Reviews of Habibi Funk 031, Kayatibu, and The Good Ones
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Best of 2018: Culture
by MIKE QUILLE
Real life: Tish Murtha photograph in the exhibition Women by Women
SIMON DUFF relishes the cross contamination of Damien Hirst’s greatest hits by street artists from France and the US
In view of the grooming gangs inquiry, SIMON PARSONS feels the relevance of this powerful examination of trauma suffered at Medomsley Youth Detention Centre
JOHN GREEN doubts the motivations of a US war photographer who never questions why, or for whom, she is producing images of imperialist conflict
MARIA DUARTE reviews Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, Hedda, The Mastermind, and Regretting You
TONY CONWAY welcomes a thrilling and concise history of Hope not Hate, that is also a manual full of tactical advice
PAUL DONOVAN welcomes an inspiring account of living with deafness that has important lessons for the treatment of deaf people in today’s UK
“EVERY document of civilisation is also a document of barbarism,” said Walter Benjamin, for behind castles and cathedrals lie histories of violence and oppression. Yet paintings, plays, poems, and films can all express and protest against — as well as deny and legitimate – the exploitation and barbarism of ruling elites that fuel class struggles throughout history.
Benjamin’s insight seems particularly relevant to many exhibitions, plays and films that have come out this year, an example being The Political History of Smack and Crack by Ed Edwards. A brilliant drama about personal relationships, it also exposed the shameful story of the British state’s collusion in our drugs problems.
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MIKE QUILLE applauds an excellent example of cultural democracy: making artworks which are a relevant, integral part of working-class lives
ANGUS REID calls for artists and curators to play their part with political and historical responsibility
NICK WRIGHT delicately unpicks the eloquent writings on art of an intellectual pessimist who wears his Marxism lightly
MIKE QUILL reports on a lively conference in Barnsley that took stock of working-class access to culture and proposed strategies to embed culture within the trade union movement