Paul Hameline’s October dispatch: “Who knows what’s saltier – sweat or tears?”

Date: 10th October 2023
Location: Paris – London
Arrival: 05:35 pm EST
Means of transport: Eurostar
Music: Aphex Twin, The Chemical Brothers, Erykah Badu
Book: Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black by Cookie Mueller
Cigarettes: 2-3
Meal: blueberries + Perrier

Arrived at Kings X. Got in a cab and dropped my bags. Headed to a friend’s place for a cosy dinner and catch up.

Date: 11th October 2023
Location: London
Specific location: Sotheby’s, Phillips, Christie’s
Music: Tricky, Aaliyah, Nine Inch Nails
Book: Blue by Derek Jarman
Cigarettes: half a pack (give or take)
Meal: gluten-free burger at The Wolseley, a Bloody Mary and several iced matchas

Woke up earlier than expected, ordered some juices and hopped in a bubble bath with lots of oils, salts and candles hoping to trick my body into resting a bit longer before heading out to see some art.

Anselm Kiefer’s La Belle et la Seine. Leos Carax and Jean Cocteau. The mermaid and the nymph (Homer’s / Disney’s; both anchored in popular culture). These droplets of sweat, these oceans of tears. Who knows what’s saltier?? Sweat or tears?

Elizabeth Peyton: pencil drawing of two brothers; two princes.

Michael Borremans: close-up, baby, newborn, bodiless, delicate, fragile: porcelain doll, wax figure, artificial reality? Prominent, faceless, threatening, menacing, impressive.

Richard Prince: Sunday morning, minutes before dawn hits. A figure, on a bar (a little too sticky, a little too shiny), happily dancing in the flickering shadows.

Ed Ruscha: yellow background, slimy font, mint. A fancy pallet cleanser?

Thomas Ruff: blurry photograph sourced from pornography.

In between the auction houses and the air, I went to get a burger and a much-needed Bloody Mary at the Wolseley and used these comfy seats to rest my tired bones and finished my book (which made me tear up a bit by the end of it).

Date: 11th October 2023
Location: London
Specific location: Frieze London & Frieze Masters
Music: Bad Bunny, Eminem, The The
Books: Finished Derek Jarman’s Blue at lunch, started Our Lady of the Flowers by Jean Genet
Cigarettes: the other half of the pack
Meal: two glasses of champagne

Paul McCarthy: sticky sculpture with fingers among other body parts.

Josh Smith and one of his joyful death paintings conversing with a metal one in Regent’s Park.

A work by Stuart Middleton reminds me of Lee Lozano’s tools series or drawings of men mixed with machines. Metallic portraiture of industrial bodies in all their warmth. All their sharp edges. It brings to mind JG Ballard’s Crash and the work of David Cronenberg. Their approach to the machine in correlation to the human body etc.

Warhol’s controversial Piss paintings. An oxidised copper board that has been urinated on by a stranger. Chemically induced magic unfolds…

Un câlin. A moment of intimacy with Picasso.

Date: 17th October 2023
Location: Paris
Specific location: Aaahhh!!! Paris Internationale
Music: Faithless, DJ Shadow, Portishead
Book: God with Revolver by Renée Ricard
Cigarettes: finished last night’s pack
Meal: a mini pigeon pastilla, two blinis with caviar, one mini truffle croque monsieur, one glass of champagne, two extra dirty vodka martinis

Larry Stanton saw it all and I would have loved to be by his side as he navigated the debauchery and decadence of the 1970s and ‘80s in New York. A portrait of a handsome – probably under-slept – person. An accurate depiction of us and the friends we’re running into at the fair knowing we only left each other a couple of hours ago. Still deemed ‘last night’ when midnight was already quite far behind.

Sam Lipp: a much-needed series of warm and velvety pictures (remember the touch of freshly picked peaches still wrapped in their fur). Rendering that craving for intimacy we’ve all been looking for with fall’s arrival.

Saw two pieces incorporating Valium and Xanax. Which would be your personal favourite?

Date: 18th October 2023
Location: Paris
Specific location: Paris+ par Art Basel
Music: Groove Armada, Dean Blunt, Nirvana
Book: The Joan Anderson Letter by Neal Cassady
Cigarettes: 4-5
Meal: one crab hand roll, one toro hand roll, one ebi tempura hand roll, one iced green tea and one kombucha

Egon Schiele: there were a lot of flowers present in the fair. Flowers are a lucrative business, you always need fresh ones. Brings back childhood memories of herbarium-making on holidays.

Two Anne Imhof paintings in dialogue; transforming themselves right in front of our sight as our vision sharpens or blurs as we move closer or further away from one another. A ‘steam veil’ gives us that voyeuristic dynamic. We’re not meant to be there lurking in this scene. It’s private. A drawing by Anne. A solitary angel, wings in the shape of hands, navigating the lost protagonist around, led by his own decisions.

Rafik Greiss: a picture of a shiny leather structure (a seat perhaps? From a club, a taxi, a dive bar? Rumour has it, the sky’s the limit.) The warm light reflected itself into the disfigured patent skin. Orange mousse reminds us of comfort and warmth. Sharp and tensed leather edges. Are leather paper cuts a thing?

A David Wojnarowicz orgy. My love for him is pretty self-explanatory. What else could one ask for? PPOW’s booth had it ready, a testimony to David and Peter Hujar’s love for each other in a presentation of Peter’s intimate photography.

Karol Palczak’s trees are burning from their insides. There’s a snowman too – the artist likes to call them a self-portrait.

An organic Magritte I’ve never seen. (Yes, caterpillars are considered high in protein – to be consumed in moderation and within a healthy diet).

Sexy Fontana: reminds me of Jill Masterson’s dead body covered in gold (gold being the lethal weapon) in Goldfinger. (An allegory of Midas’ myth and his infamous touch?)

Victor Man: a sex and a cherry. A nude, anonymous body carrying another nude, unrecognisable body. Both have shades of green. Both side by side. One is small scale. Another is much bigger.

Hugh Hayden: In the darkest of places, when no light seems to shine through. Your body, your heart, your touch, use them. Hold a loved one in an eternal embrace. (Could love be the only everlasting thing on Earth?). Hand in hand with the sun and all its warmth, the night will end and dawn will prevail.

Alvaro Barrington: blown-up pillowy sunset-dyed flower petals and a sun-stained hymen. A correlation with a hard steel and wood frame encapsulating the sunset.

Florian Krewer: his flame jugglers. We all like to play, don’t we? Especially with the risk of getting burned.

Thomas Struth: a machine viewed from its insides, its cold metallic intestines. A staring contest between a machine and a warm body.

Suddenly it’s windy. A smile. It’s cold outside, let’s go ice skating. What’s better than feeling the cold crisp air hitting your lips like a stranger’s bite. (Hence the smile). Like in this Gary Simmons painting presented by Hauser & Wirth.