Events on Friday, May 2

Vivienne Westwood presents <em>Active Resistance to Propaganda</em>

Performing Arts: Spoken Word

Vivienne Westwood

Friday 2/5 @ Design Museum

Design icon and all-around political rabble-rouser Vivienne Westwood presents her manifesto Active Resistance to Propaganda at the Design Museum. Written as... 

Ongoing Events

<em>Peacocks &amp; Pinstripes</em>

Art: Photography

Peacocks & Pinstripes

Friday 2/5 @ Fashion and Textile Museum

Made possible by the Fashion and Textile Museum and the Getty Images Gallery, Peacocks & Pinstripes explores the evolution of masculine... 

<em>Listening Post</em>

Art

Listening Post

Friday 2/5 @ The Science Museum

Idle conversations on Facebook walls, MySpace comments and message forums may not feel as intimate after Listening Post arrives at the... 

Sinatra! The Voice on Screen

Film

Sinatra! The Voice on Screen

Friday 2/5 @ National Film Theatre

Although better known for his pipes, Ol' Blue Eyes also starred in more than 50 films. Because he wasn't a conventional... 

Riceboy Sleeps

Art

Riceboy Sleeps

Friday 2/5 @ The Agency Gallery

Experimental Icelandic band Sigur Rós have always mixed music and art to great effect. Here, art takes the lead with Riceboy... 

Alison Jackson: <em>Seeing Is Deceiving</em>

Art: Photography

Alison Jackson

Friday 2/5 @ Hamiltons Gallery

Ever since the publication of her book Private in 2003, Alison Jackson has been holding a mirror up to us and... 

Ken Currie: <em>Animals</em>

Art

Ken Currie

Friday 2/5 @ Flowers East

Ken Currie investigates the fine line separating civilisation from savagery. With its near-chiaroscuro depictions of horses, mating elephants and human grotesques,... 

Art

Still Another Place

Friday 2/5 @ The Crypt, St Pancras Church

This group show explores the richness and diversity of artists' senses of place. Simon Dawe's dreamy landscapes draw from childhood idylls,... 

<em>Amazing Butterflies</em>

City Gems

Amazing Butterflies

Friday 2/5 @ Natural History Museum

Nothing says "summer is here" like butterflies — just the sight of them fluttering around the park is enough to send... 

Tobias Till: <em>As the Crow Flies</em>

Art

Tobias Till

Friday 2/5 @ gallery12

Although he lives and works in rural Oxfordshire, Tobias Till's artistic heart clearly lies in London. The Central School and Royal... 

Elizabethan Flagons from St Mary Woolnoth

Art

Elizabethan Flagons

Friday 2/5 @ Victoria and Albert Museum

The Victoria & Albert's latest mini-exhibition features a set of Elizabethan flagons that return to the museum after 70 years abroad.... 

<em>Sacred</em>

Art

Sacred

Friday 2/5 @ Chelsea Theatre

Sacred, the Chelsea Theatre's festival of live arts, puts the swing back into King's Road. The eclectic ensemble of show-stoppers and... 

Ruth Hinkel-Pevzner: <em>The Car</em>

Art

Ruth Hinkel-Pevzner

Friday 2/5 @ Nicholls & Clarke Building

Filmmaker Ruth Hinkel-Pevzner combed through Russian film archives to create her new video work, installed in the centre of a disused... 

<em>Skin + Bones: Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture</em>

Art

Skin + Bones

Friday 2/5 @ Somerset House

Exploring the enduring love affair between two creative entities, Skin + Bones: Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture hits Somerset House's... 

<em>Tovarisch, I am not dead</em>

Film: Documentary

Tovarisch, I am not dead

Friday 2/5 @ Odeon Swiss Cottage

In Tovarisch, I am not dead, documentarian Stuart Urban turns his camera on his father, Garri Urban. The elder man escaped... 

<em>The ALI Folio</em>

Art: Photography

The ALI Folio

Friday 2/5 @ Proud Central

Muhammad Ali is one of the world's most photographed people, but despite the amount of coverage he commands, an air of... 

Nour el Huda Awad: <em>Alhambra</em>

Art

Nour el Huda Awad

Friday 2/5 @ The Cochrane Theatre

Nour el Huda Awad offers a fresh interpretation of traditional Islamic art forms with his installation Alhambra. The solo exhibition features... 

<em>Bearing Witness: Five Years Reporting in Iraq</em>

Art: Photography

Bearing Witness

Friday 2/5 @ Idea Generation Gallery

The brand-new Idea Generation Gallery launches with a hard-hitting exhibition of photojournalism from Iraq's front lines. It's been five years since... 

Mat Collishaw: <em>Deliverance</em>

Art

Mat Collishaw

Friday 2/5 @ Spring Projects

For Deliverance, multimedia artist Mat Collishaw creates and deconstructs disaster scenes through a method of high-contrast, split-second projection. Collishaw applies coats... 

<em>Hide and Seek</em>

Theatre

Hide and Seek

Friday 2/5 @ Blue Elephant Theatre

Tal Jakubowiczova is both playwright and director for this physical-theatre performance by the Shift Theatre ensemble. The piece follows a woman... 

