frame 33 December 2022
Beyond The Frame Of Reference: Richard Smith
by Sam Phillipart
I was sat quietly considering basic geometry on a chilly train from Cardiff Central to Bath Spa.
My circular glasses, the rectangular window, the triangular prism of a sandwich packet and, crucially, the broad, square pages of Richard Smith: Artworks 1954–2013 – the impetus of my trip and the reason for my abstract musings.
The shape of each these objects conforms to a common-sense rationale: they were the way they were simply because the way they were made them easiest to use. They were that way because, put basically, they were supposed to be. I was to find that Richard Smith and his artworks, some of which bend and contort their frame, some of which exude intense abstraction, others which appear suspended in flight, elude such easy convention… MORE
frame 32 October 2022
Mary’s Scary Story
by Mary Cooper
Though Francis Bacon did not believe in God or the afterlife, he was superstitious.
And, like most of us, he was divided. As science reveals, more is concealed: flickering brain functions, the quantum realm, multiverses – what’s going on? Few of us can entirely dismiss night-time noises in ancient houses. But a modern hotel, in the middle of a city, in broad daylight?
Harriet Vyner asked her sister-in-law Mary Cooper to give us her account of events she experienced. The result is this wonderfully evocative and chilling story… MORE
frame 31 October 2022
Interview with Sophie Pretorius, archivist of the Estate of Francis Bacon
by Ramona Pulsford
Ramona Pulsford: You’ve obviously delved deep into Bacon’s artwork, but if you were to zoom out again, how would you sum him up, as an artist, in a sentence or two?
Sophie Pretorius: Wow, going in hard immediately! What I think rings true with most people, and is why he remains so popular, is that he put a huge amount of glamour and value upon suffering and difficulty. His work, instead of trying to ease it, valorises it. It is terribly hopeful. That is what I think his work is about, if one can say his work is about anything… MORE
frame 30 September 2022
The September Issue
by the CHEERIO team
An autumnal welcome to all, from CHEERIO team!
In The September Issue, we bring film announcements from writer, actor and director Neil Bartlett, pyschogeographer Iain Sinclair and an a comical piece on our new Prime Minister.
With this being a transformative time of year, we are delighted to start this Long Read by presenting renowned journalist and media pundit Jonathan Lis' piece about our new Prime Minister… MORE
frame 29 August 2022
Where The Sun Doesn’t Reach
by Dr Lisa Searle
Living underground. Not by choice.
For any of us.
Nobody would choose this life.
The smell of urine, cabbage, old food, stale cigarette smoke, every now and then a whiff of perfume, somebody’s attempt to feel normal, to have a moment of pleasure, to feel like themselves, to feel clean… MORE
frame 28 August 2022
In Conversation:
with Austin Collings and Ray Richardson
I first met Ray Richardson through James Ellroy of all people. I interviewed Ellroy for the British Journal of Photography in 2015. He told me that he liked his art to be straight. That he liked what he called “good paintings”, which was shorthand for “no abstraction”. The thing had to be the thing that was painted.
And his favourite painter of things-as-they-should-be was Ray Richardson.
Ellroy owned three of Ray’s bull-terrier paintings. Bull-terriers are Ray’s signature. Like Trump, Hogarth’s ubiquitous pug, Ray’s own bull-terrier, Wee Bri’, often makes an appearance in his work. He is the canine equivalent of DeNiro to Ray’s Scorsese – GQ Magazine, in fact, dubbed Ray the ‘Scorsese of painting’… MORE
frame 27 August 2022
The Colour Storm:
with Damian Dibben and Jane Rankin-Reid
Jane Rankin-Reid: Everyone of your characters’ outfits are described in beautifully observed colours. From Sybille Fugger’s creamy white satins, to the particularly rich crimson shade of her cloak. So too the surfaces of the paintings you’ve detailed. What has cultivated this acute scrutiny in you as a writer?
Damin Dibben: “The idea of someone searching for a colour was entrancing. The initial starting point for this story was seeing the Giorgione exhibition at the Royal Academy and hearing Anish Kapoor talking about copyrighting the Vantablack colour. I was also thinking about Yves Klein’s International Klein Blue… MORE
frame 26 July 2022
Interview with Fahad Al-Amoudi
by Martha Sprackland
Martha Sprackland: Congratulations, first of all – you have been chosen as the winner of this year’s White Review Poet’s Prize, for a portfolio of poems I’ve been lucky enough to read, and was very impressed by. Readers of the magazine will find that full portfolio in a forthcoming issue of the White Review, but one poem, ‘The Old Justice’, has been selected for early publication on the website already. This poem, like others in your winning portfolio, is interested in storytelling, in a sort of myth or legend, in what the judges called ‘fabulation’. Are you drawn to the telling or retelling of collective motifs, to legends, the old songs and stories?… MORE
frame 25 July 2022
The Future of Museums
by Max Lunn
A text-based installation by the Uruguayan artist Louis Camnitzer has appeared on a handful of U.S museums over the last decade [pictured], including the Guggenheim, New York. Its message is simple: the contents of museums is not a fixed product, but an ever-evolving process which only exists with the participation of the public. Museums are not storehouses of past glories, but spaces to shape our understanding of the present and future… MORE
frame 24 June 2022
In Conversation:
with Jasper Gibson and Johnny Flynn
Johnny Flynn: We will now start with Jasper reading a bit of the book. This is the moment where Tom, who is the hero of the book, a voice hearer and his voice, well – who’s his voice?
