art

TONIGHT. E-ON REF OFF!

Coal Baddies E-ON (responsible for new coal-fired power station Kingsnorth) are also financial backers of the FA Cup. Lets wind them up some with some light hearted whistle blowing and chanting at tonight’s Arsenal Vs Cardiff Match.

Meet at 17.30pm outside Holloway Road tube station or outside the Hornsey Road entrance to the Emirates stadium before the 19.45 kick off. If you can, help treatment come dressed as a referee (black shorts, advice balck top with white collar and black shorts).

EXT INKED

Always wanted a tattoo but waiting till you find something ‘meaningful?’ Well here’s your chance…

This month would be 200th birthday of Charles Darwin. To celebrate The Ultimate Holding Company (UHC) is inviting 100 volunteers to become the ambassadors of 100 endangered UK species-by being permanently tattooed. UHC illustrators are busy creating the designs- from snails to sharks to seaweeds-to go on display at a free exhibition in Manchester later this summer. The project also aims to raise awareness of the Marine Conservation Society and Buglife (The Invertebrate Conservation Trust) who have helped compile the list of endangered species.

Find out more.

THE WASTED SPACES PROJECT-CALL FOR ARTISTS.

“A good Wasted Spaces artwork is measured by its ability to stop traffic.”

Wasted Spaces is an international non-profit organisation that transforms abandoned commercial space and empty shop front windows into exhibition space. In enabling young up- and- coming artists a much needed platform to showcase their work they help ‘reverse the decaying effect vacant commercial property has on local high streets.’

Brent council have recently provided funding to create several Wasted Spaces windows in the borough. Participating artists will receive free exhibition space and funding. If you live and/or work in the borough submit your work to proposals@wastedspaces.org. Deadline March 1st 2009.

THURSDAY 19TH FEBRUARY

HEATHROW EXPANSION PROTEST

17.30-19.30 outside 10 Downing Street. No third runway and no increase in flights using existing runways. Speakers include John Mcdonnel MP, Susan Kramer MP, Jean Lambert MEP. Organised by Campaign Against Climate Change.

Photographers are a funny lot… put a load of them in one place with no-one to photograph but themselves and they get thoroughly confused. Thus was the situation this morning when I rocked up to New Scotland Yard with about a hundred other photographers, sick to make a stand against the new Counter Terrorism Act which comes into force today.

Sliding slyly past the general public without much of a fuss this act makes it a criminal offence to take photos of the police or the armed forces if you are suspected of “terrorism.” Given the already alarming attitude within some quarters as to what exactly constitutes terrorism (I was effectively branded an eco-terrorist for my involvement in Climate Camp last year in a story that ran in the Observer, this before it was pulled with an apology) photographers have a right to feel concern about this depressing development.

For someone who has been on the receiving end of unnecessarily aggressive behaviour from the police, who are often heavy handed in their efforts to curtail freedom of speech and the right to protest, this feels to me like yet another big stride towards a police state. And I don’t say that lightly. Protesters and activists of many persuasions already have to put up with the intrusive and threatening presence of FIT teams, who follow our every move with an arsenal of big cameras whenever we challenge the misbehaviour of both our government and big corporations (who are often in collusion), and thus far our only weapon against any possible misdemeanours has been the ability to photograph them back. This could now be an arrestable offence in itself, despite the obvious neccessity to keep a watch on our police. The police habitually lie about the necessity of force, as was evidenced by the excessive policing that was seen at Kingsnorth Climate Camp. The truth about the “injuries” – a few possible bee stings and diarrhoea – of the police officers (which were used as justification for the disproportionate amount of money ploughed into the operation) surfaced in December, and reinforce the need for unbiased footage of demonstrations provided by freelance photographers. This is obviously now at risk and is yet another serious threat to the civil liberties that are being gradually eroded by our government.

But back to the sea of slightly bewildered photographers, obviously more used to being provided with something to photograph than having to create their own.

Instead photographers turned in on themselves, devouring each other’s lenses with gigabytes. It was down to a few random souls to provide some colourful diversions amidst a sea of black.

My friend climbed aloft and posed in her police hat and a red jumpsuit, before she was joined by a crafty photographer, garlanded with sexy old cameras of the type that I love to shoot with. He was soon relishing the turn of tables and firing away in front of that iconic New Scotland Yard rotating sign.

The biggest frisson of the morning was provided by a photographer in a motorized wheelchair, who manouvered gallantly down the middle of the road, which the two coppers on duty were bound to keep clear. For a moment everyone spilled into the road, jostling for the best shot, before backing politely away again.

Mark Thomas, the alternative comedian who has based much of his work on the right to protest, spoke for the rolling cameras, calling for an exhibition of photos of police officers. Perhaps he knows that FITwatch, set up to counteract the FIT teams, have already called for such a competition, with awards based on the most scary, funny and effective photographs taken (this last for photos which have had the most success in defending civil liberties – an issue never far away.)