Spring Renaissance at Covent Garden

Festival: Performing Arts

Spring Renaissance

Friday 2/5 @ Covent Garden Market Piazza

The bizarre weather may suggest the contrary, but spring has definitely sprung. To celebrate, Covent Garden Market is hosting this festival... 

Jenny Pockley: <em>Dreamscapes</em>

Art

Jenny Pockley

Friday 2/5 @ Sarah Myerscough Fine Art

Jenny Pockley's solo show at Sarah Myerscough Fine Art looks beyond the chaos of London's urban cacophony to present a meditative... 

Ryan Gander: <em>Heralded as the New Black</em>

Art

Ryan Gander

Friday 2/5 @ South London Gallery

Some may spend their gap year soul-searching (that is, aimlessly wandering the globe or lolling about in a drunken stupor). But... 

<em>The Camden Town Group</em>

Art

The Camden Town Group

Friday 2/5 @ Tate Britain

Unlike Hawley Arms' caners Winehouse, Fielding and Geldof, this Camden Town Group was a collective of realist painters working in the... 

<em>War & Peace</em>

Theatre

War & Peace

Friday 2/5 @ Hampstead Theatre

Get lost in the drama of the Bezukhovs and Bolkonskys with Shared Experience's stage adaptation of Tolstoy's magnum opus. Adapted by... 

Steve McCurry: <em>Asia</em>

Art: Photography

Steve McCurry

Friday 2/5 @ Magnum Print Room

Photographer Steve McCurry — whose 1984 shot of a young Afghan girl with piercing green eyes has been etched into the... 

China Design Now

Art

China Design Now

Friday 2/5 @ Victoria and Albert Museum

Celebrating China's return to the graphic-art world stage, China Design Now embarks on a three-part journey along the country's coastline. The... 

ICO Essentials present Pop

Film

Pop

Friday 2/5 @ ICA

The Independent Cinema Office continues its Secret Masterpieces of Cinema series with this 90-minute look back at the pop culture of... 

Whitechapel Laboratory: Daniel Pflumm

Art

Daniel Pflumm

Friday 2/5 @ Whitechapel Art Gallery

Berlin is home and muse to some of Europe's most intriguing visual artists, including Geneva-born Daniel Pflumm. A keen musician and... 

Clare Barclay: <em>Shifting Ground</em>

Art

Clare Barclay

Friday 2/5 @ Camden Arts Centre

In her solo exhibition at Camden Arts Centre this month, Glaswegian installation artist Claire Barclay displays an array of deliciously subversive... 

Rob Ryan

Art

Rob Ryan

Friday 2/5 @ Tatty Devine

Master papercutter Rob Ryan is the king of collaboration — he's produced an accessories collection for Paul Smith, a dress for... 

<em>May 68: Street Posters from the Paris Rebellion</em>

Art

Street Posters from the Paris Rebellion

Friday 2/5 @ Hayward Gallery

With all of the protests and civil unrest going on, 1968 wasn't the best year to take a trip to Paris.... 

Laurie Anderson: <em>Homeland</em>

Music

Laurie Anderson

Friday 2/5 @ Barbican

Music and performance maverick Laurie Anderson presents her most political work to date as part of the Barbican bite08 series. Featuring... 

<em>Blood on Paper: The Art of the Book</em>

Art

Blood on Paper

Friday 2/5 @ Victoria and Albert Museum

This new exhibition at the V&A offers visual art reworkings and interpretations of the humble paperback. The works on display range... 

<em>Dorm</em>

Art: Photography

Dorm

Friday 2/5 @ Viewfinder Photography Gallery

Taking into consideration that a significant portion of life is realized within the confines of one's bedroom, Dorm is a photographic... 

Luke Kendall: <em>The Great Sparrow Campaign </em>

Art

Luke Kendall

Friday 2/5 @ Beach Blanket Babylon Shoreditch

Luke Kendall shifts his focus from the dainty creatures of the Lepidopterist art collective to a more engaged study of humanity.... 

<em>Duchamp, Man Ray, Picabia</em>

Art

Duchamp, Man Ray, Picabia

Friday 2/5 @ Tate Modern

It isn't often you see Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray and Francis Picabia — a conceptualist, a photographer and a poet, respectively... 

<em>The City</em>

Theatre

The City

Friday 2/5 @ Royal Court Theatre

If you're in the mood for social decay, morally repugnant characters and simmering violence, head to Royal Court Theatre, where Martin... 

<em>1001 Inventions: Discover the Muslim Heritage in our World</em>

Special Event

1001 Inventions

Friday 2/5 @ Croydon Clocktower

Croydon isn't exactly top-of-mind when it comes to visiting museums, but this free exhibition at the town's exhibition gallery aims to... 

Jerwood Contemporary Painters

Art

Jerwood Contemporary Painters

Friday 2/5 @ Jerwood Space

For its second annual exhibition, the Jerwood Charitable Foundation asked three well-respected artists and academics to choose 20 promising recent art-school... 

