I salute you, Rosamund Urwin

For about a year I’ve scoured the Evening Standard everyday to find Rosamund Urwin’s contribution, as I’ve come to think of her as my ‘sophisticated’ social conscious and a great advocate for both young people at large and my ‘forgotten generation’. When not saddled with the Market Round-Up, jammed in just before the sports section - which to be fair she does spice up and improve greatly - Rosamund’s Comment pieces are always smart, relevant and written with such conviction that her message is always contagious. Monday’s column in particular summed up the thoughts of myself and my similarly aged friends who’ve been left behind by the government, the job market and the education system.

With youth unemployment higher than ever, many people on the kinder side of their mid-twenties are finding themselves at home simply as we have nowhere more productive to go (soon there will be no libraries!!) and it’s a bit frustrating and sad that there isn’t one TV show relevant to our lives or political situations available to watch on the old box.

Whilst I would be doing myself a large injustice to say that I am an advocate of TV, the point is that there is nothing to watch for those of us who want to switch off from our crappy lives and be transported to somewhere light-hearted and carefree, where our everyday problems aren’t at the forefront of our minds. Unfortunately everything is targeted at teenagers; Skins, Glee, and worst of all Joys of Teen Sex, which I fear is watched more by dirty old perverts than confused and frisky teenagers.

Back in my days of teenager-dom there was generally only one show at a time which spoke for and was targeted towards a generation. In the 90’s we had Dawson’s Creek and in the 00’s The O.C made a huge impact spawning lots of spin-off reality TV shows too cringing to mention. The point is that my generation are being neglected left, right and centre and I just don’t understand why even TV execs don’t want our money or viewing figures... Just another reason why I'm thinking of defecting abroad.

DAVID LACHAPELLE: The Rape of Africa

Many weeks ago back at the beginning of May, I attended several press days in the West London area and - after reading about it in the Evening Standard the day before - I popped into the Robilant and Voena Gallery on Dover Street. Whilst this was a new gallery for me, I was more interested in the mini David Lachapelle exhibition being held there to think about much else.

Image courtesy of Robilant and Voena

Temporarily moving away from his instantly recongisable airbrushed iconographic images of pop culture legends, The Rape of Africa reveals Lachapelle's increasingly political and confrontational recording of western consumerism and its effects on the African continent. Filled with references of conquest, plunder and child soldiers to unethical gold, diamond mining, and the commodification of African beauty, Lachapelle explores these deeper themes in both his main work (pictured above) and also the many preparatory drawings and collages displayed.

Having extended the exhibition due to popular demand, The Rape of Africa is now showing until 23 June. This is a must-see for any Lachapelle fan wondering what this former Studio54 kid's next move will be.