Jasper Gibson: Tom hears the voice of Malamock the Octopus God, and this, I guess, is the moment quite early on where he’s been trying to do a very simple thing which is just go to London and meet an old friend, but because of his experiences, because society in the form of the medical profession and his long-suffering but loving sister Tess infantilises him, this simple thing is turned into a big struggle and this really is the moment where it all becomes too much and he starts to trigger… MORE
frame 23 May 2022
An interview with Bella Freud
by Clare Conville
Clare Conville: Francis Bacon was not traditionally good looking but as a young man he had a strange beauty which developed into a kind of irresistible glamour in later life. Do you think glamour is innate or is it something that can be acquired or accumulates?
Bella Freud: Like anything to do with style and glamour, nothing is set in stone. Some people seem to be weirdly glamorous without even noticing it, and others work hard at it and that is also incredibly thrilling… MORE
frame 22 March 2022
Osman Yousefzada: The Go-Between
by Darren Biabowe Barnes
DB: Firstly, congratulations on the publication of your wonderful memoir, THE GO-BETWEEN. Can I start by asking how has, as you see it, Birmingham changed since your time growing up there in 80s/90s to now?
OY: On the surface, I think that the city has become much more dynamic. It’s probably the most diverse city in England, and by 2024, it will have a larger percentage of people of colour than it will white British people… MORE
frame 21 March 2022
What Putin Wants
by Andrey Kurkov
I am haunted by memories.
I remember spending ten days in Croatia, during the Yugoslav war, as a writer-journalist almost thirty years ago. I wrote the first reports to Ukraine from the front line, near the Croatian city of Sisak. I remember how I participated in the Orange Revolution, hoping that with the help of the revolution Ukraine would be cleansed of all its problems, of corruption and bureaucracy, of attempts to falsify elections… MORE
frame 20 January 2022
In Conversation:
with Jason Pierce and Lenny Kaye
Jason Pierce: Did you ever feel like, ‘How the fuck did I arrive here’?
Lenny Kaye: Oh, all the time. Especially for one as untrained as I am as a musician. I always loved rock and roll - played in bands as a kid. But to still be doing what we do 50 years later – and for something as off the beaten path as Patti…? She and I never thought we would have a rock and roll band when we started, in fact we didn’t know what we were doing, we just had something that created a fascination in those who came to see us, even though they didn’t quite know why… And us - we’re figuring it out too… MORE
christmas frame December 2021
Figure Skating: Not Just for Christmas
A film by Pinkietessa
We are delighted to present this film, made especially for CHEERIO this Christmas, by artist and filmmaker, Pinkietessa. Happy Christmas! MORE
frame 19 December 2021
Interview with CHEERIO Scholar Roisin McAweaney
by Rebecca Harrison
Salted Caramel follows the downward spiral of a woman as she becomes increasingly obsessed with her ex-boyfriend and his new influencer girlfriend, Candy Cane.
"When one pictures a stalker, one imagines a trench coat. One imagines a poor disguise. One imagines someone hiding in the bushes. Turns out, these wide sweeping generalisations aren’t so far from the truth. What I'm trying to tell you here, is that I was hiding in a bush.”
Salted Caramel is both a thriller and a comedy… MORE
frame 18 November 2021
NFTs and the Art World
with Chris McCormack and Sam Spike
Chris McCormack: If we might begin by defining what an NFT or Non-Fungible Token is, and how they have arisen through the advancement of blockchain technology. I’m also interested what initially drew you as a writer and curator to NFTs.
Sam Spike: I was first introduced to NFTs in 2019 by a friend who works in cryptocurrency. He works in the decentralised finance industry, which is sort of the leading industry within the cryptocurrency space… MORE
frame 17 October 2021
The Hunter and the Hare
by Rowan Somerville
There was a time in my adult life when, each autumn, the idea would come into my head that I should eat a hare. I had this notion, I don't know where from, that eating the dark powerful meat of this wild animal would protect me in some way from winter’s morose moods and the accompanying afflictions of viral irritants that drag on through endless nights running into weeks, without ever inspiring the slightest sympathy from others… MORE