It was a strangely post modern occasion but one that was desperately needed to mark this most scary of developments. Long may we continue to defend our right to take photos of whatever we please. After all, as the stickers being given out announced, I’M A PHOTOGRAPHER ….NOT A TERRORIST.

Monday 16th February

Crystal Stilts, viagra Manhattan Love Suicides, website like this Wet Dog, The Lexington, London

Heavily 80s influenced shoegaze-goths over from Brooklyn to play songs from their debut album.

Secret Machines, The Big Pink, The Joy Formidable, Islington Academy, London

Texas/New York psych rockers bring their driving dream rock to London. Joined by dead trendy Londoners The Big Pink.

Tuesday 17th February

Ra Ra Riot, King’s College, London

I think my iTunes has got a bit of a crush on these guys, as it tries to attribute every CD I ever import onto it to them. Catchy folk rock not too far wrong though.

The Seal Cub Clubbing Club, 93 Feet East, London

Tongue-twister post-punk from up North.

Wednesday 18th February

Black Kids, Esser, Boy Crisis, Passion Pit, Koko, London

The big famous draw are Cure-esque, impossibly catchy headliners Black Kids although the three support acts are also well worth catching. Esser is an electro one to watch for this year, fronted by ex Ladyfuzz drummer. Boy Crisis bring more 80s-tinged sounds with their Brooklyn electro-pop and Passion Pit bring some indie to the synths.

Thursday 19th February

Yo Zushi, Old Queens Head, London

Quirky anti-folk from the mix-tape loving Londoner.

Asobi Seksu, ICA, London

Sweet girl vocals and alternative guitars at the Institute of Contemporary Arts. Can’t say trendier than that.

Friday 20th February

Things To Make And Do: It Hugs Back, Gold Sounds, Victoria and Jacob, The Vital Organs, Wilmington Arms, London

Resolutely indie fun Friday night fodder with music from lo-fi dream-pop headliners, new signings at 4AD. Followed by DJs.

The Walkmen, Hatcham Social, Electricity In Our Homes, Scala, London

Swaggering new wavey sounds from The Walkmen with a slightly more effete, Smiths-style take on the eighties from Hatcham Social.

Saturday 21st February

Herman Dune, Laura Marling, Johnny Flynn, Peggy Sue, Union Chapel, London

All day folk fest at this lovely intimate venue with pretty much all the rising folkstars of the Western hemisphere performing.

Jane Birkin, Barbican Centre, London

Ex-Serge Gainsbourg wife and muse cracks out some of the old numbers with her breathy little girl voice. Some new numbers may be included too.

Sunday 22nd February

Sunn O))), Corsica Studios, London

Drone metal that is sure to pulsate through every fibre of your body at their reliably awe-inspiring concerts.

Wouldn’t it be great if you spent each day hanging out with your closest childhood friend; drawing, here making, price building and all-round creating to your imagination’s absolute content? That’s what Sofie Hvass and Nan Na Hannibal do on a daily basis from a colourful little studio in the basement of an old house in Copenhagen. Love at first sight, Nan Na walked into school one day without knowing a soul, and was instantly drawn to the girl scribbling on the pages of her notebook – a relationship blossomed with much much more scribbling untill we arrive at Hvass&Hannibal, the Danish illustration duo with a beautiful and impressive back catalogue of exciting projects, all with their very distinctive and captivating signature – fantastical yet immediately relatable, wholesome; it looks like perfect childhood memories.

Take one of their own favourite projects, a collaboration with Efterklang in September. In two very busy weeks, they did all the stage and costume work for their concert with the Danish Chamber Orchestra – pictured above – amalgamating in a very otherworldly, fairytale creation that enhances Efterklang’s sound; I want to wear one of those hats and have perfect circles attached to my cheeks! Hard work, they say, is what accounts for their success: “sometimes we are completely surprised at how difficult we are able make things for ourselves, because we get too ambitious – and if we aren’t satisfied we keep going on. But it probably pays off at the end!” It does.

They say that their dream project would be to build a house and I love to imagine what that would look like, though in the meantime, I’ll leave you with some creations they have made from the contents of their fridge; they decided to step away from their computers and work with a different medium, “food seemed to be an appropriate choice!”.

Have a look at more of their work here, it will warm your cockles.

After recently going out of print on the Catsup label Paw Tracks have decided to re-issue Animal Collective‘s Campfire Songs EP. Apparently it’s not an album to listen to when sat around the campfire telling stories. Instead the songs contained on the disc are actually about the fire itself. So far so interesting.

