Benedetto (or Benny) Chirco short circuits images.  Themes and references from contemporary popular culture are prevalent throughout his work and there is clear influence that he is very much a child of the 80s - MTV, Aby Warburg and Gus van Sant mingle alongside Jean-Claude Van Damme, Winkelmann, with short asides to long-standing artists such as Gilbert & George.

His work, though, is no pop culture mesh of entangled style; Chirco is in the process of developing his own aesthetic within these references and made purely for the 21st century - be it in his drawings, paintings, documentaries or video installations.  There is an inherent Americana that pervades his work, told through a distinctly international voice - born in Marsala, Italy, he has made London his adoptive home.

London's newest space for the investigation of the space between art and language today hosts Benedetto Chirco: Documentary | Video Installation.  Q Forum is a space devoted to the art and culture of the book.  Housing an exhibition space, a bookshop, an editions gallery and the Q Reading Room, the venue challenges and engages people to interact with the nature of future of reading - in all its forms.

This will be a brave night to put on for such a venue, but no doubt that any fears will be quickly alleviated.  Both Chirco and Q Forum are looking at a very bright future.

Benedetto Chirco is at Q Forum, 12 January 2011 from 1830.

Q Forum

One of the more interesting facets of the artist, rather the artist who specialises in the self-portrait, is how they see themselves among that which influences them.  What has been described as 'the displaced self'.  The personas that Cindy Sherman has, over the years, exhibited have stretched from the Hollywood starlet in her Untitled Film Stills project; passengers on random buses; as the victims in a series of (real life?) horror situations; clowns and, in an exhibition from Sprueth Magers in the Spring of 2009, the made-up, plasticized wives and mothers of the American socialite society.

Exhibiting since the 1970s, it would be easy to say that Cindy Sherman is old hat, has run out of ideas, is no longer a la mode.  Fortunately for her and her audiences, and unfortunately for the critic, this is not the case.  Sherman's work remains as cutting edge now as it has done since she was a student in New York City in the late '60s / early 70s.  This exhibition of work has her framing herself, as a series of eccentric characters - guards, perhaps - among a series of monochromatic tableaux.  Costume, pose and make-up provide the canvas upon which Sherman exposes herself, elements of herself, and various elements that make up our international cultural consciousness.  As a photographer she is a performer, as a performer she excels.  The distortions that Sherman makes to these characters border on the grotesque, but always appealing, like a bed of flowers between the concrete of a high-rise tower block.

Cindy Sherman is exhibiting at Sprueth Magers between January 12 - February 19, 2011.

all images Cindy Sherman
Untitled, 2010
Pigment print on Phototex adhesive fabric
Dimensions variable
Courtesy the artist, Sprüth Magers Berlin London and Metro Pictures

Back for its seventh hugely successful year, the London Short Film Festival is renowned for being an event which manages to combine high-profile established events with the most radical approaches to film screening and exhibition.  This year, LSFF will screen over two hundred short films, exclusively from Britain's most exciting up-and-coming filmmakers, including artists Clio Bernard (on the radar recently for her debut feature film The Artbor) and Ben Rivers (currently on show at Matt's Gallery - review to follow on these pages).

The film programme is supported by a series of events: New shorts, retrospectives, installations, training for industry, live events and parties.  This year's LSFF has a grand total of six (count 'em) Awards to give out, in association with the UK Film Council, Shooting People, Little White Lies, Sheffield Doc/Fest, Radar Music and the wonderful Animate Projects.

Highlights include Saturday's Kino London Borderlands, where filmmakers are set a challenge to launch a production and create a film from an impromptu secret production meeting that day; Shorts a la Carte, at Inamo Restaurant, where a four series' of films are screened onto your table as you eat; Lo-Fi Music Video at the Roxy Bar and Screen; and the two events featuring the artists du jour - Clio Bernard Before The Arbor at BAFTA on Saturday, and Ben Rivers' film screening and In Conversation with Andrew Kotting, next Friday at the Curzon Soho.  Who said January was for staying in, eh?

London Short Film Festival is at various venues from 07 - 16 January, 2011