Recent content in Home on The White Pube
Reviews used to start in the Notes App on the bus home from a gallery. If I scroll back, I can still find that funny poetry now: 31/03/16 ‘weird trees metal flora and clay fauna, I don’t think I would like this 6 days of the week when I’m functional and completing my to-do lists but on those slips when you lean into your own transgressions when your life is greasy, it might make better…
I am still in the WhatsApp group chat for my Mum’s old road and now I have banned myself from TikTok, this is my new favourite scrolling location. People talk for months about missed bin collections. They swap seed packets and dining table chairs (no table). They complain about roadworks, bus routes, the coffee shops on the high street and how everyone’s always double parked round there, the…
NO PREAMBLE, LETS GO 2pac x ILLIT ADHDcore pokemon theories a youtuber talking about painting my current spanish study revolves around watching this chilean architecture youtube channel and hoping some of it goes in im never gonna make this but i would like to eat the airfryer bread so if you do, invite me over i had no idea what tehran looked like i love youtube finally, the robot legs they strap…
This week I listened to the audiobook for Yesteryear, the 2026 debut novel by Caro Claire Burke. It’s about a tradwife influencer with about ten kids and ten millions of followers. White, Christian, she lives on a farm in Idaho and makes soap, sells raw milk, that kind of thing. But when she wakes up one day on the same farm in 1852, she must face up to a parallel version of her own life where all…
It’s my fourth day straight in the park. Marshmallow ice cream, then Solero, I couldn’t finish the new marshmallow-flavoured Twister, and today, one scoop banoffee, second of marshmallow but the banoffee is way too sweet. Peeling off the grass stuck to the back of my legs. It’s like hay. Spiders make new freckles across the backs of my hands and then the freckles move. I’m not trying to make this…
I am half-snoozing against the glass of the train window as it cuts through the flat expanse of the lowlands. Fields all green and yellow in the heat of summer, the sky is white and bruisy with clouds. It is so early in the morning. My heavy eyelids, I can see all the way out as the fields disappear into the grey horizon. Just saying I’m an art critic feels like I am being too vague. Sometimes I…
no, because the thing is, we’ve all got apps that block the other apps on our phones haven’t we? and we all live in houses not made for 33 degree weather? so I turned my computer off for an entire week. I didn’t even go in the room. this room is the hottest in the house. no, I was downstairs, body on standstill, spraying myself with water like a plant. so your latest good youtube…
about a month ago, i went to Ljubljana to talk about friendship in the art industry. It was the most beautiful capital city I’ve ever been to. And also everyone was cool while I was there, I hung out with Lucija Klauž and recorded an Art Date with her. if you missed the news about that, i’ve started a new podcast where i visit exhibitions with people and hang out a bit. I record the…
Tarantula (2024) by Eduardo Halfon, translated by Daniel Hahn 🕷️ I pulled this off the shelves at Burley Fisher last week on a whim (or not a total whim – I’ve been picking books based on their size, and then when I saw it had won the Spanish-language Critic’s Prize, and best foreign novel in a French prize, and it had something to do with Guatemala, a place I know nothing…
It’s a few weeks ago and I am being shown around Palazzo Te, a summer palace in the north of Italy. It is 34 degrees and sweat is tickling the backs of my legs, and there’s a headache like a solar flare threatening to whip my skull if I don’t inhale water like air. My friend knows every single thing about this place, and the way he speaks, it’s like a tour guide is showing me around inside a…
I am looking into the basement gallery of the Sunday Painter. The ceiling goes up two storeys. I can see the glass of the shopfront windows, way up there. I can’t really step into the space of the gallery itself — almost all of it is taken up by a huge wooden boat. It’s swollen, wall to wall to wall and floor to ceiling (probably). My Mum is standing next to me and we look together, bottom to the…
It’s Saturday night and I’m sat in a bright sports hall in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, watching two people fence. They’re going at it down an aisle of chairs set out like a catwalk. I don’t know anything about fencing. I didn’t know they were allowed to jump, but at one point, the white suit on my left flies up and brings the sword down, and the moment seems to last forever, like there are…