Art

Bob and Roberta Smith

Friday 2/5 @ Hales Gallery

Bob and Roberta Smith (the dual alter egos of artist Patrick Brill) bring us I Am a Living Sign, a selection... 

Lee Ufan

Art

Lee Ufan

Friday 2/5 @ Lisson Gallery

Korean painter, sculptor and philosopher Lee Ufan first came into prominence in the late '60s as one of the key players... 

Out of Joint presents <em>Testing the Echo</em>

Theatre

Testing the Echo

Friday 2/5 @ The Tricycle Theatre

Out of Joint presents David Edgar's sharp, politically brave play, Testing the Echo. The story unfolds at an English-language school, where... 

Slow Food Market

Food/Wine

Slow Food Market

Friday 2/5 @ Southbank Centre

With talk of food miles and free-range vs organic never far from the headlines, slow food has truly come into its... 

<em>Urban Art Show</em>

Art

Urban Art Show

Friday 2/5 @ The Old Cinema

West London antiques emporium and former picture palace the Old Cinema exchanges old masters for young talent this weekend, when it... 

Alvin Langdon Coburn and Jane England

Art: Photography

Alvin Langdon Coburn and Jane England

Friday 2/5 @ Ancient & Modern

Diminutive Whitecross Street gallery Ancient & Modern stage eccentric exhibitions that honour their name. In that tradition, the Alvin Langdon Coburn... 

Walter Hanlon: <em>Jazz in London</em>

Art: Photography

Jazz in London

Friday 2/5 @ National Portrait Gallery

Take a trip back to the dark, smoky jazz clubs of the '50s with Walter Hanlon's atmospheric exhibition. While working in... 

<em>Into The Hoods</em>

Theatre

Into The Hoods

Friday 2/5 @ The Novello Theatre

ZooNation's revamped Stephen Sondheim musical comes to London after a hit season at the Edinburgh Fringe. This pop-culture quest follows two... 

<em>Mare Tenebrarum</em>

Art

Mare Tenebrarum

Friday 2/5 @ Transition Gallery

The bicentenary of the prince of dark literature, Edgar Allen Poe, marks a central concern in the work of the two... 

<em>Richard Rogers & Architects:</em><em> </em><em>From the House to the City</em> <em> </em>

Art

Richard Rogers & Architects

Friday 2/5 @ Design Museum

Modern, functional design has long been synonymous with architect Richard Rogers, who's stamped his distinctive imprint on buildings throughout Europe. To... 

<em>King Lear </em>

Theatre

King Lear

Friday 2/5 @ Shakespeare's Globe

Shakespeare's most tragic of tragedies was in the limelight last year with the RSC's production starring Sir Ian McKellen. For the... 

<em>The Street</em>

Art

The Street

Friday 2/5 @ The Street Project Base

They may navigate us through our lives, but have you ever considered London's streets as the context for artistic interrogation? Over... 

Liliane Lijn: <em>Stardust</em>

Art

Liliane Lijn

Friday 2/5 @ Riflemaker Gallery

Liliane Lijn's fascination with cosmic forces continues with Stardust. The kinetic artist explores the relationship between space and time by using... 

In Focus feat. <em>Running Late</em>

Art: Photography

Running Late

Friday 2/5 @ The Photographers' Gallery

Running Late, an unlikely collaboration between the Photographers' Gallery and Cuts hair salon, doesn't include snaps of hair being swept up... 

<em>Front of House</em>

Art

Front of House

Friday 2/5 @ Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art

The title of the Parasol Unit's new collaborative exhibition refers, on the surface, to public spaces in theatres and concert halls.... 

Footprints in the Sand

Theatre

Footprints in the Sand

Friday 2/5 @ Oval House

The Oval House's double bill, directed by Helena Bell, comprises two plays that explore the new beginnings of immigrants. Oladipo Agboluaje's... 

<em>For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming & James Bond</em>

Art

For Your Eyes Only

Friday 2/5 @ Imperial War Museum Park

Ian Fleming, the author responsible for birthing the shaken-not-stirred secret agent James Bond, receives his due in this new exhibition at... 

<em>Martian Museum of Terrestrial Art</em>

Art

Martian Museum of Terrestrial Art

Friday 2/5 @ Barbican

In Martian Museum of Terrestrial Art, a group of (fictional) Martian curators hand-pick contemporary artworks by 115 Earthlings. As the "curators"... 

<em>The Adam and Ron Show</em>

Art

The Adam and Ron Show

Friday 2/5 @ Elms Lesters Painting Rooms

Roll up, roll up: The Adam and Ron Show is coming to town, bringing together two urban artists from either side... 

<em>Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008</em>

Art: Photography

Vanity Fair Portraits

Friday 2/5 @ National Portrait Gallery

Ever since it launched way back when, Vanity Fair has never failed to raise an eyebrow — least of all for... 

SCI-FI-LONDON 7 Film Festival

Film

SCI-FI-LONDON 7 Film Festival

Friday 2/5 @ Apollo West End Cinema

Forget cheesily brandishing your lightsaber at yet another Lucasfilm screening and head instead to SCI-FI-LONDON 7, the indie underground of sci-fi...