Mark Haddon's Blog, page 24

solo show

i have a solo show of artwork (painting, prints, photographs and sculptures) at the sarah wiseman gallery in oxford from 29 april to 22 may. of which, doubtless, much more later.

http://www.wisegal.com

holiday photos 2

    

  

polar bears 2

we have a full cast and creative team for polar bears (which opens at the donmar warehouse on 1st april)

http://www.donmarwarehouse.com/pl109cast.html

http://www.donmarwarehouse.com/pl109crew.html

i've been writing an article for the telegraph about the joys of writing drama, not least among which is actually getting out of the house and working with other human beings. rehearsals begin tomorrow...

 

libel reform

http://www.libelreform.org/sign

please do sign this petition. it is part of a campaign to change the dangerous and inequitable libel laws in the uk. this is not about intrusion into the lives of celebrities. nor is it simply about right to free speech. it is also about organisations using the sledgehammer of the law to crush critical voices, thereby undermining proper scientific debate. the campaign is supported by the new scientist, the journal of the royal society of medicine, the society...

tate 3

apropos miroslaw balka’s how it is (see tate 1 below) and other works which seek to mimic external environments inside a gallery... it wasn’t until i was travelling home that i remembered james turrell’s deer shelter at the yorkshire sculpture park, a semi-submerged room of concrete seats tilted backwards so that one looks up at a square opening in the roof, the edges of which are so thin you are looking at a square of suspended sky, constantly moving and changing and pouring light down into ...

running

the first proper run since a chaplinesque fall while running over an icy bridge before christmas (legs up, arse down, codeine, hobbling etc.). god, it's good to be properly outside again: the big sky, the flooded river, the space, the quiet, the... well, i don't know the word. and i think not knowing the word is the probably the point. a less grandiose version of wordsworth's presence that disturbs me me with the joy of elevated thoughts... a motion and a spirit that impels all thinking...

tate 2

[barnett newman's who's afraid of red, yellow and blue, 1966 - not the painting mentioned below, since the tate are rather ungenerous when it comes to reproduction rights, though this is partly due to the parsimony of some original copyright holders - certain artists' estates for example - who can be vicious in their pursuit of copyright infringement; some won't even allow certain paintings to be glimpsed in the background of phtographs and videos of other works:]

while at the tate I spent...

tate 1

[photo by fairly bouyant @ flickr under creative commons:]

at the tate yeserday, where i finally saw miroslaw balka's how it is, his installation in the turbine hall, a vast, dark steel container you enter by walking up a ramp then wander around inside. i was disappointed, to be honest. one of the main intentions (i assume he oversaw the accompanying explanatory text) is to profoundly disorient and unsettle the viewer by plunging them into complete darkness, which it does only very briefly...

david cameron

from my inbox this morning:

'dear mr haddon,

we invite you to join 150 of britain's leading thinkers, doers, creators and catalysts for a very special evening in london on wednesday february 10th, 6.30-9.30pm. gathering at a location in central London, you will be joined by conservative leader david cameron presenting his first ever TED talk, an 18-minute idea worth spreading.'

it sounds like the shortest, most boring rave in history (i think i may have stolen that joke from an article in the ...

heaney's beowulf

i read this when it came out but i'm now listening to it for the first time and it's amazingly good, wholly authentic without being in the least antique. obviously the poem is - and was - meant to be read aloud. and i could listen to seamus heaney reciting the phonebook to be honest. but i've always found that when a poet reads their work well i'm forced to consume the poetry slowly, at their speed, and consequently i appreciate things which slip under the eye when the book is in front of me ...