This weekend I’m feeling nostalgic for my intellectual pre-A-level years and the endless presentations I did about DADA, possibly the most high brow yet random time in the history of art and the perfect movement for my nihilistic teenage self to reflect on. And didn’t I adore Kurt Schwitters, the guy who picked up rubbish from the street and turned it into art? I literally loved him as much as the meaninglessness of life!
I’m meant to be a grown-up now, but I still like a few subversive cut up bin bags and other found objects in my fashion stories so the Schwitters in Britain exhibition at the Tate Britain should be inspiring. It’s about the collage expert’s last eight years, in the UK, where he ended up after his art had been declared ‘degenerate’ by the Nazis. Looks like he became pretty British straight away, making sculptures out of porridge in his ‘enemy alien’ camp. He later moved on to collages that included London bus tickets and natural objects he found in rural Cumbria. Don’t miss it if you’re in London!
Tate Britain, January 30th – May 12th 2013