From rehab to the RWA in one day

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The mid-year batch of shows at the RWA contains enough to amuse and puzzle most people in roughly equal amounts. I visited with a small group of cultured professionals from Frenchay Brain Injury Rehab Unit; although we could have been non-artists from anywhere. I can confirm that my friends enjoyed themselves.
The Elisabeth Frink ‘Wild’ collection concentrates on the relationship animals have with humans, and with each other. It is genuinely wild in parts. As she said herself, this exploration is “better than just doing horses”. Or self portraits, which most of her (human) heads tend to be.

The Lisa Milroy geisha paintings were a surprise: she had a reputation for making medium-sized pictures containing rows of domestic objects. And it’s taking quite a risk making figurative work on such a scale. Despite the size and the painterly attack, they have a slightly comic-book, ‘pop’ look.




The Mary Fedden walls contain a potted history of part of English art: the earlier paintings are recogniseably of the same vintage as early Graham Sutherland and the other romantics of the late 'Forties.
But most of what is on view is recogniseably Fedden style: abstracted still lifes in harmonic colours, looking towards St Ives and beyond.

The show that has got the big bangs though is Jack Vettriano in the main gallery; the opening night featured actual tango dancers threading among the crowd - of course. It’s a surprise to see the paintings for real at first. Although they are quite small and not a lot bigger than the big-selling repros, they are surprisingly flat; in places almost like pop art (again) in their treatment. Well, fair enough: they are genuine pop art, of a sort. Vettriano shares the limelight with photographer Jeanette Jones; their double act is titled ‘Ballroom Spy’. Some of her work, which resembles movie stills from the 'Fifties as much as anything, was the raw material for some of his.

Also trumpeted loud was Damien Hirst’s contribution to the collection. He has hired some craftsmen to make a ten-up copy of the well-known disabled-girl-shaped collecting box. He gave the result a name: ‘Charity’, which somehow gives it the air of making a statement of a sort. Anyway, It stands in front of the RWA shouting, “Look at me!” which is all to the good, after years of Joe Public only being dimly aware of the edifice as an ancient office building hidden behind a car park.

One technical point last: I and my entourage visited on a mercilessly sunny day. Although the sun was beating down on the gallery roofs, we did not wilt, and remained cool and comfortable throughout. This is progress.

Photography: Che Ming Leung

The BBC bias over Palestine: Documentary

The above is an excellent and brief documentary about the BBC's bias when it comes to reporting on Palestine - including the indisputably shameful decision to refuse to broadcast an appeal after the devastation caused by 'Operation Cast Lead' in Gaza.

One day, and we hope it will be soon, it may emerge what pressures inside and outside the Corporation are behind its slant.

Peace activist to hit streets again?

The Scottish-born anti-war activist injured by a Bristolian Sun reader in April 2011 is well along the road to partial recovery in Rehab, and hopes to be upstanding at crucial events before 2012.

Home secretary trips over her own traps

http://youtu.be/4HfDmTTJijYhttp://youtu.be/4HfDmTTJijY

Yes! Watch as Theresa wings it entirely without a safety net, while wrestling with her own convolutions!

Passport art

As this blog looks towards art as much as anything, and just to emphasise the international nature of it, here is a new, and ambiguously meaningful piece from my good friend, political cartoonist Majed Badra, in Gaza.

Endless Sleep - a production classic

The night was black, rain fallin' down


Looked for my baby, she's nowhere around


Traced her footsteps down to the shore
‘fraid she's gone forever more


I looked at the sea and it seemed to say
“I took your baby from you away.


I heard a voice cryin' in the deep
“Come join me, baby, in my endless sleep.
Why did we quarrel, why did we fight?
Why did I leave her alone tonight?
That's why her footsteps ran into the sea
That's why my baby has gone from me.


I looked at the sea and it seemed to say
“I took your baby from you away.
I heard a voice cryin' in the deep
“Come join me, baby, in my endless sleep.
Ran in the water, heart full of fear


There in the breakers I saw her near


Reached for my darlin', held her to me


Stole her away from the angry sea


I looked at the sea and it seemed to say


“You took your baby from me away.
My heart cried out “she's mine to keep


I saved my baby from an endless sleep.
[Fade]
Endless sleep, endless sleep
......................................................

The original version of Endless Sleep was recorded - and co-written - by America’s Jody Reynolds, but this echo-draped production is the one to go for. The combination of lyrics, music, performance and production is impeccable. It’s one of pop’s cut diamonds.
It’s the high point of Marty Wilde’s short career as one of England's ersatz rock ‘n’ roll singers before he settled (like Tommy Steele) into family entertainment. The production is ideally suited to the content: right down to the backing chorus of monks behind that twanging guitar and Marty’s stylised moans and yelps. Despite the heavy atmosphere it may well have been recorded in a tiny room over a shop in London’s Denmark Street, also known as Tin Pan Alley. Another possible venue could have been Decca’s studio in Kilburn. Yes - I’m guessing! It’s another death song; always guaranteed to appeal to young teenagers who feel immortal, and it helps that the whole thing feels more like a very dark dream than anything, perhaps spun out of an opium pipe. Death never sounded more sexy. And it’s barely two-and-a-half minutes long - the perfect pop single.
The above conjecturing only serves to demonstrate my geographic knowledge of London's music history. The only contender here must be the incomparable Joe Meek, who had already produced Marty's version of 'Teenager in Love'.

