Stanley Donwood & Thom Yorke - This Is What You Get @ Ashmolean Museum

I really adore collaborations across mediums, so the opportunity for a glimpse into how Stanley Donwood and Thom Yorke have collaborated across the Radiohead albums was exciting.

While I enjoy Radiohead, I can’t claim to be the world’s superfan; the exhibition likely was more exciting for those who were, however what I really enjoyed about it was the playfulness of the work, the way the two artists pushed and responded to one another despite working in different mediums. It was fascinating to see the process laid bare, the relationship to creation exposed.

My only critique from a curatorial standpoint is that the music didn’t play a larger role. There was opportunity to bring sound into the space to help enhance the experience of the work and highlight the collaboration. Nonetheless, worth seeing.

Couture @ Louvre

In this first of its kind exhibition, The Louvre in Paris showcases couture pieces amongst the objects in its decorative arts galleries. So amongst the ornate chairs, clocks, cabinets, and rugs, there are gowns, bags, and shoes. Individual pieces are on display in these contexts, highlighting the relationship between beautiful objects that we surround ourselves with, and the beautiful objects we cover ourselves with.

There are many highlights, but a few stand out — the Christian Dior (above) displayed on a massive mirrored floor quite literally takes your breath away. The dramatic crumples and shapes of the skirt reflect at all angles, blue and white in contrast to the reds and blacks of the objects around them with clean lines. It is hard to describe the experience of walking into the space and seeing this piece.

This Rick Owens gown with its folded silk and headdress transcends time in a room of soft florals and cream coloured silks. It is new and yet so clearly related to the old.

And finally, this Schiaparelli, reflecting not only the stars in the shapes around the room, but even the way the sun comes in the window and the overhead lighting reflects on the mirrors. Pure magic.

If you’re brave enough to fight the crowds at the Louvre, it is worth it to get to this quiet and magical exhibition.

Tracey Emin - I followed you to the end @ White Cube Gallery

Emin’s latest exhibition of new work fills White Cube in Bermondsey with the angst and anguish of a scorned lover; a person who has been wronged through love, who leaves, or is left.

The main corridor is lined with miniature paintings, aggressive and sensual in their composition. The larger spaces house the bigger pieces, which tower over the viewer. Continuing to explore themes we have seen from Emin before - bedrooms, sensuality, sex - and toying with absence, there is an almost snarky edgy quality to some of them, despite the anguish they depict. They feel like a breakup song, replete with searing guitar riffs and mashed keyboards. Most stunning were the scenes where the lover is so faint, painted over in white, that it appears to be only the imprint their body left in the bed, not the lover themself. The memory of their warmth.

There is anger here, which at times bubbles, but then fades. A memory of the anger - as much with oneself for being tricked as with the former lover for the transgression.