Last week I visited the Arts University Bournemouth illustration exhibition at The Rag Factory just off Brick Lane with Snarf in tow. There was excellent branding for The Observatory, with this stripey fellow and his big telescopic eye featuring on posters and tote bags.
I absolutely loved assorted creatures and bizarre characters by twin partnership Liv and Dom Cave-Sutherland. In fact I liked them so much that I bought the hanging swimmer above. Absolutely a pair to watch.
Next up, Snarf particularly liked this detailed work by Anna Johnson: principally because it features a crashed car and a derailed train. I liked her spare use of neon colour.
This futuristic imaginary world is the creation of animator Josephine Broome.
Amy Bellinger is a ‘stately home enthusiast’ who creates beautiful miniature paper houses.
Fun patterns from Charlotte Reynell looked great against the Rag Factory alls.
Harry Graham showed expert pencil portraits of war veterans.
This lovely decorative display is by Laura Schofield. Her beautiful patterns would translate into a wonderful page in my colouring book! I hope she gets involved.
Finally, this glittery portrait by Emily Madley is part of a series featuring Bournemouth bouncers.
All of these images first appeared on my own my instagram feed: follow me there to catch my discoveries as I make them!
Written by Amelia Gregory on Friday July 17th, 2015 3:04 pm
The illustration degree course at Arts University Bournemouth held their stand alone Dot to Dot graduate exhibition in mid July at The Rag Factory just off Brick Lane. I visited during the day, accompanied by Snarfle, who loved running around the big white galleries and attracted the distracting attention of a young man who chased us around the show, waffling at me about babies and his imminent arranged marriage even when I very politely explained that I was trying to work: I think fatherhood must have been on his mind but it did make it rather hard to concentrate. Maybe some people just don’t really believe it’s possible to be a mother and work at the same time: well hey, I’m the living proof.
Following on with a food theme, I enjoyed pun-tastic images such as Lettuce Celebrate by Jeanette Slade.
This Maggie Thatcher decorative paper plate is by Emma Harrison, who specialises in idiosyncratic portraits of famous people.
Emily Gilbert‘s surreal monochrome landscapes are created in simple washes of black ink: see if you can spot the tiny figure in the centre of this one.
These colourful alternative worlds by Hannah McIntyre are absolutely wonderful.
Patrizia Imossi created this cool monster stirring a cauldron.
I thought iconographic paintings on slabs of wood by Mat Waudby were really rather marvellous, including a snake and a man riding in a shark kayak.
I do love all these birds by Katie Macon, and I particularly love her brilliant handmade bird business cards, each featuring a cheeky character.
Kate Bishop of Kroma had fun with shapes and luscious combinations of colour.
Laurel Turner stitched over photographic screen prints to unnerving effect.
This Pom Pom lady by Harriet Schofield showcases a beautiful style that would be well suited to fashion illustration.
Finally I shall finish off with a selection that caught my eye at both New Blood and Dot to Dot. Above is a close up of bizarre but beautiful artwork by Fay Huo – in which she analyses the role of phobias.
This pixelated Potion Master is by Jonny Clapham, whose idiosyncratic computer game inspired artworks really stood out as unique and utterly unlike anything else I have seen of late. He was also responsible for the simple but fun Dot to Dot mascots that were ‘dotted’ around the walls of The Rag Factory.
Finally, I had no idea that the illustrator Marina Muun was still at college! She already has a super professional presence in print and online (I’ve been following her on instagram for awhile) and creates the most marvellous and instantly recognisable illustrations. For her degree show she concentrated on a subtle range of colours to create surreal worlds populated by elongated ladies and prehistoric plants.
Overall Dot to Dot was a brilliant show, and one of my absolute favourites from the whole of the 2013 season. I have no doubt that many Bournemouth illustrators will do well over the coming years.
Written by Amelia Gregory on Saturday August 3rd, 2013 9:44 pm
The illustration degree course at Arts University Bournemouth held their stand alone Dot to Dot graduate exhibition in mid July at The Rag Factory just off Brick Lane. I visited during the day, accompanied by Snarfle, who loved running around the big white galleries and attracted the distracting attention of a young man who chased us around the show, waffling at me about babies and his imminent arranged marriage even when I very politely explained that I was trying to work: I think fatherhood must have been on his mind but it did make it rather hard to concentrate. Maybe some people just don’t really believe it’s possible to be a mother and work at the same time: well hey, I’m the living proof.
Following on with a food theme, I enjoyed pun-tastic images such as Lettuce Celebrate by Jeanette Slade.
This Maggie Thatcher decorative paper plate is by Emma Harrison, who specialises in idiosyncratic portraits of famous people.
Emily Gilbert‘s surreal monochrome landscapes are created in simple washes of black ink: see if you can spot the tiny figure in the centre of this one.
These colourful alternative worlds by Hannah McIntyre are absolutely wonderful.
Patrizia Imossi created this cool monster stirring a cauldron.
I thought iconographic paintings on slabs of wood by Mat Waudby were really rather marvellous, including a snake and a man riding in a shark kayak.
I do love all these birds by Katie Macon, and I particularly love her brilliant handmade bird business cards, each featuring a cheeky character.
Kate Bishop of Kroma had fun with shapes and luscious combinations of colour.
Laurel Turner stitched over photographic screen prints to unnerving effect.
This Pom Pom lady by Harriet Schofield showcases a beautiful style that would be well suited to fashion illustration.
Finally I shall finish off with a selection that caught my eye at both New Blood and Dot to Dot. Above is a close up of bizarre but beautiful artwork by Fay Huo – in which she analyses the role of phobias.
This pixelated Potion Master is by Jonny Clapham, whose idiosyncratic computer game inspired artworks really stood out as unique and utterly unlike anything else I have seen of late. He was also responsible for the simple but fun Dot to Dot mascots that were ‘dotted’ around the walls of The Rag Factory.
Finally, I had no idea that the illustrator Marina Muun was still at college! She already has a super professional presence in print and online (I’ve been following her on instagram for awhile) and creates the most marvellous and instantly recognisable illustrations. For her degree show she concentrated on a subtle range of colours to create surreal worlds populated by elongated ladies and prehistoric plants.
Overall Dot to Dot was a brilliant show, and one of my absolute favourites from the whole of the 2013 season. I have no doubt that many Bournemouth illustrators will do well over the coming years.
