Rowley Gallery Blog
This is a follow up to the post last month on January 14. I’d forgotten then about this earlier performance of The Weight by The Band from Martin Scorsese’s film The Last Waltz, which also features a guest appearance by Mavis Staples, along with her father and sisters from The Staple Singers. A righteous sound indeed.
On Friday 17 February at 9 pm BBC Four are broadcasting Beyond The Notes, a film by Dick Fontaine which is centred on the 80th Birthday Concert for Sonny Rollins at New York’s Beacon Theatre in September 2010. There are guest appearances from Jim Hall, Roy Haynes and Ornette Coleman. Continue reading “Don’t Stop The Carnival”
I only just heard of his death. I wasn’t paying attention. 1931-2011. I first heard him with Keith Jarrett and Charlie Haden. His way of playing was unique. Such a sad loss. I can’t write an obituary but there are many on the internet, here’s one at the Guardian. I heard the news from Bill Frisell.
This is one of my favourite pieces. He dances on the drum kit.
A mint condition 1966 record sleeve, of thick cardboard typical of US albums of the time, with eyeconic psychedelic artwork by John Cleveland. It is set in a deep bevelled mount with an incongruously rustic frame, seen here sitting on an easel. I veneered three faces of the moulding with a gnarly oak burr, then stained it and finished with French polish. Continue reading “Strange Meeting”
Dei Gaztelumendi is a young Spanish illustrator from San Sebastian. This is a fascinating time lapse film of him at work, showing the process from pencil drawn sketch through Adobe Creative Suite and all the host of computer manipulation and enhancements that are now part of the vocabulary of slick graphic illustration. Norman Rockwell would have loved it.
A postcard sent to us by Christopher Corr, from the Out Of This World exhibition at the British Library last year. Continue reading “The Man From Mars”
This is weird. Straightaway Kensington rooftops then a glimpse through a window, as if I’d seen it before. These people are familiar. We see them on the street, in the newsagent, in those boots sometimes, shuffling. Why the hawk? A Peregrine Falcon? Keen eyes and full of energy. I had no idea this film existed until I stumbled upon it today, so now I will share it. Continue reading “For Lucian Freud”
Phoebe and Lydia Lake are artists. They’re also identical twins, which means they know a thing or two about symmetry. So last year, when they were 20 years old, the Tate Britain decided to film their first encounter with one of the museum’s most famous holdings, The Cholmondley Ladies, painted sometime around 1600-1610 by an unknown artist. An inscription describes the ladies as members of the Cholmondley family (pronounced “Chumley”) who were born on the same day, married on the same day and “brought to bed” (gave birth) on the same day. Continue reading “Seeing Double”
I woke last Friday morning to the gentle sounds of James Naughtie and Evan Davis and the amazing story of a cape of golden cloth woven from the silk of over a million spiders. Like something worthy of Jason and the Argonauts. The silk was harvested from female Golden Orb Spiders by 80 people over seven years in the highlands of Madagascar. The cape, together with a four metre long scarf, is being exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum. You can see more pictures and listen again to the story here on the Today programme website. Continue reading “Golden Spider Silk”
This is a beautifully made short film about a kinetic sculpture by Chris Burden that took four years to build. It was filmed in his studio prior to being installed at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where it opened last Saturday. It’s a wonderfully choreographed vision of modern city travel. Continue reading “Metropolis II”