I was on my way to the Southbank Centre to see a play. It was last-last weekend, precisely, the Saturday. Tommy Robinson’s fanboys were clogging up the zone 1 pubs, St George’s flags tied around their necks like capes. All the way from Embankment, across the river, union jack st George union jack st George — tourist or fascist or y2k britpop revival? Spin the wheel. I was there to see a play…
pureflow i don’t really think these openers make sense unless you’re standing live in a stadium boompala the best part is when sakura sings the macarena. her voice makes sense for it. every other part of the song feels off base. when kazuha says pyjama it’s like, yeah, this song is pointless. you had the macarena!! you had gold! and you made THIS? what a fucking waste. lyrics…
I’ve started a new podcast called Art Dates I’m going to be visiting exhibitions with interesting people! that’s it. I recorded the pilot episode with Zarina (of course) and I have a long list of people I’ll be chatting to in the episodes to come. But there’s no set schedule here. I’m doing it for fun, for free will, for community, and for making the most of the…
I loooove analogue photography. we know this. I have loved Lomography specifically since Zarina got me a three pack of their coloured purple/blue/grey film for my birthday a few years ago. i keep buying the purple film. and i think what happened is I posted about this purple film enough times that they got in touch to interview us, haha. Lomography sent me their Lomomatic 110 camera to try out, I…
I met a man in a pub last week and introduced myself as a critic. He was so excited to talk about all the artists he loved but I had to break it to him that I wasn’t excited about this stuff anymore. I actually said that I’d been feeling heartbroken lately — that this thing I’ve been writing about for ten years is feeling further away than it used to. The wild fires artists make are getting harder…
It is rainy January and I am looking through the UAL staff portal for a well-hidden form. If I fill in this form, I can get a free place on any UAL short course. I book myself into a week of oil painting. It is rainy April and I am in a studio round the side of Chelsea unpacking a half price Cass art multipack from my tote bag. See, I used to paint. I applied to art school with a portfolio full of…
here you go i wonder if I’ll ever be someone who wants to watch TV or films but so long as youtube exists i doubt it. the only tv show i am prepared to watch is the pitt. do not ask me how many times ive seen it heres good youtube recommendations this youtube series where Michelle Khare joins a group of runners who book out a private jet so they can run 7 marathons in 7 continents in 7 days…
versión española acá 🏡 🏡 🏡 🏡 🏡 🏡 🏡 🏡 A few weeks ago, I read a blog post about Swiss psychologist Marie-Louise von Franz’s idea of ‘the provisional life.’ It’s this belief that the current life you’re living obviously isn’t the real one. I mean, how could it be? It’s so messed up. No, you believe you are owed a better life where all the problems have been solved, all the kinks ironed out.…
since the beginning of the year i’ve been keeping a running list at the back of my diary, A READING LIST, where i keep track of my own little personal theory curriculum (because i feel like i am At A Stage In My Life where i need more words/concepts to think about the world with, more words/concepts than i am personally capable of producing, so now i must outsource that to theory). The first…
I went to see Bishwadhan Rai’s exhibition, Being There , at Zerui. There is a blue ball on the floor. It half looks like a bath bomb, half looks like something I’d chuck in the washing machine on an empty rinse cycle. A fizzy thing to make other things softer, cleaner. The blue ball is hollow with a hole at the top. I look at the press release: it is made of pear soap. I look back at the blue…
i’m going to Škuc gallery on Saturday 23 May to give a lecture on FRIENDSHIP. you’ll be able to buy copies of Poor Artists there too! ‘We’re a lot easier to control, exploit and abuse when we stand alone. This talk explores how friendship can help people survive the art industry together.’ you can find details of the event here the lecture is taking place during Ljubljana…
Amigazos, esta semana traduje la crítica para practicar, para aprender más vocabulario, y para liberarme de la vergüenza jajaja. Este año, voy a pasar un mes en chile y ya estoy haciendo tareas español pero hasta ahora nunca he escrito critica en español. Si hay errores……no tengas miedo. Solo paciencia por favor 😂 pero si sigues teniendo tanto miedo, la versión inglesa está acá — El Museo de la…
