Essays – Page 3 – The Drouth

13th December 2024

Published by TheDrouth

MAUD SULTER’S ‘You are my Kindred Spirit’ by Federica Giardino

Scottish artist Maud Sulter (1960-2008) worked in multi-media as a photographer, filmmaker, poet, playwright and visual artist. Born of Scottish and Ghanaian parentage, she was raised in the Gorbals in Glasgow by her Scottish mother, and much of her work - including that now on show at the Tramway - is an exploration of of her sexuality, gender and identity as a black woman. Federica Giardino reviews the show and ponders on the cultural richness and the 'poignant questions' her work highlights.

13th December 2024

Published by TheDrouth

DELIGHTFUL FUN – A Cedric Price Thinkbelt for Our Times reviewed by Bruce Peter

Conceptual and provocative, but always with social conscience, the massive influence of Cedric Price as an architect and visionary of the new from his heydey in the 60s and 70s is seen not only in the host of unfinished and unbuilt ideas he left behind, but also in the massive pieces of fun civic kit others built under that influence, including the Pompidou Centre in Paris and the London Eye. Bruce Peter reviews an exhibition where you can catch up with the ideas and personality of the great maverick Price, and declares it '...elegantly curated by Ana Bonet Miro, Martin Brown and Maria Martinez Sanchez with design by Luca Brunelli.'

29th October 2024

Published by TheDrouth

JONAS STAAL’S: ‘CLIMATE PROPAGANDAS’ by Johnny Rodger

Dutch artist Jonas Staal's new book on the pending Climate Catastrophe continues his concerns about propaganda - the good and the bad of it; reveals who are the culprits planning to exploit and profit from it and what the rest of us can do about it. Johnny Rodger reviews and puts it in the context of Staal's broad politically-committed artistic oeuvre.

1st September 2024

Published by TheDrouth

HE is Paul and she IS Orlando:
review of Paul Preciado’s ‘Orlando’
by Johnny Rodger

The film Orlando: My Political Biography only went into cinemas in general release here this summer, so, although it was first shown at the EIFF in August 2023, it seems to be up for discussion again. The gender issue(s) is/are, indeed, still way up on the social agenda - as Johnny Rodger puts it, 'We are all on our social stages ... all in our social cages'. Preciado's openly self-constructed cage is a particularly intricate one, and he inhabits it with his own peculiar and provocative panache.

8th June 2024

Published by TheDrouth

QUESTS FOR ANNIHILATION by Owen Dudley Edwards

What has been the scope of bigotry, racism, oppression and prejudice? Owen Dudley Edwards telescopes a whole history of the entanglement of those evils with the struggle for freedom, justice and truth into a compassionate and humane reading (and most importantly, an Irish reading) of the cornering and silencing of Diane Abbott, who was the first ever black woman elected to the Westminster Parliament.

11th March 2024

Published by TheDrouth

Another ‘Poor Things’ is Possible
by David Archibald

As Emma Stone picks up an Oscar for Best Actress in Yorgos Lanthimos' film of Alasdair Gray's novel Poor Things, people are dancing in the streets of Glasgow! David Archibald reviews a film that coulda, shoulda, woulda...

21st February 2024

Published by TheDrouth

Made in Scotland:
Studies in Popular Music
Frith, Cloonan & Williamson
reviewed by Sheena Macdonald

A history of seventy years of popular music in Scotland by Simon Frith, Martin Cloonan and John Williamson is fascinating and comprehensive in its introduction to the story , writes Sheena Macdonald in review.

13th February 2024

Published by TheDrouth

COALITION OF WATERS:
On Wounded Bodies in Capitalistic Time
Rupali Patil & Agnieszka Kilian

How does an artist use material and form to engage directly with all aspects, emotional personal social, political of the world around her? Artist Rupali Patil speaks to curator Agnieszka Kilian about the possibilities for instant and profound expression in drawing and printmaking.

7th February 2024

Published by TheDrouth

SENSE AND SENSITIVITY:
Killing History
Owen Dudley Edwards

Putting the writing and rewriting of state affairs by politicians in a long and broadly detailed context, Owen Dudley Edwards wonders if 'The self-destruction of the would-be partisan is becoming a literary form in UK political life'? Reviews of new books by Theresa May, Chris Bryant and Rory Stewart.