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Still & Moving Playbook has now become my new blog called A Girl on Art. Make a click and see what you think.

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The Other Art Fair: what caught my attention

Only the most cultured and artiest of people could be spotted at Marylebone Road's Ambika P3 on Sunday. Then there was my family. 

I was given a handful of tickets to the third bi-annual Other Art Fair so I forced my reluctant siblings to join me: 'I'm going and y'all are coming with me!' We passed a heap of disused broken toilets and I wondered what on earth we were heading to. This could easily have been one of those moments my sisters found new teasing material. But when the organisers say it connects art lovers of all tastes and experience they certainly know what they're talking about. In fact, they're not making it up at all.

In May, the three day event attracted just over 7,000 visitors from gallerists and seasoned collectors to first time buyers, art fanatics and even art amateurs. Of the over 100 emerging and unrepresented artists who were on show this weekend, here's my 5 most interesting:

Orson Kartt
Clever, witty, multimedia.
The book title, story, text layout, image printed on top and message beneath a red barcode, all work to send a single message. Take time to carefully look at them. I think they could be for lit, film and art lovers alike and have huge commercial possibilities. Wouldn't they make great framed gifts this Christmas?

Rutie Borthwick
Nostalgic, emotive, people.
"My work is of people removed from their landscape. With no context to tell their stories, we are forced into a state of heightened empathy for the characters, building our own landscape around them and weaving our own stories into the space left for them on the canvas."

Rosie Emerson

Fashion, portraits, mixed media.
"I've always been interested in fashion. I started doing landscapes and one morning I just stripped it right back. It's about knowing when to stop and going back to basics."

Alberto Fusco

Paper sculpture, 3D, magazines.

Nadeem Chughtal

Cartoon, people, stories.

"The characters that you see in my work represent souls of the human species". 

Why you have to see V&A's Hollywood Costume exhibit

Hollywood Costume sponsored by Harry Winston, 2012, copyright V&A images

A month into the show, Dorothy's genuine red slippers have returned to the Smithsonian and the hype may be slipping back. But don't lose interest if you haven't seen it yet! This exhibition is incredible and the sold out advanced tickets until December and winding queues at the V&A's ticket desk is a testament to how great it is.

It's NOT just a clothes exhibition. 
I've never seen an exhibition on fashion quite like this; it's a full film experience. At the entrance, a huge cinema screen plays a montage showcasing the costumes you're about to see. Items are put in the context of its film using projected animated scripts, movie clips, interviews and installations. For example, Harrison Ford's iconic Indiana Jones costume is set against a video which deconstructs every detail, from how they trimmed his trilby hat and sat on it to the 1930s aviator-style jacket they created and aged with blades. For Oceans 11, an animated table explains the design process as if it's being brainstormed right in front of you. Matching image or video heads are suspended above most mannequins.

In September, I visited the Warner Brothers Studio Museum in Los Angeles, which is home to their most famous costumes, props and memorabilia such as The Dark Knight Rises, The Big Bang Theory and Harry Potter. It felt like the best thing I'd ever seen. But if that was a high, Hollywood Costume is like Felix Baumgartner's skydive. It's moving and gripping, carrying a true cinematic essence.

They've got the most iconic costumes you can imagine.
Marilyn Monroe's white dress (as The Girl in The Seven Year Itch, 1955), Holly Golightly's little black dress and pearls (Breakfast at Tiffany's, 1961), Dorothy's gingham pinafore (Wizard of Oz, 1939), Charlie Chaplin's suit and the Darth Vadar outfit. There's no exaggerations here. For the first time ever they're being showcased in one exhibition space.

There's something for everyone.
Some will be in love with Cecilia Tallis's (Keira Knightley) green dress in Atonement (2007), others will remember Scarlett O'Hara's (Vivien Leigh) green curtain dress in Gone With The Wind (1939). If not them, then perhaps Batman's (Christian Bale) suit in the Dark Knight Rises (2012) or Brad Pitt's patterned shirt and leather jacket in Fight Club (1999)? Across 130 costumes every film fan will be pleased.

