the memory of Colin Davis, for whom Anne-Sophie Mutter led a short silence and made a brief speech.

The programme was re-ordered to await the arrival of S-AM who was stuck in traffic created by a tube strike. Attendance also seemed to suffer at what was claimed to be a sell-out a few days before.

5 February 2014. Paul Klee at Tate Modern

I was amazed at the range and scale of Klee's work which emerged over the 17 rooms of the exhibition. One of the cards talks about a year near his death when he 'only' produced 25 works.

All sorts of influiences on him and from him can be seen in the exhibition.Apart from Kandinsky, some of his work reminded me of Chagall and his influence upon Miro seems clear.

His work as an extremely conscientious member of the Bauhaus faculty is well conveyed. He seemed meticulous in everything he did - from the preparation of his lectures to the cataloguing of his 9000 works, let alone the works themselves. These often embody tiny painstaking detail and are the product of innovaton and experiementation - such as the oil transfer method of 'tracing' a line of oil onto paper.

He died in the same year as his father (1940) but 30 years younger.  

3 February 2014. Beckett Triple Bill

This trio, transferred from the Royal Court, started in complete darkness (even the exit signs were off) with Not I. Only the mouth is illuminated, talking at the pace of brain/ the speed of thought. From the text, it is a brain looking back to her conception after her mother's impregnation by a man who 'vanished..thin air...no sooner buttoned up his breeches', fast-forwarding through a life with 'nothing of any note' to now at 70 when she 'found herself in the dark' with 'them brain......raving away on its own.....trying to make sense of it'.

The performance by Lisa Dwan takes about 8.5 minutes, about four minutes less than Billie Whitelaw and almost one third of the time taken by Jessica Tandy in a New York performance that Beckett hated apparently. It is hard to believe such a rapid pace can be heard, rattling along. And yet one gets the gist of it. The marvel is that anyone can speak so fast.

The second play, Footfalls, has the actress pacing up and down, counting off her steps, and talking to her mother. Later she (May) recounts a conversation between old Mrs Winter and Amy.

The final play, has the actress in a rocking chair. She is recounting the moment of death with the play ending:
rock her off
stop her eyes
fuck life
rock her off
rock her off

The trio lasted about 55 minutes. Hardly a cough to be heard. 

30 January 2014. LSO at the Barbican

The programme was highlighted by Brahms Violin Concerto, played with passion by Jansen. This was preceded by a new Fanfare, composed by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. This mixed ability work was written with the intention of enabling  young musicians to team up with a professional orchestra and is meant as a lasting legacy to the Queen's diamond jubilee. Sir Peter was in attendance to take a bow and stayed for the whole concert.

Next was the violin concerto which earnt great applause which in turn was rewarded by a brief extra from the soloist. After the interrval, the LSO played Walton's Symphony number 1.

It was a great evening, with the Brahms lingering in my mind most vivedly of all the pieces.

28 January 2014. Happy Days at the Young Vic

An arresting set with Winnie (Juliet Stevenson) buried in golden sandstone with an outcrop behind her and the hill stretching in front. At suitable moments, shale pattered down from the outcrop. The rendition is, for me, of monumental existential gloom – the need for another to make sense of speaking, and therefore of being?, yet it hardly mattering what is the substance of the relationship – “if you were to die – to speak in the old style – or go away and leave me, then what would I do, what could I do, all day long, I mean between the bell for waking and the bell for sleep?”. The final scene of Willie crawling up towards her dressed in his old-fashioned City suit was one of beautifully conveyed impossibility. Fantastic but rather lost on some of the teens in the audience.

27 January 2014. King Lear at the National.

Starring SRB in Sam Mendes’s production. Funnily enough, this lacked the wow factor for me. Of course, everyone was excellent but this modern-costume (black shirts and so on) production did not make me see Lear in a particularly new light. The Ian McKellan version I saw at Stratford still is the high-tide mark for me. As a detail, I also found the National’s stage quite poor acoustically when the whole stage was opened up (as opposed to with a backdrop towards the front).

