Latest news with #Camberwell
Irish Times
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Author Gethan Dick: ‘I'd make it illegal to buy or sell water. Everyone would adapt within a few weeks'
Tell me about your debut novel, Water in The Desert, Fire in the Night It's about hope, hunger, gold, wolves, Streatham, Cuba, post-apocalyptic feminism, pregnancy and bicycles. It's about the porousness of the female bodily experience, the challenges of being an empiricist with a sample size of one, what's worth knowing and what's worth living and the necessity of irrationality. It's about an underachieving young woman, a retired midwife and a charismatic Dubliner who set out from London after the end of the world to cycle to a sanctuary in the southern Alps. And it's about the fact that the thing about the end of the world is that it happens all the time. You did a master's in creative writing at Goldsmiths in London more than 20 years ago but did not pursue writing fiction. Why not? I disliked the distance you have in fiction between making something yourself and having an acknowledgment that it has been made. After my master's I continued working with writing, but I wrote for spoken-word performance or for zines that I or other people edited, and I studied visual arts at Camberwell College of Art and started making text-based visual works, because those were all ways to feel like what I'd written was 'made'. So writing was usually in there somewhere, it just wasn't in the form that writing usually comes packaged in. When I moved to France in 2011 the bit of my brain that deals with language was occupied with assimilating French for quite a while and I didn't write anything made up for a few years, but stories and text still held a place in our visual arts projects. What prompted you to turn to writing as opposed to visual arts to tell this story? During all that, I'd talk every now and then about writing a novel about the end of the world – so I guess I always thought I'd get around to it one day. But I definitely never would have if it hadn't been for [my partner] Myles saying, when we got back from a slightly survivalist two-month stint in a stone shepherds' hut during the first Covid lockdown, 'Stop talking about it and write it now.' [ Irish debut authors 2025: It's already shaping up to be a vintage year Opens in new window ] You have been working as an artist with Myles, first in London, and for many years now in Marseilles. Did this influence the novel? Definitely, but in silhouette. Myles and I make the visual arts work together, so at first I kept trying to get him to write the book with me, but he stuck to his guns and got me to do it for myself. Instead he became the motor for our other projects so that I had the time and brain-space to write. He wouldn't look at it until I felt I had a full first draft – he didn't want to contaminate it and our working practice is generally so meshed that it would have been impossible not to. When I had the draft, he did the initial edit, so he definitely had a hand in it, but it's just my name on it and it's unusual for me to have a 'solo' project going out into the world – that hasn't happened in a long time. Also, our art projects are usually multilayered, many-headed things: dozens to hundreds of participants, a cultural institution, a noncultural institution, local groups, in-situ installations, municipal permissions and so on. To be able to turn my back on all the logistics of whatever tentacular art project we were working on and, for a week or three, do something that just involved me, a notebook and a pencil, was a lovely counterpoint. READ MORE Modern technology and infrastructure no longer function in your novel. Was the pandemic a prompt or was it something that you had begun thinking about before? Well, this question assumes that modern technology and infrastructure currently function, which I'm not convinced they do, or, if they do then you have to examine pretty carefully who they function for, to what end and at what cost. If, like Audaz, you survived an apocalypse, to where would you make a pilgrimage? To misquote William Gibson, the apocalypse is already here, it's just not evenly distributed. Audaz has an exceptional memory. Do you have any such skills? I have a special talent for not hearing somebody if I'm not looking at them, which is fantastic for making it really embarrassing for anyone who tries to get my attention in a crowded public space. Will there be a second book or is it back to the studio? Both I hope. But in the immediate term back to the studio. I'd make it illegal to buy or sell water. You could start by banning producing and selling bottled water in Europe right now Which projects are you working on? We're towards the end of Acqua Lambro, in Milan, where we're creating an impossible luxury mineral water brand: we built a machine-sculpture from detritus gathered from the Lambro, one of Europe's most polluted rivers, and it transforms the river's water river into pure drinking water. It works – we've had the water it produces analysed. We showed the machine and a prototype bottle – glass, but made to look like the crushed plastic water bottles that fill the river – at Milan Design Week last month. We're about to restage We All Fall/Récit, an immersive performance piece we co-created, inspired by the stories of people who have made the journey to seek asylum in Europe, in which a choreography