Your Cultural Guide For Spring

EXHIBITIONS

Sins of A Daughter at Hannah Barry Gallery - until 7 May

From the obscure to the explicit, image-maker Harley Weir's new collection of imagery is angry as it is full of desire, referencing her archive of work alongside new experimental pieces. Some pieces even include the same ingredients as that famed Secretions Magnifiques perfume (yes, the one that caused a stir when the industry found out its stomach-curdling metallic smell was in part due to the blood, cum and sweat compounds that made up the perfume itself). We won't say anymore, but if at the very least, expect a visceral reaction.

Louise Bourgeois: The Woven Child at Hayward Gallery - until 15 May

Louise Bourgeois: The Woven Child portrays the artist's life, thoughts and views summed up through a mere three decades of work. (Not many when you consider the artist's career straddled at least seven decades.) With a heavy focus on gender and sex, each piece in the exhibition has an eerily phallic nature. If you're a fan of the artist's Hans Bellmer-inspired dolls cloth sculptures, this exhibition is a must, particularly if you want to see Bourgeois' great manipulation of her figures at play - High Heels, 1998 is undoubtedly a high point of the work on display.

Louise Bourgeois: The Woven Child is open to the public at Southbank's Hayward Gallery until 15 May. See more details here.

For the Record: Photography and the Art of the Album Cover at The Photographers' Gallery - until 12 June

'Like any other teenager, we were obsessed with record covers. The reason being that they were singularly the only medium of progressive visual imagery that permeated our lives. We liked visual culture, and the only place where we saw progressive visual culture was on a record sleeve - we saw them as a medium in their own right', Peter Saville told me last year when interviewing him for a piece I was writing on typography at the time. Adding gravitas to Saville's comment, The Photographers' gallery is to stage an exhibition come June, For the Record: Photography and the Art of the Album Cover. If, like Saville, your interest in graphics and culture has too stemmed from a love of record covers, this exhibition is calling your name.

Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear at V&A - until 6 November

From Harry Styles donning a Gucci custom dress on the cover of Vogue this year to the ever so stylishly put together Ziggy Stardust, menswear has, least to say, undergone a series of radical transformations across the history of dress. Diving deeper into the exhibition, features editor Hetty Mahlich interviewed co-curators Claire Wilcox and Rosalind McKever as they toured the exhibition, identifying key items in the lexicon of menswear, further contextualising them within fashion and art history. The V&A's Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear is on until November, but if you can't make it - for one reason or another - catch up on SHOWstudio's unique project, detailing the exhibition by unpicking menswear at its very seams. See more details here.

GO AND SEE...

The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes 27 April

There's nothing like sinking your teeth into a good ol' Netflix documentary. Particularly known for their knack for creating compelling murder mystery documentaries, what happens when one of the world's biggest streaming giants applies their excellence at making a murder mystery to one of the 20th century's most famous Hollywood icons, Marilyn Monroe? If the story of the star's mysterious death has always perturbed you, Netflix's latest release proposes to hold some of the answers behind one of Hollywood's greatest tragedies.

Young Barbican: The Takeover 30 April - 1 May

Despite how expensive London is known to be, initiatives like Young Barbican are great for youngsters and students who may be strapped for cash. Applicable to 25 year old's and under, the free membership includes special invitations to exhibition openings, £5 cinema tickets and £10 concert tickets - a quarter of the price charged to visitors 26 and over. Over the May Bank Holiday weekend, join fellow young creatives for a weekend exploring making and what it takes to build your artistry or your creative practice. Head on down to partake in an array of workshops where you can make your own jewellery, candles and zines while also meeting with others who are like-minded.

2022 Met Gala: In America: An Anthology of Fashion - 2 May

For this year's spectacle, aside from the main gala itself, The Met have called on nine directors to curate - as Andrew Bolton puts it - 'cinematic vignettes' in 13 period rooms of the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. From the likes of Sofia Coppola to Martin Scorsese, each director's vision has been brought to life as fantasy turns into reality. There's not much more to say other than, sit down and buckle up as The Met takes us on an American-themed ride for part two of the Costume Institute’s comprehensive survey of American fashion.

Peckham Fringe Festival at Theatre Peckham - 2 May - 5 June

Set up as an alternative to other festivals, offering artists and companies the chance to try something different in a dynamic and supportive setting, the Peckham Fringe Festival will take place across five weeks as 27 visiting companies will take over the main theatre and studio space. Responding to Peckham Fringe's open call encouraging a wide range of performers to come forward with proposals surrounding writing, musicals, stand-ups, sketches, comedy, dance, cabaret, opera, and poetry, the month-long programme is jam-packed with a variety of events.

Good Pop, Bad Pop: Jarvis Cocker at Southbank Centre - 27 May

In tandem with the launch of the pop icon's autobiography (Good Pop, Bad Pop), London's Southbank Centre is encouraging you to gather round for an evening of 'literature and poetry' with the one and only much loved national treasure (at least in our eyes), Jarvis Cocker. Be quick to snap a ticket to witness the musician reflect on his Brit Pop band Pulp, 20th-century pop culture and his creative process. All for a measly £15! - you really can't go wrong.

Sundance London Film Festival 9 - 12 June

Who doesn't love an indie film? Calling all film buffs, the 2022 Sundance London film festival is steadily approaching, waiting to deliver a hand-picked batch of 12 new movies to Picturehouse Central for a weekend in June. We're expecting big things from this year's round-up with previous winners including the 1990 American documentary film Paris Is Burning. Running from June 9-12, festival-long passes are already on sale. If you're already a Picturehouse member or a festival pass holder, you can book individual films now. If not, pick up tickets from the official site as early as 9 am on 3 May.

BOOKS

Feeling Seen by Campbell Addy

Graduating from the same Central Saint Martins class as Gareth Wrighton and Ib Kamara, Campbell Addy wasted no time in rising the industry's ranks to become one of the most sought after fashion photographers of his day. Dazzlingly candid and personal, Feeling Seen is akin to a personal bible, including commissioned texts by Edward Enninful and major portraits of Kendall Jenner, FKA Twigs and Tyler, the Creator.

The Violence of Handwriting Across A Page: Louise Bourgeois x Jenny Holzer

New out this year, artist Jenny Holzer's The Violence of Handwriting Across A Page details her accompanying self-curated exhibition of Louise Bourgeois' work, featuring at Kunstmuseum Basel. Despite both artists' practices appearing to sit at the opposite ends of the spectrum, their work crosses invisible boundaries, tied together through their curiosity about the machinations of desire, intimacy, power, jealousy, and rejection. The exhibition lets us look at the work of Bourgeois through an unexplored lens, and in turn, so does this book, which is more than a book; it's an emotionally-charged abstract collection of poetry. The manifesto to end all artist manifestos.

The Learning Photographer by Hans Georg Berger

Another artist book accompanying an exhibition out this month is German photographer Hans Georg Berger's The Learning Photographer. Documenting Berger's 50-year-long career, the book contains accurate reproductions of seventy-five photographs – some of which are never before seen – accompanied by texts and poetic material from the famous writers and figures who surrounded the life of the artist.