Overall, the FT’s review seems spot on http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/13aa4864-84e0-11e3-8968-00144feab7de.html#axzz2rgAaaede

24 January 2014. Max Richter performing Memoryhouse at the Barbican.

A sell-out for Max and the BBC SO with an audience made of many fans. The music seems so clearly to demonstrate its roots in Glass and Part that the step forward was rather muted for me. Memoryhouse comprises 18 movements that strangely felt to me quite disjunctive and yet flowed together. However, unlike many in the audience I did not feel compelled to buy the Vinyl (or CD )and have it signed by the maestro. Somehow, I did not feel the work would convert so well from the concert hall to the living room.

22 January 2014. Richard II at the Barbican.

The RSC production directed by Gregory Doran and with David Tennant in the title role. A friend had said she thought this lacked the ‘wow factor’ but, for me, it definitely had it, thanks partly to the sopranos and musicians. The set was stylish and the acting seemed to me of a high order throughout. The issues with which the play deals (especially King by birthright or behaviour) are presented clearly and, to me, anticipated the attitude of Charles I as well as contemporary debates about titular versus effective leaders.

10 January 2014. From Morning to Midnight at the National Theatre.

A play by Georg Kaiser from 1912 and described as German Expressionist, this certainly had all the slickness one comes to expect from the NT. The focus is on a bank clerk who takes a chance to run off with the cash from his till in search of a more stimulating existence. But his attempt to find a heightened existence amongst gamblers, at the brothel and with the religious come to nothing. The set and costumes set reminded me of Otto Dix, to make the expressionist connection. It was an engaging production but I’m not sure that would have been the case without the amazing NT set.

9 January 2014. Carmen at the ROH.

I was struck by the programme describing this as an ‘opera comique’ though perhaps the opera authorities see the funny side of a rather immature young man ditching his faithful girlfriend for a sexy gypsy who he goes on to murder when she loses interest in him. A rather daft tale with people falling in love on sight and deciding love is more important than life. But an amazing production with horses and donkeys on stage and the unusual presence of a horse box outside at the stage door.

5 January 2014. Blue is the warmest colour.

I thought this was an amazing film. Almost three hours long, one becomes quite immersed in the story of Adele and her lesbian partner. The rather graphic scenes might be a bit too graphic for some and must have been difficult to ‘act’ but they certainly add to the convincing portrayal of the devastation brought about by the end of the affair. 

2 January 2014. All is lost.

The film starring a solo and virtually silent performance by Robert Redford. The film is probably more remarkable for this distinction than the detailed veracity of the plot. With hardly a word spoken, we follow for 106 minutes the partly self-induced bad luck of a single-handed yachtsman in the Indian Ocean. Holed by a stray container and then rolled by a hurricane, the poor man takes to his liferaft but rather foolishly starts a bonfire in it with predictable consequences. The ambiguous ending – did he die or was he finally rescued – seems to have people evenly divided

30 December 2013. Once a Catholic at the Tricycle.

I thought this was amusing rather than rip-roaring funny. It was quite evocative of the 1950s generally but would probably be easier to relate to for those who had undergone a Catholic education.

26 December 2013. Drawing the Line at Hampstead.

A very interesting play about the manner in which India and Pakistan were divided. The play was written by Howard Brenton who also wrote 55 days (see 29 October 2012) and stressed the unseemly haste with which the division was made by Cyril Radcliffe. He knew nothing about India and based the division on what information he could gather on demographics. However, he was, not surprisingly, leant on to finesse some of his conclusions, particularly by the Viceroy, Mountbatten. All this, while having a severe case of Montezuma's Revenge.

10 November 2013. Britten’s Bar Requiem at the RAH

With the BBC SO. An amazing composition full of poignancy and drama.

7 November 2013. Damnation of Faust (Berlioz) with the LSO

The LSO under Gerghiev at the Barbican. The tenor was excellent and the soprano was also striking (oddly, she seemed at the end to keep her distance from the others and not to be particularly happy with her applause). Mephistofeles was a late substitute and rather muted – words tailed off too quickly I thought.