i got a bit burnt out and dysautonomic last week so i watched a SHIT tonne of youtube on the couch to settle my nerves. I watched so much that i actually wrote about Tip to Tip, where two americans cross china on motorbikes without translation apps in a full on review, but i’m here to link you to everything else - - first off, after I watched Tip to Tip, i started getting loads of…
Yesterday, I was on the phone for an hour with an artist in Santiago. She told me she didn’t think it would be a good idea for me to visit the Atacama desert when I come to Chile because the altitude could cause problems for my health. I thought deserts could only be low, like hot, dry basins. Frying pans over hell. But I was reading about it afterwards and the Atacama’s sloping down the left-hand…
The gallery at MEZZANINE is slap bang in the middle of an industrial estate. I am on the edge looking in, past the rolling metal shutter, at the scene spread out before me. The glossy pink dust cover of a book called La Vie Parisienne is stapled to the wall. The title is in dainty curly cursive and there’s an illustration of a girl caught in a gust of wind — the wind whirls around her blowing…
I am sitting in a café in the oldest art space in the UK feeling spent. The Bluecoat’s current exhibition ‘Just Browsing’ has been on for five months and I’ve caught it in its final week, though I don’t think I should have bothered. I am not sure the gallery was that bothered when they put it together; I don’t know if half the artists were arsed either — and now two teenagers have sat down behind…
we’ve been invited by the Museum of Croydon and Croydon Libraries to talk about our book Poor Artists on April 23rd for World Book Night free tickets here < ‘At a moment in which working as a professional artist is an increasingly unattainable luxury, Poor Artists investigates why so many artists try anyway. Poor Artists follows aspiring artist Quest Talukdar as she embarks on a…
there’s a new podcast about games + players, with reviews as well, called pink acid boots and i got to be on the first ever episode. I spoke with Ben about Death Stranding 2, and how we both felt about the game a while after we’d finished playing. whether it held up! whether it went far enough. You can click here to get links to apple spotify and all the podcast platforms + socials. i…
Qing Fibre sent me some yarn from their new Lucid Dreams collection so i could once again play my game of matching yarn to art. you can get a discount using code TWP5 ! let’s all buy string ! Sue Arrowsmith’s painting Forge / Qing Fibre NOCTILUCENT CLOUD Djamel Tatah’s Untitled / Qing Fibre ECHO Jadé Fadojutimi’s The Luna(tic) Effect / Qing Fibre REM Kaye Donachie’s Clouds…
THE MOMENT is Charli xcx’s brat summer mockumentary, directed by Aidan Zamiri. I was sat in the denim reupholstered seats at Rich Mix with a large glass of red wine in my hand. I watched girls with city bags and slickback buns traipse in around me. I thought about how this was all very meme account starter pack. Then the film started and I was blasted with acid green, cyan blue titles. Charli xcx…
feeling incredibly frustrated today. tried to edit audio and it sounded great in Audition, but when I exported the files, TERRIBLE. like two planes taking off inside your ears. and then I learn audio sounds different inside the programme than it does outside of it, because it can’t process the effects live?? it only applies them in the export?? WHAT AM I PAYING YOU FOR. really, i think the…
I just got home from the counter-protest against UKIP who thought they could march through Liverpool today in the name of Jesus and Lent or whatever. They call themselves the party of mass deportations, not seeming to reckon with the fact that if a man from Palestine rocked up today talking about loving your neighbour, and loving strangers too, UKIP would make for shit disciples because they…
i am very aware this is in 2 days, i am also well aware this is a sold out event, but i am contributing to the new news section !!!!! on Thursday (26th March, which is also Bangaldesh’s idependence day!) i’ll be in convo with Laisul Hoque about his show The Ground Beneath Me at Nunnery Gallery/Bow Arts. a link to the event here i am v much looking forward to it bc it is a artist in…
2 news items in 1 day, lucky uuuu i am also chatting to Rene Matic on Thurs 9th April about their work for the Deutsche Borse Prize link here link here link here i think the tickets are £10? sorry – i wish they were £0 but i am not in charge (if i was…!) if u love photography i hope 2 see u there, or stay tuned and i will take notes n tell u my highlights hehe
the doctor is making me do this terrible thing where, after I eat, I have to sit still and upright and be so calm and normal for ages so that my body can digest normally and not squirt the stomach acid back up my throat. but what if i have things to do! but what if eating gives me a bit of energy and i wanna go use it! for god’s sake. ive just had my breakfast pancakes (i blend oats, eggs,…
