Author Archives: Jonathan Swain

MIDNIGHT COWBOY. Duke of Yorks cinema, Brighton. c.1979

Marney Walker

One year, in the gap between Christmas and new years, I went to see Midnight Cowboy. Going to see a film is always a good antidote to festive indulgence. It was freezing outside. The heating didn’t seem to have been … Continue reading →

Drive By Corridor (2010)

19 Apr ’10

An intervention as part of ‘A Journey through U’ curated by Same Sky at Phoenix Gallery, Brighton. 20th Feb -28th March 2010. The corridor is visible through large, street facing windows along its length. Lit at night, it could be … Continue reading →

20 Aug ’09

To Moscow To Moscow. The New Factory of the Eccentric Actor. London (2009) Following the life of Chekhov, including his crusading trip to examine the dire living conditions of the inhabitants of the island of Sakhalin in 1890.

Victory Over the Sun. The New Factory of the Eccentric Actor. London (2009).

15 Apr ’09

176 gallery. London Futurist opera produced by The New Factory of the Eccentric Actor as part of Matt Stokes residency.

Silo

18 Mar ’09

KOLLONTAI IN LONDON. The New Factory of the Eccentric Actor. London. (2009)

1 Mar ’09

New Factory’s dynamic romp through the numerous trips to London made by the radical socialist thinker Alexandra Kollontai in the years before the Russian revolution. Written by Penny Dimond and presented as part of International Womens Day.

HALIFAX, 29 Frith St. W1

4 Nov ’08

This mundane Halifax on Frith St in London is on the site of the Moka, Soho’s first expresso bar. Opened with flamboyant style by film star Gina Lollobrigida in 1953 it was closed in a different manner by the novelist … Continue reading →

“What happened?” Oona addressed this as a kind of local petition to the five or six aggrieved passengers milling nearest. As in a street incident involving wreckage or fire trucks a volunteer explainer emerged, a middle aged Hasid with curved shoulders draped in a long, soiled scarf, and bearing twin shopping bags like a milkmaid’s yoke. He seemed drawn to Oona as another dressed in black.

9 Feb ’08

Chronic City. Jonathan Lethem. Faber Faber 2010

Tirana Calling (2007)

7 Oct ’07

A sound piece made to express my disgust with the tyrannical and megalomaniacal behaviour of the Albanian Socialist leader Enver Hoxha during the 1970’s. Part of Signal, an exhibition curated by Finetuned at the Friese-Green gallery, Brighton and broadcast on … Continue reading →

AK TWENTY SEVEN. The New Factory of the Eccentric Actor. London.(2007)

1 Apr ’07

A dramtic account of Alexandra Kollontai’s period as the Soviet Union’s ambassador in Mexico at a time of political crisis for the revolution and the communist party in Mexico itself.