5 November 2013. Wozzeck at the ROH.

The third time I’ve seen this arresting production since 2002. The story and music are decidedly mood-altering. Wozzeck is a poor man with a woman and small son. He is being experimented upon by the doctor and behaves on a somewhat servile way to the higher-ups of his town. His woman has an affair with a drum major and rather rubs this in his face. Wozzeck’s mind is becoming more and more disturbed and he breaks and slits his wife’s throat, then himself drowning in the pool of bloodied water which to him is a pool of blood. We are left with the child rocking psychotically on his own. Karita Mattila’s voice was powerful and engaging – (indeed she was the only thing that seemed to rouse the gent in the row in front of me from his slumbers!)

1 November 2013. GodChild at Hampstead Downstairs.

I thought this was a really good and engaging play. It features a woman in her 40s who is juggling two men in her life and whose goddaughter comes to live with her. This confronts her with issues of a 19 year old mind in a 40 year old’s body, which are very well presented by the author.

31 October 2013. Hepworth gallery and YSP.

The Hepworth had a striking exhibition of works by Dana Schutz. It is her first exhibition in the UK. Worth following, I reckon. Then over to YSP. The major exhibition was by Amar Anwar, focusing on his protest at bauxite mining in Odisha, India. His film, A love story, was poignant. Also at YSP, a strange installation by Roger Hiorns – Seizure. He had taken a redundant modern house at the Elephant and Castle, sealed it and introduce Copper sulphate resulting in it being entirely lined by crystals. Then he transported the whole thing to YSP. His work was also on show at the Calder gallery but this was very different. Objects like a bench and jet engine which were visited in turn by a naked youth who sat whilst a flame ran its course. It was interesting for its awkwardness and tedium.

30 October 2013. Marisa Merz at the Serpentine gallery.

An enormous range of work and on a massive scale for someone in her 80s. Also went to the new Sckler gallery to see the unfired clay works of Adrian Villar Rojas. It mostly left me unmoved. However, the elephant carrying the enormous load in the entrance hall was very arresting.

20-23 October 2013. Venice Biennale

Venice Biennale 2013

The Biennale was centred on the theme ‘Il Palazzo Enciclopedico’. The title is derived from Maurino Auriti’s 1955 design for a museum to house all of the world’s knowledge. His plan was for a 700 metre tall building which, of course, never happened.

The exhibition is described by its curator, Massimiliano Gioni, as concerning ‘the desire to see and know everything and the point at which this desire becomes an obsession’. The opening room presents Jung’s red book in which he records mystic collective unconscious images and featuring a large number of mandala. The next room featured a person lying on the floor with another person chanting. The room contained totems to give a mystical feel. The wall was lined with blackboard drawings by Steiner, made in 1923. Steiner was a theosophist and founder of the schools that bear his name. There were also beautiful bronze totems by Pichler in a wooden base and a Christ figure.

Room 3 featured work by Roger Hiorns – a ground up altar stone on the floor with a mandala on the wall by Lesage and circled by Hilda Klint. Based on occult images from the Masters. Outside there were bronzes by Sarah Lucas, whose connection was rather lost on me.

Room 4 had a video of blind people making painting, Pollock-like. Room 5 contained tantri paintings and objects. Room 6 showed a video by Montaron – A short study on the nature of things. Room 8 included a film by Harry Smith of a deconstructed clock and a man.

Room 9 had some slightly Dali-like paintings by a Russian, Schroder-Sonnenstern. Room 10 was devoted to Enrico David amd contained paintings, tapestry and sculpture, Room 11 had a video by Victor Alimpiev of chanting and Room 12 contained dolls by Morton Bartlett. They were disquieting without the crudeness of the Chapmans. The room also had Carl Andre’s passport.

Room 13 contained a vast collection of clay objects – Kapoor-like and humorous by Fischli and Weiss. Room 14 displayed geological slices by Roger Caillois. Room 15 was devoted to Jean-Frederic Schnyder with a huge tryptophan and other religious iconography.

Room 16 had surreal sketchings by Gnoli and room 17 had sex pictures by Kozlov and photos by Yoshiyuki of voyeurs in a Tokyo park.

Room 18 had abstracts by Caivano and Room 19 was devoted to Tacita Dean’s 16mm film – The Friars doodle. Room 20 had Bakharev’s relationship series of photos and  Room 21 had Qureshi’s miniatures of Pakistanis doing everyday leisure activities.

