Read Time 15 minutes
The year in review
If you’re following us on TikTok, you may have already peeped some moments team Darklight’s round-up of what we’ve loved this year 🖤 From the books we’ve read, to the exhibitions that thrilled us, and the meaningful gifts we gave [ourselves] 👀 ‘Tis the season, afterall.
India Birgitta Jarvis [Darklight digital editor]
JUERGEN TELLER [2023] FOR LOEWE
I love the cool palette of this photo, and yet the image as a whole is so warm! Maggie Smith is someone we’re used to seeing with quite a severe, stern expression––exasperated even––but here she is captured with a kind of coquettish playfulness. I’m sure everyone must have smiled when they saw this for the first time, I know I did. It’s so fun and chic.
I love the cool palette of this photo, and yet the image as a whole is so warm! Maggie Smith is someone we’re used to seeing with quite a severe, stern expression––exasperated even––but here she is captured with a kind of coquettish playfulness. I’m sure everyone must have smiled when they saw this for the first time, I know I did. It’s so fun and chic.
This is Endometriosis: Self-Portrait,
Georgie Wileman [2014-2017]
This simple yet powerful self-portrait, which captures the artist’s endometriosis scars, has been shared across social media for a few years, but every time I see this image I feel more drawn towards it. This year it has really helped me to reflect on my own struggles with the condition and the importance of raising awareness. Endometriosis is a long-term condition where tissue, similar to the lining of the womb, grows in other places of the body. One in 10 women struggle with this disease yet there is such a lack of awareness about it. Georgie started a global campaign on social media and invited women around the world to recreate the self portrait and capture their own scars to reveal their stories about living with the condition.
GABBY VICENTE [DARKLIGHT ART BUYER]
MIMI GRAY [Darklight co-founder] BY DAVID
One of my oldest and closest friends, photographer David Wren took this shot of me mid-gig, watching my favourite band Alexisonfire performing in Utrecht. Sweaty and deliriously happy, I turned to him as they started playing Young Cardinals, a song we have a mutual love for. I’m grateful to him for capturing my very happiest moment of 2023.
Sarah Willams [Darklight co-founder]
Maiseyrose Courtney in No Guts, No Glory, Edward Cooke [2023]
I’ve known Ed for years and have wanted to work with him since the day I saw his work. Maiseyrose is my boxing coach and is a massive inspiration to me, so it was a complete joy when the two came together and Darklight commissioned and presented this collaborative story. This shot is so powerful, staring right down the barrel of the lens, with her little devil tattoo sticking out. I love the grain, the grade, the tones. It’s just a great shot.
I’ve known Ed for years and have wanted to work with him since the day I saw his work. Maiseyrose is my boxing coach and is a massive inspiration to me, so it was a complete joy when the two came together and Darklight commissioned and presented this collaborative story. This shot is so powerful, staring right down the barrel of the lens, with her little devil tattoo sticking out. I love the grain, the grade, the tones. It’s just a great shot.
GABBY
The Story of Art Without Men,
Katy Hessel
This book has been recommended to me so many times that I’ve put it on my Christmas list, but in the meantime I’ve listened to the sample chapter on female surrealists, which Katy previewed on her podcast The Great Women Artists. I’ve loved getting to know more about Dora Maar, Lee Miller and Meret Oppenheim, who documented the suffocating reality of being a woman in the twentieth century. Turning their gaze onto themselves and challenging establishments by creating new and diverse imagery … also a lot of cats.
This book has been recommended to me so many times that I’ve put it on my Christmas list, but in the meantime I’ve listened to the sample chapter on female surrealists, which Katy previewed on her podcast The Great Women Artists. I’ve loved getting to know more about Dora Maar, Lee Miller and Meret Oppenheim, who documented the suffocating reality of being a woman in the twentieth century. Turning their gaze onto themselves and challenging establishments by creating new and diverse imagery … also a lot of cats.
ANYTHING VANESSA BELL
[INDIA]
I’m in my Vanessa Bell era currently – I’m absolutely addicted to reading about her. There’s so much I relate to in her character and preoccupations, sometimes I find it a bit spooky how connected I feel to her. I loved reading the biography by Frances Spalding, and her daughter Angelica Garnett’s memoirs, but I think my favourite read has been Jane Dunn’s A Very Close Conspiracy, which is less of a bio and more of a critical analysis of her relationship with her sister Virginia Woolf. I care very deeply about the intricacies of the sister relationship, and this book is incredible at recognising the nuances of different types of love and the ways they manifest.
MIMI
Dracula, Bram Stoker
It was my goal for this year to read [or re-read] the great works of gothic fiction — and my favourite from the list so far probably has to be Bram Stoker’s Dracula… although I’m loath to put him ahead of Shelley, Hill and du Maurier.
Despite a slightly eye-rolly depiction of women—who seem to faint or swoon every few pages—the book is undeniably influential. Reading it for the first time felt like all the hundreds of references from every dark, vampiric or otherwise horror work of fiction, simultaneously snapped into focus.
It was my goal for this year to read [or re-read] the great works of gothic fiction — and my favourite from the list so far probably has to be Bram Stoker’s Dracula… although I’m loath to put him ahead of Shelley, Hill and du Maurier.
Despite a slightly eye-rolly depiction of women—who seem to faint or swoon every few pages—the book is undeniably influential. Reading it for the first time felt like all the hundreds of references from every dark, vampiric or otherwise horror work of fiction, simultaneously snapped into focus.