You'll appreciate film all the more.
As the Guardian put it, "It's an exhibition about film not fashion". Every costume is complimented with an anecdote, explanation and context. For example: they went through 20 copies of Jason Bourne's purposely forgettable jacket because they were damaged in fight sequences; upon seeing Eliza Doolittle's ragged costume for the first time Audrey Hepburn "was so moved that she gulped," and the low-cut yellow dress Kate Hudson wore in How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days (2003) was created once the costume designer asked Harry Winston to create a necklace with that blazing yellow diamond.

It's once in a lifetime.
It took five years of sourcing, identifying and securing objects from across the world. There won't be something like this for a long while.

Tickets are £14 (concession available), runs until 27 January 2013. Visit vam.ac.uk.

Art does Gangnam style: 5 things you need to know

The art industry switches brushes for Gangnam style.

It was already huge. From Eton boys to Britney Spears, everyone's had a go at the loveably goofy dance routine. A quick update: it's YouTube ratings have now hit 780 million making it the second most viewed YouTube video ever and Psy, the South Korean pop artist, has become a global icon. But no one's adopted the horse-move quite like the art world. 

Two art giants have made their own parody. 

Art Review's 'most powerful artist in the world', Ai Weiwei, created a version with himself and his team last month, drawing attention to the injustices in his home-country, China, by swinging handcuffs. Last year he was placed in secret detention for 81 days, allegedly due to his online activism. 

The 55-year-old's video was pulled off the internet in China.

Now, the renowned sculptor Anish Kapoor (who also designed the Orbit tower in the Olympic Park), has posted his own video to continue Ai Weiwei's message of freedom and endorse Amnesty International. 

Major museums are behind them. 

The video features appearances from staff at the MoMA, Guggenheim, Smithsonian, Serpentine Gallery, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and New Museum. And briefly the Channel 4 news team. 

They're for a good cause.

Holding a sign reading "Stand together for human rights," Kapoor has used the fun fad as a symbol for freedom of expression and human rights. 

They're fun too.  

Watching art crews do the cheesy dance is a classic. 

The moment Katniss Everdeen shot that arrow whip-fast through an apple in a pigs mouth to get the Hunger Gamesmakers' attention, I kind of fell in love with Jennifer Lawrence. I've still yet to see her Oscar-nominated debut Winter's Bone, which is probably a bit embarrassing, but under the film's trailer on YouTube, 101 people have 'liked' in unison: 'I came here because of Katniss, I stayed because of Jennifer'.

She's the answer to everyone who is bugged by Kristen Stewart. She's strong but pretty, her look is bohemian-cum-californian but she's so fresh I can only categorise her as the cool. And she can nail a character like that shot to an apple. So accurate and clean there's no way in hell you'll forget this girl. (Don't forget she played the fiery Mystique in X-Men First Class). So when Silver Linings Playbook (SLP) came out in previews I had to see what character she was up to next.

SLP was first on the list in Entertainment Weekly's Oscar's buzz round-up in September. "Were any of you in the audience at Toronto International Film Festival premier of Silver Linings Playbook starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence?" Dave Kruger, began writing. "Well, the movie's writer-director, David O. Russell, would like you to see the film again – you were laughing too loudly."

Russell recalls thinking, "Bob De Niro had some big lines that weren't heard. In another moment they cheered and they missed the next five lines". That's because the dialogue churns out sharp one-liners and underlaid wit consistently. SLP is a rip-roaringly funny film that is also incredibly moving.

"This is what I believe to be true. You have to do everything you can and if you stay positive you have a shot at a silver lining."

Synopsis:
Set in a residential neighbourhood, Pat Solitano (Cooper) has just been discharged after 8 months in a mental institution and moves back with his parents. He's determined to reunite with his wife and in turn live a positive, happy life. Problem is, a restraining order is keeping him from speaking to her. Meanwhile his parents hilariously represent the dysfunctional or typical – depending on how you look at family – part. His father, Pat senior (Robert De Niro), is an American football bookie so obsessed with the Philadelphia Eagles that he's banned from attending games because of past brawls. His mother, Dolores (Jackie Weaver), is the tip-toeing wife who nods at her empathic husband and keeps the beers coming. Pat jogs and reads to find contentment, until he meets Tiffany (Lawrence), a strange sister of a best friend's wife, who's experiencing an unstable sense of loss herself – her husband died in an accident.