I just finished making my 2nd pair of Groove Warmers – – the first with random yarn i had left (Emu Classic Aran in shade Flint, and dLana* in shade v3), and the second with the Wool and the Gang Take Care Mohair (in brilliant white and bubblegum pink) – satisfying, easy, fast, useful perfect pattern and I was like huh I have nothing on the go now. and I sat with all the yarn ive…
I go to Cabinet with a friend to look at at Kobby Adi’s show. There is no title, there is no press release, just a map of the space locating THE MACHINE and FALSE DOOR . THE MACHINE is on a trolley in the middle of the space. It is a big metal box with one side open. There is a camera lens wired into the top. My friend sticks his hand in. It flashes greyscale on wall-mounted screens behind the…
been having a nightmare three weeks of personal life eruptions and professional life stalemates, where it feels as though the only thing I’ve actually achieved recently is this: listening to the 50 album’s on NME’s best of 2025 list . the majority i didn’t care about, and there were a few already in rotation including addison rae and ethel cain and oklou, but a bunch of…
One friend cities away tells me to read a book, and the very next day my boyfriend gets in from work waving the hardback. He’s done with ‘There Is No Antimemetics Division’ in two days and hands me it with big eyes. But when it’s my turn, I find loads of black rectangles inside where parts of the story are redacted. This slows me down instead of speeding me up and I take a week, tripping over…
a bounty starting with a youtuber who is not using any smart screens this year, but instead recording updates on a camcorder and sending them to a friend to upload. the way she talks about her new experience of time and boredom and peace is profoundly……persuasive. i really recommend watching that one as well as the recent part 2, in which she says she caught sight of instagram over…
The windows in Rose Easton’s entrance are notoriously covered in graffiti. When you stand in the entrance, the light filters through the colourful skin all piecemeal, lighting you up like you’re in a kooky disco. I am walking up Cambridge Heath Road towards the gallery. I am in posession of a kind of anticipatory excitement. I have seen this show on instagram and I believe I will like it. I…
ye! thats all i gotta say
It’s a Wednesday afternoon and I’m sipping water. Dizzy, and it’s continuous even though I’m only sitting at my computer. I’ve started new medication to lower my stomach acid and this one side effect has been waves around my feet all week. All the way up. Waves knocking gently around my shoulders, like I’m in a crowd of people even when I am alone. So dizzy, but I tried a low acid diet for a while…
I’m still in the mood to read small-ish books where weird or uncomfortable things happen, and I don’t know what that says about me, nor what the next thing says either: but I recently finished The Diving Pool and I really enjoyed how……cruel it was. It’s a collection of three short stories by Yoko Ogawa (who wrote The Memory Police! that book! oh my god, what a book), first translated back in 2008…
Hello, ARTIST! Thank you for your patience, you’re through to 0800-CALL-A-CRITIC , the twenty four hour critical help hotline. This is Dog Star speaking – the brightest star in the night sky. Woof! What artistic malady can I be of critical-assistance with today?’ Dog Star is it? Big sigh. Yeah, listen. I am not an artist, I am a critic. Critic with a capital C, and I feel like an imposter, ringing…
What a load of shite hahahaha I went to see Wuthering Heights last night and after maybe 20 minutes I was ready to leave. It was like someone saw the Poor Things film and wanted to have a go, but tried slapping thick foundation over a big red spot. It didn’t take!!! A rare instance of child actors outshining the adults, and thereby making the adults out to be insincere for the bulk of the film. A…
i never ever saw the bad bunny attraction, didn’t like the music, didn’t get it! even when zarina did a lads i fancy of him back in 2022, NADA and then the super bowl halftime show comes out and it’s like………….. dios mío ……………….. funny how quickly a switch can be flipped. i have been listening to debí tirar más…
I’ve asked the only friend I know with an Odeon subscription to come with me to see Melania Trump’s self-titled film because I don’t want anyone spending real money on this. Before we go into Screen 9, he laughs and asks if I want a picture because on the wall in front of us is a huge, blinding light box of the woman herself. Straight suit, heels in profile, legs crossed on a chair. It’s black and…