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LONDON FOR FUN Newsletter: 26 August 2008 Issue No.154

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http://www.londonforfun.com
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1.) Top 10 London events
2.) Other Events, Theatre listings, Museums and Galleries
3.) How to unsubscribe

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1. Top 10 London events
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1 - Vilhelm Hammershøi: The Poetry of Silence - The first Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864-1916) retrospective in the UK, this exhibition features over 60 paintings spanning the career of this celebrated Danish artist. Hammershøi's most compelling works are his quiet, haunting interiors, their emptiness disturbed only occasionally by the presence of a solitary, graceful figure, often the artist's wife. Painted within a small tonal range of implied greys, these sparsely-furnished rooms exude an almost hypnotic quietude and sense of melancholic introspection. In addition to the interiors, the exhibition also includes Hammershøi’s arresting portraits, landscapes and his evocative city views, notably the deserted streets of London on a misty winter morning. Until 7 September. www.royalacademy.org.uk

2 - Tonight forget about your houses and cars - The show examines our enduring vision of the end of the world and its increasing prominence within our collective consciousness. Exhibited works discuss the fate of the planet against the current climate of man-made and natural disaster and consider the constant state of dread in which we already exist, endorsed by the media’s drip-feed of apocalyptic imagery. Until 13 September. www.union-gallery.com

3 - Fashion in the Mirror: Self-Reflection in Fashion Photography - The international photographers in this exhibition undress the theatre of fashion and question the creation of perfect beauty. Fashion in the Mirror is an overview of their self-examination and a rare look behind-the-scenes of fashion photography from the 1950s to the present day. Finding both comedy and poetry in the set-up of the studio, the exhibiting photographers turn their cameras on the processes and paraphernalia of the fashion shoot. Photographers become mirrored in their own work and, as viewpoints are inverted and gazes misdirected, cameras stare back out at us expectantly. Revealing the fashion industry’s secrets and undermining its glamorous illusions, the photographers in this exhibition create work that exposes this world from within. Until 14 September. www.photonet.org.uk

4 - London Philharmonic Orchestra - Vladimir Jurowski conductor Christian Tetzlaff violin. Programme includes Ralph Vaughan Williams Symphony No.8 in D minor, Mark-Anthony Turnage Violin Concerto (Mambo, Blues & Tarantella), Gyorgy Ligeti Atmospheres and Igor Stravinsky The Rite of Spring. First Igor Stravinsky reappraised rhythm: thrusting it into the foreground as the dominant force of his ballet score The Rite of Spring, creating a fiery picture of ritual sacrifice far from the palace-bound romance that went before. It seemed music had changed forever. Until, that was, the arrival of Gyorgy Ligeti, whose Atmospheres reassessed even the concept of the musical 'note', creating otherwise unattainable 'atmospheres' through continuous, captivating sonorities. 24 September. www.southbankcentre.co.uk

5 - La fanciulla del West - The California Gold Rush provides the setting for the tense story, sweeping music and lavish Royal Opera staging of Puccini’s ‘Wild West’ opera – with whisky and bar-room brawling, a suspicious sheriff and even the fateful turn of a hand of poker. At the centre is the romance between an outlaw in hiding, Dick Johnson, and the tough woman who saves his life, Minnie – presented with Puccini’s much-loved lyricism by star tenor José Cura as Dick Johnson opposite Eva-Maria Westbroek as his feisty, gun-toting heroine Minnie. Until 29 September. www.roh.org.uk

6 - London Philharmonic Orchestra - STRAVINSKY: The Fairy's Kiss (complete) and TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No.1, Winter Daydreams - With the first performance of the First Symphony in 1868 Tchaikovsky introduced himself to St Petersburg's creative elite as a composer of vivid imagination and inventive flair: the symphony's icicle-clear melodies and fur-wrapped climaxes bore a charm all of their own, heralding a hugely significant career. Exactly 60 years later Igor Stravinsky sought inspiration from Tchaikovsky, using the composer's themes for his ballet score The Fairy's Kiss, itself an image of St Petersburg in music, and a piece which overflows with delight and originality whilst acknowledging Tchaikovsky's melodic invention. 22 October. www.southbankcentre.co.uk

7 - Simon Patterson - The Undersea World and Other Stories: The National Maritime Museum, Greenwich - The Undersea World and Other Stories investigates Simon Patterson’s consistent explorations of the sea, stars and time – themes central to the collections and research at the National Maritime Museum (NMM). The Museum unpacks the material cultures that result from human attempts to find their place in the world, be it mapping the skies above, the ocean depths below, or seeking relationships across time and space. Such structures form frameworks of understanding that are bounded by limits of knowledge and distributed through language. Until 26 October. www.nmm.ac.uk

8 - Forever 27 - This is a portrait of the much mythologised ‘27 Club’, the group of ill-fated rock stars whose lives have been tragically cut short at the age of 27. Featuring iconic images from a collaboration of world-renowned rock photographers, Proud Camden will present a definitive look at Rock & Roll’s most infamous member’s club. From a group of over 30 musicians belonging to the Club, the exhibition will focus on the five most legendary, depicted through iconic and never before seen images. Featuring many striking images of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Brian Jones and Kurt Cobain, this revealing show promises to celebrate their talent and shed fresh light on their short lives and mysterious, untimely deaths. Until 9 November. www.proud.co.uk

9 - Martin Creed - Work No. 850 centres on a simple idea: that a person will run as fast as they can every thirty seconds through the gallery. Each run is followed by an equivalent pause, like a musical rest, during which the grand Neoclassical gallery is empty. This work celebrates physicality and the human spirit. Creed has instructed the runners to sprint as if their lives depended on it. Bringing together people from different backgrounds from all over London, Work No. 850 presents the beauty of human movement in its purest form, a recurring yet infinitely variable line drawn between two points. Until 16 November. www.tate.org.uk

10 - Mark Rothko - This is the first significant exhibition of his work to be held in the UK for over 20 years. Tate Modern's iconic 'Rothko Room' works are reunited for the first time with works from Japan. Rothko’s iconic paintings, composed of luminous, soft-edged rectangles saturated with colour, are among the most enduring and mysterious created by an artist in modern times. In the exhibition his paintings glow meditatively from the walls in deep dark reds, oranges, maroons, browns, blacks, and greys. From 26 September until 1 February. www.tate.org.uk/modern

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2. Other Events, Theatre listings, Museums and Galleries

Events listing:
http://www.londonforfun.com/events-in-London.htm

Theatre listings:
http://www.londonforfun.com/London-theatres.htm

Museum listing:
http://www.londonforfun.com/London-museums.htm

Galleries listings:
http://www.londonforfun.com/galleries-in-London.htm

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