The Revue, April 2021

With summer around the corner and a gradual return to some version of normality in sight, we’re looking forward to gathering suggestions that take you beyond your front door. In the meantime, dive into this month’s selection of our favourite finds, from journeys into Japan’s beloved dashi to a tour around some of the globe’s most impressive modernist sites. Enjoy.

watch: Dashi Journey – Chef Shinobu Namae, Eric Wolfinger

Shinobu Namae, head chef at Michelin-starred French restaurant L'Effervescence in Tokyo, goes in search of the origins of dashi in this beautiful short film. A clear broth made from dried kombu (kelp) and fermented skipjack tuna flakes, dashi is at the heart of Japanese cooking, bringing a base of umami flavour to some of the country’s most beloved dishes. In a film from photographer Eric Wolfinger, Namae heads to Rebun Island in Hokkaido and Makurazaki in Kagoshima, to meet the makers behind dashi’s core ingredients, and finds himself “…moved by the dignity, humour, and generosity of people who themselves are invisible to society.”

read: Modernist Escapes—An Architectural Travel Guide
Designer and author Stefi Orazi – who you may remember from a previous instalment of The Survey – returns with another collectable volume. A little escapism while we’re all stuck indoors, Orazi uncovers 130 modernist gems from around the world, all accessible to the public, and some even available to rent for overnight stays. From Mies van der Rohe’s Villa Tugendhat in the Czech Republic, to Renaat Braem's house and studio in Antwerp, “each building is represented by striking contemporary photography alongside insightful text on its architectural history.”

tour: Henry Taylor at Hauser & Wirth, Somerset

American artist Henry Taylor takes over five galleries at Hauser & Wirth, Somerset, bringing together a selection of new sculpture and paintings alongside prominent pieces from across his 40-year career. “Through a process he describes as ‘hunting and gathering,’ Taylor transports us into imagined realities that interrogate the breadth of the human condition, social movements and political structures.”

The show follows a winter residency at the Bruton site, during which Taylor created a series of striking and revealing self-portraits. With the gallery currently closed, Hauser & Wirth present an interactive tour around the space over at their website.

read: Jem Southam, The Moth

A series of images taken across a 40-year career, British photographer Jem Southam's The Moth takes a single shot of a man standing on Gwithian beach in St Ives, Cornwall, and builds a narrative from this starting point. Old English poems The Wanderer and The Seafarer serve as inspiration to a collection of landscapes, from meadows to streams. As Southam himself puts it, "The Moth is for me very much about an expression of a sense of loss and longing, for something which has been given up, left behind..." The Moth is one of a selection of carefully chosen books from London photographic publisher MACK, available now at Drake's.

visit: Clive Hodgson - The Thing About A Name Is That It Doesn’t Refer To An Object

Bloomsbury gallery Mamoth host a series of works from British painter Clive Hodgson. A range of large-scale, colour-drenched canvases play with the conventions of painting, mixing intentional marks and graphic elements with more free flowing effects. Joyful, ambiguous, and posing more questions than it answers, “a Hodgson painting does not work merely as an idea, and neither is it a negation of painting…rather, his is a tightrope walk around the possibilities of painting.”

Mamoth Gallery, 3 Endsleigh Street, London WC1H 0DS

product focus: Cotton Crew Neck Hiking T-Shirt

If thoughts are turning to summer essentials, what better place to start than the crewneck tee? Our Hiking T-shirt returns in a selection of upbeat colours, from Fuschia to Mustard, perfect paired with more subdued layers. A sturdy 460g cotton suitable for multiple seasons, this classic cut is inspired by vintage ivy sportswear and preppy casuals, making it a true all-rounder.