Written by Amelia Gregory on Saturday August 3rd, 2013 9:44 pm
Lecture and Panel Discussion?· Professor Vernon Gibson, with Jonathan Leake, ??Chief Chemist of BP, in discussion with key experts in the field of sustainable and renewable energy.
Please join us to hear the latest on this hot topic.
John D Liu speaks on integrated poverty eradication and large-scale ecosystem rehabilitation. Since the mid-1990′s he has concentrated on ecological film making and has written, produced and directed films on many aspects of the ecology. In 2003, Liu wrote, produced and directed “Jane Goodall – China Diary” for National Geographic. Hailed as a visionary for the future, Lui is director of the Environmental Education Media Project (EEMP) and will discuss his groundbreaking work.
7pm, ?£10 on the door
The Hub,Islington,
Candid Arts Trust,
5 Torrens Street, London,
EC1V 1NQ
Friday 10th July
The End of the Line
Imagine an ocean without fish. Imagine your meals without seafood. Imagine the global consequences. This is the future if we do not stop, think and act. The End of the Line is the first major feature documentary film revealing the impact of overfishing on our oceans. This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Rupert Murray.
Two Door Cinema Club are three Northern Irish lads from Co. Down, order who, approved armed with a trusty Macintosh, there are intent on providing our dance floors with some bona fide, hooky and melodic electro pop. Along their journey so far, they have been compared to The Postal Service, Death Cab For Cutie and Broken Social Scene, booked – to support Mancunian indie-ravers Delphic – and signed by Parisian cool cats, Kitsune and have been produced by Lexx who previously has done a mixing turn for Little Boots and Bjork.
An impressive CV so far, so we got them locked into a quick fire question and answer session and they hit us back with tit bits of sounds, chick flicks and most importantly, girls.
You recently signed with Kitsune. Is there an album coming up?
There sure is! We just finished the mixes with Eliot James and Philipe Zdar (of French duo Cassius) recently so we’re all set for a early 2010 release. We did the recording in West London with Eliot over July and August. He mixed the album tracks as well. Then we went to Paris to mix the singles with Philipe.
Should we expect something similar to your singles “Something Good Can Work” (video above) and “I Can Talk” (released via Kitsune on November 16th)?
There are a lot of different sounds across the album and I think those two singles are already pretty different anyway. In the end it’s going to be a fast paced, electro pop album. That’s our aim.
What’s the story of how you met?
Alex and Kev actually met in cub scouts but they weren’t particularly friends. Alex and Sam met early on in high school. Then Kev came back into the frame when he was trying to get with pretty much all our friends… who were girls.
Are you all still living in Ireland?
We came to London in June for the album and have pretty much just stayed ever since. We basically split our time between London, our tour van and travel lodges. When we’re not on tour, Sam still splits his time between London and Ireland.
What do you think about the synth-pop bands trend currently going on?
I think the genre is a little saturated at the moment. In essence, the style is great but as with every genre, there’s good and bad. Which is why we try to stay away from pigeon holing our sound too much, so we don’t get caught up in the trend.
What sort of things do you enjoy doing with your free time?
We don’t really get much free time but any time we do get we catch up with friends and girlfriends, who we don’t get to see as much as we’d like. Sam is partial to a wee chick flick as well.
Who would you die for to play with?
Wouldn’t die to play with anyone… but The Beatles??
To have fun, play music and hopefully for people to like it. Ideally, we’d like to be able to survive just from playing in a band.
The culmination of their Kitsune support slot with Delphic is an East London Warehouse Party this Halloween (Saturday 31st). We think it’ll be worth visitting and no doubt, you’ll be hooked to Two Door Cinema Club too.
Elaine developed Real People do the Catwalk after hosting a fashion show which included both dancers and models on stage. “I asked my customers about it and they said they related to the dancers and not the models”.
Spurred by this Elaine set about putting together a pioneering show to further the arguement that replacing super-thin models with people who reflect society could lead to increased sales for the fashion industry.
The show opened in silence with the models resembling extras from Scream in their attire of long black robes and white masks. Each model first vocalised how they felt the fashion industry related to them, pharmacy followed by revealing their beautifully styled outfits and their real identities.
The driving force behind the model casting to show the fashion industry that different body shapes can be celebrated in fashion shows and advertising campaigns.
“It is about not creating an elite world where no one else can join in, about it ” Explained Elaine. “So many people want a chance, but know that because they are five foot tall, or a size 14-16, they never will have.” The models featured within the show ranged from a 6’1” Drag Artiste to a 5’4” male; dress sizes 8 to 20 and ages between 25 to 60+.
What I enjoyed most about the show was the diversity and celebration of the models differences. It was fresh and modern with all the models having poise, confidence and importantly a great sense of humour. Their
good spirits and sense of fun gave the show an electric atmosphere.
The models’ charismatic personalities brought out something unique in the clothes that might not have been projected if worn by a ‘normal’ model. Whether this is because they were real people displaying how the clothes would fit on our own bodies or down to their insurmountable energy and passion for highlighting an issue intricately linked to the size zero debate.
The debate began by Dariush Alavi somewhat controversially enquiring as to why Real People do the Catwalk
was produced to “enact a traditional fashion show.” Suggesting that by keeping the traditional format, could anything change by replacing the models with real people as it is not the models who are at fault but the stage on which they stand. Alavi suggested doing away with the catwalk altogether.
This prompted both Hilary Alexander and a member of the audience to defend the catwalk as “fashion’s world stage” and looked back to a John Galliano show where the entire collection was presented on an overhead track of basic clothes hangers. Dariush’s response suggested making models obsolete and displaying clothes on a fashion conveyer belt went down like a lead balloon. The audience and the rest of the panel remained sceptical of high fashion designers considering a presentation that in a format is more commonly associated with The Generation Game.
Questions were raised about the morality of the fashion industry and the spotlight on the size zero debate intensified. Hilary spoke about the Telegraph not facing the same constraints from advertisers as glossy fashion titles and said that the newspaper’s “aim to strike a balance between real people and models and actively try to include both types of woman in spreads… the oldest woman we’ve ever featured was 94.”
Panellist Eleni Renton mentioned that the Editor of UK Vogue Alexandra Shulman spoke out against size zero in June accusing designers of making magazines hire models with “jutting bones and no breasts or hips” by supplying them with “minuscule” garments for their photo shoots. She claimed that Vogue frequently “retouched” photographs to make models look larger. In response Hilary questioned whether things had begun to change at UK Vogue as they still fail to represent body diversity within their pages, suggesting it would become apparent what their real stance on size zero is over the coming months.
