Lockdown Combo
Lynchian psychology, Frieze online and the perfect grilled cheese
Mulholland Drive by David Lynch, 2001
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LONDON, FRIDAY 8th May – SUNDAY 10th May 2020
Film course
Mindwarp
If after finishing a David Lynch film your brain doesn’t immediately erupt into a big ball of “What the fuck?”, you didn’t watch it right. A master of ambiguity, mystery and double meaning, in this world of instant gratification and Google answers, the US filmmaker tells his audience to think, hypothesise and imagine.
Honing in on Lynch’s unofficially titled ‘blurred identity trilogy’ – Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire – a live-streamed three-part course held by professor and self-proclaimed Freudian cinephile Mary Wild via London’s Freud Museum will examine the Lynchian triptych from a psychoanalytic angle: “the central thesis being that in each instalment a psychogenic fugue follows the unconscious trauma of unrequited love.”
Plotting his narrative around the importance of dreams, memories and existential life-paths, Lynch’s work lends itself perfectly to a psychoanalytical perspective, especially filtered through the theories of Freud, Lacan and Jung. However, don’t expect answers from this course, it’s the questions that are valuable currency in the world of Lynch.
PROJECTIONS: David Lynch’s blurred identity trilogy runs from 8th – 10th, more information here.
Classical music
Chopin by candlelight
After all that Lynchian mischief, it’s now time to soothe your lockdown brain via some candlelight sonatas. Taking place each Saturday of the month, Secret London has organised livestreamed classical piano performances to be beamed directly into your living room. This weekend the event kicks off with Chopin, moving through the 19th-century composer’s exquisite oeuvre. Romance and emotional intensification galore, switch off your lights and let the music take you. (In fact, this is actually very Lynchian indeed.)
Chopin by candlelight takes place on Saturday 9th May at 18:00, more info here.
TV Series
In a little bar in Paris…
Available on Netflix this weekend, The Eddy is a new show transporting you to the streets of Paris, specifically a small, struggling jazz bar run by Elliot Udo, a fictional, famous New York jazz pianist who is struggling as much with his relationships – including a fifteen-year-old daughter who turns up on his doorstep – as he is paying the bills. If you’re not yet sold, having already achieved rave success with his musically-themed films Whiplash and La La Land, director Damien Chazelle is behind the camera for the first two episodes. Thought that’d do it.
The Eddy is available on Netflix now.
Playlist
The beat goes on
Last week, pioneering Nigerian drummer Tony Allen sadly passed away at the age of 79. Having taught himself to play by listening to records by US jazz drummers like Art Blakey and Max Roach, Allen went on to be one music’s most influential and trailblazing artists; widely credited as the man behind afrobeat – a combination of West Africa’s fuji music and US funk and jazz.
Celebrating his legacy, London’s Barbican is hosting a playlist curated by the legendary Strut Records, spanning Allen’s incredible career move through his early work with Fela Kuti to his final track with Damon Albarn’s Gorillaz. Perfection.
Hit play below.
Art lessons
Art Online
London Art Studies has harnessed the explosion in demand for online learning in recent weeks. Originally launched as a website in 2011, it is now one of the leading arts education subscription sites, offering bite size introductions to some of the greatest artists in the world and their work.
With daily, monthly or annual passes, the site includes lectures from from the Tate, the National Gallery and The Royal Academy as well as a number of courses. Among the most popular are Dangerous Women, exploring the work of Sofonisba Anguissola, Cindy Sherman and Kitty Fisher and Great Works, in which lecturers dissect timeless individual works that have shaped the course of art history.
Have a peruse here.
Insta gallery
COVID-19 Art Museum
As coronavirus tightened its grip on the world this year, artists quickly began finding new ways to express themselves during lockdown. The natural next step was CAM, a crowd-sourced Instagram gallery which describes itself as the world’s first COVID-19 Art Museum – and despite being open for just a few months, it’s already racked up more than 70,000 followers.
It’s common knowledge that art exhibitions are queued up months in advance, meaning we’ve still got relatively little indication of how the pandemic is impacting the way we make art and not just the way that galleries share it. That’s the beauty of this project: the only stipulation is that the artwork is created during the pandemic. Expect digital musings on tech and identity alongside classic paintings and painfully relatable mantras on staying creative during lockdown.
Check out the COVID-19 Art Museum on Instagram.
Art fair
Frieze without the crowds
Ever find yourself wondering what kind of work is shown at the world’s most prestigious art fairs? Now, thanks to Frieze launching its annual New York fair in the form of an online viewing room, you don’t have to. Launching today, the digital platform will feature more than 200 exhibitions from its global network of galleries and non-profits, as well as options to watch videos and find out more about the work. It’s a gallery space, but without the gallery rules – love it.
Information on the viewing room can be found on the Frieze website.
Food + Drink
Cheesy tutorial
There are a number of good online cooking tutorials doing the rounds under lockdown, few however are as forgiving in their ingredient lists as Morty & Bob’s, the grilled cheese experts with restaurants in Kings Cross and Westfields.
Granted, some of their recipes suggest using sourdough, taleggio cheese, truffle and nduja sausage, not exactly available from your local offie, but more important than the ingredients are the methods and techniques behind them. Founder and owner Charlie is the face of the operation, he’ll reveal the secrets behind a creamy bechamel, how to achieve the perfect crust and creating a makeshift panini grill. Happy toastin’!
Head to Morty & Bob’s IGTV to tune in.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B_1_cGBn5Ym/
Top image: Mulholland Drive by David Lynch, 2001