Anyone who is familiar with Animal Collective’s recent output will know that they make music which is at once poppy and difficult. Last year’s Merriweather Post Pavilion had as many detractors as it did people praising it as album of the year, thumb in January! The tracks varied from the personal, stomach My Girls, and Brother Sport (which are about Noah Lennox’s, a.k.a Panda Bear wife and daughters and trying to get his brother to open up about their fathers death respectivley) to the more fun loving, Summertime Clothes, and Lion In A Coma.

Campfire Songs is as far removed from the sound of MPP or Strawberry Jam as it is possible to get. It almost sounds like a completely different band, except for Noah’s plaintive vocals. There are no drums, no synths, and certainly no big sounds. It’s just acoustic guitars being gently strummed while Noah breathily sing/chants over the top .

The album was recorded outside, on a porch, on mini-disc which allows the sounds of nature to be heard and adds a layer to the idea of making music from the elements. It’s an interesting experiment and certainly shows that Animal Collective have never been afraid to experiment. It also shows the bands development from their more noisy/acoustic sound to the electronic juggernauts that they have become.

It’s an album that I would certainly have on in the background while I was doing something else but I don’t think I’d want to sit down and actively listen to it. It seems that even amongst their fans, of which I consider myself a fairly big one, they can still be a divisive band. Something which I think is important as they aren’t trying to please anyone but themselves with their sonic experimentation.
On 20th March the highly anticipated The Age of Stupid will be released in cinemas nationwide. Amelia’s Magazine were lucky to get a sneak preview-and we were gripped. If ever you were burying your concerns for the state of the planet down there with ‘smoking won’t increase my risk of cancer, web ‘ then this is the film to shake you out of such delusion.

Directed by Franny Armstrong (McLibel, store Drowned Out), it is a documentary-drama-hybrid that starts in 2055 with Pete Postlethwaite (who, among other roles, played the priest in Romeo and Juliet!) living in a stark post-apocalyptic world ravaged by climate change. He looks back at ‘archive’ footage from 2008 and assembles a montage of documentary and news clips focussing on the stories of six individuals living in 2008. The catalytic question that Pete Postlewaite’s archivist searches to answer is ‘why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?’

We meet a variety of people from across the world. Poverty-stricken victims of oil companies like Shell, a windfarm developer whose struggle to develop greener sources energy is met with sickening adversity from his NIMBY neighbours, and an airline entrepreneur too dollar-eyed to see how he could be responsible.

The film brings to light what we smokers (try not to) know all to well. It is a strange component of the human psyche to stall when faced with an unwelcome calamity like climate change. In the same way the six separate lives are brought together as archive footage to encapsulate the multi-faceted cause behind runaway climate change, we must see past our individual lives to rethread the relationship between humanity and nature that has been severed by too many years of economic greed.

Scenes from the film were shot in Jordan, India, New Orleans, the French Alps, Nigeria and England.

The Age of Stupid is released on 20th March at the following cinemas:

• Chapter Cinema, Cardiff
• Filmhouse, Edinburgh
• Eden Court Theatre, Inverness
• Glasgow Film Theatre , Glasgow
• Watershed, Bristol
• Queen’s Film Theatre, Belfast
• Showroom, Sheffield
• Odeon Panton Street, Leicester Square, London
• Rich Mix, Bethnal Green, London.
• The Tricycle Theatre, Kilburn, London.

If you pinpointed the homelands of Wayter‘s members on a world map, click you’d quickly come to realise that a lot of space resides between each of the countries this four-piece individually call home. Hailing from Argentina, health Spain, England and Japan, it’s no surprise that Wayter are pulling in influences from all over the world (literally), and aren’t just another average band singing about how it’s grim up North, or moaning about failed summer romances.

Their four-track debut EP, Marco Polo, presents a group of musicians proficient at combining a heavier, post-rock melancholy with instrumental learnings and eerie, soaring vocals. Opening track Ruins is swathed in eloquent layers of soft, atmospheric melodies, and following track Seed upholds the tight level of professionalism, with intricate guitar and a quiet, unfurling turbulence that slowly builds up under the textured sounds. Snowhite is a sprawl of complex guitar passages, that accompanied by singer Eddie’s driving shouts produces a darker, more progressive sound, and final track Marco Polo continues very much in the same vein, with a lurching yet established presence, verifying Wayter’s signature sound.

Overall, this debut introduces us to a band who aren’t finding their feet but know exactly where they stand, producing a clean, established and defined sound. Unfortunately, this also means that there’s little room for general experimentation with genres here. Wayter produce intelligent and comprehensive alt-rock, though may run the risk of pigeon-holing themselves in terms of style if they don’t mix things up every now and then. But as an initial introduction, they certainly make the right impression.

How could a whine ever give you shivers? That tortured, view little-kid pleading shouldn’t ever sound good. But then you hear Olivia B. Merilahti and your finger has wandered over to the repeat button for another hit of the pretty whining.

