Four Somethings

On Barbara Kruger's slogans, True Detective's voices, three-piece suits & the paperback of Kinsella's Milk

A quick note about Mother Tongue Tied: Many of you have messaged to ask how to order in the U.S. or Canada. First, thank you so much for your interest. I am currently working with my book team here to secure a publisher in that part of the world so ordering and shipping are possible, and much more reasonably priced than directly from a UK-based retailer. (Although, ordering from UK is still possible.) Fingers crossed it all comes together and I will send any updates as soon as I can. And if you are part of a Canadian/American publishing team and interested, please reach out!

Four Somethings

In case you missed the inaugural Four Somethings, it is loosely based on the idea of four gifts: something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read! In other words, a collection of things I have seen or been thinking about recently.

Something You Want

I took my kids to the Barbara Kruger exhibit Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You at the Serpentine Gallery in London recently. Kruger’s work is about the language of design, of power, of class, of gender and more. Unfortunately, the exhibition closed this past weekend, but I wanted to share some images from the show. If you are in London or nearby, some of her work is part of the permanent collection at the Tate Modern. 

I’ve written about Barbara Kruger for the newsletter before, specifically about her iconic Your Body is a Battleground poster designed for the Women’s March in Washington, DC in 1989. I noted how two years later in 1991, a Polish edition was printed and started to appear on the streets of Warsaw, Poland. (The Polish version is part of a collection at V&A in London.) 

The want here is yes, more Kruger but also, to consider how simple slogans, phrases, or words (read: “body” and “battleground”) may have momentous meaning, especially in today’s terrifying world. 

Something You Need

We finally finished True Detective: Night Country a couple of weeks ago. I mean, Jodie Foster! And Kali Reis is also amazing. Most of the filming was done in Iceland but the show takes places in a fictional Alaskan town called Ennis. I recently read the show worked closely with the Iñupiaq Advisory Council in Alaska to ensure cultural and linguistic details were accurate. The council encouraged the use of Iñupiaq words in the show and chose the  Iñupiaq names for characters in the town. Polaris-prize winning Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq was not only a character in the show (the doula in the birthing scene) but she contributed seven songs to the show’s soundtrack. Tagaq’s vocal work and traditional throat singing add the most beautiful and ethereal background to the series.

Something to Wear

I have been distracting myself recently by looking at sharp and oversized women’s suits. I would love a three-piece suit to wear…somewhere…sometime and hope to find one that is not outrageously expensive but great quality. I remember wearing my father’s black velvet wedding suit as a teen but beyond that, I don’t think I’ve ever worn a full suit and that needs to change. This is a great read about the history of the women’s pant suit and a lot has been written about how suits are a form of armour or an instant symbol of power and authority.

Lauren Hutton for Porter Magazine by Vanina Sorrenti.

And here we can bring in language and idiom, “who wears the pants/trousers (in a relationship)?” The saying apparently dates to the 1500s (some sources note a century later) and was originally a version of “who wears the breeches” denoting who in a relationship makes the final decisions. Of course, back then, women were considered the property of men and men, who wore trousers/pants while women predominantly wore skirts/dresses, controlled everything.

On a lighter language note, I recently learnt from Derek Guy (@dieworkwear over on X/Twitter) that in men’s tailoring, “belly” refers to how much curvature a tailor puts into the lapels. No belly means a straight lapel, but a jacket can also have a little belly, more belly or lotta belly!

Also, Google Annette Bening for a master class in pant suits!

Something to Read

The paperback of Alice Kinsella’s Milk was released earlier this month. It is hard to describe this moving book, written in fragments (my favourite!) and short dispatches from new motherhood except to say that yes, it is about mothering and early motherhood but also about women’s rights in Ireland, the generations of women that came before Kinsella and losing and finding oneself.

We have the choice, now, to become mothers. Only as recently as the year before my son was born, women in Ireland were forced to continue pregnancies they didn’t want. I see aspects of Irish mammydom that I want to be. I want to cook for my child. I want him to roll his eyes at my worrying, but know that he has to do what I say anyway. I want him to know I’d do anything in the world to keep him safe and happy. I don’t want to grow old over a stove. I don’t want to be the butt of jokes I’m not in on. I don’t want to lose myself.

Alice Kinsella, Milk: On Motherhood and Madness

Thank you for reading.