Bedlam
Bedlam: The Asylum And Beyond, The Wellcome Collection, Euston Road, London NW1 2BE Mr X makes cars. Not out of metal, plastic and rubber as you might expect, but cardboard, tin foil and tape. Nevertheless they are fully-functioning and he drives them round the pavements and countryside of Beckenham where he lives at the Bethlem Royal Hospital, once more famously known as Bedlam. The video of Mr X negotiating the pavements and fields of Beckenham in his vehicles, while pedest
The Naked Muse
The Naked Muse by Kelley Swain (Valley Press, £8.99) In all the years, I've been life drawing, I'm ashamed to say I have never made friends with the model. We've chatted of course, when they've come round in the breaks to see what I've done, but I've never stopped to consider what they think about when they are sitting on a piece of old curtain staring out at a room full of artists staring back at them to seek out every line, every perfection or imperfection and turn it into
Pedro Paricio - Dreams
I was delighted and honoured when my friend Pedro Paricio invited me to write the catalogue essay for Dreams, his fourth exhibition with Bond Street's Halcyon Gallery. The essay is reproduced here along with some of his stunning, though-provoking art. Dreams runs until September 25, 2016 Art is not about being famous. Art is about freedom, human freedom... but to find freedom for others you must first free yourself. An artist must follow his dreams and feelings and not wh
Present perfect
Ten War Poems, selected and introduced by Andrew Motion (Candlestick Press, £4.95) I love this idea, in fact long before this little collection landed on my desk, I'd already brought the London poetry pamphlet for my mother as a birthday card and the cats one for a friend. I live in hope that'll I get the bicycle one, but not yet - I need to hint harder. It's just so cleverly simple, instead of a card you get a book of 10-12 poems all on one topic and for around the same pric
Fire and Fountains
A Death At Fountains Abbey by Antonia Hodgson (Hodder & Stoughton, £14.99) After escaping the confines of the Marshalsea prison, and cheating the gallows at Tyburn, Thomas ‘Half-Hanged’ Hawkins has left London, in the spring of 1718, for the open moors of Yorkshire. He’s been sent by the queen to recover a book of accounts the contents of which, if revealed, would be extremely embarrassing for an establishment caught up in the South Sea Bubble – the greatest swindle of the ag