creates large-scale cyanotype prints of people's bodies. And we're mid-production on Espèces Humaines/Fides for La Monnaie de Paris (the museum attached to the French mint). We're making an installation, inspired both by imagery related to economic collapse and by indigo cloth-money, about the fact that money is, at its origin, an act of collective faith. Who do you admire the most? Palestinian Red Crescent workers and journalists. You are supreme ruler for a day. Which law do you pass or abolish? I'd make it illegal to buy or sell water. You could start by banning producing and selling bottled water in Europe right now. It would have so many benefits and everyone would adapt within a few weeks. The best and worst things about where you live? Marseilles is chaotic, grubby, ill-disciplined, unprofessional, heel-dragging, short-tempered and nothing, absolutely nothing, ever happens the way it's supposed to. I love it. I'm not even going to tell you all the other things that are great about it – there are already way too many tourists. Water in The Desert, Fire in the Night is published by Tramp Press
Sky News
21-05-2025
- Sky News
Sex offender found with six-year-old girl after facial recognition technology spots him
A registered sex offender was found with a six-year-old girl after he was detected by facial recognition technology. David Cheneler, 73, was discovered with the child - whose mother was "completely unaware of his offending history" - after he was identified by a police van in Camberwell, south London, in January. He was spotted using advanced technology known as Live Facial Recognition (LFR), where live footage is recorded of members of the public as they walk past, capturing their faces, which are then compared against a database of wanted offenders. If a match is determined, the system creates an alert, which is assessed by an officer. If suspicions are aroused, the police officer may decide to speak with the individual in question. When Cheneler was detected on 10 January, cameras alerted the authorities to his status as a registered sex offender. Additional checks confirmed he had breached his Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO), which prohibited him from being alone with children under 14. Cheneler was also in possession of a lock knife hidden in the buckle of his belt. He was subsequently arrested and taken into custody. Lindsey Chiswick, the Metropolitan Police 's lead for LFR, said it was "a prime example of the variety of uses" of the technology. "The tool is not only used to find those wanted, but also to stop people on a watch list who have conditions they must adhere to," she added. "These interventions are crucial. Without this technology, Cheneler may have had the opportunity to cause further harm." Cheneler had picked up the child from school as a favour to her mother, which he had done twice previously, according to the Met Police. Detective Constable Adam Pearce said: "Although there were no allegations made towards David Cheneler on this occasion, it's possible if he hadn't been identified using this technology, he could have gone on to abuse this child. "Her mother was completely unaware of his offending history, and along with her young daughter, were both taken advantage of by Cheneler who abused their trust." Cheneler was sentenced to two years' imprisonment at Kingston Crown Court on Tuesday.
News.com.au
17-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Why this Camberwell family home of 40 years cracked $4.2m
A Camberwell home with a rooftop city view and four decades of family memories has sold under the hammer for $4.298m in front of a packed crowd who crammed indoors to escape the rain. The five-bedroom Victorian at 9 Avenue Rd had been in the same hands for more than 40 years before Saturday's auction brought a crowd of about 80 into the home's expansive open-plan living zone. Despite the weather, four local families competed for the keys, with two pushing the price well beyond the $3.95m on-the-market figure. The result also soared above the property's initial $3.7m-$3.9m price guide. Set on about 815sq m, the double-fronted, double-brick home blends original marble fireplaces, ceiling roses and hall arches with a luxurious renovation completed about 15 years ago. Behind its iron-laced verandah and high front fence lies a gas and solar heated pool, a spa pavilion, commercial-grade outdoor kitchen and a city-facing rooftop terrace. It also features a theatre room, ground-floor guest suite and a four-car basement garage — features that helped make it a standout among prestige offerings in the suburb. All four bidders were from nearby, with the home eventually secured by a local family. The sellers, who are now downsizing, were supported by their extended family during the auction and described as private but warm, with neighbours dropping by during the campaign to share fond memories of the home and the people in it. Ray White Balwyn auctioneer Brad Cooper said it was an emotional day for the vendors, but the result was a testament to the quality of the property and its location just steps from Camberwell Junction and close to top schools and transport. The property is also zoned for Camberwell High School. Despite the wet weather, Mr Cooper said the auction ran smoothly indoors thanks to the home's spacious design — with several large living areas making it feel more like a party than a property sale.
