A lapsed reader's whinge

"I would like everyone to read, not so they become writers or poets, but so that no one is a slave anymore." - Gianni Rodari

I recently came across this quote by one of Italy's most celebrated and imaginative children's writers and I loved how it framed the argument. We don't read to become erudite bores, we read because when we do our world gets bigger and better, and because reading is a catalyst for freedom, intellectual and otherwise. This is really prosaically put and I am oversimplifying, but you follow.

Fourteen months into intermittent confinements and with more free time to spare, I have zero excuses for not having finished a single book, not one. Catherine Belton's wonderfully-researched Putin's People has been sitting on my nightstand for at least 8 months, but I've barely made a dent in it. Every day I look at the Russian leader's vulpine face on the book's cover and I KNOW I want to delve into Belton's findings, but it's just not happening.

Baseless as this theory may be, it's fair to say I probably have a shorter attention span than the proverbially ill-focused goldfish. Like many, I realise I switch off really quickly, unless I'm watching tennis, that is. Our new uber technological lifestyle is of course largely responsible for this shift. Too much passive digital media consumption has eroded my ability to concentrate. How do I find my way to freedom again? Maybe the secret is to drape oneself in a stylish dressing gown and sit in a paisley-decorated boudoir (with no smartphone or laptop in sight) like this delightful lady. Although now I observe more closely, I think she's just casually looking at the illustrations.

#reading #books #lockdown #attentionspan #goldfish #felixvallotton #painting #lesnabis #blog #artblog #beyondthecanvasblog

Félix Vallotton, La Liseuse (1922)

Private Collection

The Brixton riots 40 years on

"I think America must see that riots do not develop out of thin air. A riot is the language of the unheard." Martin Luther King, Jr.

This, of course, is true for America and anywhere else a minority is affected and marginalised by structural racism and social inequalities. With its hard-line anti-immigration rhetoric and authoritarian agenda, Thatcher Britain weaponised systemic racialised over-policing against Black communities, abusing stop and search powers with anyone suspected to have committed a crime.

Things finally came to a head in 1981 when Operation Swamp was launched to curb street crime in the streets of Brixton, South London. On April 10th, no fewer than 100 Met Police officers descended on Brixton (talk about swamping) and started picking up Black men for simply walking in the street. They could so they did. A total of 943 were stopped and searched in only 5 days. This unprecedented level of policing heightened tensions in an area that was plagued by mass unemployment and where tempers were brewing. Things quickly escalated into full-scale riots: petrol bombs, attacks on retail premises, deployment of police dogs, destroyed vehicles and dozens of injured people. Brixton, the centre of the UK's Black community, was ablaze. At the end of a 4-day ordeal, the police had used 7,000 officers to quell the disturbances involving over 5,000 people, of which 282 were arrested, most of whom Black.

The enquiry into the Brixton events led by Lord Scarman concluded 'racial disadvantage that is a fact of British life' was to blame. He recommended 'urgent action' to ensure that racial disadvantage did not become an 'endemic, ineradicable disease threatening the very survival of our society'. Thinking of race relations in the UK, here's just a few things I have recently witnessed: the Prime Minister failing to display any empathy for the victims of the Grenfell Fire and a member of his cabinet saying they lacked common sense. I’ve also heard said PM declare the problem with Africa is that the British are no longer in charge. And meanwhile, many Windrush scandal victims are still awaiting compensation.

#brixtonriots #btixtonuprising #40years #blackhistory #thatcherism #policebrutality #blog #beyondthecanvasblog

Police officers make an arrest on the second day of riots in Brixton, London, 13th April 1981. Photo by David Levenson /Simon Dack/Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Ode to my mother

My mother died last night. So here I am turning to art as a coping mechanism, at least I think that's what's happening. This blog exists because of my mother. Not just because she put me on this earth, but because she instilled a love of art in me when a was a little girl. She'd take me to museums and art shows, our house was full of art books my brother and I would spend hours poring over. Mum liked to say I had 'the eye', the immediate ability to identify the work of an artist over another. Look at me, a wee Morellian connoisseuse in the making.

She'd always tell me which exhibitions I needed to go see in London, she often knew what was coming even before I did. She had such a brilliant and curious mind, she liked to be well-informed about the things she was passionate about. And every time I'd fly home to see her there would be at least a dozen newspaper cuttings she'd put aside for me to read. She was keen for me to stay connected with my Italian roots, insisted everyone else had learnt from our masters: Pontormo, Rosso Fiorentino, Caravaggio, De Chirico, Morandi. Of course she was biased, all Italians are when it comes to art, but she was also extremely competent and open-minded.

When I was studying, mum was the first person I'd send my essays and dissertations to. She'd lie in bed reading them, underlining the odd word she couldn't understand with a pencil, then she'd call me to ask me what they meant. Your English is too difficult for me, she'd say. She always encouraged me, always motivated me to cultivate this passion, and thought I was 'going somewhere'. I guess all parents think that.

Good night mother, thank you for the many gifts you blessed me with. Rest in light and peace.

Roger van der Weyden

Portrait of a Lady, c. 1460

Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Art , Washington DC