Elaine added that whilst magazine images are not healthy for women, they have a considerable impact on impressionable teenagers who start to believe they need to emulate perfect bodies in order to be considered beautiful and successful.
“Look around, everything we see is airbrushed… these aren’t real images.”
To emphasise her point Elaine spoke of teenagers being more body conscious than any generation before citing her own children as an example: “I have a six-year-old daughter and 11 and 15-year-old stepdaughters who are constantly looking in the mirror. My stepdaughters are so skinny and so conscious about what they eat and what they see in the media. They are constantly aware of body image issues. It is a big issue for adolescent girls and boys.”
The panel and audience agreed that the media are responsible for putting different demographics into the mainstream and popularising diversity, and that they have a moral responsibility to society to not glamorise super skinny body shapes. Elaine believes that there has “been a spike in our body consciousness” in recent years and we have turned into a society “afraid of flesh, hair and wrinkles”.
Eleni, director of Leni’s Model Management only works with girls “who are sizes 8 to 12… They are the type of girls you see in the street and think, ‘I would like a body like hers.”
As the debate drew to a close the supermodel era was discussed, with Hilary citing that the greats in the industry: Linda, Kate and Naomi all had personality, and that was what made them famous, rather than their figures. On the flip side other great supermodels such as Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington and Sophie Dahl were celebrated for having curves.
Through the conversations it became apparent that the only modern day equivalent of a curvaceous celebrity pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable in mainstream is Beth Ditto, who won LOVE magazine a prestigious industry award for her iconic nude cover
The overall outcome was for women to take responsibility for themselves and their bodies and actively promote positive body attitudes to their daughters, friends and grandchildren. Everyone agreed that while it is easy to blame the media for the size zero trend, consumers need to use our buying power to actively challenge the fashion industry into reconsidering their design practices and elitism.
I left the ICA feeling very empowered, wanting to help revolutionise the fashion industry from the outside in.
Down a little road off the ever vivacious Brick Lane, what is ed a strange calm ensues; a few old men prop up the bar of a faded pub, decease a waste disposal vehicle reverses into a space and I come to the hidden entrance of the Rag Factory, home to Mr Almos’ Big Pen Ship. This exhibition is dedicated to illustration, in particular graduates from Kingston University ’06. Curated and organised by Richard Fairhead, I feel I have an immediate affinity with this show because of my own illustration background before I even enter. The room is long, narrow and white-washed and the windowed ceiling illuminates the space, making it feel bright and airy. I am told by Jenny Bell, who helped Richard in creating the show, that it was important that the illustrations submitted were colourful – this was to be the only remit. I ask where the name for the exhibition came from – it is, after all quite curious as to who this Mr Almos is. They wanted something more unusual and ambiguous for the title and the legend of Mr Almos, a prince that once took a travelling tribe around Russia, seemed to fit the bill quite nicely.
I am first attracted to the work of Charlotte Price. At once I feel that the art is charismatic and warm and has a strange familiarity to it – like looking through an old family photo album. The tone of voice is naïve but sincere. The use of paint, collage and printing techniques are apparent and applied in a measured way. Portraits of people and animals are both here but my favourite are those of the former. All are placed in indeterminable places/times/locations, like cutting out a section from someone’s memory. A particularly sweet piece is ‘Sea People’. An old aged couple stand together, presumably at the beach, both with hands furtively on their hips, perhaps contemplating entering the sea. Charmingly, they are both a bit tubby round the middle and squeezed into their swimming costumes. The slightly distorted and awkward proportions enhance the subject in the illustration, playing off one another. Price‘s palette is limited, muted and selective.
One of the more outstanding and strong illustrations are by a Mr. Matthew Hams. There are currently two of his screen prints displayed on the wall and both are solid pieces. In the first I see a man smoking a pipe and holding an umbrella, with the words ‘Mr A Beyond Flora Dora’. I am hit by the beautiful symphony of colours – turquoise, buttercup yellow and tomato red, all complimentary and therefore very pleasing to the eye. Hams uses very simple outlines and shapes, which his printmaking technique lends itself to very well. The typeface is quite fun and plays with more cursive,fluid lowercase in ‘beyond’ and blocked out, chunky capitals in ‘FLORA DORA’. I am brought to mind of some sort of American influence, like ‘varsity’ graphics or football pendants. This is the sort of work that I could imagine in my own home. The second reads ‘ Mr Almos’ Big bottle of juice’ in a composition of mint green, bottle green and a darker red. There is occasional use of slightly offsetting certain elements of the print, in this instance the word ‘BIG’ is done so in red and white. The nature of Ham‘s work is light-hearted, with a spirited disposition.
The central wall is where the curator Richard Fairhead‘s work has taken up residence. Very distinctive, I immediately recognise it from the posters and flyers that were promoting this exhibition. Fairhead also works in screen prints with a very particular, quite graphic approach. Much of his work is symmetrical and is reminiscent of tattoo art – a prevalent use of skulls, pin-up girls and sailor themes. I mentally select my favourite’s – ‘Well Nice’ and ‘Pink Skull’. As with all of his work on show today, ‘Well Nice’ is made up of thin, linear outlines, integrated with blocked out areas and interlocking patterns. This balance of different elements works well. The text ‘well nice’ is built into the structure of the illustration, so well in fact that it is quite difficult to distinguish at first. The pyramid shaped amalgamation of images is like a throne that seats a skull at the very top. Different objects seem to immerge from the mass, coming into focus and then disappearing again. Some require a second glance – is that really Spongebob Squarepants I can see? Childlike motifs such as this and a head of a bunny rabbit sit next to the likes of the head of an aggressive looking wolf and the skull of an unknown animal, an unsettling contradiction of themes.
Richard‘s brother Chris Fairhead displays work that certainly fulfils the requirement of ‘colourful’. ‘Gone Fishing’ is a perfect case in point, with three little fishing huts lined up next to each other. It may be a typical scene used in contemporary illustration, but his use of a highly dense kaleidoscope of colours sets it apart from ones that have gone before. The wooden panels of the huts almost look like colouring pencils stacked up against each other.
