Category: Art

Ezekiel 36:36 is the latest project from photographer Nick Ballon, who many a moon ago contributed a fantastic zoo story to Amelia's Magazine. This time he spent six months in Bolivia documenting Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano (LAB), one of the world’s oldest airlines. Here's what the press release has to say:

With only one plane now operational from a downed fleet of aircrafts, LAB is a crumbling empire which continues to survive solely through the loyalty and faith of its remaining 180 unpaid staff. Founded in 1925, it has played an important role in every stage of the country’s history. Since its privatisation in 1994, LAB has suffered at the hands of successive administrations, becoming gradually dismantled due to chronic mismanagement and corruption. The project has resulted in a dedicated book and exhibition which will both be launched at KK Outlet. The project title, Ezekiel 36:36 refers to the name of the only plane LAB currently has in operation, renamed after it narrowly avoided a tragic accident.

Ezekiel 36:36 has in many ways become a metaphor for the story of Bolivia and its people: resigned to look back at past glory and grandeur which is at once half-imagined and half-remembered. There is a paradoxical sense of loss and optimism, which resonates throughout the narrative. Featured in the Ezekiel 36:36 book is an extra booklet which showcases the airline in it’s heyday. There is archive imagery taken by staff, coupled with dynamic graphic design and typography that was created in house using a technique called Rubylith.

Sensitive to this poignant and transitional time, Ballon has created a series of images, which evoke a sense of dignity, allowing us to share intimate moments with the people and personalities still on the airline’s fragile payroll. Together with the Bolivian born writer Amaru Villanueva Rance’s narrative, this is the first time that LAB has been so extensively portrayed in both words and images, and the first time that the story has been told.

Category: Art

Viewing the world through his own unique kaleidoscopic lens, Mark Ward presents this brand new body of work, featuring a plethora of mascots, distorted creatures of pop and cheering parades of psychedelic coloured icons. These ideas are manifested across a variety of media including paintings, drawing, inflatable sculpture and lights, in a celebration of hazy memories and youthful optimism. You will find all of this installed across the ground floor exhibition space of DreamBagsJaguarShoes, creating a pop cultural melange in plastic Technicolour.

A child of the late 1980s, Mark was heavily influenced by the day-glo representations of exotic Americana that his TV beamed into his home in the South London suburbs. The images he saw contrasted the reality of his drab UK surroundings, and set his imagination loose. These elements created a wasteland of visual reference that, with the optimistic outlook of his childhood, Mark pieced together to create his own distorted Californian ideal. The path of adulthood has brought with it a mundane everyday reality. Where Mark is a stranger in his own clouded neon world -the sun-scorched Nirvana he aspired towards has dissolved away. However, his fascination with Americana has not left his conscious.

Mark has exhibited his artwork through Europe and America. Ward’s work comfortably straddles both the 2D and 3D worlds. The surreal pop icons are clear to be seen, as well as his passion for the texture and execution. Mark also works commercially across fashion, magazine covers, editorial and installations, delivering strong concepts and bold visuals to a range of clients. Projects include signature work for Stussy, Columbia Records and Nike.

Opening times: 12pm – 1am 7 days a week.
You are invited to the private view on 12th September 2013: 7pm till late

Category: Art

Grande Dame is an audio/visual project by UK-based artist Tiff McGinnis, of whom I have long been a major fan. Now she's putting a range of her newest artworks on display at the Dragon, a bar and restaurant in her new home town of Hastings.

Tiff makes music and creates colourful animated videos to accompany her songs. Her OCD tendencies compel her to over detail her videos, so images from them are then incorporated into Giclee Prints, Screen Prints, Blotter Art, Porcelain Plates, t-shirts, bags,and more. Tiff has collaborated with light designer Chris Bracey of God’s Own Junkyard on a range of psychedelic, pinball inspired lights. And is represented by Ink_d Gallery, Brighton. 2013 has seen Tiff foray into the fashion world, working with legendary couture shoe designer Terry de Havilland to produce a collection of shoes covered in her trademark psychedelic designs. Read about her collaboration right here. She has just finished an animated short for the Grande Dame Album, which she plans to turn into a comic, along with a series of limited edition artworks, out in early 2014.

Tiff McGinnis is a dedicated, creative, maverick, with keen eye for detail. Her work is thought-provoking, funny, colourful and exciting. Her sound is big, her style is large – she is GRANDE DAME.

Readers are invited to the private view on Sept 25th. It's guaranteed to be an evening of psychedelic wonder, so if you live on the Kent coast what better way to spend the evening?

Category: Art

Geometry Collection by Tamasyn Gambell.

Tent London returns to the Truman Brewery this year as part of the London Design Festival – and as usual it promises to showcase a plethora of design talent, from furniture to flooring, homeware to wallpapers and much more. This year they launch Brink, in support of graduate design talent, which will feature stands from universities across the UK, as well as a best of section, curated by Katie Treggiden. The dedicated craft market returns, and there will be a huge number of exhibitors from that heartland of great design, Scandinavia.

Here's a sneak peak of what to expect.

King Edison Lamp by Mineheart.

Bold & Noble.

Ticket information:
Purchase tickets online before 13 Sept 2013 and save 20%!
Adult & Student: £8* in advance / £10 on the door
Child: 5-16 yrs: £5
Under 5’s: Free

Opening times:
Thursday 19 September: 10am – 7pm
Friday 20 September: 10am – 8pm
Saturday 21 September: 10am – 8pm
Sunday 22 September: 11am – 6pm

Category: Art

London has 72,457 empty homes. Rent is Too High. As the Housing Crisis deepens there have been:
> government policies of Cuts to Housing Benefit
>> the introduction of the Bedroom Tax
>>> regeneration that equals unaffordable 'Affordable' Housing

Made Possible by Squatting presents an archive of histories and stories of how Londoners have met their needs and desires through squatting the empty buildings which fill our city.

With over 30 stories from Crossroads Womens Centre, to Islington Housing Co-op, Ramparts, and Clifton Mansions these histories will be traced through a series of film, illustration, photos, archive posters, workshops, and more! The exhibition itself aims to be part of this tradition- but it happens in the context of repression.  With the squatting of residential buildings already outlawed last year, and the further ban on commercial squats looming on the horizon, there has never been a more necessary time to celebrate squatting histories.

>>> when Housing is a Luxury, Squatting is a Necessity
Better to Squat than let Homes Rot