Issy Wood

🛏️ Savoir beds, 🤫 Matt and Shane’s secret podcast, 🖼️ Jean Dupas’ London transport posters, and more.

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Cool people like cool things, which is why we asked Issy Wood to share a taste of her taste on Perfectly Imperfect.

Issy Wood is a London-based visual artist, painter, and musician, who has been recommended on Perfectly Imperfect by both Naomi Fry and Lena Dunham. She began as a visual artist, with works shown in The National Portrait Gallery and Michael Werner Gallery, and back in 2019 she added music to her oeuvre with her excellent debut EP, The Blame. Her lovely second album, “Accidental American” just came out last week and it’s chock-full of sticky pop cuts like Gravity! and woozy R&B leaning tracks like Behave— however my personal favorite might be U Break U Buy. She’s a one-of-a-kind artist who excels at everything she tries, and I highly suggest checking out her paintings and/or music. Lucky for us, Issy’s here to tell us what she’s been into.

Without further ado

Issy Wood (instagram)

🛏️ Savoir beds

I dated a tearful alcoholic in 2022 which, as a sober person, was like dating the ghost of Christmas past. But I did learn of these beds from him, so I have few regrets. They’re British-made, will destroy most bank accounts, and I still haven’t quite forgiven myself for buying one. I believe the mattress topper cured my back pain, however. 

🤫 Matt and Shane’s secret podcast

I must’ve made at least 70% of my paintings to this podcast, and ruined maybe 5% of those from laughing so hard my brush slipped. Now that Shane Gillis is un-cancelled and a mainstream success, it is widely considered safe to find him funny. But this is one bandwagon I am proud to have jumped on early, and I stood firm through the controversy. Gillis is my most potent parasocial crush to this day. 

🖼️ Jean Dupas’ London transport posters

I love all the early 20th century tube posters, commissioned in part to help Londoners overcome their fear of travelling underground and get them to take fewer taxis. For some reason the best ones are by a Frenchman named Jean Dupas, but there is nothing quite like a hand-painted advert of any kind. My favourite of his is from 1933, captioned “establish a picnic and pass the day together”. I like it for the phrase “establish a picnic”, but also because the painting looks nothing like London. 

🔊 Critics At Large New Yorker podcast 

This is by far the most wholesome podcast on my weekly roster. The perfect panacea for a potentially toxic urge to hear men talking to other men about men’s stuff and whether things are gay or not. I love it most because my beloved friend Naomi Fry (PI #76, #457) is a Co-host. We text 9 million times a day but it’s also nice to hear her voice on an expensive mic.