Artists, writers, and performers read short stories celebrating the idiosyncratic pantheon of public figures and Old Hollywood stars found within our current exhibition, Scott Covert's C'est la vie. Contributors include Alex Margo Arden, Hannah Regel, Harold Offeh, Lauren John Joseph, Misha MN and Sam Cottington.
In response to Covert's highly personalised taxonomy of famous subjects, the readings for this event will delve further into the themes of 20th Century American pop culture, or Americana, relating to ideas of celebrity, gossip, mythology, and tragedy.
This evening of readings takes its name from the highly popular, highly gossipy book Hollywood Babylon by avant-garde filmmaker Kenneth Anger, published in 1959. Comprising untrue and exaggerated short stories, Hollywood Babylon details the alleged scandals of stars from the 1900s to the 1950s, many of whom feature throughout Scott Covert’s long-standing series of Monument and Lifetime Drawing works — featuring the likes of Babe (Barbara) Paley, Bette Davis, James Dean, Joan Crawford, Florence Ballard, Marilyn Monroe, Nancy Spungen, Ramon Novarro, Rock Hudson, Sylvester James, and Warhol superstars, Candy Darling, Jackie Curtis and Edie Sedgwick.
The event is free, booking essential.
Alex Margo Arden is an artist from London. She creates multilayered performances, installations, and odours. Previous projects have been presented at Ginny on Frederick, London; Cell Project Space, London; La Casa Encendida, Madrid; World Pride 2021, Malmö; The Royal Standard, Liverpool; Mathew Gallery, New York; AND/OR, London; Serf, Leeds. She is currently a student at the Royal Academy Schools, and previously graduated from Goldsmiths where she was awarded the Hamad Butt Memorial Prize.
Hannah Regel is a writer based in London. From 2012-2019 she was the co-editor of the feminist art journal SALT. Her writing has been published in The Poetry Review, Fantastic Man, Granta, Canal and Noon, amongst others. She has published two collections of poetry, When I Was Alive and Oliver Reed (both Montez Press, 2017 and 2020).
Harold Offeh is an artist working in a range of media including performance, video, photography, learning and social arts practice. Offeh often employs humour as a means to confront the viewer with historical narratives and contemporary culture and is interested in the space created by the inhabiting or embodying of history. He has exhibited widely in the UK and internationally including Tate Britain and Tate Modern, London; Studio Museum Harlem, New York, USA; South London Gallery, London; MAC VAL, Paris, France; Kulturhusset, Stockholm, Sweden and Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Lauren John Joseph is an artist and writer, who works across video, text, and live performance. They have written extensively on contemporary culture, art, performance, pornography, gender theory and the Golden Age of Hollywood, contributing in print and online to publications including iD, The Independent, Sleek, The Guardian, Time Out, Attitude, Amuse, Siegessäule, Parterre de Rois, Charleston Press, and the ‘zines Birdsong, Fat Zine, 21st Century Queer Artists Identify Themselves, and Not Here: An Anthology of Queer Loneliness. Previous authored works include At Certain Points We Touch (Bloomsbury, 2022) and Everything Must Go (ITNA Press, 2014), and the plays, A Generous Lover and Boy in a Dress, which were published by Oberon in 2019.
Misha MN is an artist, poet, writer, photographer, performer, shaman, zine maker and queer culture curator, working between Brighton and London. They are a contributing editor for Polyester, surrealist showgirl for underground cabaret troupe Club Silencio and author of monthly column Culture Slut.
Sam Cottington is an artist and writer living between London and Frankfurt. He writes plays, performance, novellas and short stories; and makes painting, collage, sculpture, installation and video. Recent exhibitions and performances include: Civil Twilight, Ginny on Frederick, London (2022); Blanks, Ridley Road Project Space, London, UK (2022); Pennies From Heaven, London Performance Studios, London, UK (2022); Getting Dressed, V.O Curations, London, UK (2021); Crave, SET Lewisham, London, UK (2021); Haus Wien, Vienna, Austria (2021) and Deadhead Perfora, Yaby, Madrid, Spain (2020). His first novella People Person was published in 2022 by JOAN press.
Bette Davis and Joan Crawford during the making of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). Photo/ Archive Photos Getty Images
Joan Crawford and Bette Davis in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962). Credit Rex Features.
Kenneth Anger, Hollywood Babylon II (1984). Courtesy of EP Dutton Inc. New York.
Ramon Novarro, Francis X Bushman and Kathleen Key in Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925). Credit Mgm Kobal Shutterstock