The exhibition has proved to be an eclectic and cohesive collection of work that spans the whole spectrum of illustration. It is an impressive feat for these artists, considering they are very recent or a least fairly graduates. Richard Fairhead works as a freelance illustrator and has had many of his own books published including his more recent educational books on China. It’s worth checking his website out :http://richfairhead.co.uk/.
Written by Jessica Stokes on Wednesday October 28th, 2009 11:19 am
Nigh on a month ago the latest batch of talented graduates from the Camberwell College of Arts illustration degree course put on their standalone show at The Rag Factory, a big white warehouse space that offers the perfect blank canvas. It also happens to be fantastically close to my home, making it a super easy destination for me. I was sad to have missed the Brighton University illustration degree show this year due to a family break in Pembrokeshire, but since the Car Park Show was held in deepest darkest Fulham it’s doubtful I would have made it anyway. There’s a reason why so many shows are held in East London: a huge amount of creatives live and work around here, and there are an awful lot of graduate shows to see.
The students from Well Saidshow ensured I knew the dates of their exhibition by sending me this delightful illustration package: there’s nothing like a tangible invite to build excitement. And as ever, they had produced a wonderful promotional book, seen above attractively piled on the floor. Predictably, this was a very strong showing from one of the best illustration courses in the country. Here’s what I found.
Yiran Huang made this huge mandala type pattern that looks equally good in close up. She had also made possibly the best business cards ever: hand drawn cats, each in different poses. Love them. May have taken three.
This brilliantly oddball installation is by Ruta Daubure, whose optical set designs for opera act like a strange human camouflage.
This beautifully drawn bumble bee is by Carim Nahaboo. Bees are everywhere this year, which means they are obviously on people’s minds. Given the number of dead bees I’ve seen recently, this is definitely a good thing.
Schiz by Siwei Tao is wonderfully odd, as is this strange image of detached arms in pots…
I love this narrative painted illustration by Lauren Doughty, based on Man from the South by Roald Dahl. Her work is just so fabulously sploshy, and I so dig that 80s influence on the colour palette.
Susan Calvert made this installation of wonderful painted wooden landscapes, which she showed alongside this gigantic oil pastel abstract.
Sam Marot‘s ‘British Empire‘ prints tackled a thorny subject to produce some interesting work, including this striking lion poster.
The jovial abstracted footballer is by Jack Sachs, as is this ‘sexy lady’ which mimics the typical pose of a page three lass. When I posted this image on instagram it caused a bit of a stir; but I don’t find Jack’s depiction offensive or irritating, rather it appears to question a fixation with everyday sexualisation in a knowing and humorous way.
I absolutely adored this brilliant screen printed book by Rich de Courcy. Wedges and Ledges was inspired by a love of skateboarding in London, paying homage to much loved places such as the threatened skatepark under the brutalist South Bank arches, now immortalised in bright colours (sign the petition to save it here). I so wanted to take one of these little beauties home.
Kim Smith of Art Equals Happy had put together a beautiful crafty display that ably showcased her beautiful handspun wares. I especially love her hand-written watercolour typography. See more on her website here.
Upstairs I encountered an astonishing and large embroidered appliqué covered with jocular frogs by Titi Lee (this is a close up). This surreal vignette is based on her experience of using the London Underground.
Jessica Weijia Zhang had produced this slightly crackers illustration based on poems by Edward Lear.
Lucy Swan‘s intricate line illustrations tackled the uncomfortable relationship between religion and money.
And finally, this magical eye print was one of an awe inspiring display put together by Freya Faulkner, titled Annihilation is Nigh: Cult of the Big Bang. Her rhythmical artwork and fabulous illustrated ceramics reflect the warring factions of matter and antimatter in brilliant narrative style.
My last graduate review will feature the artwork of University Arts Bournemouth Illustration students; coming soon! Remember, most of my creative finds can be viewed first if you follow my instagram feed.
Written by Amelia Gregory on Wednesday July 31st, 2013 10:05 pm
Nigh on a month ago the latest batch of talented graduates from the Camberwell College of Arts illustration degree course put on their standalone show at The Rag Factory, a big white warehouse space that offers the perfect blank canvas. It also happens to be fantastically close to my home, making it a super easy destination for me. I was sad to have missed the Brighton University illustration degree show this year due to a family break in Pembrokeshire, but since the Car Park Show was held in deepest darkest Fulham it’s doubtful I would have made it anyway. There’s a reason why so many shows are held in East London: a huge amount of creatives live and work around here, and there are an awful lot of graduate shows to see.
The students from Well Saidshow ensured I knew the dates of their exhibition by sending me this delightful illustration package: there’s nothing like a tangible invite to build excitement. And as ever, they had produced a wonderful promotional book, seen above attractively piled on the floor. Predictably, this was a very strong showing from one of the best illustration courses in the country. Here’s what I found.
Yiran Huang made this huge mandala type pattern that looks equally good in close up. She had also made possibly the best business cards ever: hand drawn cats, each in different poses. Love them. May have taken three.
This brilliantly oddball installation is by Ruta Daubure, whose optical set designs for opera act like a strange human camouflage.
This beautifully drawn bumble bee is by Carim Nahaboo. Bees are everywhere this year, which means they are obviously on people’s minds. Given the number of dead bees I’ve seen recently, this is definitely a good thing.
Schiz by Siwei Tao is wonderfully odd, as is this strange image of detached arms in pots…
I love this narrative painted illustration by Lauren Doughty, based on Man from the South by Roald Dahl. Her work is just so fabulously sploshy, and I so dig that 80s influence on the colour palette.
Susan Calvert made this installation of wonderful painted wooden landscapes, which she showed alongside this gigantic oil pastel abstract.
Sam Marot‘s ‘British Empire‘ prints tackled a thorny subject to produce some interesting work, including this striking lion poster.
The jovial abstracted footballer is by Jack Sachs, as is this ‘sexy lady’ which mimics the typical pose of a page three lass. When I posted this image on instagram it caused a bit of a stir; but I don’t find Jack’s depiction offensive or irritating, rather it appears to question a fixation with everyday sexualisation in a knowing and humorous way.
I absolutely adored this brilliant screen printed book by Rich de Courcy. Wedges and Ledges was inspired by a love of skateboarding in London, paying homage to much loved places such as the threatened skatepark under the brutalist South Bank arches, now immortalised in bright colours (sign the petition to save it here). I so wanted to take one of these little beauties home.