Room 22 had Byars’s zen like figures. Room 23 featured Ellen Altfest’s close ups of parts of the body – Lucien Freud like and Room 24 had Maria Lassnig’s pictures of her body as she experiences it and Merz’s pictures of women. Room 25 had Cathy Wilkes’s mannequins and found objects and finally Room 26 had Thierry de Cordie’s paintings of the furious sea.  

The curated exhibition continued in the first half of the Arsenale. In Room 5 was Matthew Monahan’s Tin Man, Phylida Barlow’s coal and Ziolkowski’s two heads. Room 9 contained Pawel Althamer’s grey man. Room 11 exhibited disturbing videos by Ryan  Trecartin of US teen hooligans and the next room had work by Wade Guyton (grey ??) and Channa Horwitz (whit). Room 13 had MarK Leckey’s amusing video of a rocking willy. The next room had Yuri Ancarani’s robot surgery and Otto Piene’s zen. Room 16 was filled with Walter de Maria’s row of rods.  

The remainder of the Arsenale was occupied by national ‘pavilions. First was Lebanon’s Letter from a Pilot. This was referring to an incident in 1982, when an Israeli pilot refused to bomb a school in the Taahir district of Lebanon that he had been told to target and instead dropped his bombs out at sea. The exhibition consisted of two films with a single chair offered to vistors, as if in the pilot’s seat. The films were made by Akram Zaatari, whose father had founded the school in question – the Saida Public Secondary School for Boys. The pilot, Hagai Tamir, was himself an architect and recognised the building as a school or hospital. The school was bombed by another pilot a few hours later.

The next space contained Chile’s extraordinary tank in which the entire Giardini emerged and submerged. It was definitely one of the most memorable exhibits and was quite riveting. Created by Alfredo Jaar and entitled Venezia, Venezia, the exhibition also includes a photograph of Lucio Fontana in the ruins of his studio in 1946.

Kosova had a tree that one walked through, Tukey had body art, and Bahrain horse portraits. Indonisia’s exhibit featured six artists, themed under the title Sakti- the primordial cosmic energy and the personification of the divine feminine creative energy. The pavilion included a work of 1200 terracotta forms laid out like a mandala.

Latvia’s room was dominated by a large suspended tree swinging pendulum-like. This work was designed to get viewers to focus on the loss of Latvia’s rural identity.

Finally, in the main building, Latin America had spices and an offering of chewing gum.

Further on, the Bahamas exhibited a polar ice wire man and China had, in the outside, bricks with sayings on them. The Italian space contained several exhibits under the overall title ‘vice versa’. It comprised six rooms and a garden, each hosting two artists in dialogue.

Over in the Giardini, Spain exhibited piles of separated building rubble, equivalent to the material in the pavilion. (Pare alike with island by Venice formed of rubble. Sacca San matia N???)

Belgium’s pavilion was filled with a huge tree on its side patched with old pillows and sacking, all in a very subdued light. Rather like a felled elephant or an old man. It felt evocative.

Denmark’s exhibition by Jesper Just, created an unsettling feeling by getting one to enter through a side entranced to find subdued lighting and the internal walls partly demolished One room showed a large video of he city of Hangzhou in China created as a replica of Paris and there were also videos of immigrants  with strange music. The whole presentation went under the title ‘intercourses’

The Dutch pavilion was the responsibility of Mark Manders and had the overall title room with broken sentence. He had covered the windows with fake newspaper and inside were a series of exhibits, such as fox/mouse/belt which comprised ads the title suggests a model of a fox lying with a mouse strapped to it by a belt. It reminded me of ??

The Nordic pavilion had small trees with microphones and speakers inside and a reconstructed tree outside.

The Swiss pavilion had a snake going through its entirety with instruments and mosaics on the wall. Outside was a piaggio bike by Valentin Carron.

