text backlog

i forget we have a blog bc lowkey vs code is such a ballache to open and upload things to, but while i am here, i’ll dump 2 things i wrote for other people »>

first is an essay about KITSCH! in the Polyester Book of Bad Taste »»

u can buy it here or anywhere else tbh i do not mind!

i wrote about the kistory of kitsch & its relationship with the avant-garde, clement greenberg, my gujuarati family’s whatsapp groupchat and the glittery e-cards we send to each other (and the messy performance i did about it at eastside projects back in likeeee 2019?) – mostly i think the essay was trying to pick apart whether kitsch is radical bad taste or bad full stop, thinking about the history and politics of aesthetics through the 20th century and also NOW.

i am in good company, sandwiched just before an essay by literal tavi gevinson (SCREAM) but other contributors include Rene Matić, Angela Hui, Yomi Adegoke, Keiran Yates, Annie Lord, & ofc babes of Polyester Ione Gamble & Gina Tonic (2 icons who, quite frankly i’d listen to them read discuss & analyse the phonebook like)

some unflattering pics of me at the launch »

ig linkies:

here//here//here//here//& here WHEWWWW

i think i also just yesterday (??) emailed back to agree to be on this panel at the BFI on 10th October with Ione & Gina for Film In Print – i think it’s free & tickets open on 1st October so i’ll post the link on IG stories ina. couple weeks when it’s out

then no. #2 text for someone else (it rly feels like writing-infidelity lmao)

i wrote about SMELLS in ART for Dean’s Bottom’s new Crit series, this is the inaugral text, so v honoured to be picked first hehehee

u can read it here on the DB substack

i wrote about 3 works:

Room (Manrose Gold) by James Milner

We Live in an Era of Saint Making by Kaja Upelj (& Alina Miron)

aria by Ella Fleck

all 3 works were at either the Slade or the Goldsmiths MAFA degree shows this summer, so the text functions as a kind of survey of the medium as it stands in London summer 2026. thank u to Hsuan Hsu for dutiful attention and copyediting! & thank u to Fahad Mayet for inviting me to write for u

this is late notice too, but i’ll be talking to all 4 artists (james, kaja, alina & ella) on a lil crit panel at Camden Art Centre TONIGHT! (16th september) at 6.30pm – if u see this in time, the rsvp link is here – also free but sign up so they know they’re not over capacity

pics of the artists' work:

james milner x 2, kaja upelj & alina miron x2, ella fleck x3

but also omg read the substack for nicer pics too, rather than my bleary iphone cam ones lmao

ok – that is all! no other lil commission-y bits upcoming or due out (that i can remember) so i am all urs here on twp for the forseeable xoxo