The availability of light doesn't just set a mood; it codifies human behaviour. That most powerful of light sources, the Sun, can be a symbol of warmth and hope, but it is also pervasive. In the natural world, it can be oppressive, even threatening. I take a look at how artists have treated the sun - and reveal some unexpected ambiguities.

Artists discussed include the Beatles, JMW Turner, René Magritte and Joan Miró.

This episode was recorded in London, England by Susan Gordon. You can read an episode transcript on her website, https://ampereworks.weebly.com/the-culture-boar-podcast.html

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The Bloomsbury Group leave an uneasy legacy. But is there really a connection between place and creativity? If so, what does this mean for creatives shut out from these places?

Property and relative wealth proved a foundation for the Bloomsbury Group's artistic freedom. But does an artist's personal biography - their class, their image, their resources - limit how we receive their work?

Works referenced:

A Home of One's Own: Why the Housing Crisis Matters & What Needs to Change by Hashi Mohamed (2022, Profile Books)

A Room of One's Own, Virginia Woolf

Roger Fry, Vision and Design

The Death of the Author, Roland Barthes

Mrs Dalloway, Virginia Woolf

This episode was recorded in London, England, by Susan Gordon. You can read a transcript of the episode on her website, https://ampereworks.weebly.com/the-culture-boar-podcast.html

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I brave Brutalist architecture and sheets of rain to review Dragons at the Barbican. It is a feast for the mind and senses.

Dragons is choreographed by Eun-Me Ahn, and the company performing at the Barbican until Saturday 23 September 2023. It transfers to the Lowry in Manchester with performances on Tue 26 and Wed 27 September.

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A sudden and unlikely craving for fish fingers leads me beyond the freezer aisle. What makes food fit for children, and not adults? And what makes the food of childhood a powerful presence in adulthood, and memory?

Books and works referenced today:

Without Warning and Only Sometimes: Scenes from an Unpredictable Childhood by Kit de Waal, 2022, Hatchette

Mean Baby by Selma Blair, 2022, Little, Brown

Surrealist Manifesto, 1924, André Breton

This episode was recorded in London, England by Susan Gordon. You can read a transcript of the episode on her website, https://ampereworks.weebly.com/the-culture-boar-podcast.html

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Stories set in cities very often take their characters to its darkest recesses, but a city offers other possibilities, too.

Referenced in this week's episode:

Wordsworth, Composed upon Westminster Bridge: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45514/composed-upon-westminster-bridge-september-3-1802 

The Brother Gardeners by Andrea Wulf

This episode was recorded in London by Susan Gordon. You can read the transcript online at https://ampereworks.weebly.com/the-culture-boar-podcast.html

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Introducing a small and shining gem in arts & culture. This week, it's a 1960 documentary written and directed by Ken Russell, A House in Baywater.

Link to watch A House in Bayswater: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFZlBYJ0_uY

This episode was recorded in London, and presented by Susan Gordon. You can read the transcripts on her website: https://ampereworks.weebly.com/the-culture-boar-podcast.html

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Today, I’m exploring what really happens when we share the books that matter to us most, and the soundtracks to our lives. Can curated selections and exuberant book recommendations move from the purity of enthusiasm to egocentricity? Are public declarations of personal taste a little bit... selfish?

I discuss Henry Miller's The Books in my Life and Cathy Rentzenbrink's Dear Reader: The Comfort and Joy of Books.

This episode was recorded in London, and presented by Susan Gordon. You can read the transcripts on her website: https://ampereworks.weebly.com/the-culture-boar-podcast.html

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I've been getting the avant-garde all wrong. Not anymore. Find out what we think we mean when we call something avant-garde, what it really means, and why I argue that there is no avant-garde in England today.

Presented by Susan Gordon and recorded in London. For a transcript of this week's episode, please visit https://ampereworks.weebly.com/the-culture-boar-podcast

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Tune in to find out about the aims and ethos of the Culture Boar, a new arts podcast.

The Culture Boar is recorded in London, England, and presented by Susan Gordon.

For a transcript of this week's episode, please visit https://ampereworks.weebly.com/the-culture-boar-podcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.