Though her hair is darker, her nails are painted black, her clothes are black and she dons a black beaded crucifix pendant, Lawrence is as bright and gripping as ever. Likewise, Cooper successfully shreds off the image of The Hangover and you can put your full faith in Pat. The pair work towards a dance competition and as unrealistic as this sounds, it actually fits in such a lovely way, you'll be rooting for them all the more.

If you've seen the SLP poster ignore The Sunday Times's label as "The best romantic comedy of the year", because calling it a rom-com is too basic and sluggish. You wouldn't brand The Artist as a rom-com would you? The genre name's been thrown around quite often with this movie but I can't settle on it. As Rolling Stone Magazine puts it, "Pain is the subtext of nearly every interaction in this film". Everyone can be a little insane at times, including Pat's dad's irrational sports superstitions and his best friend's fear towards his own wife.

It gets that life is complicated. So when two people find salvation in each other it's emotional, warming and yes still hilarious. What I will agree with is Silver Linings Playbook is up there with the best of 2012. It'll be so toxic – to the relief of director Russell – you too will need to watch it again.

P.S. I liked it so much, I changed Still & Moving to Still & Moving Playbook.

An evening with Cameron Diaz, Colin Firth and Alan Rickman

Alan Rickman (who once studied at art school) wouldn't want to own art. He loves Michelangelo's Madonna and Child but he'd rather it stay open for everyone to enjoy. Well, his latest character isn't as humble – he's after a Monet painting.

It's not often that something big brings art and film together, and when it does, naturally, I'm excited. (Imagine Silicon Valley's coding guys when The Social Network came out.) I attended Apple's latest 'Meet the Filmmaker' event at the Regent Street store, not only because you can't skip a chance to meet Alan Rickman, Colin Firth AND Cameron Diaz, but because I had some tiny hope that this film might star a Monet painting alongside a stellar cast. However more often than not these films aren't about paintings at all. This is one of those false alarms.

Gambit (out on 21 November 2012) is a rehash of a 1966 art heist comedy also named Gambit. Power brothers Joel and Ethan Coen rewrote the screenplay, adjusting the plot so that it's no longer a carefully planned and funnily failing art robbery, but an art dealer's (Firth) revenge on an abusive billionaire boss (Rickman). Colin Firth steps in for Michael Cain, Cameron Diaz is Shirley MacLaine, and Alan Rickman stands in for Herbert Lom's part – the boss who is being tricked into buying a fake 'Wheatstacks (End of Summer)'. Here the Coen brothers flick off their serious, gritty drama switch (No Country For Old Men, Burn After Reading, True Grit) and return to farcical crime comedy.

As Cameron Diaz put it: "We're not reinventing comedy here, we're doing something that's really familiar. It's the comfort food of comedy".

And this was how the evening carried out. The lineup was in exactly this spirit, joking away when answering seriously intended questions (poor us). When someone asked if any pranks took place on set, Diaz cheekily recounted a time when Colin Firth turned up without any trousers and Alan Rickman followed him showing up naked. Did that really happen? Nope. Firth comedically insisted that 'the focus should always be on himself' and Diaz showed actor Tim Courtenay her puppy dog eyes. Don't get me wrong, there is something thrilling about laughing at a celebrity's joke in person, but you can't meet three of the world's biggest actors and go away with fluff! Here's what left me leaving with the biggest smile...

Cameron Diaz watching herself in character.
When clips from the film were played on VT screens, she watched herself so intently and discretely mouthed her script as if none of us were there watching her back. You could see her brain clogs churning away: Did I give it enough southern-twang? Am I convincing? Do I look okay? When she realised her face was flexing, she snapped right out of it and diverted her gaze in the opposite direction. To all of us she did just fine, but I bet she's one critical lady. I'd love to interview her one day.

Alan Rickman's method to picking a script. 
"Well, it's a simple process really. Somebody sends you a script and you read it and you check your availability. They've checked your availability as well and then you find out who's in it. What's the personnel going to be and who are you going to be spending the next ... because it's a big lump of your life. This is the weird thing about a movie: it's two hours to you and it's maybe 6, 8, 10 or 12 weeks to us. You want to be sure that that's going to be a fruitful period of your life because that's what it amounts to. But ultimately it's what you read on the page that makes you say yes or no. And I don't know why I do that. It's a weird instinctive thing. What did I last do? What do I want to do next? This word jumping off the page. Do I want to say it rather than read it?"