Kim Smith of Art Equals Happy had put together a beautiful crafty display that ably showcased her beautiful handspun wares. I especially love her hand-written watercolour typography. See more on her website here.
Upstairs I encountered an astonishing and large embroidered appliqué covered with jocular frogs by Titi Lee (this is a close up). This surreal vignette is based on her experience of using the London Underground.
Jessica Weijia Zhang had produced this slightly crackers illustration based on poems by Edward Lear.
Lucy Swan‘s intricate line illustrations tackled the uncomfortable relationship between religion and money.
And finally, this magical eye print was one of an awe inspiring display put together by Freya Faulkner, titled Annihilation is Nigh: Cult of the Big Bang. Her rhythmical artwork and fabulous illustrated ceramics reflect the warring factions of matter and antimatter in brilliant narrative style.
My last graduate review will feature the artwork of University Arts Bournemouth Illustration students; coming soon! Remember, most of my creative finds can be viewed first if you follow my instagram feed.
Written by Amelia Gregory on Wednesday July 31st, 2013 10:05 pm
Amelia judged and I sketched history in the making at the Rag Factory last week. Well, almost: the first event was in Germany the week before so this was not an actual first. The concept I’m sure already has your mind a-boggling. I’m allways fascinated by how random little scenes and pockets of interlapping creativity and culture come together in these sorts of things. Circus explore the rich territory between print and web, passion and fashion and er, people and other people. I’ll talk more about the beautiful bookazine itself a bit later.
The competing bloggers were somewhat of a motley crew, in that the content was a little inconsistently weighted, a lot of fashion and two examples of male dating based humour blogging, a genre of which I was previously unaware. This was fair enough in a sense, the theme of the Bookazine issue is fashion, but it did make the handfull of bloggers on other themes seem a little incongruous.
The slammers were judged based on the scoring categories of originality, concept, delivery and “blogability”, a made up word. Aside from our own Amelia the jury consisted of Wafa from Sketchbook Magazine, Ben from quality Sheffield based Article Magazine, and Chris Osburn from the Londonist. All small press stars of substance and style of course. The competing bloggers performed from an old school church pulpit – a nice touch I think, sort of makes you think about how we choose who we listen to and respect these days, or it just looked pretty anyway – and were also interspersed with some readings from contributors from the bookazine.
Marian Schembari telling it like it isn’t but should be.
First up was Marian Librarian, a high flying international proffesional social media blogger of sorts, who talked affectingly about why she refuses to censor her blog, even after she was detained at immigration for swearing. You can read the entry she read here She has a healthy and sensible attitude to the importance of reality and personality in online content.
Next up was a brief reading from fashion haiku‘s Kate Ironside who was rocking a serious classy jersey and pearls type ensemble.
I cannot express the perfection of the fashion haiku as a form of art, it’s such the perfect medium for expressing the wry mix of beauty, meaning and superficiality that is fashion – anyway I can’t express it like I said so if you follow one link today, make it this one and go read some. Your day will be enhanced.
Second actual competing slammers (btw, I can’t type the word slammers without thinking about pogs) were a blog double act who use fake names as a matter of neccesity since they write with warts and all accuracy about their manic dating life in a race to get married. It’s a bit like an unrealistic romcom, but much much longer. They were very funny with self deprecating anecdotes, definite crowd pleasers. I think they had the advantage too of having an actual real life story to tell in their blog, it’s engaging and sympathetic and fresh.
I’m so used to hearing the female perspective on the frustrations of dating from my friends, the cliches that men who are confident enough to come on to you are usually after just one thing, or worse turn out to be creepy stalkers seem all too often to come true. So it’s quite nice to get the male perspective and hear about women’s strange behaviours in the dating arena with some pragmatism, while still coming from what is essentially an aim to settle down with someone nice, which creates a sort of reverse cliche.
The next blogger, Godwyns Onwuchekwa “We are united to say: Never again, at least not by our own action.”
Godwyns is a serious political and LGBT rights blogger who performed a very moving blog post he had written to mark world AIDS day this year. He began by saying that following the Toast and Biscuit performance he would be boring us with serious stuff. He wasn’t boring, but he wasn’t wrong that it was a contrast. Escpecially as the next to stand up was in a similar romantic comedy vein;
Alright, maybe this is not news to you, but if you thought that the Wed or Dead Wager was a dose enough of apparently brutaly honest but at the same time surreally romcomesque male dating bloggery, Scalene may actually take you a step further. His blog allows internet strangers (the same people who comment on youtube videos) to make multiple “choose your own adventure” style decisions about his actual real life love life. In the recent post he read out he ended up actually honest to goodness chasing a girl to the airport. If there’s any justice this project will end in him being voted into not showing up for his own wedding. That’s the other thing that always happens in movies but NEVER ACTUALLY HAPPENS IN REAL LIFE. RIGHT?
Tejasvi looked particularly angelic in her floaty white top (sorry I lack the fashion nause to describe it accurately) in the pulpit. Her blog Clandestine Cigarettes is perhaps a more serious and romantic take on fashion, she read a very poetic piece but was sadly I think too nervous and lacked the projection to do it justice.
Lilly Smiles of Laughter Lines, diary of a “fleet street fox”.
Lilly Smiles trod an interesting line between the serious and comic camps with her reading, which was from a blog post written at an extremely raw and hard time in her life – the details were hazy (understandably) but it was during an episode in which she was charged with attempted murder. It was heart rending, clear, honest and well written, but still witty. She almost painted tabloid journalism (her background) as a caring profession and she pre-empted her reading by telling us she burps when nervous. In a way this was the perfect piece for the evening: managing to keep the tone seperate and yet compelling, honest but sensationalist. Possibly this is what blogability means.
Another reading from the Circus Bookazine; Muireann described herself as a humour fashion blogger but the piece she read was quite serious, looking at issues of the fashion industry’s epic denial the fatness of society. It was pretty interesting and she was a charismatic speaker, I’ve since started following her on twitter and she is an avid tweeter. She looked fabulous and clearly knew her stuff.
The final contestent in the blog-off arrived just in time to perform. She’d been in Norwich and rocked straight up to the pulpit and started channeling Lady Gaga, actually interspersing the reading from her blog ‘musings of an innapropriate woman’ with bouts of karaoke style singing.
Rachel Hills with gold slit sunglasses – when they were down she was Gaga.
