When I go to see an exhibition I try really hard to ‘get it’, I really do. And usually I enjoy what I see even if I don’t really understand much about the work. But I’m afraid on this occasion ‘London Garage Sale‘ by Martha Rosler didn’t cause me to linger terribly long. It is essentially a roomful of not particularly interesting junk arranged in a not particularly unusual jumble sale fashion. And if anyone can explain to me what this means I’d be pleased to hear it:

“Garage Sale, with its reference to the status of the art work, art history and art audiences, is interested in examining art as a fetishised object and commodity. It is also a representation of a subjective history and a way of thinking, and it works as a potent metaphor for personal and social relations — especially given its genesis within the highly politicised context of the women’s movement in the 1970s.

Through her examination of domesticity, suburbia and family and the circulation of domestic material objects, Rosler evokes a powerful feminist discourse, which gives clear expression to the anthem of the personal as political.”

I think it might mean that not understanding it is the point, but I’m not sure.

Having said that I did quite enjoy one or two of her films in another part of the gallery, though not really worth a long detour to go and see. However, the ICA is a splendid place to go anyway. The bookshop is full of goodies (but then I do love gallery bookshops) and the bar is quirky and a great place to rest ones tired limbs. There was also a room full of interactive digital art which was great fun to play with.

So overall the ICA is worth popping into if you’re in Trafalgar Square and have £1.50 to spare for a ‘day membership’. But don’t expect to come away from ‘London Garage Sale’ a changed person.

Posted by Dave at 10:00 am on June 30, 2005 and filed under Art.

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Posted by Dave at 12:14 am on June 29, 2005 and filed under Church, Blogging.

3 Comments

Not a lot of time today as I’m off to London to (among other things) meet some bloggers.

Some links that have popped up recently:

Newsnig8ht: Newsnight G8 blog.

St Casserole. Blog I surfed into and quite enjoyed.

On Earth as in Heaven. Cards from Bruce Stanley.

Diamond Geezer: I was Andrew Gilligan’s anonymous source.

Internet access for passers by: Yellow chair stories.

Posted by Dave at 9:54 am on June 28, 2005 and filed under Sundry posts.

2 Comments

I’ve posted a new worksheet on the main CartoonChurch.com site. The theme is ‘Banquet’, based on banquet-related messages that Jesus gave in Luke chapter 14 of the Bible. The cartoon worksheets are ideal for use in a variety of church-related settings, including youthgroups, homegroups, icebreakers or for printing on the back of the service sheet.

I ask that you obtain a licence if you use this worksheet. You can do this as a one-off licence for a single use, or better still get a licence to use unlimited cartoonchurch.com resources for a year. This only costs £35 ($65.92 USD, $87.05 AUD, $83.22 CAD, 52.21 Euros, 7,092 JP YEN). It’s very easy to do- you can pay via Paypal or pop a cheque in the post. If you have any questions about this or anything else then do drop me a line - dave (at) cartoonchurch.com.

Posted by Dave at 11:10 am on June 27, 2005 and filed under Worksheets.

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Dear the Chief Executive of Jet petrol stations,

Re: Mashed Potato in Rayleigh

I recently visited the Jet petrol station in Rayleigh in order to buy a packet of mashed potato. Upon taking it to the checkout the cashier was unable to scan the item and the scanning device made a negative-sounding ‘beep’. Unfortunately, as your petrol stations do not show the prices of the majority of items on the shelves the cashier had no idea of the price of a packet of mashed potato, and so was forced to give me the packet for free.

I would be very happy to pay for the mashed potato. Please do send me an invoice.

In the meantime I would suggest that you start displaying prices for the items on the shelves, not least because people quite like to know how much things cost before they buy them.

I will be writing about this on my personal weblog, but will try not to draw undue attention to the fact that mashed potato is available for free from your Rayleigh petrol station.

Yours sincerely,

David Walker

Posted by Dave at 10:54 am on June 25, 2005 and filed under Essex Life, In-depth analysis, Letters.

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Next week, all being well, I hope to launch a new ‘clipart’ section on the CartoonChurch.com site. This comes about as a result of my market research, ie chatting to people at the Christian Resources Exhibition, where a good number of people told me how difficult it was to find good clipart for their church publications. So, I’ve done a bit of drawing and will do a bit more over the next few days.

The only problem is that I don’t really know what people want from their clipart. I sort of know what they don’t want having surfed around some of the Christian clipart sites out there, but the concept is still a slight mystery to me. Do you really want churches, bells, flowers and chalices? Or… something else? Any feedback would be welcomed. In the meantime I’ll continue to draw things a bit like those illustrated here, quite possibly the first examples from what may yet turn out to be the world’s most unpopular range of ecclesiastical clipart.

Posted by Dave at 12:35 pm on June 24, 2005 and filed under CartoonChurch progress.

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I’ve been working on the illustrations for 100 Ways to Make Poverty History by John Madeley, published by SCM Canterbury Press and available in September.

[Click on the image for a larger version]

This is an affiliate link which means if you buy the book or anything else via this link I will reap a small but worthwhile benefit:

Posted by Dave at 10:46 am on June 23, 2005 and filed under Sundry posts, Cartooning.

7 Comments

I’ve just posted this little cartoon series about the Anglican Consultative Council over on the main CartoonChurch.com site for those who like Anglican goings-on explained in such a way.

Posted by Dave at 12:22 pm on June 22, 2005 and filed under Cartoons, CartoonChurch progress.

18 Comments

In today’s post I may or may not have received an air freshener depicting popular cartoon character and worshipper Ned Flanders. The gift may or may not be related to my secret activity on April the 24th. I’m sorry to keep the whole thing shrouded in mystery like this, but there may or may not be good reasons for doing so.

Posted by Dave at 2:15 pm on June 21, 2005 and filed under In-depth analysis.

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“…he does have a gift bordering on genius for calling a spade a uni-handled, longitudinal, horticultural implement … He should spend a week in a tabloid newsroom and learn how to sharpen up his prose.” says Richard Morrison in the Times

“Dr Williams, and I hope he will apply Christian forgiveness to me for saying so, needs to be introduced to a decent subeditor and the Plain English handbook.” says Emily Bell in the Guardian (They insist you subscribe these days, so no direct link).

“I have a theory about how Rowan Williams grew to be a man of such influence, which is that, at any gathering of clergymen, by the time he finished speaking the room would be largely asleep. At this point, there would be an awkward silence, before a bishop was prodded into startled wakefulness and asked his opinion. “Yeah, whatever that guy said,” he would respond. And from this Williams built a reputation as a man of ideas.” Martin Samuel rather unkindly in the Times.

Having waded through several of Rowan Williams’ speeches in the last couple of days I can begin to see their point. There are some good thoughts there, even very good thoughts, but it can be hard work understanding them. Unless I’m not particularly bright of course.

Of course it could be that lots of journalists are taking a cheap shot at Rowan after his media lecture last week…

Posted by Dave at 11:47 pm on June 20, 2005 and filed under Church.

1 Comment

One good way to discover UK blogs you hadn’t come across before is via Tim Worstall’s Britblog roundup. The latest one was posted yesterday and can be found here.

Posted by Dave at 9:17 am on June 20, 2005 and filed under Sundry posts, Links: bloggers, Blogging.

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…undertaken by the people of Essex on a swelteringly hot summer Saturday in June. Follow the ‘Read the rest of this entry’ link below for the full results of my analysis.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Dave at 5:15 pm on June 19, 2005 and filed under Essex Life, In-depth analysis.

1 Comment