Daniel Sloss: X • Pleasance at EICC • 15-19, 21-26 August • 7pm 2018.
The stand-up stage offers an ambiguous platform for the discussion of social and political issues. If handled correctly, comedy can be one of the most subversive mediums through which to voice ideas, with the potential to really impact the listener.
Daniel Sloss is one comedian who deftly straddles the line between disturbing subject matter and absurdist humour, pushing the boundaries of standup to include the poignant and the thought-provoking.
Always with something to say, Sloss's agenda is steeped with intelligent insights into the ways people form their opinions, that nudges his audience to question their own. Despite his facetious stance against political correctness, and for all his self-proclaimed darkness, Sloss treats traumatic subjects with a sensitivity that uncovers and carefully interrogates social taboo. He brings important issues to surface with a dry articulacy that leaves his audience thinking, as well as laughing.
‘Wildlife Photographer of the Year’ • Natural History Museum • on until 30th Jun 2019.
Whether you are a wildlife fanatic or not, there is so much to gain from this show. ‘Wildlife Photographer of the Year’ is a stunning exhibition, made more so by its considered combination of image with word. Photographs that are captivating in their own right are made all the more powerful by the stories written below, which give insight into the wildlife, and the phenomenal effort and length taken to capture each picture.
Particularly poignant is Adrian Bliss’s fox, quiet in the midst of Chernobyl’s rubble, which since its human abandonment has become a thriving habitat for Ukrainian wildlife. Photo-journalism shots document still deeper stories; painful snapshots of exploitation show a tiger debilitated by poaching, a sun bear crying from its cage, a monkey trapped in a circus which continues to go on. These are interspersed with more hopeful portraits, like of Bob the flamingo spreading the message for conservation on national television, and soothing rescued flamingos to aid their rehabilitation.
With each photograph, you see the power and the intricacy of nature, and are made to feel first hand the devastating effect that our impact has had on it. A lot is told and a lot can be learned. You come away with with a greater understanding of the animal world, and the time, skill and passion that goes into capturing it. There is a real sense of the passion behind the lens being shared, and I left feeling strangely uplifted, and enlivened by the thought of the opportunity that this exhibitions brings; for so many people to be made aware of these stories which are lesser known; to be moved by that which is not so often told; and hopefully to feel some connection, and desire to conserve these places from which they are so far removed.