CosmiKnot

English Magic – New Art Projects 18 July – 23 August 2015 English Magic is the title of the first show at Fred Mann’s New Art Projects gallery. Magic is about misdirection and there are so many threads invoked by the title that it is hard to know where to look. If Mann is a conjuring impresario then perhaps painting is where he doesn’t want us to look. English magic implies a form of stagecraft that works well as an analogy for painting. The difference being that when the trick works, painting, through triggering transcendence, actually is magic. The magic though, is not something the painter entirely controls or is even able to identify when it emerges. Instead, the artist must create each piece without second guessing its ability to cast a spell. The exhibition is described as four solo shows and visitors find these in a series of surprisingly airy basement rooms. Descending the stairs massed ranks of sideshow characters fill the room in a manner reminiscent of the Emperor’...

The Poor Door A collective exhibition tackling London’s housing crisis A-side B-side Gallery Amhurst Terrace E8 2BT Opening night: 1.10.15 6-9pm Show dates: 1.10.15 - 11.10.15 Gallery opening hours: 12-6pm Weds-Sun Artlicks Weekend: 2-4 October www.artlicksweekend.com www.asidebsidegallery.com @Aside_Bside_ @artlicks @TinselEdwards Curated by Tinsel Edwards Alison Berry, Rebecca Byrne, Tinsel Edwards, Mikey Georgeson, Mars Gomes, Kin, Lee Maelzer, Reena Makwana, S.P.A.R Society for the Preservation of Admirable Rubble (with Brian Guest courtesy of Calum F Kerr), Tom Rizzuto, Julia Russell. “This Ghetto crowding is not through inclination, but compulsion.” It’s 2015 and we are in the midst of a major housing crisis in the capital. In 1903, Jack London wrote ‘The People of the Abyss’, a book describing the cramped living conditions and experiences of the poor in...

Buttering toast is Something we do a lot And yet each time there are decisions Leave the toast to cool? And the butter sits atop All buttery and unctuous  But visibly guilt prompting Butter it hot And whilst succulent and invisible May go soggy And then there’s the jam What does it say about a man? Who spreads jam with the butter knife? A man out of control Butter in the jam Jam in the butter And then there’s the butter straight from the fridge That should never be a problem Not if you use the butter dish But we shape our tools And have to invent spreadable butter Every single time I butter toast I remember the time My sister announced the innovative method Her stubble faced boy friend had For cleaning the butter knife He would stab it into the edge And slide the knife inside This is similar to opening the post If you use a letter knife The knife ventures into an unknown world inside the bread The family murmur en masse...

"Supernatural stories can help us understand reality." What I find interesting about this statement ( New Statesman ) is that reality is made up of all kinds of ways of being which coalesce into perceptual experience. By which I mean supernatural stories are part of the fabric of reality. Will this age of reason be remembered as the time when we were caught in the mechanical jaws of Newton’s Universe? (According to Chomsky the way we think about language, the very mutation from which we derive self-reflective consciousness, is pre-Newtonian.) I’m not blaming Newton – remember he was only able to make the breakthrough to understanding gravity because of his belief in invisible forces. He didn’t intend for the next five hundred years to be shaped by the idea of gravity as down to earth reason. Before Newton people believed things moved to their proper place but Newton worked out that there was in fact an invisible force pulling them there. This idea of gravity as ...

I originally wrote this for an online pop magazine under the Guidance of Jonny Others. I will sub it again at some point but here is the latest version I could find. it's been on my mind to make it accessible. Using Passions As Beacons Leads to Instances of Backwards Causality or How Not to Write a Pop Song and stay looking trendy          “You must always know what your song is about before commencing” this was the best advise I could get online when trying to work out how I write songs. never the less I remain convinced that there are certain persons who are able, almost without effort, to relax the muscles of the mind and slip from the shackles of habitual thought and let their ideas soar way beyond the seven feet of biosphere we habitually patrol.   I suppose despite my fear of giving away the end I should consider the idea that backwards causality is simply a manifestation of the ability of the subconscious mind to function more...