SARAH
SIGNET RING
This was a 40th birthday present to myself. I designed it with the help of We Are Arrow on Columbia Road. It’s made out of recycled gold and ethically sourced stones. Normally when you get a nice piece of jewellery it’s from someone else as gesture of love. This one is pure self love. Unless I have a serious falling out with myself it’s never getting given back.
This was a 40th birthday present to myself. I designed it with the help of We Are Arrow on Columbia Road. It’s made out of recycled gold and ethically sourced stones. Normally when you get a nice piece of jewellery it’s from someone else as gesture of love. This one is pure self love. Unless I have a serious falling out with myself it’s never getting given back.
MIMI
ANTHURIUM VEITCHII
In my plant mom era x
In my plant mom era x
GABBY
DAVID SHRIGLEY, THIS HUGE CAT 🐱
This purchase wasn’t for myself [but … it actually was]. It was a gift for my boyfriend’s 30th birthday, I’m trying to get him more into art and appreciating prints. We moved into our house at the beginning of the year but our walls are bare, this piece is a very bold statement piece and it can’t be missed, we’re just trying to figure out the right place to put it. We also have three cats.
This purchase wasn’t for myself [but … it actually was]. It was a gift for my boyfriend’s 30th birthday, I’m trying to get him more into art and appreciating prints. We moved into our house at the beginning of the year but our walls are bare, this piece is a very bold statement piece and it can’t be missed, we’re just trying to figure out the right place to put it. We also have three cats.
MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ [2023]
ROYAL ACADEMY
I was a little surprised at how affected I was seeing The House With the Ocean View at Marina Abramović’s self-titled Royal Academy show, I really didn’t expect it. I sat directly in front of the performer and it felt like we made direct eye contact the whole time, and after a while I even felt like I could communicate with her with my gaze. It was quite profound, erotic even. She cried, and I thought I might too.
INDIA
THE ARMCHAIR VOYAGER,
RINUS VAN DE VELDE [2023]
I had actually never heard of this artist before arriving at Voorlinden [a museum I highly recommend visiting] in Wassenaar, Netherlands. Not knowing what to expect, and having only quickly Googled some of his work, I went there with relatively low expectations. But my apathy quickly melted away as I entered the first room of the exhibition, presented by an enormous salon hang of paintings which looked kind of Raymond Pettibon meets David Hockney.
The Flemish artist had selected works from the museum’s perm collection to accompany his own, and the result was a [lol I was about to say colourful, but look at the images I selected] fun and immersive, theatrical smorgasbord of paintings and playful installations. There were works inspired by Hockney, alongside other artists who intrigue and shock him, like Joseph Beuys, Thomas Demand and Rene Magritte. Fun fun fun.
MIMI
SARAH
ART COMES FIRST,
SHOREDITCH ARTS CLUB
I went to the opening of this exhibition at the Shoreditch Arts Club to watch Art Comes First’s [Shaka Maidoh and Sam Lambert] short, beautiful film shot in Ethiopia during lockdown. It’s a calm and profound film about the power and influence of blues music, of migration and slavery. As well as being aesthetically stunning I adore the attention to detail that’s gone into it. The evening itself was made all the better by the unbelievably stylish, eclectic and global crowd drawn in by Sam and Shaka.
![Still from The Blues, Direction SAM LAMBERT & SHAKA MAIDOH, Photography NAFKOT GEBEYEHU, Videography NAHOM SAMUNEGUS [2023]](https://darklight-digital.com/media/2023/12/img-6051-84-1-1920x1281-1-5x3.jpeg "The year in review 34")
I went to the opening of this exhibition at the Shoreditch Arts Club to watch Art Comes First’s [Shaka Maidoh and Sam Lambert] short, beautiful film shot in Ethiopia during lockdown. It’s a calm and profound film about the power and influence of blues music, of migration and slavery. As well as being aesthetically stunning I adore the attention to detail that’s gone into it. The evening itself was made all the better by the unbelievably stylish, eclectic and global crowd drawn in by Sam and Shaka.
LETTERS LIVE
Letters Live is an evening of letter reading … with the Royal Albert Hall as a backdrop. Actors, politicians and musicians stand up and read a letter each. Some from history, some modern day, some from royalty, others from housewives. I’ve got to hear love letters, complaint letters, farewell letters. It’s an astounding evening where you’re witnessing a broad cross section of humanity, leaving you crying with laughter one minute and weeping the next. Better than any film I’ve seen!
SARAH
GABBY
HOW TO HAVE SEX
This movie has really stuck with me: I felt an absolute sea of emotions during this film, and at times I found myself holding my breath. It’s about three British teenagers who go on their first solo holiday to Malia celebrating after finishing their GCSE’s — cue instant wave of nostalgia [and trigger]. It’s so relatable, it’s like truly reliving what it was like to be a teenage girl.
This movie has really stuck with me: I felt an absolute sea of emotions during this film, and at times I found myself holding my breath. It’s about three British teenagers who go on their first solo holiday to Malia celebrating after finishing their GCSE’s — cue instant wave of nostalgia [and trigger]. It’s so relatable, it’s like truly reliving what it was like to be a teenage girl.
INDIA
JE JOUE LE OOMPA LOOMPA, X
I am a chronic re-watcher, so the first thing that comes to mind is, like, New Girl. But, from 2023 … Past Lives, Lana Del Rey in Hyde Park [I died and went to heaven], Brian Eno at the Southbank Centre, Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba at the National Theatre, my friend Simone on keyboard in her new band Boil King, Philip Glass’s Akhnaten, The Bear, Vanya is Alive at the Edinburgh Festival, Hugh Grant saying: ‘Je joue le Oompa Loompa’.
HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM MIMI, SARAH, GABBY & INDIA X
END
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