Asking someone what their favourite film is...
Cameron: "Like asking someone who their favourite child is"
Michael Hoffman (director): "I could probably tell you more easily which one wasn't my favourite"
Colin Firth: "Your children?" [everyone laughs]
Michael Hoffman: "I guess what the truth for me is when you're in the middle of them, they're just completely engaging and after they're done, I almost never ever look at them again. It's just over and I'm happy about it and really excited I took part in it but I have a tendency to look forward not back."

Rain is trendy. Not because it's chucked it down all year or because October means rainwear season, or even because it's very British (we have been particularly popular this year). But have a look in the design department – it's pouring.

This week the Barbican has opened its Rain Room, an installation where thousands of water drops fall from the ceiling of a 100 square meter passage. And if you're like me and you wished you were Storm (coolest X-man by far), then this is the hook. Using cameras that detect movement, the water will halt at the very point you stand so it's like casting your umbrella to the side and dancing in the rain without your hair getting wet. (I believe you might get a spray from the surrounding raindrops if you're looking to head elsewhere after). Now watch this:

It's beautiful. The sound of water gently crashing down, the humidity of nature indoors, the thousands of specs running to the ground. Back track to Burberry's Autumn/Winter 2012 show in February (start at 15 minutes into the video). This was the first time I was blown away by rain. I wasn't cursing it or wishing it away. I loved it!

It has continued into their store openings in Taipei and on Regent's Street.

It's stunning how digital technology is being used to recreate nature or perhaps even perfecting it. In celebration of this, I picked out the best captures of rain in art and film.

Top still and moving rain images

1. Singin' in the Rain
The classic, glorious and brightening tap number in "California Dew".

2. The Drop, by Inges Idee
This giant and elegant sculpture sits on the edge of Vancouver's  Convention Centre overlooking Burrard Inlet.

3. Seascape Study with Rain Cloud, 1824, Constable
One of the landscape master's most expressive studies.

4. Shawshank Redemption 
The cleansing shower – possibly the most inspirational rain scene in film.

5. Cliffs at Pourville, Rain, 1886, Claude Monet 
The genius of water covering sheets of rain at sea.

Extra: Here are two more special moments of rain in film: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Road to Perdition (listen to the sound of rain gradually rising behind the musical score).

It's forecasted before the weekend, so next time the clouds open look up and smile.

Rain Room is open daily, 11am-8pm (Thurs until 10pm) until 3 March 2013, at The Curve, Barbican, London. 
Note: My illustration was inspired by http://brade-s.deviantart.com/art/Rain-94187735. Thank you. 

A word on the effect of Looper

Back in July I went to a very early screening of Looper through Stylist magazine. Normally this is okay. I watched Take This Waltz a month and a half in advance; I was moved and I kept it fairly quiet like when you discover the last Lindor and you eat it.

Ah but Looper. You were a tricky one. You see it’s a high thrill, crazy hot kind of film. Joseph Gordon-Levitt kicked ass, Chloe Moretz-style by shooting a finger gun. So naturally I went around screeching “It’s so cool!” urging everyone to watch it when it's out. Then I get asked, “What is it about?” Followed by that prerequisite prejudice of time travel movies.

I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to finally see 100% on Rotten Tomato’s critic Tomatometer. I told you. I knew it. Now time it’s time to feel it once more. 

Defacing of a Rothko: 5 things to know

Did you wake up this Monday morning wondering what went wrong with a painting at the Tate on a Sunday afternoon? Here are five things you need to know.

It's a big deal
The name Mark Ruthko is so distinguished in modern art, he did what McDonald's did to french fries. He owned abstraction. A room named after him on Level 3 of the Tate Modern hangs some of his Seagram murals – a total of 600 square feet murals painted from 1958 for an exclusive room in the new Four Seasons restaurant at the Seagram building in New York. You might recognise his work as two (or a few more) panels of colour with super soft uneven edges. 'Black on Maroon' was the target. A visitor calmly stepped over the wire barrier, pulled out a paintbrush loaded with blank paint (we are unable to distinguish an acrylic or oil property) and wrote the following: "Vladimir Umanets, A potential Piece of Yellowism"

Self-titled 'Yellowists' are potential nobodies
It appears there's only two of them. This one, Vladimir Umanets, is a Russian born artist who is not trying to strike vandalism, but draw attention to his 'movement'. Their website states it is not art and the rest is mystifying. Something about reducing interpretations of art to one: equalised and flattened. Yellowism pieces are not yellow.

