Thursday 7th April: Kate Magic Rainbow Birthday Cake

I was lucky enough to have not one rainbow birthday cake, but two made for me!  Here is Kate Magic's raw cake she gave me at the Eglo Bank Holiday dance.  Head over to her site to see all about her Raw Living ingredients, recipes, workshops etc.

Friday 1st April: Rainbow Birthday Cake

From one epic culinary tale to another - this immense rainbow cake by Lena.  It was delivered by stealth and hidden in my front garden by the secret squirrel a.k.a "NiceNutmegs".  The surprise of finding it was only the first wonder.  I cannot work out how she has made this.  Each cylinder is absolutely perfectly formed.  Each moist spectrum layer is sandwiched together with lemon icing to form the upright pillar.  All together, the letter candles spell out "HAPPY BIRTHDAY".  Even the package and wrapping is a work-of-art in itself with iridescent foil and multicolour ribbon.  It must have taken so long to devise and prepare, I feel incredibly honoured.  Lena is a LEGEND.

Thursday 31st March: FFRENCH PHARMACEUTICALS present CULINARY COSMETICS

As we sipped apéritifs from conical flasks, distributed by waiters with bleached white eyebrows, we had a hunch that we were part of an experiment.  But there was no cause for an uncertain prognosis as everything had been planned to the smallest detail, measure and morsel.  Makeup-artist Isamaya Ffrench had teamed up with Bistrotheque for a concept named "Culinary Cosmetcs" and it did exactly what it said on the tin (jar and box).  What I had mistakingly confused as the launch for her own cosmetics line could almost have been understood with the slick graphic design and logo across the packaging.  The difference being that the recipes hadn't been tested on animals but were being trialled on East London's fashion press.  The blush compact contained no sheep's lanolin but rather Fois Gras parfait and the lipstick had no trace of whale blubber but a kick of chilli thru the white chocolate strawberry stick.  Infact the pudding is the best example of the level of intricacy poured into this menu of marvellous medicine as the transparent pill capsule contained multicolour anisEEd candy.  

Like Alice in the Lewis Carroll plot, we read instructions on the labels of each product and drank Martini from a toner bottle and bit into a brioche facial sponge.  The funniest tongue-in-cheek invention was the "(Bot)Ox Cheek" main course which came with jus to be syringed into the flesh.  At this point I have to mention the side plate of Celeriac purée face scrub potted in a tub to be served with a spatula .  This is the tastiest treatment of celeriac I have ever sampled and totally blew my mind as much as the horseradish mustard condoment  that coursed up my nose.  I really, really, really want the recipe for this one!!  So delicious!

So that's pretty much most of it covered, apart from the Crème brûlée "burnt face cream" which had the caramel flambéed fresh before the gold lid screwed on the jar and boxed before serving.  A garnish of berry coulis all glittery like spilt lip gloss had to be licked off the plate, by which time all manners were well out the window after directions such as "smear evenly on tongue before swallowing".    

I always like to keep the printed menu from events at Bistrotheque as a memento from each unique celebration.  After this banquet I swiped a complete medicine cabinet's worth of imaginary "Ffrench Pharma" cosmetics line.  Ive managed to sterilise the glass clean of beetroot collagen for preservation and potentially prosperity as Isamaya's career is sky-rocketing.  No wonder, when her talent is embodied in its own best branding, with a face of Brooke Shield's bone-structure.  It's almost unfathomable that a makeup artist can be blessed with both brain and beauty, but that's Isamaya ............ watch this space.

See an archive post from my first feature on Isamaya's makeup for Christopher Shannon in 2010 here.

(Guests included, top to bottom: Bishi, Charles Jeffrey, Lyall Hakaria, Jack Appleyard & Alexandre Simoes) 

Monday 21st March: "Social Fabric: African Textiles Today" at The William Morris Gallery

"Social Fabric:  African Textiles Today" is the latest temporary exhibition at The William Morris Gallery showing fabrics from Eastern & Southern Africa.  The oblong prints worn in many various ways each carry their own visual agenda in the graphics to convey social, political, religious and personal messages.  Therefore they become an important record of social history as commentary on subjects such as Nelson Mandela or the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.  My personal favourite Kanga inscription resonates with my character "I may be quiet but there's a lot in my heart" of the Prickly Fruit that's sharp but is used specifically for the pigment properties of its flesh for colouring food or dying hair.  I also love the garment by the London based fashion label CHiCHia with graphic type depicting the designer's favourite proverbs and sayings. 

Find out more and see the listings of special events coinciding with the show here.

Read the archive post on Yinka Shonibare at the William Morris Gallery here.

Thursday 17th March: Stephen Doherty at The Hackney Shop

 

Stephen Doherty has taken residency at The Hackney Shop for a week's live studio and gallery of previous work.  Life-studies in charcoal hang alongside pastel drawings and water-colour florals with some turned into screen-prints.  These have been framed and others embroidered as textile reliefs into garmerts, displayed on rails he has installed amongst 2D canvases.  I love both his loose illustrative flow of drawn line in the portraits and the deep wash and scratches in brush strokes of petals.  The bleeding pigment is almost abstract to the human eye but ends up looking photo-real when captured here!  Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!

All drawings and prints are available to purchase and garments available to order, prices starting at £35.00. .............. or just pop in for a cup of tea with the artist himself.

The shop will be open from Thursday 17th – Sunday 20th March
10am - 6pm.

Wednesday March 16th: Flagz Mas Band Launch at BoxPark

Flagz Mas Band launched their costumes for Notting Hill Carnival 2016 at BoxPark with a catwalk show and party as a warm-up to the Summer's festivities............ I CANNOT wait!!!

Monday 7th March: "Cuts, Shapes, Breaks and Scrapes" at Seventeen Gallery

A group show of paintings, curated by two painters.  

It's so nice to see thick brushstrokes, daubs of paint and experimental mark-making when the majority of colour that I absorb now is digital pixels.  The tactile pieces selected, span time from 1978 thru to the current day (potentially that very day, if the oil paint aroma was anything to go by).  When the circuit of gallery doors open on "First Thursdays" it can turn into a safari around East London hitting as many spots as possible ......... but this show is so nice, I felt nourished and content with these 19 works.  Each is given its own space hung in the midst of white expanse to allow the each one to have its own vibration / voice.  They sit together in harmony of hue, including a couple of the curators own pieces ( Rhys Coren & Gabriel Hartley ).  Its open for a clear month, til 9th April and I fully recommend searching it out at Seventeen's new home on the fringes of Shoredtich.  

(Top to bottom:  Gabriel Hartley, Rhys Coren, Mali Morris, Alfred Boman, Rhys Coren)