Marking the centenary of the 1918-19 revolution in Germany, Glasgow’s Hunterian gallery has on display an impressive and wide-ranging selection of etchings, lithographs and woodcuts from the wave of printmaking in Germany during the first two decades of the 20th century, as well as works representing key influences on this movement.
For their latest exhibition, the V&A invites the viewer to “discover how Mary Quant launched a fashion revolution on the British high street”. The R-word features heavily throughout, used to describe everything from her use of coloured tights to a prescient view of the sweeping social change which characterised the 1960s.
It is interesting that, after many years of media obsession with serial killers, a new book, opera and TV documentary share an emphasis on the social conditions and attitudes that made some women more vulnerable to assault and allowed the killers to get away with it for so long.
Hallie Rubenhold’s book The Five uncovers the impoverished lives of the victims of the infamous Victorian killer, Jack the Ripper. She highlights the material circumstances which drove them into prostitution to keep themselves and their families alive.
Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls, set in 1980s Britain, three years after Thatcher came to power, is a play of binaries. The first two acts uncover the rampant competition and disregard some women have for one another in a world where monetarism and individualism are rife.
Dave first rose to fame as a teenager in 2016 through his freestyle clips on grime and UK rap platforms. Since then he has proved to all listeners that he’s a lyrical genius and a talented musician who can even play the piano.
More importantly, Dave must be respected as one of the brightest conscious and political rappers alive today. He supports Love Music Hate Racism and has dedicated his song Question Time to dissing Theresa May’s austerity. Psychodrama is the 20 year old artist’s debut album.
The Women of the World Festival will mark its 10th anniversary next year. The event has been so successful that Jude Kelly has quit her day job as artistic director of the Southbank Centre to head up the venture full time. The festival has since been expanded into 17 countries around the world with 65 festivals in countries from Nepal to Finland to the US.
The festival aims to “celebrate women and girls, taking a frank look at what prevents them from achieving their potential, raising awareness globally of the issues they face and discussing solutions together”.
Ninety years ago German theatre-maker Erwin Piscator published his book, The Political Theatre. He wrote that he intended it to provide “a definitive explanation and elucidation of the basic facts of epic, ie political theatre”, which at that time “was still meeting with widespread rejection and misapprehension.”
Mike Hoolihan is my kind of detective. She dresses like Johnny Cash, rarely smiles and the only adornment in her sparse bedroom is a picture of Patti Smith.
Homage to the Bauhaus
Djanogly Gallery, Lakeside Arts, Nottingham, 2 March to 2 June
