Sabina Lucia

This series of videos from youtube are about how NLP ( Neuro Linguistic Programming) is used by Fox News broadcaster to discredit a man trying to talk about scientific evidence he has discovered and research he’s done into what really happened on 9/11 and saying what many Americans already suspect.

Part 2

Part 3

Source Firetown

To many it may come as a surprise that the Mephistophelean-goateed mind trickster Derren Brown paints as a hobby – but more dedicated viewers of Channel 4’s favourite Svengali will have seen his paintings pop up occasionally on his shows. In Mind Control for instance, Derren does an astonishing trick in a gallery, asking a spectator to think of a famous actor who then changes his mind several times before he settles on and names Orson Welles. To the crowd’s delighted bamboozlement, a caricature portrait by Derren, until now covered, is revealed to be of Orson Welles.

Since then, Derren’s painting style has developed and become “more grown up” he says, less caricature and more photo-realistic. In ‘Derren Brown – Paintings’ at the Rebecca Hossack Gallery, visitors are treated to much larger (some five feet high) acrylic on canvas portraits and as a result he’s able to portray much more detail to stunning effect. Portraits of his parents steal the show in the first room, his fondness for them evident; his mother’s eyes when seen close up show so much sparkle and life, and his father too has a softness to his friendly-looking face. The artist is not so kind on his own devilishly handsome looks in his self portrait – there’s thinner hair, devoid of the “twigs and poo” of TV make-up, as he wanted a more dramatic result and has certainly achieved it through expert use of colour and tone. Fantastically juxtaposing this is Patrick Hughes’s wonderfully fun ‘reverspective’ portrait of Derren, an amazing 3D illusion, the gaze of which eerily follows you. This was part of a portrait swap and Derren’s beautiful portrait of Patrick is, of course, included too.

In the second room are some of his less recent works including Clint Eastwood and ‘Grand Dame’ Dame Judi Dench which have a slightly softer approach than the newer. In his book, Derren Brown – Portraits, he says, “I dream of packing in the day job, living in a big dirty studio and painting people until I die (preferably of tuberculosis).” With these new paintings it’s easy to see why; he may be working in a different field but the result is extraordinarily magical.

(Words: Sabina Lucia)

Taken From The Cultural Exposé