Tate Modern closed for a period
While police investigated the scene.

Reactions: shock, outrage, upset, bemusement 
It's silly and stupid so you can laugh because it can be restored. But people are angry at Vladimir's apparent satisfaction, believing he's added value to the piece.

But, it's not a rare thing
People attempt to deface artwork all the time. From Picasso's 'Woman in a Red Armchair' at Houston's Menil Collection earlier this year, to 'Mona Lisa' (well the box) continuously and Rembrandt's 'Night Watch'. See the BBC's list here.

Update point 6: He's been arrested.

It's here! The output end of a redesign and it's looking pretty sharp. I had to HTML-code my way through to getting black post headings. Yes black. So consider this black extra special.

Those are my hand drawn clogs and I'm going to try illustrate a lot more pieces to break the blogging mould. I also like maths, which is a very unusual combination, so in that spirit you might even see words, images and equations amalgamate. Data journalism has never been as cool as it is now (See: guardian.co.uk/news/datablog). Until the next post ... stay with me.

On Lucian Freud Portraits, National Portrait Gallery

Lucian Freud had a thing for eyes. As if a window to a soul, he would make them large and cartoon-like. And it's these eyes that will first draw your attention in the National Portrait Gallery's spring blockbuster.

Almost everything Freud did had a sense of observational intensity – beyond the things you would normally pick up on at a glance. He once said, "As far as I am concerned the paint is the person. I want it to work for me just as flesh does." So he moulded paint into capturing tension, pain, contentment and personality in the most effortless way possible – in the way a person would look when they were daydreaming.

The exhibition is huge and close to capturing 'almost everything' spanning 70 years of his career, from the big eyed portraits in the 1940s to his final unfinished Portrait of the Hound (2011).

How happy will Hockney's exhibition make you?

Winter Timber, 2009. Oil on 15 canvases, 274 x 609.6 cm. Private Collection. © David Hockney. Photo: Jonathan Wilkinson.

As seen at www.visitbritainshop.com

Around six years ago, I sat in the art studio at Woodhouse College staring at this white medley of lines hover above a swimming pool. It was in a David Hockney book, alongside the tremendously applauded Splash series, this one being The Bigger Splash. The art tutor glorified the way Hockney captured California sun, the dry heat, the cool freshness you get from a splash in the pool. This is a blissful moment thousands flock to five star beach hotels for.

Hockney's latest exhibition is being prized the same way, except this time the western coast of America is traded for the green landscapes of Yorkshire Dales - quite fitting actually in a time when less can afford grand getaways but the north of England is an option to be drawn.

I visited on the Royal Academy's late night Friday so expectedly it was a full show; what was not expected however was the noise. So much of it. Everyone talking and laughing, giving their opinions, reminiscing about their times in a country field - smiling.

Let me tell you it is colour through and through - acid brights, autumnal hues, pastel washes. It's Yorkshire put through a dream machine, so the vivid image of how you remember a happy place – bright and perfect – but when you return to the scene you realise your mind has just hyperbolised a much loved place. Hockney is churning out a love of nature in all its glories – autumn, winter, spring, summer. So why not let art be a channel for hedonism? It works to me.

A Tsar's gift reinvented

The story goes, Peter Carl became a jeweller to the great Russian Imperial Court. He produced exquisite objects including a legendary easter egg for Romanov Tsar Nicholas II to gift to his wife, Empress Alexandra. His worldwide reputation attracted royalty, tycoons and artists, but suddenly, the Russian Revolution bought a violent end to the royal dynasty and his craftsmanship. 

Brand Peter Carl Fabergé has come a long way. This week over 200 super-sized ‘Fabergé’ eggs have been secreted across central London as part of a Big Egg Hunt for charities Elephant Family (who brought us the 260 brightly painted elephants in Summer 2010) and Action for Children.

