YOU'RE GONNA WAKE UP ONE MORNING AND KNOW WHAT SIDE OF THE BED YOU'VE BEEN LYING ON!

I had a grand ole evening with some friends yesterday. We started off at the British Library to check out an exhibition on European Avant Garde called "Breaking The Rules", which proved to be rather thought-provoking, as an exhibition should be. I wasn't aware that there were that many 'isms' in Art- Cubism, Expressionism, Futurism, Dadaism, Suprematism, Constructivism, Surrealism, to name a few. Later at Trash Palace, we had fun brainstorming our own 'isms' that we could possibly throw into the mix.

SOME OF THE HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR TRAWL AROUND THE GALLERY WERE:

1. Me ogling and wanting to steal a tshirt designed by McLaren, Vivienne Westwood and Bernard Rhodes with the heading "You're gonna wake up one morning and know what side of the bed you've been lying on!"

Printed on it were two lengthy lists, one of Loves (like Jamaican Rude Boys, Coffee bars that sell whiskey under the counter, The Tate Gallery and all those American businesslike painters, Iggy Pop, and to be seen in New York), and one of Hates (like Harpers, Vogue, in fact all magazines that treat their readers as idiots, Andy Warhol, dirty books that aren't all that dirty, Elton John, West End shopping and all those fucking saints) dear dear!

2. My friends and I copying the crouching, weeping, head-holding, spinning, collapsing movements of an Avant Garde performance on a little TV

3. Giggling like little girls over some short films on flying bowler hats, breasts, then no breasts, then breasts again, the jumping and twirling underneath of a ballerina's skirt (very cool shot), a paper boat sailing over rooftops, and the stabbing of an office worker with a life-sized cartridge pen and his transformation into a paper man who then gets squashed by an angry uni-browed woman.

4. Listening to and attempting to imitate the supposed Language of the Gods, which sounded like a series of badly cleared throats.

Suffice to say, it was brilliant. I even bought myself a little Man Ray bookmark with my tattoo on it for 99p; you know, the one with the violin printed on the woman's back (SEE BELOW). If you like Avant Garde, there are some events coming up at the British Museum next week including an Avant Garde Study Day. Here's a link for upcoming events. http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/features/breakingtherules/eventsfeb.html#study

I think I might wanna check out the one on Photography and the Avant Garde. Big Man Ray fan, guys, clearly.