#11. Dance Your Brain Chemistry Different
This Week: Architect of Joy Yinka Ilori | Football City, Art United | Fontaines Rock Finsbury | Club Culture Creativity | The Lemonheads Are Back | Leaping Lemurs
Welcome to edition #11 of Culture Cure - last one before a brief summer holiday hiatus. But I will return.
On occasion, dance-inducing chemicals may have altered your state of consciousness, but did you know that the very act of dancing itself can literally change your brain chemistry?
Research shows dance activities increase levels of nitric oxide (nitrIC, not nitrOUS)—which this guy told Steven Bartlett he thinks can eradicate Alzheimer’s—serotonin, and HDL cholesterol, while decreasing serum glucose, triglycerides, and LDL cholesterol (which is a good thing).
Basically, your body treats dancing like a pharmaceutical intervention—except way more fun than swallowing pills (medical ones).
So, get out there and go clubbing—there are plenty of day time raves and pre-midnight finishes if, like me, the idea of staying up til 4am now fills you with dread 😆
Right, on with this week’s list of stuff to watch, read, listen to, and think about.
If you like it, tell your friends, and hit the subscribe button below.
“Music can change the world because it can change people.” - Bono
MAD ARTISTS: Introducing the work of exciting and inspiring creators.
Yinka Ilori is a British-Nigerian artist and designer dubbed the "Architect of Joy" who transforms public spaces with explosive colour palettes inspired by West African textiles and Nigerian parables his parents told him as a child.
What makes his work brilliant is how he uses design to bridge communities—turning run-down underpasses into vibrant meeting points that give people "a sense of pride and ownership over their community" while making art accessible to people who'd never step foot in a gallery.
What do you think? Like it? Got any artist recommendations I should check out?
FOOTBALL CITY, ART UNITED: Football fandom and art appreciation are unusual bedfellows. When I worked at Sotheby’s, there was sadly only ever one person I could have good footie bants with. Fans of beautiful art aren’t typically fans of the beautiful game, and vice versa.
Football City, Art United, however, proves that the two worlds have more in common than you'd think—both require vision, creativity, and the ability to make magic out of nothing. This ambitious exhibition pairs 11 legendary footballers with 11 contemporary artists to create entirely new works that blur the lines between the pitch and the studio.
Conceived by World Cup winner Juan Mata, Serpentine Galleries' Hans Ulrich Obrist, and curator Josh Willdigg, the show takes inspiration from football's trequartista—the visionary playmaker who sees possibilities others miss. The resulting collaborations span everything from sound installations to paintings to genre-defying experiments, all asking the provocative question: what can art and football actually learn from each other?
Running at Manchester's Aviva Studios through August, this isn't just about famous faces making pretty pictures (take note Ed Sheeran)—it's a genuinely global creative experiment spanning São Paulo to LA to Paris. With kids going free and the promise of "both playful and progressive" works, it sounds like the kind of cultural collision that could change how we think about both beautiful games. Sometimes the best art happens when you least expect it. Until 24 August.
WHAT’S THE STORY?: While ‘90s nostalgia ruled in Cardiff last weekend, Fontaines DC were treating the crowd in Finsbury Park to a show that might have today’s teens flocking to Ticketmaster in 20 years time to try and relive the high.
Grian Chatten and his gang held the 45,000 strong crowd spellbound, blending early punk bangers with the cinematic sprawl of new album Romance. As NME put it, they're simply "the most important band of this decade."
I missed the first two support acts and only caught a tiny bit of Blondshell but they sounded pretty good so check them out:
Then came Kneecap. And the place went off…
The folk who organise gigs at Finsbury Park seem to have zero clue how to set up toilets, bars, and food stands so that punters can move around without getting caught in bottlenecks. Because of that, Amyl and the Sniffers might have missed out on a sizeable section of the audience trying to refresh after the Kneecap mayhem. Which is a shame because, for those who were watching, their slightly unhinged Aussie punk rock was brilliantly chaotic.
CULTURAL PRESCRIPTION: Because your brain deserves better than constant doomscrolling…
Read | Selling The Night is the first book to join the dots between club culture and the wider creative industries. Exploring links with advertising, tourism, gaming, design, fashion and beyond, it also considers how to keep club culture alive and its future role in shaping opportunities and nurturing creativity. It features contributions from more than 100 DJs, promoters, marketers, academics, activists, archivists, policymakers, photographers, writers and designers, including New York disco legend Nicky Siano, DJ/producer/educator King Britt, Hacienda designer Ben Kelly, DJ and tastemaker Jamz Supernova and many more.
Watch | Apart from engaging lots with arts and culture obviously, what does it take to live more than a century? Five centenarians shared the lessons they’ve learned about love, health, and money after 100 years of life.
Listen| There isn’t a band I’ve seen more than The Lemonheads. Evan Dando is a genius. But he’s not exactly been prolific on the new music front for quite some time. A new album is on its way though—The Lemonheads’ first in 19 years! Here’s the first single to whet your appetite, featuring Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis and long-term collaborator, Juliana Hatfield. I’ll be getting my copy signed by Evan at Rough Trade in August, followed by their gig at the Electric Ballroom (a stupidly small venue for such an amazing band).
ICYMI | Denis Villeneuve to direct new Bond movie, Mental health benefits of bee keeping, 12 best zombie movies of all time, Why long-form is the new short-form
HERE’S THE KICKER: This remarkable photo won the Grand Prize in this year’s Big Picture Natural World Photography competition. Photographer Donglin Zhou hiked for an hour and then waited until evening to capture this image of a common brown lemur carrying her baby on her back while making a harrowing leap from one towering cliffside to another.
Lemur's Tough Life, Tsingy de Bemaraha Strict Nature Reserve, Madagascar
See you next time!