This is the blog post she read, but like all of the night’s blogs, it’s the tip of an iceberg. Rachel’s blog is a smart mix of gender, popular culture, creativity and general life observations; I like her because she’s not afraid to mix pop culture references with theory and critique. If I didn’t have an essay to write I might spend my whole weekend reading her back catalogue.
So with that the blog slam was concluded, there was some complex vote counting while I mused on the variety of performances. Really the variety of different styles and subject matters didn’t lend itself to a fair comparison, ideally there could have been a number of bloggers from certain categories and an award for each. But it wasn’t the Oscars, it was an experiment and to have done so might have made the whole thing seem overworked. In the end we were treated to a slice of a mix of what the blogosphere has to offer.
the four minds and bodies behind the event and circus bookazine, preparing to award the prizes.
Rachel nabbed third place, probably as much for having rocked up at the last minute and being memorable in golden glasses and singing as anything else. The two top spots went to the romcom boys, Scalene in second place and Toast and Biscuit nabbing the top spot. There were a lot of qualities on show at the Rag Factory that night, but ultimately entertainment value probably bagged the biggest points. The number of people at the end of the night wearing the AIDS ribbons Godwins had given out is testament to the fact that the serious content was most surely not swept under the carpet.
The Bookazine (which, strangely, is somewhere between a book and a magazine) is a thing of beauty divine from a design point of view. You can see the love and thought that has gone into the project. The content is given room to breath and interspersed with sumptiously simple printed patterns. There are little nods to the web format of the blog that the book connects with, like the love you link page and tag cloud at the back. Part of the reason it’s so thick of course, is that all of the content is in English and German, which makes the project even more impressive – working with so many bloggers, writers, artists and translators must have been an epic undertaking. If only I had time to actually read it.
Amelia judged and I sketched history in the making at the Rag Factory last week. Well, almost: the first event was in Germany the week before so this was not an actual first. The concept I’m sure already has your mind a-boggling. I’m allways fascinated by how random little scenes and pockets of interlapping creativity and culture come together in these sorts of things. Circus explore the rich territory between print and web, passion and fashion and er, people and other people. I’ll talk more about the beautiful bookazine itself a bit later.
The competing bloggers were somewhat of a motley crew, in that the content was a little inconsistently weighted, a lot of fashion and two examples of male dating based humour blogging, a genre of which I was previously unaware. This was fair enough in a sense, the theme of the Bookazine issue is fashion, but it did make the handfull of bloggers on other themes seem a little incongruous.
The slammers were judged based on the scoring categories of originality, concept, delivery and “blogability”, a made up word. Aside from our own Amelia the jury consisted of Wafa from Sketchbook Magazine, Ben from quality Sheffield based Article Magazine, and Chris Osburn from the Londonist. All small press stars of substance and style of course. The competing bloggers performed from an old school church pulpit – a nice touch I think, sort of makes you think about how we choose who we listen to and respect these days, or it just looked pretty anyway – and were also interspersed with some readings from contributors from the bookazine.
Marian Schembari telling it like it isn’t but should be.
First up was Marian Librarian, a high flying international proffesional social media blogger of sorts, who talked affectingly about why she refuses to censor her blog, even after she was detained at immigration for swearing. You can read the entry she read here She has a healthy and sensible attitude to the importance of reality and personality in online content.
Next up was a brief reading from fashion haiku‘s Kate Ironside who was rocking a serious classy jersey and pearls type ensemble.
I cannot express the perfection of the fashion haiku as a form of art, it’s such the perfect medium for expressing the wry mix of beauty, meaning and superficiality that is fashion – anyway I can’t express it like I said so if you follow one link today, make it this one and go read some. Your day will be enhanced.
Second actual competing slammers (btw, I can’t type the word slammers without thinking about pogs) were a blog double act who use fake names as a matter of neccesity since they write with warts and all accuracy about their manic dating life in a race to get married. It’s a bit like an unrealistic romcom, but much much longer. They were very funny with self deprecating anecdotes, definite crowd pleasers. I think they had the advantage too of having an actual real life story to tell in their blog, it’s engaging and sympathetic and fresh.
I’m so used to hearing the female perspective on the frustrations of dating from my friends, the cliches that men who are confident enough to come on to you are usually after just one thing, or worse turn out to be creepy stalkers seem all too often to come true. So it’s quite nice to get the male perspective and hear about women’s strange behaviours in the dating arena with some pragmatism, while still coming from what is essentially an aim to settle down with someone nice, which creates a sort of reverse cliche.
The next blogger, Godwyns Onwuchekwa “We are united to say: Never again, at least not by our own action.”
Godwyns is a serious political and LGBT rights blogger who performed a very moving blog post he had written to mark world AIDS day this year. He began by saying that following the Toast and Biscuit performance he would be boring us with serious stuff. He wasn’t boring, but he wasn’t wrong that it was a contrast. Escpecially as the next to stand up was in a similar romantic comedy vein;
Alright, maybe this is not news to you, but if you thought that the Wed or Dead Wager was a dose enough of apparently brutaly honest but at the same time surreally romcomesque male dating bloggery, Scalene may actually take you a step further. His blog allows internet strangers (the same people who comment on youtube videos) to make multiple “choose your own adventure” style decisions about his actual real life love life. In the recent post he read out he ended up actually honest to goodness chasing a girl to the airport. If there’s any justice this project will end in him being voted into not showing up for his own wedding. That’s the other thing that always happens in movies but NEVER ACTUALLY HAPPENS IN REAL LIFE. RIGHT?
Tejasvi looked particularly angelic in her floaty white top (sorry I lack the fashion nause to describe it accurately) in the pulpit. Her blog Clandestine Cigarettes is perhaps a more serious and romantic take on fashion, she read a very poetic piece but was sadly I think too nervous and lacked the projection to do it justice.
Lilly Smiles of Laughter Lines, diary of a “fleet street fox”.
Lilly Smiles trod an interesting line between the serious and comic camps with her reading, which was from a blog post written at an extremely raw and hard time in her life – the details were hazy (understandably) but it was during an episode in which she was charged with attempted murder. It was heart rending, clear, honest and well written, but still witty. She almost painted tabloid journalism (her background) as a caring profession and she pre-empted her reading by telling us she burps when nervous. In a way this was the perfect piece for the evening: managing to keep the tone seperate and yet compelling, honest but sensationalist. Possibly this is what blogability means.