Olivia is one half of The Dø, visit a French-Finnish duo from Paris. He (Dan Levy, on bass and keyboards) calls, and she responds, pouring some beautiful vocals over the top of his folk-pop. The French music press have been all over The Dø for a little over a year now, with hype in the blogosphere building up too, and this first single off their album A Mouthful (out 27th April) explains why.

On My Shoulder sounds like a sweet blast of Nina Persson from the Cardigans, only with slightly rougher edges and more interesting lyrics. It’s a confused, semi-pleading, semi pissed-off love song about feeling short-changed by a guy. ‘Why do I always help you carry your boulders? / You should know in my heart you fill every corner.’

If clips of them burning up on stage at festivals in France are anything to go by, this is a band best seen live, where they can let the full force of their quirkiness run riot. Pogoing about in Icelandic knitwear, 80s geometric acid brights, Indian feathers and old-school high-tops, Olivia looks like she’s been clothes swapping with Björk or Natasha from Bat For Lashes.

Flipping between sulky, sexy pouting from underneath her Bettie Paige fringe, or eyes closed, tear-stained wailing, she does her kaleidoscopic, melodic thing while Dan sprinkles flutes and bells over it all. The good news is, they’re currently on a mission to crack the UK, and live dates should be getting announced very soon.

Vibe Harsløf is a jewellery designer from Copenhagen and has designed collections for Paul Smith in the past and launched her own collection in October 2008. Her philosophy is to create unique and urban inspired, pharm yet lasting pieces. With over 10 years experience in the business, pharm she knows her stuff and agreed to have a little chat with us:

Why did you decide to specialise in jewellery design rather than clothes?
As an 18 year old I saw a degree show at a German design school with a
jewellery design line and it was a total eye opener. Today I would probably
find it rather pretentious, ampoule but back then I found it very inspiring that you
could make jewellery, using small objects out of literally anything.
I am still very fascinated by the idea that jewellery is small objects you carry around with you.

Have you ever designed clothes?
No.

Who are your favourite designers?
I like the way Florian Ladstaetter plays with jewellery.
I also love Martin Margiela, Comme des Garcons and BLESS – I like their conceptual way of making clothes, but I also like more spectacular designers like Gareth Pugh.

What are you currently working on?
I have just finished a jewellery line for the Danish clothing label PA:NUU . Besides that I am putting finishing touches to my next Vibe Harsløf collection.
In the near future I will start working on a collaboration with the Danish pipe
company Stanwell, making a pipe collection for them as well as a jewellery collection out of pipe tree.

Who or what inspires you?
Anything- conversations, pictures, new materials- anything basically that
creates images in my head.

How would you describe your personal style?
Jeans & trainers sometimes mixed with pieces from young designers – very casual.

Even if the hand necklace is freaky – it’s a good freaky, having seen it in the flesh, a striking and original piece. Love it. Thanks for chatting to us Vibe.
It was lovely to find we weren’t the only ones foolish enough to take on the tag team of TFL’s weekend tube works and the cheek reddening cold of another Saturday night in the capital. No One Died at The Enterprise and the bar below the venue were simply busting, drug the warm air rich with the full scale party assault of doo-wop and French pop, recipe every square inch of floor covered with smiles and dancing feet, medications balloons covering the ceiling. Amidst all the second-Christmas cheer was former Pipette Rose Elinor Dougall, holding court for a good thirty minutes.

So what did we learn? Rose is making music far removed from her previous band. The term dream-pop was coined for music like this. Almost everything shimmers in some form with vibrato and chorus, Rose’s organ saturated with it. It’s a big scoop of early psychedelica topped with a dusting of vintage folk. The beats are uncomplicated yet driven and the melodies lush, Rose‘s voice cutting through it all like a hot knife through smoke, as bold as ever. It’s the kind of music you’d choose to dance around the kitchen while burning garlic bread to or wrap yourself in a blanket of saudade with on a cold Saturday night. Two or so songs in I found myself pondering why there is a lack of modern bands pulling vintage influences into modern songwriting, rather then just imitating. Maybe it’s time for the Government to bring in laws making children listen to their parents record collections?

The band themselves wear two distinct faces tonight. The first half of the set they are in a word, aloof. Staring at their feet, three of five members with their fringes obscuring half their faces. Then mid-set Rose’s keyboards decide they no longer want to be on stage two or three times in the space of five minutes, the band make a mistake or two and decide it’s ok to smile. Set free from the Turkish opium bordello jam band stances of before, spirits raise, hands are placed on hips, all is right with the world. They’re not the finished article yet, but the potential is undeniable. Aside from debut single Another Version of Pop Song there are two or three other songs in the set which are just as delightful, the prospect of an album is mouth watering enough to make me invest in frozen garlic bread now for future kitchen dancing. The only issue I have with tonight’s set is how immediately after it I have to don an additional two layers to step outside and smoke. Her grace and music warmed our hearts, but Rose hasn’t been selfless enough to take patio heaters and a portable smoking tent on tour with her yet.

