Living with Buildings | A Star is Born | Ribera | Voices of Windrush | Paternoster Chop House...
This week our cultural round-up goes gaga for Gaga on the big screen, devours a chocolate ice cream burger, and takes in Wellcome's new urban design exhibition as well as a not-so-nice art exhibition in Dulwich.
SEE: Living with Buildings. Last year a study by Oxford University found that inner-city living makes for happier, healthier people. Some may find these findings hard to believe, but after a tour around the Wellcome Collection’s striking new exhibition visitors will start to appreciate the impact that clever architecture, design and town planning can have on our health and wellbeing. Living with Buildings explores how the structures around us affect our physical and mental health, for better and for worse. From Dickensian slums to brutalist high-rise towers, and infirmary tents to modernist sanatoriums, the exhibition features over 100 objects, including the work of artists such as Andreas Gursky, Rachel Whiteread and Giles Round, which chart the progress and development in this area from 19th Century to modern day. Focusing principally on urban living and clinical settings, particular highlights include a poignantly curated section dedicated to the Grenfell Tower and a look at the inspirational work of designer Alvar Aalto, whose Paimio Sanatorium in Finland is a shining example of the healing powers structures can possess.
Living with Buildings at the Wellcome Collection runs until 3 March 2019. For more information visit https://wellcomecollection.org/ and follow @ExploreWellcome for updates on Twitter.
WATCH: A Star is Born. Lady Gaga (Ally) and Bradley Cooper (Jack) star in this genuinely moving and authentic love story about two musicians – one on her way up and the other on his way down. It turns out that the queen of performance is really quite a super actress and it’s nice to see her not dressed as a unicorn, an Elizabethan, or a peacock, but as something closer to ‘herself’. She strikes a fascinating balance between entertainment and emotional integrity as a talented singer-songwriter, who is one minute performing in a drag bar and the next gets all rock 'n' roll with a famous, heavy-drinking rock star who sends his driver to stalk her. The pair's love affair, and duets on stage are exhilarating and heart-rending as Ally remains the grounded and sorted type while Jack drifts in a darker direction. Great performances, an excellent script and a moving portrait of love and fame.
A Star is Born is on general release in cinemas across the UK.
VISIT: Ribera: Art of Violence. Art doesn’t have to be nice. Good, glad we got that cleared up. Dulwich Picture gallery hosts the first UK exhibition of 17th century Spanish painter, Jusepe de Ribera and, as the title suggests, it’s not for the feint-hearted. One of the masters of ‘baroque’ art, Ribera has been seen as a sadistic painter but this show aims to delve beneath the meanings of these often shockingly realistic paintings. Working from live models and probing the most extreme possibilities of painting and drawing, Ribera explored violence as both religious symbolism and in the context of life where death and suffering were part of ordinary experience for most people. Bringing together loans from seven different countries, this exhibition showcases epic paintings and small studies that explore some of the most difficult aspects of human experience.
Ribera: Art of Violence, runs from 26 September 2018 - 27 January 2019 at Dulwich Picture Gallery. For updates on Twitter follow @dulwichgallery
READ: Voices of the Windrush Generation. Unless you’ve been hiding under a very large rock, you will know that the Windrush Scandal is one of the most devastating political scandals to rock Britain in recent years. Beyond the newspaper headlines, humiliating deportations, cabinet resignations and gagging orders, the lives of thousands of first, second and third generation immigrants have been irreversibly affected. Instead of focusing on the scandal, journalist and broadcaster David Matthews’ important new book aims to shed light on what it’s like to be black and live in Britain. Featuring in-depth, intimate and moving first-hand accounts from many who settled in the UK over 50 years ago, the book asks critical questions such as “was it worth it?” and “where did we go wrong?” while revealing the inspirational tales of resilience and resourcefulness which lie at the heart of this community.
Voices of the Windrush Generation by David Matthews is published by 535 Books in hardback and is out this week. Follow the author and publisher on Twitter via @mrdavematthews and @535Books.
DINE: at Paternoster Chop House. One of the many hotels, restaurants and bars, this week celebrating the 14th annual Chocolate Week is the venue for the infamous First Dates TV show. Chef James Hulme has created an exclusive chocolate ice cream burger that trades in the classic cheeseburger ingredients for a combination of dessert-laden sweeter substitutes. The crazy cocoa burger is made from chocolate ice cream, sandwiched between choux pastry buns, topped with orange icing cheese, white chocolate onion rings, vanilla chantilly, cream mayonnaise, confit d'orange tomatoes and finished with raspberry sauce ketchup. It costs £11 but you’ll probably gain that back in weight. If you don’t have a sweet tooth, this great British chop house is renowned for its impressive meat menu offering hearty portions and larger sharing cuts cooked on open charcoal grills in Josper ovens or on spitroasts.
Visit www.paternosterchophouse.co.uk and follow @paternosterchop for more information. Find out more about Chocolate week at https://www.chocolateweek.co.uk/ or follow the #cholocateweek hashtag on Twitter and Instagram.
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