.................

In jazz there is an equivalent recording: ‘Cry Me A River’ by Julie London, also an irreducable gem (including one of the most audacious rhymes ever).

Political activist arrested on hearsay

salmaumerji middle east monitor
Sheikh Raed Salah, defender of Jerusalem in general and in particular al-aqsa, arrived in London on Saturday 25th using his Israeli passport to enter Britain legally as he has done many times before. He was not questioned by anyone and there was no indication of the existence of an exclusion order. Over the past few days, Sheikh Salah has addressed MPs in the British parliament and has spoken in large public gatherings. His subsequent arrest last night will be challenged in the courts as unjustified. This seems to be the beginning of a worrying trend of persecution of Muslims and pro-Palestinian activists.

Immediately after the Middle East Monitor [MEMO] announced that it was hosting Sheikh Raed Salah at a public lecture at Queen Mary University, a well-known pro-Israeli website circulated a catalogue of lies and fabrications about him which he has rebuffed for years.


On Thursday, 16th June, he issued an unequivocal statement in which, it has been reported, he refuted the claims. He ordered lawyers in London to challenge these fabrications in the British High Court.
On 24th June, lawyers acting on Sheikh Raed's behalf served notice on Andrew Gilligan of the Daily Telegraph and Robyn Rosen of the Jewish Chronicle. These procedures began before Sheikh Raed entered the country and were publicly announced.
None of the organisers of his lengthy schedule were contacted by the government or the police, either directly or indirectly, regarding the facts about him.
He began his programme of engagements on Sunday, which was followed with a roundtable in Parliament on Monday 27th June where he was speaking to a number of MPs, Lords and researchers in Committee Room 2A, in which he spoke for an hour. There was still no indication that he had been banned.
On the evening of Monday 27th he attended a crowded event in Conway Hall, Holborn, for almost three hours which was reported by the Jewish Chronicle. The Evening Standard claims he failed to appear. MEMO has a record of the event, with photos.
No policemen were present at the public event to arrest or question him before, during or after the event, despite any claims to the contrary.
Yesterday he made a speech in Leicester in front of an audience of more than one thousand for more than two hours. It was a successful event. And again, there were no police present.
However, during the day, the Daily Mail and Evening Standard circulated news that a ban was issued last week but for one reason or another, the exclusion order had failed to be enacted and that he had sneaked in, implying that he is on the run.
Lawyers contacted the Home Office in the afternoon asking for a clarification, although no one had contacted them. It is important to note that none of his legal representatives, who were widely known, were contacted. The Home Office refused to comment. Similarly, contact was made by the MPs and MEMO, and the Home Office again did not confirm or deny anything.
Around 11pm on Tuesday evening, Sheikh Raed was arrested in his hotel and taken to Paddington Green Police Station by the UK Border Police.
It is imperative to reiterate that he entered the country legally, with a legal Israeli passport and that the British government knew long in advance of his visit. They never contacted MEMO to find out the truth. The Sheikh himself was willing to challenge all the allegations in court. There were lies and fabrications made in the public domain, which he has rejected and he has never been charged with or convicted these alleged offences. He has expressed a willingness to challenge these in court.
One example of the baseless lies circulated was published in the Evening standard alleging that he failed to turn up to the Conway Hall event. In fact he was there for three hours and spoke to a large audience there.


Analysis
Raed Salah is first and foremost the pre-eminent political leader of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Israel. He is one of the main leaders of the biggest political party among the 1.5 million Palestinians in Israel. His appeal goes well beyond Arab Israelis and he appeals to all Arabs and Muslims who see him as championing the issue of Occupied Jerusalem and the right of Palestinians in Israel and elsewhere. His name is synonymous with Jerusalem and he is well known.
His treatment by the British government will not be taken lightly either here or abroad. By banning him after he began legal proceedings, it appears that the British government is seeking to obstruct the course of justice. He has already started legal action against those who circulated these rumours.
This appears to be initiating a trend by which we can expect that all Muslim, Arabs and human rights activists will be judged by rumours and denied the right to challenge in court those who spread libellous rumours about them.
The fact that we were not contacted shows recklessness and disdain for British citizens. If the authorities had wanted to ban him they had the opportunity to do it respectfully, but their recklessness is beyond imagination and it reflects the government's draconian nature.
Finally, MEMO understands that Sheikh Raed will challenge the deportation order in court. It is not he who is losing his reputation; he has been arrested in Israel on countless occasions for defending Palestinian rights, and now the British government is acting in the same way.
It will curtail freedom of speech in this country. At a time when the universal laws to prevent war criminals to enter this country unchallenge are being threatened, the double standards are clear. They judge Muslims on rumours and fabrications and allow Israeli war criminals to enter.
The Home Office have said that the deportation order was served as his deportation is deemed conducive to the public good under Section 3 of the Immigration Act
of 1971.
http://middleeastmonitor.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?

Update: 15 July 2011

Shaykh Raed Salah’s application for bail was accepted today by a High Court judge. Despite being denied bail last week, Shaykh Raed’s appeal was successful and he is no longer being incarcerated in a British prison.