New ArtReview Columnist Rejects Wishlists, Reflects on Steve Claydon and Masahisa Fukase

A new columnist for ArtReview introduces their approach, rejecting the wishlist format of their predecessor Gallery Girl. The writer describes being mesmerized by Steve Claydon's yellow PVC strip curtains in his exhibition The Gilded Bough at Sadie Coles HQ, where moving through the installation evoked Walter Benjamin's angel of history. They also reflect on Masahisa Fukase's 1974 photograph From Window, featured in Tate Modern's show Performing for the Camera, which depicts his second wife Yoko looking up from the street. After 13 years as his sole photographic subject, Yoko left Fukase, describing their life together as moments of suffocating dullness interspersed with violent excitement. Heartbroken, Fukase devoted himself to photographing ravens. The column references philosophical observations from Carl Jung, Foucault, and Derrida, with the latter explaining over a Baba au Rhum that schoolmasters' promises were mere folly. Published online exclusively on 31 March 2016, the piece concludes with thoughts on finding solace in pudding and contemporary art during turbulent times.