“Ever been on a bad trip while walking in the rain?” Paul Hameline’s monthly dispatch

Date: 27th January 2024
Location: Paris
Music: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Scott Walker, Madonna
Book: A Season in Hell by Rimbaud
Cigarettes: 19
Meal: three hand-rolls, one miso soup, one side of crunchy salmon skin
Exhibition: Paris 2024: Calla Henkel and Max Pitegoff, Reba Maybury, and Sam Pulitzer, Fitzpatrick Gallery

A piss prism as a means to present the Eiffel Tower.
Andres Serrano’s piss is the priciest.
Golden yet toxic. Warm yet noisy.

In France, the Eiffel Tower = La Dame de Fer = The Iron Lady.
It’s funny how rhetoric works.
In English, the Iron Lady refers to a political figure.
In French, to a monument. (The tallest testimony of love.)
Not to mention its erotic connotations…

I re-watched The Iron Giant – talk about grand gestures…

Area of practice = political dominatrix

Some are deserving of punishment, others are turned on by it.
The orders were simple.
Reba’s emotional desires become your commands.
The mission consists of colouring the hollowed crevasses.
Do not forget to pay attention to colour codes…

In haste, one made a mess. A mess, he shall become.

Feeling provocative, one subject sent the task back unfinished.
What could be an adequate response to such an act of rebellion? He may have more affinities with the work of Clyfford Still and Barnett Newman than Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

The body can not erase the past.
Lautrec’s portrayal of women in a brothel in Paris, undergoing their yearly syphilis check-up.
A societal scandal green-lit by the Government.
A sexual witch hunt orchestrated by the State.
Test positive? Penalty of death.

Exhibition: Ruttkowski;68

Pathogenic atmosphere palpable throughout the line of the horizon. Bubble-gum collage homage to Marcel Duchamp’s The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors.
A stripped Art Deco facade.
An ice cream van left vacant overnight.
It’s burnt but still intact.
A past wish to be forgotten.
Wishing to be erased without the possibility to fully disappear.

Have you ever left your number on a matchbox?
Regrets tend to linger, especially the following morning.
Some love only lasts for a night.
Pain is a construct, born from internal opposition.

The radio transmission of a hesitant landscape.
Slits disguised as sound waves.
Vibrations, cardiac rhythm, wounds, womb.
The musical tension of scalpels and other surgical tools.

Exhibition: Cadet Capela

Painted flames pulse through the excavated ocular globes of a jack-o’-lantern.
Nightmare Interlude, Nightmare Set-up, Nightmare Before Christmas, Perfect Nightmare.
Other carved pumpkin aficionados include:
William S. Burroughs and his hatchet, slashing through Halloween memorabilia.

Date: 17th January 2024
Location: Paris
Music: Sinéad O’Connor, Lebanon Hanover, Nourished By Time
Book: Notebooks by Albert Camus
Cigarettes: just over half a pack
Meal: braised chicken, spinach and cabbage
Exhibition: mor charpentier

Twisted fantasy within recalling Inland Empire.
Distressed vision, distorted noise, disfigured emotions.
Rabbits running free in literature as an act of revolt.
Don’t be late… better… Run Rabbit, Run.
A heart ripped apart in between the lines of a fairytale.
A sombre world glamourised by an Instagram filter.
Bunnies are not what they seem, neither is the sound of howling.

Donnie Darko’s Liquid Spear in hand; Tears for Fears in the ears.
Another bunny, another bully (Bully: great film, amazing playlist).
Scream. Shout. Let it all out.
Underlying uneasiness, quiet seediness.

A wolf howling on a moonless night.
Saw one in the wild earlier this year.
Lonely fellow. Lovely beast.
Would you trust a wolf enough to put your head in its mouth?

Exhibition: Sans Titre

Saint Sebastian. The most portrayed Saint.
A superstar. Has been for a while.
Sebastiane by Derek Jarman, Mishima; A Life in Four Chapters by Schrader; Postcards From London by Steve MacLean.
Love outer space (the Prodigy too) – love life, love pink.
The sound of a pound of flesh perforated by arrows.
Words can be lethal. To be manipulated cautiously.
Consequences can result in screams, bruises and pain.
Actions are closely followed by repercussions.
Falling in love as swiftly as falling out of love.
Crayons made of bronze. Crayons as switchblades.

Lost puppet. Silent marionette.
Lifeless, its back turned against the viewer.
Sinking within a lightless screen.
There’s softness, gentleness.
As if dreaming.
Can puppets dream? Pinocchio surely did.

Exhibition: Marianne Goodman

Screenshots and vintage porn.
Synthetic garters and cigarettes burning.
The bitter aftertaste of gasoline.
Sportscars skimming through the night light like an industrialised body of Saint Sebastian.
A silver screen, two dinosaurs, fighting for the spotlight.
A sphinx, looking for questions – not answers.
Two fallen angels working in a gas station.
They have wings like axes.

Date: 3rd February 2024
Location: Paris
Music: Amnesia Scanner, Crystal Castles, Mis-Teeq
Book: Time Is a Mother by Ocean Vuong
Cigarette: a pack and a half
Meal: three onigiris and one miso soup
Exhibition: Frank Elbaz

The eye is beautiful and precarious.
How uniquely different are each of our experiences?
I saw clowns, but they were flowers.
Decided to stick with clowns. Closer to home.
Once out and about, you’re no longer the one in control of the narrative.

The essence of romanticism; its aesthetics laid bare.
The urge to scratch off academic sunsets.
A reminder of the violence and angst that envelops us.
Once diluted in your bloodstream, a stream of consciousness occurs.
Ever been on a bad trip, while walking in the rain?