In recent years, nurse the Oxfam brand has had a brilliant image make over, more about no longer does it conjure up the image of dowdy, old lady smelling charity shops, only for those who can’t afford to go to ‘real shops’.
It is now a credible, yet very affordable place to shop, that still stays true to its charity roots. This in part may be due to the surge in recent years for vintage and recycled clothes and the fact that retail genius Jane Shepherdson volunteered to work for the brand after leaving her post as Brand Director at Topshop.

During her reign at Oxfam, Shepherdson introduced the Oxfam Boutique, which works in collaboration with ethical brands such as Made and People Tree and gets designers such as Christopher Kane and Jonathan Saunders to rework clothes and create collections from donated pieces. Every season there are designer contributions, along with London College of Fashion students who assist in the making of the collections. Overall they produce goods that “provide shoppers with unique style, beautiful one-off clothes, and the assurance that every item will raise money to fight poverty around the world.” To quote Oxfam.

To launch their S/S 09 collection they have pulled out all the stops, recruiting famed fashion photographer Rankin to take the shots and Dazed and Confused stylist Katie Shillingford to style the clothes. We have some snaps of the new collection for you here:

The result is a very stylish, wearable and covetable collection which is available online and from any of the three Oxfam Boutiques in London.

“I don’t feel I’ve really engaged with a place until I can taste or smell it, advice you know?” So Gayle Chong Kwan tells me as we settle down to a hot drink on a cold day in a mutually favourite cafe in Bethnal Green. And yes, viagra I do. Her smile is warm and wide and she is bubbling with energy, a constitution that matches or perhaps fuels the lifestyle of this Scottish/Chinese/Mauritian artist based, for the moment, in East London, and with a long list of countries she’s called home in her wake. I am further endeared to her when she tells me that she is not easily disgusted. A high threshold for things deemed unpalatable must come in useful when constructing installations from discarded food collected in Portobello Market, working in kebab shops, or in the mushrooming shanty towns that now sprawl over the city rubbish dumps of Medellin, Colombia. Thick -skinned, strong-stomached, and infectiously vivacious; of mixed origin, background (history and politics then art), and place: the person and the work are viscerally matched.

Gayle explaining some sort of food preparation involving a blow-dryer

The senses get mixed into a lot of Gayle’s work. Using photography, video, sound, installation, and performance, she likes to involve people in rituals or exchanges exploring ideas of history and myth, the senses and their connection with memories. “Taste and smell can awaken rare aspects of memory”, she explains; and who can’t relate to that? The strongest memories are surely those that have a texture to them beyond imagery, just think of Proust’s Madelaine. One project evokes this particularly, one that took place in the very postcode in which we now sit: The Memory Tasting Unit, 2004:

I gathered food memories from people who live and work in the Roman Road in East London. The foodstuff described was bought and cooked according to their recommendations, and made available in the unit, installed back in the same road, so that visitors were able to taste other people’s memories as well as record their own. Under controlled conditions, including wearing blindfolds and headphones, single visitors were able to focus on and recall memories aroused by the ingredients chosen by people who live and work in that road.

Memory Tasting Unit

Memory Tasting Unit

Gayle’s work is often very context specific, improvising with and responding to environments as they occur. Her work in Medellin for instance is not yet fully formed, but you can count that in a place where nothing is wasted, it will have something to do with recycled materials.

The inhabitants’ main economic activities revolve around the recycling and processing of waste materials. There is a re-settlement programme in the area due to the unhealthy living conditions and the hazardous chemicals under the town, but I feel that there is much that we could learn in Europe from the way in which they re-use and re-cycle and give a different value to the materials they work with and by which they are surrounded.

It relates closely to previous projects, centering around waste materials. Being friends with Gayle might easily involve taking all your plastic bottles and waste to her Hackney studio where she will rework it into something completely different, see below.

The Grand Tour

Gayle has been selected as one of the Vauxhall Collective as on of UK’s most talented artists, and commissioned for a project entitled “The Great British Road Trip”. Before meeting me she had spent the past few weeks trudging through snow in the Orkney Islands off the coast of northern Scotland, taking photographs for a project that will explore the sometimes frustrated relationship between photography and the senses. Whether Vauxhall say she is talented or not, she has certainly pricked my interest, and I look forwards to seeing (touching, smelling and tasting) her work in the near future.

Written by Luisa Gerstein on Wednesday February 18th, 2009 3:16 pm

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Two years after releasing his debut album, adiposity side effects Jeremy Warmsley is back with this cheeky taster of what’s yet to come. It’s not as if we need any more of these quirky male singers but this half English, half French philosopher chances his luck with help from his poetical lyrics and sweet melodies.