This is one big Easter themed design fair. Notable artists, architects and household fashion names such as Diane Von Furstenberg, Zandra Rhodes, Tommy Hilfiger and illustrator Martin Handford (of Where’s Wally?) have decorated the two and a half foot fiberglass sculptures in their own thematic, iconic, or wacky way.

Here are some eggs I excitedly came across on my way to the National Portrait Gallery.  Perhaps the mystique of the Faberge Egg is removed in this public art hunt, but its charisma has been hatched once more. 


Each piece is marked with a descriptive plaque and after a six week run, the collection will be auctioned. 

"The Obsidian Egg" by Maria Grachvogel,
fashion designer

"Egg Hog" by Victoria Scott,
illustrator 

In need of a hero?

Many movies are based on exceptional stories. We revel in them because in that 129 minute (with a quick Google apparently this is the average film length for this decade) slot you're promised a moment of courage, dignity, humanity and we leave feeling empowered. "Yeah, I could so quit my day job, fight for a loan, work late hours and create something that gives empowerment to the group I'm a world apart from."

But when the Observer published 'Britain's 50 new radicals' I realised these are stuff of movies. An ex Bangladesh NGO worker who created a bank scheme for Hackney bound Tweens and taught them about finance in the midst of a colossal economic downturn (maybe Vera Farmiga could play the part); A fighter for the homeless using football and a Homeless World Cup to energise them and change their lives (Liam Neeson could work); a 15-year-old who catapulted London's urban music scene through a viral YouTube account – it's called SBTV, his name is Jamal Edwards, and yes he's already featured in a Google Chrome advert.

When an acclaimed actor has covered the challenging role or worked on a series of chick-flicks – sealing the deal in the public eye – a time will come when a Hollywood producer approaches them for this kind of all inspiring, american dream role. Notably they are set in America's deprived urban districts or racist southern states, but these are happening on home turf. Movie-like stories are taking place every day and perhaps in these tough times we could be a generation of most inspirational stories yet.

Check out more stories at the NESTA website, in partnership with the Observer.

Four films with stars as 'life changing' heroes:

Photograph credit: Film covers from IMDB.com 

BAFTA Awards 2012 goodies

At the Orange BAFTAs - The Final Word I received some exclusive merchandise and thought it would be cool to share.

Hotel Chocolat Tiddly BAFTA heads
(Someone somewhere will remember that George Clooney had one in a red carpet interview)

BAFTA Awards 2012 Programme

Selected words from Prince William's (HRH The Duke of Cambridge) letter as President of the Academy:
"Every nominee – regardless of winning – is an inspiration to those who want to improve their craft...Martin Scorsese is a man whose influence on film is unquestionable; his vision and commitment to challenging the conventions of the art form are just two reasons why his Fellowship is so thoroughly deserved."

Selected words from BAFTA chairman Tim Corrie's welcome message:

"Let us also celebrate everyone in the industry whose hard work and creativity has given us so many moments of pure, cinematic joy. Tonight, BAFTA rewards the greatest of these achievements, in order to enthuse new audiences over the art form and to galvanise the next generation of filmmaking talent."

Behind the cover

The Academy asked artist Eda Akaltun to interpret this year's five Best Film nominees and produce a collectable set of brochure covers to give to all attendees on the night. So she took her trademark collage and printmaking technique and applied it to four very differently stylised films. The cut and paste, marbled and detailed compositions are duller than usually seen from her, with grey tones and very brief glimpses of colour, but this is what gives the covers a distinctly cinematic feel (as also seen on last year's covers by Adam Simpson). Her method involved picking her favourite scene or looking at what visuals were available to her to capture each movie.

I'm not sure if each cover does their film justice; there is not much happening in The Help and The Descendants covers, and neither represent their story-lines well (despite the latter being a visual interpretation of Clooney's infamous opening lines, "My friends think that just because we live in Hawaii, we live in paradise...Do they think we're immune to life?") But I guess she too shone a greater light on the The Artist, Drive and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, quite representative of the BAFTA nominations. Here are her four other cover designs:

Thank you to BAFTA and The Times for the above mentioned merchandise.
Photograph credits: Sejal Kapadia
BAFTA brochure cover visuals from BAFTA.org