Another reading from the Circus Bookazine; Muireann described herself as a humour fashion blogger but the piece she read was quite serious, looking at issues of the fashion industry’s epic denial the fatness of society. It was pretty interesting and she was a charismatic speaker, I’ve since started following her on twitter and she is an avid tweeter. She looked fabulous and clearly knew her stuff.
The final contestent in the blog-off arrived just in time to perform. She’d been in Norwich and rocked straight up to the pulpit and started channeling Lady Gaga, actually interspersing the reading from her blog ‘musings of an innapropriate woman’ with bouts of karaoke style singing.
Rachel Hills with gold slit sunglasses – when they were down she was Gaga.
This is the blog post she read, but like all of the night’s blogs, it’s the tip of an iceberg. Rachel’s blog is a smart mix of gender, popular culture, creativity and general life observations; I like her because she’s not afraid to mix pop culture references with theory and critique. If I didn’t have an essay to write I might spend my whole weekend reading her back catalogue.
So with that the blog slam was concluded, there was some complex vote counting while I mused on the variety of performances. Really the variety of different styles and subject matters didn’t lend itself to a fair comparison, ideally there could have been a number of bloggers from certain categories and an award for each. But it wasn’t the Oscars, it was an experiment and to have done so might have made the whole thing seem overworked. In the end we were treated to a slice of a mix of what the blogosphere has to offer.
the four minds and bodies behind the event and circus bookazine, preparing to award the prizes.
Rachel nabbed third place, probably as much for having rocked up at the last minute and being memorable in golden glasses and singing as anything else. The two top spots went to the romcom boys, Scalene in second place and Toast and Biscuit nabbing the top spot. There were a lot of qualities on show at the Rag Factory that night, but ultimately entertainment value probably bagged the biggest points. The number of people at the end of the night wearing the AIDS ribbons Godwins had given out is testament to the fact that the serious content was most surely not swept under the carpet.
The Bookazine (which, strangely, is somewhere between a book and a magazine) is a thing of beauty divine from a design point of view. You can see the love and thought that has gone into the project. The content is given room to breath and interspersed with sumptiously simple printed patterns. There are little nods to the web format of the blog that the book connects with, like the love you link page and tag cloud at the back. Part of the reason it’s so thick of course, is that all of the content is in English and German, which makes the project even more impressive – working with so many bloggers, writers, artists and translators must have been an epic undertaking. If only I had time to actually read it.
Amelia judged and I sketched history in the making at the Rag Factory last week. Well, almost: the first event was in Germany the week before so this was not an actual first. The concept I’m sure already has your mind a-boggling. I’m allways fascinated by how random little scenes and pockets of interlapping creativity and culture come together in these sorts of things. Circus explore the rich territory between print and web, passion and fashion and er, people and other people. I’ll talk more about the beautiful bookazine itself a bit later.
The competing bloggers were somewhat of a motley crew, in that the content was a little inconsistently weighted, a lot of fashion and two examples of male dating based humour blogging, a genre of which I was previously unaware. This was fair enough in a sense, the theme of the Bookazine issue is fashion, but it did make the handfull of bloggers on other themes seem a little incongruous.
The slammers were judged based on the scoring categories of originality, concept, delivery and “blogability”, a made up word. Aside from our own Amelia the jury consisted of Wafa from Sketchbook Magazine, Ben from quality Sheffield based Article Magazine, and Chris Osburn from the Londonist. All small press stars of substance and style of course. The competing bloggers performed from an old school church pulpit – a nice touch I think, sort of makes you think about how we choose who we listen to and respect these days, or it just looked pretty anyway – and were also interspersed with some readings from contributors from the bookazine.
Marian Schembari telling it like it isn’t but should be.
First up was Marian Librarian, a high flying international proffesional social media blogger of sorts, who talked affectingly about why she refuses to censor her blog, even after she was detained at immigration for swearing. You can read the entry she read here She has a healthy and sensible attitude to the importance of reality and personality in online content.
Next up was a brief reading from fashion haiku‘s Kate Ironside who was rocking a serious classy jersey and pearls type ensemble.
I cannot express the perfection of the fashion haiku as a form of art, it’s such the perfect medium for expressing the wry mix of beauty, meaning and superficiality that is fashion – anyway I can’t express it like I said so if you follow one link today, make it this one and go read some. Your day will be enhanced.
Second actual competing slammers (btw, I can’t type the word slammers without thinking about pogs) were a blog double act who use fake names as a matter of neccesity since they write with warts and all accuracy about their manic dating life in a race to get married. It’s a bit like an unrealistic romcom, but much much longer. They were very funny with self deprecating anecdotes, definite crowd pleasers. I think they had the advantage too of having an actual real life story to tell in their blog, it’s engaging and sympathetic and fresh.
I’m so used to hearing the female perspective on the frustrations of dating from my friends, the cliches that men who are confident enough to come on to you are usually after just one thing, or worse turn out to be creepy stalkers seem all too often to come true. So it’s quite nice to get the male perspective and hear about women’s strange behaviours in the dating arena with some pragmatism, while still coming from what is essentially an aim to settle down with someone nice, which creates a sort of reverse cliche.
The next blogger, Godwyns Onwuchekwa “We are united to say: Never again, at least not by our own action.”
Godwyns is a serious political and LGBT rights blogger who performed a very moving blog post he had written to mark world AIDS day this year. He began by saying that following the Toast and Biscuit performance he would be boring us with serious stuff. He wasn’t boring, but he wasn’t wrong that it was a contrast. Escpecially as the next to stand up was in a similar romantic comedy vein;
Alright, maybe this is not news to you, but if you thought that the Wed or Dead Wager was a dose enough of apparently brutaly honest but at the same time surreally romcomesque male dating bloggery, Scalene may actually take you a step further. His blog allows internet strangers (the same people who comment on youtube videos) to make multiple “choose your own adventure” style decisions about his actual real life love life. In the recent post he read out he ended up actually honest to goodness chasing a girl to the airport. If there’s any justice this project will end in him being voted into not showing up for his own wedding. That’s the other thing that always happens in movies but NEVER ACTUALLY HAPPENS IN REAL LIFE. RIGHT?