‘The Boat Song’ sees Warmsley dueting with Emmy the Great on a tale of the love sick and the sea sick. The trouble with this little folksy number is that it sounds old before it’s time. It’s one thing taking a ‘traditional’ approach to song craftsmanship and another sounding like your middle-aged parents around the piano at a family get together.

Much more agreeable is the cover of New Order’s Temptation, turning their synth sound on its head with this heartfelt, paired down piano version. Maybe I’m just biased due to a pretty big crush on Joy Division and, like the lyrics say, I really do have grey eyes, but Warmsley has definitely made this his own without straying too far from the original.
This stopgap single is not to be included on his forthcoming album followers should be clamoring to get hold of this little taster.

Ozard, medical Mr TTT, troche Bubblegrump, look Choco and Naked Malfi are just a few of the adorable little creatures you can find on the recently devised online design boutique Nora Does. Born all over the globe from Japan to America, these limited edition little gems are made by independent designers and artists from Sarah Ray to Friends With You.

Paper toys, quirky USB’s and charming badges are just a few of the potential additions to your humble abode and wardrobe. And, for all you talented arty ones out there, Nora Does welcome submissions of your own work to sell online.

Well worth a gander.

A space age set greets you upon walking into the exhibition room at LCF, abortion instead of the normal display of graduate’s work, there is a wall of postcards and 7 giant softly lit light boxes. It transpires that the postcard of your choosing should be placed on the light boxes for you to interactively view the portfolio of your chosen graduate. In this way, LCF aims to give as many graduates the chance to be seen. Although a clever idea, we found several postcards that looked promising but revealed less impressive portfolios. Likewise, there were probably postcards we didn’t pick up on the glance of the inviting image and could have missed out on discovering the future of fashion.

Hidden in the mountain of postcards we did find one or two gems. In the Design/Clothing section Jourdan Caroline Hammond’s postcard stood out for its eye-catching structured surrealism and her portfolio revealed more delights. Her fascination lies in the ghoulish rather than the girlish, as pieces used graphic lines and stark, minimal colour whilst models faces were morbidly replaced by deer heads. Junko Masuda’s take on fruit, made 5 a day exceptionally easy to digest, with a juicy cherry bag calling card which when placed on the glass uncovered more fruity offerings.

A favourite in the Design/Textiles was Samantha Whittle’s tent dress with woodland animal prints topped with chiffon icing. Layered collars and cute buttons added a child-like quality resulting in wearable dresses rather than fantastical creations. Similarly, Shoko Ishikawa’s pleated folds and subtle whale prints, resulted in a killer take on origami. Delicately feminine blouses stayed on the right side of librarian prim and were enticing without flashing any flesh.

Design/Footwear provided a playground for the designer’s imaginations to run away. Tengiz Chketiani’s macabre marriage of taxidermy and footwear would have Bjork at the top of the waiting list. Admittedly the shoes would be tricky to run for the bus in, with doves in flight and wild roses upon your feet, but they would make an amazing collectors piece. Sae Rom Jun seemed to take inspiration from a night at the pub. Reclaimed materials were used to create shoes topped with curls from Fosters cans and heeled with cone shaped wood, resulting in an extremely wearable design.

Often playing second fiddle to Womenswear, we pulled out a few new talents in the field of Menswear category. Tae-Hyoung Kim inventively draped and flowed oversized cardigans and vests paired with knee length shorts. These grown-up schoolboys looked remarkably chic in their simple knit shapes and bowler hats. Shouting a little louder than the rest Robin Murray Switzman’s zig-zag prints wouldn’t look out of place within the pages of a comic. The ‘Biff, Bang, Wallop’ clothes translate into fun and fresh pieces in the usually sober world of menswear.

Image-making presents some of the most visually arresting postcards and had our greedy mitts grabbing for handfuls. Showcasing all the fun of the fair, Jooyoung Lee’s self styled photographs bring colour to the familiar grimy streets of East London. Party hats and paper shapes entice the viewer into a make believe world of colourful escapism. Away from the streets and into an ethereal woodland wonderland, Luke Christopher Castillo turned ballerinas into butterflies. The elusive creatures, with fleshy toned clothes and candy floss hair look like they could easily flutter away. Blink and you’ll miss them.

The Looking Glass reflects many talented individuals who have unfortunately been stifled by all the fancy technology. Rather than a platform for student’s work, it felt like a trade show, where every designer was just a commodity. Whilst forward thinking, the idea seems detrimental in not seeing the physically finished product.

I was under the impression that music was supposed to warrant feelings. Be it loathing or loving. In the former, generic making you curse the day you ever heard that loathsome band’s name – and the latter compelling you to get excited and dance around like an escapee of an asylum, or whatever it is you do to express your excitement. I’ll concede that most albums lie in the less extreme, liking or disliking being the general sentiment. With a small space being reserved for ambivalence, which is where Picturebox comes in, playing their self proclaimed blend of lo-fi pop. However lo-fi, surely their debut album ‘Beans & Bones’ was not supposed to feel like a session band playing in the pub. An above average session band, but still, the over-all sense is of inoffensive background music.

