Contents 31
May 2013
Mexican tall ship Roger Morton
News of Gilles-Eric Serelini
News of Gilles-Eric Serelini
Coming apart Joselyn Duffy Morton
Cartoon Claudia Ward
Cover Roger
Morton
Nobody can think of anything else to
talk about but the weather. It is cold, wet and miserable. The sky is covered
in grey-black angry clouds. In 24 days, it will be Midsummer’s Day and then the
days get shorter. We are starting to get desperate.
This morning I saw a dead wet animal
beside our car. No it was my fake fur hat which I had dropped in my rush to get
out of the rain yesterday. I had worn this big warm hat to ward off the cold as
we wandered round La fete de fleuve in Bordeaux. What is going on? When is it
going to warm up? We light the fire every day. We have nearly run out of wood.
Cold though it was, the young Mexican
sailors on board a large three-masted sail boat were still full of smiles and
charming politeness. I could hunker down in Bordeaux very easily. Noisy cows and
wet soggy fields have only a certain life-style appeal. It is hard to beat a
city – especially one as beautiful as Bordeaux.
Last week we also visited friends in Marmande,
the Tarn and Esperaza. It didn’t rain all the time, in fact we even managed to
play boules but everyone had their heating on and I was bundled up in the same
clothes I have been wearing for the last eight or nine months. Enough all
bloody ready.
If I had the dosh I would fly down to
Venice to see what Jeremy Deller has put together for the Biennale. It is good
when art reflects what society is going through. Remembering all the while ‘poor people don’t buy art’ but
they sure as hell like to look at it. (Then perhaps a diamond skull was a ‘society’
reflection on the coke-toting feelingless bank-heads who didn’t give a shit - rather
than an artist desirous of up-selling his competitors).
Sounds like the British Council
commission that Deller has put together has had serious thought. Stuart Sam
Hughes painted the mural which depicts William Morris throwing Roman Abromovich’s
yacht into the Venice Lagoon (evidently that same yacht obscured the view at
the last Biennale); then there’s a 30 foot high mural of a hen harrier carrying
a range rover, this one painted by Sarah Tynan (I think the ‘hen’ is short for
Henry ie Prince Harry, but I could have got that muddled up); there’s steel
band music, work by bannerman Ed Hall who usually makes Trade Union banners;
even the Museum of London has a pertinent point to make. It’s been a big ask
and it sounds like a volatile mix – just like Britain is.
Wouldn’t mind going to Caitlin Davis’
London literary party for her new book Camden Lock and the Market - it has got some of Roger’s photos from
Dingwalls Dancehall in it. But that’s tomorrow and we’ll be here waiting for
the bloody rain to stop.
A bientot, Joselyn Morton
ps don't forget to sign End Ecocide in Europe petition. It is a really important campaign and if you, as a citizen, want your voice to be heard, this is a European Citizens Initative. Make all those deplorable actions (by Monsanto, fracking, companies, mining companies, banks who fund them etc) a crime.
ps don't forget to sign End Ecocide in Europe petition. It is a really important campaign and if you, as a citizen, want your voice to be heard, this is a European Citizens Initative. Make all those deplorable actions (by Monsanto, fracking, companies, mining companies, banks who fund them etc) a crime.
