It seemed that Berberian Sound Studio was not the main draw at the DCA on Friday night. With most of the cinema’s patrons opting for the star-filled choices of Anna Karenina or Lawless, I sat with eight others (out of 88 seats) and prepared to take in a film celebrated as an homage to Italian Read More
Those who considered Simon Jenner’s first collection, About Bloody Time, difficult, might equally have been anticipating this, his second book of poetry. It contains nothing glib or easily accessible, and nothing which will have the reader close the volume after one reading. It is none the worse for that. Jenner’s intellect scintillates in the diversity Read More
Written by Nick Cave and directed by John Hillcoat, Lawless tells the story of three bootlegging brothers selling home-brewed liquor in prohibition-era America. It is based on the fictional account of the Bondurant family, The Wettest County in the World (2008), written by Matt Bondurant, the grandson of the youngest brother. The film is set Read More
This exhibition is an eclectic mix of work brought together under a broad remit, with pieces from artists as diverse as Ian Hamilton Finlay and Edward Burra. What links these works is sometimes rather elusive to grasp. Certainly there is no homogeneity of style or scale: here we find postcard-sized monochrome works on paper alongside Read More
Placed on plinths at the end of bookshelves in the Leisure Reading section of the Central Library are ten exquisite sculptures made from books, cut, shredded, incorporating wire, string and glue. All are beautifully formed into a series of intriguing shapes which each tell their own story; all communicate the theme: “support of Books, Words Read More
Viewers of the latest lavish cinema adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina (1877) will find themselves sitting in a darkened film theatre before a darkened theatre stage. This “show within a show” is entirely appropriate as the titular heroine’s doomed adulterous passion for cavalry officer Count Vronsky is essentially played out before a disapproving public. Aristocratic Russian society tuts Read More
Infinite Jest showcases the work of three contemporary artists, woven together in a clever collaboration where ordinary and commonplace objects are transformed into the extraordinary. The artists Cinthia Marcelle, Rob Pruitt and William Mackrell have a shared interest in how everyday items can be transformed into art. At first glance, many of the exhibits don’t Read More
One of post-apartheid South Africa’s contributions to global culture is an affirmation of ubuntu* – an indigenous concept which emphasises the folded-togetherness of human being. Karen Press’s new collection, which finds poetry in subjects as diverse as Jacob Zuma and the war in Iraq, is mindful of our collective failure to put this principle into Read More
Searching for Sugar Man is a documentary by Swedish film maker Malik Bendjelloul that charts the heart-warming and astonishing story of the Detroit folk singer Sixto Rodriguez. Hailed as the Latino Bob Dylan, Rodriguez was virtually unknown in his home country; but in apartheid South Africa, he was bigger than Elvis. After recording his début Read More