Janet South

Recent blog posts about Janet South

Dress to express!

5 December 2024

‘Outlaws’ explores the influence of Australian performance artist Leigh Bowery, and his legendary London nightclub Taboo

What was so different about this a tiny club in a corner of Leicester Square, which barely lasted a year?

A feast for the eye

11 November 2024
Reviews

‘Looks Delicious!’ explores the mouth-watering art of shokuhin sanpuru – Japanese replica food

Japan House London’s ‘Looks Delicious!’ is an incredible journey through a feast of Japanese food replica artistry and expertise.

Seven artefacts in search of a museum

5 July 2024
Reviews

If Japan had its own design museum, what would it include? Janet South reports from ‘Design Discoveries’

‘Design Discoveries: Towards a Design Museum Japan’ is a free exhibition currently showing at Japan House London …

Mini, Midi, Maxi …

29 May 2024

A new exhibition charts the rise and fall of the influential fashion brand Biba. Janet South reports

This London exhibition shows Biba’s evolution from mail-order catalogue to the gloriously short-lived ‘Big Biba’ …

Kitty kitty bang bang

6 February 2024

An new exhibition in London examines the irresistible power of kawaii, or ‘cuteness’
You enter ‘Cute’ at Somerset House through a gallery of AI kitten images created by Graphic…

Sleepover

2 November 2023
Book design, Photography

The second volume of James Mollison’s book is a moving photographic tale of children’s sleeping arrangements. Review by Janet South

The second volume of Where Children Sleep features stories Mollison found while travelling on assignments

Scenography and spectacle

19 December 2022
Information design, Reviews, Technology, Events and exhibitions

A new exhibition at the restored Battersea Power Station charts the site’s history, climaxing in a lift that takes visitors 109 metres high. By Janet South
There is a button in the great glass lift in Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate…

The Stonehenge we deserve

8 April 2022
Information design, New media, Visual culture, Events and exhibitions

The British Museum’s ‘World of Stonehenge’ summons up the presence of this awe-inspiring monument. By Janet South

The British Museum expands the story of the Stonehenge era and contextualises it with other European landmarks and artefacts to narrate a journey that reveals cyclical connections between people, land and sky.

Hold your breath …

16 December 2018
Book design, Graphic design, Reviews

An exhibition at London’s Japan House explores the materiality of paper
‘Takeo Paper Show: Subtle’ is a touring exhibition curated by graphic designer Kenya Hara, writes…

Encore for Curtain Call

11 August 2016
Illustration, Music design, New media, Reviews, Typography

Ron Arad’s Roundhouse installation is an immersive 360-degree cinema for artists’ films
Ron Arad’s Curtain Call is part art installation, part immersive cinema, writes Janet South. The…

Type on the tongue

20 December 2013
Food design, Typography, Visual culture

Eye’s panel checks out the taste of Helvetica, Impact and Comic Sans (as cooked up by Sarah Hyndman)
Designer Sarah Hyndman is known for her Type Tasting workshops – popular events at Pick…