Januhairy 2021

In recent days whenever I look down at my bare knees I think to myself that these could do with a wax. On the other hand, why bother? It’s January, freezing cold, and we are in Tier 5 lockdown. I then remembered that there’s a campaign called Januhairy which started in 2019. Women are encouraged … Read more

Superheroes

This week I remembered a photo I’d taken many years ago – in the early 90s – of my son Rafi as a toddler.  He was dressed as Robin, Batman’s sidekick.  I’d projected a slide on the wall as a backdrop and Rafi had punched out some moves in the foreground. I managed to find … Read more

Charlie Chaplin: iconography and the immigrant

I’ve just started reading Confabulations by John Berger, who died earlier in January this year.  Recently I’ve been reading almost exclusively on my Kindle (in a space-saving Marie Kondo-like spirit) but I decided to buy a hard copy of the book – it’s small, portable with a good-sized font, and illustrated with colour photographs and … Read more

hairy women: moustaches and graffiti

(L.H.O.O.Q by Duchamp -source Wikimedia Commons) Back in 1919, artist Marcel Duchamp re-presented  Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa by pencilling-in a moustache and goatee. He placed the initials LHOOQ beneath, which when pronounced sound like “elle a chaud au cul”, literally translated as “she is hot in the ass” apparently suggesting sexual restlessness and “fire … Read more