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LONDON FOR FUN Newsletter: 18 January 2011 Issue No.201

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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 - Hilary Lloyd - Hilary Lloyd makes images using video, slides and photography. She includes the equipment used to show these still and moving images as part of the work, which consequently inhabits space like sculpture. Lloyd has made new work for precise arrangement within Raven Row's distinctive galleries. She has been preparing for this show for over three years, watching Raven Row emerge from its construction site. Lloyd's camera acts like her eye, and her gaze is exacting and intense. She allows her subjects to perform for the camera, even if they are inert, such as the humdrum views of foreign cities, fashion magazines and road works that are her subjects for this exhibition. Until 6 February. http://ravenrow.org

2 - Gilbert & George: The Urethra Postcard Art of Gilbert & George - In 2009, nearly four decades after their first exhibition of POSTCARD ART, and twenty years since their last group of pictures to be made in the medium of postcards, Gilbert & George returned to the form to make the epic and dazzling group of 564 new pieces that comprise THE URETHRA POSTCARD PICTURES. This is the single largest group of art works made by Gilbert & George, and in turn comprises seven individual groups of new POSTCARD PICTURES. White Cube Mason's Yard will exhibit 155 of these works. THE URETHRA POSTCARD PICTURES reveal Gilbert & George at their most intent and artistically all seeing. These new pieces are united, compositionally, by their elements comprising "an angulated version of the sign of urethra". This shape - a continuous rectangle of cards, with a single card in its central space - mimics the sexual symbol used by the one time theosophist C. W. Leadbetter (1853 - 1934) to accompany his signature, and as such proposes that this group of new art works is infused with a still confrontational libertarianism. Until 19 February. www.whitecube.com

3 - Simon Starling: Never The Same River - Never The Same River (Possible Futures, Probable Pasts) brings together works by 30 artists and designers, revisiting the rich history of the Centre by showing fragments of exhibitions from the past 50 years. These works are reinstalled in the exact positions they previously occupied and Starling has selected new works by artists as an imagined future for the Centre's exhibition programme. The ideas and methods used by Starling in his own work, as well as the writings of Jorge Luis Borges and George Kubler, form the premise of the exhibition. The works, though spatially and historically remote all, in themselves, push and pull at our understanding of linear time. Their coming together invites us to consider how artworks prevail amidst the procession of historical change. Until 20 February. www.camdenartscentre.org

4 - Lucrezia Borgia - Claire Rutter, star of ENO's Zandra Rhodes-designed Aida, returns as Renaissance Italy's darkest femme fatale, with rising young American tenor Michael Fabiano (who made an impressive UK debut as the Duke in ENO's Rigoletto in 2009) as Lucrezia's long-lost son. ENO's Olivier Award-winning former Music Director, Paul Daniel, conducts. From 31 January until 3 March. www.eno.org

5 - This is Tomorrow - During the 1950s mass production and new technologies were celebrated by the Media. Novel materials were to influence all areas of life, from the daily maintenance of the living space to the built environment as well as the production of art. Architect and writer Theo Crosby’s initial idea for an exhibition involving architects, artists, designers and theorists resulted in This is Tomorrow which took place at the Whitechapel in 1956 in collaboration with members of the Independent Group. The theme was the ‘modern’ way of living and the exhibition was based on a model of collaborative art practice. The 38 participants formed 12 groups, which worked towards producing one artwork. The outcome transformed the Whitechapel Gallery into a vibrant interactive space of installations. Until 6 March. www.whitechapelgallery.org

6 - Madam Butterfly - This spectacular 'in the round' production of the opera is staged in an enchanting Japanese water garden. No opera can match the tragedy and sorrow of Puccini's Madam Butterfly. Set in Japan at the turn of the century, this tale of the doomed love of an American naval lieutenant and his young Japanese bride inspired Puccini to write some of his most sublime and beautiful music. The differences in attitudes and styles of East and West are skilfully woven together in Puccini's ravishing score. The magnificent love duet which closes the first act and Butterfly's celebrated solo 'One Fine Day', in which she shows her unwavering belief that Pinkerton will return to her, are just two of the greatest moments. And when, after several years, Pinkerton eventually returns with his American wife, Butterfly realises she has been betrayed and the opera moves to its powerful and tragic conclusion. From Thursday 24 February until Saturday 12 March. www.royalalberthall.com

7 - Modern British Sculpture - The Royal Academy of Arts presents the first exhibition for 30 years to examine British sculpture of the twentieth century. The show will represent a unique view of the development of British sculpture, exploring what we mean by the terms British and sculpture by bringing the two together in a chronological series of strongly themed galleries, each making its own visual argument. The exhibition will take a fresh approach, replacing the traditional survey with a provocative set of juxtapositions that will challenge the viewer to make new connections and break the mould of old conceptions. Until 7 April. www.royalacademy.org.uk

8 - Gabriel Orozco - Creative, playful and inventive, Gabriel Orozco creates art in the streets, his apartment or wherever he is inspired. Born in Mexico but working across the globe, Orozco is renowned for his endless experimentation with found objects, which he subtly alters. His sculptures, often made of everyday things that have interested him, reveal new ways of looking at something familiar. A skull with a geometric pattern carefully drawn onto it, a classic Citroën DS car which the artist sliced into thirds, removing the central part to exaggerate its streamlined design, and a scroll filled with numbers cut out of a phone book are just some of his unique sculptures. Orozco’s photos are also on display, capturing the beauty of fleeting moments: water collecting in a punctured football, tins of cat food arranged on top of watermelons in a supermarket, or condensed breath disappearing from the surface of a piano show Orozco’s eye for simple but surprising and powerful images. From 19 January until 25 April. www.tate.org.uk/modern

9 - The Unilever Series: Ai Weiwei - Sunflower Seeds is made up of millions of small works, each apparently identical, but actually unique. However realistic they may seem, these life-sized sunflower seed husks are in fact intricately hand-crafted in porcelain. Each seed has been individually sculpted and painted by specialists working in small-scale workshops in the Chinese city of Jingdezhen. Far from being industrially produced, they are the effort of hundreds of skilled hands. Poured into the interior of the Turbine Hall’s vast industrial space, the 100 million seeds form a seemingly infinite landscape. Porcelain is almost synonymous with China and, to make this work, Ai Weiwei has manipulated traditional methods of crafting what has historically been one of China’s most prized exports. Sunflower Seeds invites us to look more closely at the ‘Made in China’ phenomenon and the geo-politics of cultural and economic exchange today. Until 1 May. www.tate.org.uk/modern

10 - Jan Gossaert's Renaissance - Jan Gossaert, a native of Flanders (active 1503; died 1532), was one of the most startling and accomplished artists of the Northern Renaissance. ‘Jan Gossaert’s Renaissance’ is the first exhibition dedicated to the artist for over 40 years, and presents the results of a complete re-examination of his work, including new technical discoveries. The exhibition features over 80 works, including many of the artist’s most important paintings, including the ‘Virgin and Child’, 1527, Prado, Madrid, and ‘Hercules and Deianeira’, 1517, Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham. It also features drawings and contemporaneous sculptures of the Northern Renaissance. From 23 February until 30 May. www.nationalgallery.org.uk

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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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