The US pavilion featured Sarah Sze with a work entitled Triple Point. (www.sarahszevenice2013.com)

France and Germany swapped pavilions. The French offering (in the German Pavilion) was called Ravel Ravel Unravel. It was two film works – Ravel Ravel and Unravel. In the first, two pianists played Ravel’s left hand concerto at different tempos, ravelling it. In the second a DJ attemopts to play the two recorded pieces on turntables, correcting for the different tempos and unravelling them. In the French pavilion, Germany presented four works. The centrepiece was Ai Weiwei’s installation which consisted of 886 stools slotted together to form a dominating double helix. The stools refer back to ‘old China’ when each family had a stool, passed between generations.

Venezuala presented urban art and sounds.

Russia’s pavilion was amongst the most memorable. One entered to find a man perched high above on a rafter. Then one walked through to the main exhibition which involved watching those women visitors who were up for it being showered with coins – Danae – that were dropped off a conveyor belt. A good allegory. Danae were imaginary coins referring to the mother of Perseus who had been impregnated by Zeus

Japan had a consideration of 5 people doing things like playing the piano, making pottery, writing poetry etc., getting one to consider collective acts and sharing uncertainty. Some of the works went under the banner of ‘precarious tasks’ – such as the random act of getting a group of friends each to bring a tea bag and add it to the pot to see what drink results.

Great Britain’s pavilion was the responsibility of Jeremy Deller – he of the bouncy Stonehenge. In the pavilion, he had a poke at Prince Harry’s slaughter of a hawk harrier but the pavilion was dominated by a film (ooh-oo-hoo ah-ha yeah) with a hypnotic steel band soundtrack (http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/video/2013/may/29/venice-biennale-jeremy-deller-english-magic-video). Visitors were also offered a cup of tea. The title for the presentation was English Magic and Deller also referred to Abramovich’s arrogant parking of his yacht outside the Giardini at a previous biennale with an image of William Morris preparing to hurl the yacht into oblivion. There was also a room referring to the death of Dr David Kelly and another featuring an imaginary invasion of Jersey by UK citizens enraged by Jersey’s tax status. Visitors were encouraged to make their own ink stamps of some of the images in the exhibition, including the Abramovich yacht. .

Hungary exhibited un Exploded bombs under the title ‘Fired but unexploded’ by Zsolt Asztalos – as the programme describes a collection of objets trouves. Canada’s presentation by Shary Boyle under the title Music for Silence was described as exploring “ideas of silence, isolation and solitude”.  

Korea’s pavilion was the responsibility of Kimsoola, whose work was entitled To breathe: Bottari. The standout was a black room that also absorbs all audio waves which the audience experienced in contrast to the rest of the pavilion, bathed in natural light.

 . Greece had three films of different episodes. Romania created a memorable exhibit of people in line while Poland had hugely amplified sound of two hand-made bronze bells. The work by Konrad Smolenski, under the title ‘everything was forever, until it was no more’ was only allowed at specific times. The Venice pavilion was filled with silk and a tardis and Egypt had a sarcophagus. Serbia had a clever wall made of razor blades and Austria had a fantasia-like film – I’ve got a feeling you’re fooling.

Outside the main Giardin and Arsenale, Iraq’s ‘pavilion’ was dominated by a political cartoonist, Abdul Raheem Yassir, as well as Kadhim Nwir’s paintings. The exhibition, entitled Welcome to Iraq also featured several artists, including the painter (Kadhim Nwir) and WAMI – a partnership that make installations of furniture made out of cardboard. Also an extraordinary film of people who smuggle alcohol into Iran on horses, made by Jamal Penjweny.

Ukraine had a monument to a monument.

Wales was represented by Bedwyr Williams whose piece The Starry Messenger took one through a series of rooms at Santa Maria Ausiliatrice. Pondering on the silent contemplation of the nebulae, Williams invites people to consider looking downwards to what is beneath their feet – the millions of fragments making up a floor. Bedwyr Williams The Starry Messengerhttp://vimeo.com/69550189. Visitors pass through a series of installations, starting with a large white observatory with the sound of a person in distress. Then through a darkened rock garden, a Stonehenge room, a very dark corridor into a room with a film featuring a mosaic dentist who gets crushed by rocks among other happenings. He was influenced by the floor of the building in which his exhibition takes place.