There is nothing wrong with this blend of bluesy tinged garage and melodic pop; but it’s music that just doesn’t go anywhere. They play their instruments well – melodies are nicely arranged, lyrics are well written – but none of these elements approach noteworthy significance, as songs seem to just plod along. Occasionally mediocrity gives way to moments of promise. Not quite the warm fuzzy feeling, but close. Songs like ‘Jennifer’s Brother’ and ‘Beans and Bones’ stick in your head a little bit more, with sliding guitars which definatley work well, even if they become ever so slightly repetitive. ‘England has Perverted Me’ is nicely melodic, but in places slips into boring territory, and I could imagine ‘The Accuser’ being used on a BBC 3 drama series.

Inoffensive middle of the road music serves its time and place. For me, badly sung along to while on a car journey, whilst taking breaks from eye spy. Many bands have made successful careers out of peddling inoffensive offerings, but there is usually a certain je ne sais quoi accompanying it, which elevates these sing-a-long bands to something infinitely more appealing.

Fashion and photography are a match made in creative heaven .Their relationship has delivered a catalogue of iconic images over the years, visit capturing the designer’s masterpieces and voicing the mood and style of the era.

This summer Kingston College are showcasing work from their National Diploma in Fashion and Clothing and HNC Photography courses. The show enables us to see the garments up close and personal next to its photography equivalent.

Although close in proximity to my home, price this was my first visit to Penny School Gallery. Upon opening the small gate at the entrance I immediately heard the hum of numerous voices in conversation, help alongside the slop of apples falling into glasses. After being greeted by a smiling student with a wonderful choice of Pimms, wine and juices, I started to scour the room. A camera at the far side filmed the large crowd of attendees as if we ourselves were part of a catwalk show of our own. It was amusing to watch people as they bashfully ducked or caught secret sneak peaks at themselves on the screen!

In the main area I was pleased to have the opportunity to look through the student’s sketchbooks. I recall at art school being enthralled by them, often finding them an arena where you see the artist/designer’s imaginations and thought-processes in a beautifully refreshing and honest way. Seeing how the ideas develop and how they are noted down through scribbles, sketches and tear- outs was truly fascinating.

After several minutes spent contemplating in a world of my own, my thoughts were distracted by a beacon of orange to my right, forcing me to whirl around and face Michelle Liu’s New Genre hooded dress coat. Putting my prejudices towards the famously difficult-to-wear colour aside, I have to say I was impressed with how the garment looked on the runway film playing next to it.

Another piece which caught my attention was Anna Melkova’s hooded dress with its luxurious pink quilted lining against an embroidered black outer. Becky Hensman and Sarah Glover’s designs, although muted and predominately monochrome, both captured popular trends. Their use of PVC and silk created a sort of sexy work- wear appeal.

In terms of wear-ability and personal taste if Id had a larger bag I would have whisked Kelly Hyland’s dress away (joking of course!). Its feminine tie straps and hand printed designs soaked in gloriously fresh and summery hues, would team perfectly with a pair of my gladiator sandals at home.

The New Underground section saw Zaina Ahmed, Alex Gibson and Jennifer Withnall take inspiration from the S/S 08 collections with hemlines rising to an alarming height. Like Luella and Mui Mui the dresses combined cute and sexy – a great look for the young fashion savvy.

All the students showed some promise whether it is was through great craftsmanship, their ability to tap into trends or classic styles, innovative ideas, capturing a mood or idea through image or enhancing the appeal of the designs. It will be exciting to see how they progress over the next few important years, and who knows, they may someday be able to hold the flag for British fashion.

Being in Exeter for a few days, mind I decided to take a slice of Devonian arty goodness in the form of Axel Antas‘ exhibition at Spacex Gallery. Originally from Finland, Axel Antas is the latest artist to be influenced by his natural environment, which is so distinctive of South West art.
On first walking in, there was a room with a delicate pencil sketching of woodlands. The faint markings lead you to believe there may be fog in the way, leaving a ghostly feel.

Passing into another room, there is a series of photographs taken in the Catalan Pyrenees. Bird boxes placed in natural landscapes apparently ‘represents man’s failed attempt to converge with the landscape.’ There is a bare loneliness to the photos and the bird boxes add a surprising addition to the otherwise untouched landscape. It as if man’s hopes to engage with nature by building bird boxes has failed as it is gaping apparent they are not meant to be there. All the results are oddly discomforting, with the man made boxes looking frail and sad.

