“I prefer a nice cup of tea to sex.” – Boy George
What could need less thought than your tea and biscuit? Kettle on, package open, insert in mouth. Well, Fox’s Biscuits wants you to reconsider everything and to get you to approach tea and biscuit combinations as if you were pairing wine with your dinner. I had my doubts, but I have to say I was won over.
Pearl Lowe hosted the tea party to launch Fox’s new Biscuit and Tea Tasting guide, adding a touch of her particular style to the event, but it was the surprise appearance of notorious tea lover Boy George that really brought the point home: some people are just fanatical about tea. And why not? There’s no indulgence quite as comforting as a big tea party. Add a little Buck Fizz if anyone feels like they’re being deprived somehow…

Joan Jonas ignites the resonant power of the fairy tale in her installation The Juniper Tree at the Tate Modern. What is it about the magic of “once upon a time” that seems so well suited to echo the tangled webs of female existence? Whatever it is, Jonas has harvested it for this piece, which memorializes a performance piece she has presented in various forms since its debut at the ICA in Philadelphia back in 1976, although like all her productions, she considers this to be a “work in progress” yet. While a static version of a performance piece may not sound ideal, as Jonas herself puts it, it captures “the shifting nature between performance, memory, and physical presence.” Think of it as a 3-D scrapbook…