spin cycle

Readers of the news often find one source to trust while excluding most others. Whether it's The Economist, Le Monde, CNN, or The Daily Show, the underlying information may be the same, but the form, spin, and tone determine which we rely on and which we dismiss. "No Letters," Leigh Clarke's group show at the Nettie Horn gallery in London, tests that premise. His own work in the exhibit, and his book of the same name, use shock-and-awe-style language to announce mundane good news cribbed from reports in the Hackney Gazette, the scrappy London neighborhood's local paper. "Cosmo/Babies," Dick Jewell's contribution, sends up Cosmopolitan magazine for not printing images of babies by producing a mock-up of Cosmo covers with infant cover-babes. And the eccentric English artist who calls himself Bob and Roberta Smith displays a series of newspaper poems that combine multiple headlines into sweet haiku. The message of the show is loud and cleardon't trust everything you read.



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