Things

It’s the centenary of Mark Twain’s death this month, I’d like to dedicate this weeks Things to him in a not so obscure act of homage. For it was he who foretold this very feature and encouraged us to ‘Do the right thing[s]. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest’, and he could hardly expect what came through the studio door this week. Laura Carlin, Carol Ann Duffy AND Rob Ryan, Nguan and Ged Palmer. Thanks Twain.

Shibuya Nguan

Using the surroundings of Shibuyu station as a stage for all the ‘men, women and children in Tokyo who are making their way to wherever they’re going’, Nguan has compiled a beautiful book of photographs that focus on the itinerants of Tokyo. Sort of feels like he never questions where they’re going but fills each frame with the wonder that they (and he) are anywhere at all.
www.nguan.tv

Promotional poster Laura Carlin

This poster promises three things that you can bet your chosen family member’s life on. One. Laura Carlin has new ceramics (hip). Two. these ceramics can be bought on the 20th-21st November at 120 Elgim Crescent W11 (hip hip). Three. There will be ponies and/or chinooks and/or many men adorning the tiles, bowls and vases… or whatever the plural for vase may be. (Hoorah).
www.heartagency.com/artist/LauraCarlin

Re:Present Ged Palmer

Excellently conceived zine all about ephemera (from the Greek ‘ephemeron’ denoting a genus of mayfly which only lives one day – it’s also very informative…) and brilliantly realised with every copy having a unique ‘tear to open’ centre of hand printed words and fractured images that reveal the natures of a years worth of collected ephemera.
www.gedpalmer.com

12 Postcards Tom Gauld

Are they a) 12 funny comics on cards or b) A brilliant social commentary. The meeting of a wholesome food and an as-of-yet unspecified petri grown something in a fridge is a metaphor for the the frankensteinian inevitability of future sustenance and it’s role in curing the world of famine? It’s ‘a’ or I hate myself.
www.tomgauld.com

The Gift Rob Ryan and Carol Ann Duffy

‘In a quiet [Ryan]town, of a sort not found nowadays’ lives Rob in a paper construct of his own making. Carol Ann Duffy wrote the story so there are also flowers and existentialism for the under tens. The Gift is bloody lovely, buy it for your children and see them grow into well adjusted, ethically correct beings.
www.barefootbooks.com
www.misterrob.co.uk