NAKED WOMEN AT BAC

Well after a long and festive break, after over-indulging and remembering that nostalgia feeling really isn't worth it... BABOOSHKA is back and this time with a new shiny decade to be getting stuck into.

First on the agenda for a bit of good old fashioned feminism, Battersea Arts Centre presents Nic Green's Trilogy, a three hour long dance theatre that combines vintage footage from feminism history with a promise to reclaim the female body.

We all know that feminism's a delicate topic in these times, but this show might just surprise you.

The Trilogy is on at the BAC from the 12th January to the 16th. Tickets are £7-10.

http://www.bac.org.uk/whats-on/trilogy/

CLINIC PRESENTS/ CUT THE GAS

This week BABOOSHKA is promoting all things South East and all things Goldsmiths.

First up is the latest Clinic presents at the Amersham Arms in New Cross on the 7th December. The Clinic collective comprises of poets, artists and musicians mostly hailing from Goldsmiths College and their nights just keep getting better and better; definitely worth pencilling into your diary.

http://www.clinicpresents.com/

Bookending next week is Cut the Gas, an evening of shorts on the 12th and 13th December at the Goldsmiths Student Union at 7.30pm. The evening's dress code is harking back to the 50s and promises to deliver a brilliant night.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=337731275482&ref=ss

Both nights are as cheap as chips and provide an insight into the burgeoning talent south of the river.

BELLYFLOP MAGAZINE

For those interested in performance, and in particular contemporary dance, this online zine containing current reviews and interviews should whet your appetite.

http://www.bellyflopmag.com/index.php

MARINA. MARINA. MARINA.

Marina Abramovic Heads Up.

The self proclaimed 'grandmother of performance art.'

This fearless and unlimited artist is back with a retrospective in 2010 at the MOMA in New York.

Here's a great interview with the grande dame herself in Dazed and Confused.

http://dazeddigital.com/ArtsAndCulture/article/5849/1/Marina_Abramovićs_Kitchen

But for those of us who cant traipse all the way to New York for Abramovic, the Sophie Calle 'Talking to Strangers' exhibition which is on at the Whitechapel Gallery delivers a fast fix of much needed feminine perspective in art.

Iwona Blazwick, the gallery's director in conversation with Claire Sacre says of the 56 year old Parisian, 'She's very candid about her love life, affairs and rejections. Instead of being an invisible super-being, she's on display as much as her subjects are. I expect we're going to see more and more work influenced by this idea of involving yourself as a work of art...She's brought in so many different mediums: narrative, fiction, performance, photography and really turned the nature of documentation upside down. If you think about the great movements and "isms", she stands alone.'

I have my own personal reservations on Calle's art, seeing the documentation and presentation clinical and flat, similar to the now 'dead' viennese action paintings but pop along for free and decide for yourself.

http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/sophie-calle-talking-to-strangers

Marina Abramović: The Artist is Present is at Moma in New York from March 14 to May 31, 2010. Sophie Calle: Talking to Strangers is on now at the Whitechapel Gallery from 16 October 2009-3 January 2010

LCF EVENTS

London College of Fashion have many great free events, which you can go to regardless of whether you are one of their students. This week, following on with the make-up theme, Im planning on going to these ones...

Eyrca Freemantle Lecture,

RHS space, 20 John Princes Street

Friday 20th November 14.00-16.00

Despite an accident which scarred her face, took away her hair and almost resulted in a leg amputation, Eryca Freemantle overcame her shattered dreams of a modelling career to build herself as one of the UK's most accomplished and respected make-up artists. Eryca has worked with Whitney Houston, Yasmin Le bon, Seal, Vogue, Elle and i-D to name a few. She is an ambassador of Make Your Mark. She sits on the panel of Industry Advisory Expert's at London College of Fashion. She is currently working on launching her make-up range, The Global Collection. Hear her inspiring story, listen to the challenges she has faced and get an inside perspective into the world of a celebrity make-up artist.

YOU MUST RSVP TO RESERVE YOUR PLACE: a.watling@fashion.arts.ac.uk

OR BOOK ONLINE: http://www.ecca-london.org/events/entweek/enterpriseweek2009/

and

Friday Late: Hair Stories
V&A, 20 November 2009, 18.30 – 21.30

An evening of free interactive public events arranged by London College of Fashion at the V&A as part of the college’s Cuts, Curls and Crimpers season.

Throughout the first part of the evening guests will be treated to make-overs, photo sessions and live fashion illustration provided by tutors and students from London College of Fashion and Wella professionals.

The “Godfather” of Hair, LCF alumnus and Ambassador Joshua Galvin will offer hair styling advice with practical workshops and visitors will be introduced to the worlds of catwalk and celebrity hair by Creative Director Tony Glenville.

Film screenings, computer-aided hair re-styling, demonstrations of elaborate wig and make-up application and a modern interpretative demonstration of Sing Dynasty hair and costume given by the Hong Kong Design Institute will take place over the course of the evening.

Entrance to these events is FREE and there is no need to book.

For further information on the V&A Friday Late series please visit:http://www.vam.ac.uk/activ_events/events/friday_evenings/friday_late/index.html

GARETH PUGH

and here's a little more make-up inspiration following on from Alex Box...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwboTRv9c_s

ALEX BOX

This week, I'm looking forward to Alex Box's exhibition (23rd October-22rd November) at Rankin's new gallery in Kentish Town, Annroy. Box, the artistic director of the Illamasqua make-up brand, is a hugely inventive and successful make-up artist who has worked for designers such as Gareth Pugh and the Chanel legend Largerfeld.

The exhibition of some of her most bizarre and beautiful make-up creations promotes her brand spanking new book, photos shot by Rankin. Box in an interview with Edwina Ings-Chamber for Style magazine describes the project as 'blurring the boundaries between make-up and painting or illustration. The same materials are used for both: paint, pigment brushes, pens, pencils. Once it's on the canvas of the face, then it's make-up, but where do the lines blur?'

Box's advice to budding make-up artists or general facepaint enthusiasts is this...buy brushes for make-up in art shops, and shop for make-up in professional stage store such as Screenface (screenface.com) and Charles Fox (charlesfox.co.uk). Both these stores can be found around Covent Garden. Screenface in particular is great, the staff are helpful and the sometimes industrial-looking products are handily labelled on the shelves.

The combination of such huge icons as Box and Rankin in the fashion field means the book is rather pricey at £50, but definitely worth putting on your Christmas list.

Alex Box (Turnaround £50) and the exhibition at the Annroy, London, NW5 finishes on the 22 Nov.