I'm editing the Oxonian Review right now, and wanted to give y'all heads up that we've just published a particularly competent issue, of which the highlights are as follows:
- A rather timely and detailed interview with Notorious Marxist and close-reading advocate Terry Eagleton.
- Another lengthy interview, with Greatest Living English Prose Stylist, Alan Hollinghurst.
- A review of the superb recent Jeremy Deller exhibition at the Hayward. A good anti-Jubilee tonic, this one.
5 comments:
Agreed re Deller. One of the few gallery experiences in recent memory (10 years in my aging cranium) that haven't left me with a headache and feeling deeply depressed. Apart from anything the work seemed to offer multiple possibilities rather than annexing off, cataloguing and closing down areas of experience. I continue to be impressed by the way Deller, while nominally author/instigator, manages to sidestep being in any way central to the work leaving room for his fellow contributors and the audience. Watching Grayson Perry's programme last night on class and taste brought alot of these ideas up again. Perry seems much more inescapably present in the work. He's an engaging enough character, but clearly holding to a greater degree to the notion of 'individual vision' of a group rather than Deler's collaborative approach.
Interesting. Where's the best place to start with GP?
To be honest I was more interested in the TV series, which I thought might be an unusual look at class. I think it was, for mainstream TV fare. I suppose I base my rather sweeping belittling of GP on bits and bobs I've seen in galleries, interviews and this programmes presentation of his work. Given that each programme purports to follow Grayson on a research trip with a particular class group and ending in the production of a tapestry I guess it's as good a place to start as any.
Sounds great, will definitely check it. Cheers!
Have to say I found the last one the least interesting on the Upper Classes. Seemed to focus more on the old aristocracy/landed gentry and their bizarre aesthetic of cultivated decay. I was hoping for a bit more on the taste of New Money - the City Boys, Russian Oligarchs etc. Also would have been good to see him have a look at the people who buy Contemporary Art, such as the stuff he makes. Anyway worth a couple of hours when it's raining.
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