Tejasvi looked particularly angelic in her floaty white top (sorry I lack the fashion nause to describe it accurately) in the pulpit. Her blog Clandestine Cigarettes is perhaps a more serious and romantic take on fashion, she read a very poetic piece but was sadly I think too nervous and lacked the projection to do it justice.
Lilly Smiles of Laughter Lines, diary of a “fleet street fox”.
Lilly Smiles trod an interesting line between the serious and comic camps with her reading, which was from a blog post written at an extremely raw and hard time in her life – the details were hazy (understandably) but it was during an episode in which she was charged with attempted murder. It was heart rending, clear, honest and well written, but still witty. She almost painted tabloid journalism (her background) as a caring profession and she pre-empted her reading by telling us she burps when nervous. In a way this was the perfect piece for the evening: managing to keep the tone seperate and yet compelling, honest but sensationalist. Possibly this is what blogability means.
Another reading from the Circus Bookazine; Muireann described herself as a humour fashion blogger but the piece she read was quite serious, looking at issues of the fashion industry’s epic denial the fatness of society. It was pretty interesting and she was a charismatic speaker, I’ve since started following her on twitter and she is an avid tweeter. She looked fabulous and clearly knew her stuff.
The final contestent in the blog-off arrived just in time to perform. She’d been in Norwich and rocked straight up to the pulpit and started channeling Lady Gaga, actually interspersing the reading from her blog ‘musings of an innapropriate woman’ with bouts of karaoke style singing.
Rachel Hills with gold slit sunglasses – when they were down she was Gaga.
This is the blog post she read, but like all of the night’s blogs, it’s the tip of an iceberg. Rachel’s blog is a smart mix of gender, popular culture, creativity and general life observations; I like her because she’s not afraid to mix pop culture references with theory and critique. If I didn’t have an essay to write I might spend my whole weekend reading her back catalogue.
So with that the blog slam was concluded, there was some complex vote counting while I mused on the variety of performances. Really the variety of different styles and subject matters didn’t lend itself to a fair comparison, ideally there could have been a number of bloggers from certain categories and an award for each. But it wasn’t the Oscars, it was an experiment and to have done so might have made the whole thing seem overworked. In the end we were treated to a slice of a mix of what the blogosphere has to offer.
the four minds and bodies behind the event and circus bookazine, preparing to award the prizes.
Rachel nabbed third place, probably as much for having rocked up at the last minute and being memorable in golden glasses and singing as anything else. The two top spots went to the romcom boys, Scalene in second place and Toast and Biscuit nabbing the top spot. There were a lot of qualities on show at the Rag Factory that night, but ultimately entertainment value probably bagged the biggest points. The number of people at the end of the night wearing the AIDS ribbons Godwins had given out is testament to the fact that the serious content was most surely not swept under the carpet.
The Bookazine (which, strangely, is somewhere between a book and a magazine) is a thing of beauty divine from a design point of view. You can see the love and thought that has gone into the project. The content is given room to breath and interspersed with sumptiously simple printed patterns. There are little nods to the web format of the blog that the book connects with, like the love you link page and tag cloud at the back. Part of the reason it’s so thick of course, is that all of the content is in English and German, which makes the project even more impressive – working with so many bloggers, writers, artists and translators must have been an epic undertaking. If only I had time to actually read it.
Artists Eugene Perera, viagra dosage Eiko Hondaand Christopher Thomasset up the A.R.T Organization or “Art Casino” in an attempt at initiating reflection on the nature of value of art, pill comodification and risk taking in the art market. Jessica Stokes talks to artist Eugene Perera about “after hours” poker sessions.
Photograph courtesy of A.R.T
Jessica Stokes: Where did you get the idea for this casino?
Eugene Perera: The idea forAlternative Risk Transfercame out of my interest in art and poker. Poker is a game of skill, risk and chance where an experienced player, whilst having no control over the cards they are dealt, is nevertheless able to gain an all important edge through the skilful manipulation of risk in the form of bets. It struck me that this was in some way relevant to my own art practice where I was constantly assessing the risks within a particular course of action and working out what to invest in that action. By investment here I do not necessarily mean economic but time, thought, ideas, effort and skill and so on. As an artist, I wanted to highlight this and ask whether such a way of working which potentially derisks is appropriate to the creative process and whether instead we should be working in such a way that failure is an ever-present possibility. As I began to think about the relevance of poker and how it might illuminate art practice and how artists negotiate the art market, I wondered whether it might be possible to create a work involving art and poker within the context of a wider exhibition. That is the impetus behind this show; it’s a form of ongoing research really.
Image courtesy of A.R.T
JS: What is your background?
EP: I have been creating art for around five years now following a Masters in Art History. Before this, I used to work in media where I set up a number of music and arts radio stations. Working in the media business environment exposed me to constant considerations of risk and as I progressed I noticed how I was better able to assess and manage risk, much like in poker and in art practice. The question now though is not so much how do I minimize risk but how do I explore risk. The exhibition Alternative Risk Transferis an unknown to me and that in itself is inherently risky and my experience cannot fully prepare me for what might happen! That’s interesting to me!
Photograph courtesy of Mark McGowan
JS: Who are the artists that will be taking part?
EP: We have a highly diverse range of artists taking part in the show ranging from the extremely new to the established such as Mark McGowanand Anthony Gross. There is also a strong international strand to the show with Japanese, Taiwanese and US artists alongside a strong London presence. The show encompasses video, sculpture, photography, painting and performance and there are a quite a few interactive gaming works such as the nightly poker games and a 24-hour chess performance created by Patrick Goddard. Many of the participating artists are creating work outside of their normal comfort zones that is commendable in this risk adverse environment. Furthermore, they are willing to stake their work in the nightly poker games in order to better understand how they respond to situations of risk.
JS: Is it important to be aware of the connotations of gambling and the encouragement thereof in today’s climate?
EP: I think it is important to be aware of what one is doing when you’re risking something in a gaming or betting situation. Unaware gambling is potentially harmful and we all know the consequences. With the Alternative Risk Transfer show at The Rag Factory, we are attempting to provoke discussion around what it means when we risk something so I think that has to be a useful contribution.
How about chance, skill and risk-taking in an unusual twist on the debate over the value of art? Give free rein to risky behavior at The Rag Factory16-18 Heneage street, London E1 5LJ. The exhibition is on from the 10th to 13th of December from 12 to 10 pm. Why not come to the preview on the 9th of December from 6 to 9 pm?
Lilly Smiles of