Thailand’s exhibition was accompanied by a very tasteful stitched booklet. The exhibition featured two artists whose works were entitled, Poperomia and Golden Teardrop.

Mexico occupied the 6th century ex-San Lorenzo Church and consisted of a four metre tall machine – Cordiox – that produced unamplified sound to reverberate inside the old chapel.

Portugal’s exhibition was tied up outside the Giardini. It was an old Cacilheiros – a boat used to ferry commuters across the Tagus. The boat had been decorated by the artist, Vasoncelos, with tiles to become an assisted  readymade artwork, entitled Trafaria Praia. It offered visitors a trip down the Grand Canal in an atmosphere of good humour.   

Luxembourg occupied the Ca del Duca and the artist Catherine Lorent presented a sound installation with guitars suspended from the ceiling and a room of three pianos. The instruments are set t play by the movement of visitors

Lost in translation. Themed on the plastic islands forming in the oceans.

Slovenia. The whole exhibition space by Jasmina Cibic is interior decorated with the motif of a small beetle that was t be the nationals, icon but for its name- Anophthalmus hitleri. The exhibition itself consisted of video of Slovenian bureaucracy and some traditional floral pictures from an official art collection. The pavilion also included films shot on official state locations.

Montenegro. Three rooms, each very simple and impactful. The first (further than beyond) with thin strands shown up by the spotlight, the second (image think) very dark and covered in black cloth with small pinpricks the third (ecce Mundi) wallpapered with the tiny motif of a person – like an Hermes tie.

Ireland’s entry was ‘The Enclave’ – a multi screen film installation of footage shot by Richard Mosse in the Congo of warfare, using infra-red light. Everything was real; everything was disturbing.

Azerbaijan had an installation entitled ‘The Carpet Interior’.

Iceland presented a sculptural installation called ‘foundation’ in an old laundry, reached going through the grand entrance of the Paslazzo Zenobio. The artist had added a platform covered in tiles to the outside of the building and had created an Alice in wonderland experience with doors and windows at the wrong height for floors.

The Maldives presented work by Josephine Starrs and Leon Cmielewski making an appeal about global warming under the title ‘A global map of nature’. Its theme was of archipelago endangered by rising sea – SOS

 http://maldivespavilion.com/blog/a-global-map-of-nature/

Bosnia and Herzegovina – The garden of delights

Estonia – Evident in advance

Cote d’voire – Traces and signs

Newfoundland – About turn

Then there were the following collateral exhibitions I visited;

Pedro Cabriti Reis. A remote whisper. The top floor  of the Palazzo Falier is used for an installation of aluminium beams and strip lights.

Hong Hong’s Lee Kit presented an exhibition entitled ‘you (you)’

Zhong biao’s visions at the Chiesa Santa Maria della visitazione.

Catalonia’s 25% referred to the Spanish unemployment rate. The work consisted of prhotgrpahs and film of eight unemployed people with their stories, pictures (including a large portrait) and a museum object of their choice. Impactful for their stories, especially that of a Senegalese who had settled in Spain having fallen for it on his way through to France.

Bart Dorsa’s Katya, featured photographs of the Moscow girl of the title that had a slight waif-chic feel. She had moved as a 13 year old from the Far East of Russia to Moscow and since engaged in various forms of body modification.

Pedro Cabrita Reis – ‘A remote whisper’.

Macao was represented by Carlos Marreiros and his exhibition PATO.MEN – an  for PAlace Theater Of Memorory ENcyclopaedic.

Ink Brush Heart was an exhibition by Simon Ma inspired by the rainforest of Xishuangbanna in Yunnan and included a collaboration with Julian Lennon

For New Zealand, Bill Cutherbert’s ‘Front door out back’ was a series of light installations in the eight rooms of the Instituto santa Maria della Pieta. The artist made use of everyday household objects pierced by fluorescent lights. 

The Biennale ‘office’ at Ca Giustinian had an exhibition tracing the history of the biennale with posters, letters etc. under the title ‘amarcord’.

Completed outside the Biennale was an exhibition of work by Anthony Caro at the Museo Correr. Caro died during my visit to Venice.