‘Intervention’, a series of photos taken of park landscapes with an added fake mist, enhances the otherworldly melancholy world he is so preoccupied with. He explains the fake mist as his attempt at ‘mimicking nature and momentarily changing the landscape.’ With a film screening of a picturesque park in spring, with hardly anything happening, you feel as if you are sat at a park bench in a private reverie, contemplating the peaceful view in front of you. Similarly around the corner is another larger screening of a foggy area where the screen gradually becomes clear to reveal woodlands.

I left the Spacex Gallery at odds with what I had just seen. There is a simplicity to his work and a lingering loneliness that hangs like the mists he artificially introduces to his works. Added to this, the deadening lack of noise in the gallery is palpable which only leaves you feeling isolated, which is surprising since the exhibition space is tiny. The pieces work well together and it is as if the mists spread it’s silent tentacles into your consciousness without you knowing it! Not exactly an upbeat way to spend your afternoon, but definitely worth a peek for those wanting to engage with hauntingly romantic and poetically beautiful pieces.

Infectious as German measles and channelling Orange Juice, medications Wave Machines slice of pop pie is destined to have you running to the shops to buy it.

With a jingle as catchy as ‘Smelly Cat’, Wave Machines walk the tightrope of cheese, but balance it out with a synth-bass heavy and loopy keyboard melody. Twangy guitars, an inane chorus and cowbells also feature to make this as good as ice-cream.

Wave Machines have been called Liverpool’s third best new band, and judging by this piece of rhythmic joy they will be ousting the un-named bands from the top spots. A big claim, some might say, but Wave Machines have set sail and it’s definitely full speed ahead. Plus, if The Zutons are included it shouldn’t be too difficult.

I was so confused about this band to begin with. First of all by their name, sildenafil but let’s not get into that because who can really say what makes a good or bad band name; and then secondly by the fact they’re from France, but they sound so American. More American in fact than the sound of a severely obese man’s gut rumbling with pangs of hunger because he’s only on his 15th corn dog of the day. Put it this way, they sing about Jack Nicholson, in a style that’s somewhere between The Beach Boys and Johnny Cash and one of them is called Alex Banjo. How much more American can you get?

All this however is best ignored, as there is a lot of substance beyond all this baffling geography. Primarily in the fact that it meets one of the most important criteria for a good album – you can happily listen to it from beginning to end.

Individually tracks like ‘See The Future’, ‘Jack Nicholson style’ and ‘Time Bomb’ stand alone as really great songs, perhaps because they’re more buoyant than the rest of the album. That’s not to say the more sultry songs aren’t any good, they make the album well balanced – like the best of movies you’re taken from the lowest lows to the highest highs with very little time spent in between.

I love the style of this band. They seem to rip off so many people you can’t work out exactly who they’re trying to emulate. So in conclusion, I’ve decided it’s best not to think too hard about it, and just enjoy it for the fact that it gets my feet a tappin’.

The Brick Lane Gallery opened their space up to street artists (accepting submissions via email) a while back, dosage resulting in the first ‘Free For Wall!’ exhibition last month. David Le Fleming, more about Gemma Compton and Sunil Pawar were amongst the raw talent showcased in the last exhibition, but the gallery must have been in-undated with creatives hopefuls because yesterday saw the sequel of ‘Free For Wall!’ with the aptly titled ‘Free For Wall! part 2′. This time around we were promised ‘a strong selection of artists’ which would include ‘very new faces from all over the world’, so I was really looking forward to the private view.

Entering the gallery a huge Max Wiedemann canvas immediately grabbed my attention. With dripping bright colours sending up the glossy magazine lifestyle, it was a knock out start to the exhibition.

After such a vibrant impact on the senses, it was great to discover more intricate works were on display too. Having a soft spot for collage I was really taken with Brazillian creative, and sometime tattoo artist, Rodrigo Souto‘s cut and paste series. The sacred and the sensual were naughtily combined, along with stamps and postcards that lent a nostalgic feel.

Ben Lawson‘s intricate, almost scientific, beetle drawings and Jenism’s detailed tarot illustrations were also worthy of note for their delicate aesthetics.

In the not so delicate category came the work of Agent Provocateur, an artist from the stencil and spray can school of graffiti. With an image of a transvestite Prince Charles on the loo (entitled Royal Flush), I’m sure Agent Provocateur raised a few eyebrows and evoked a few chuckles. However, after seeing many a Banksy inspired stencil around Shoreditch, it’s a ‘satirical’ humour that I am personally becoming a bit tired of.

It’s always interesting to see how galleries go about showcasing street art, since graffiti is such an urban creature and can be difficult to contain. The Brick Lane Gallery had an interesting way to deal with this challenge however, mixing pieces sprayed directly onto found objects with others classically contained within gold frames. The unusual relationship between street-art and high-art was not lost on printmaker Since, whose playful images of famous artists brandishing spray cans captured the juxtaposition beautifully.

Well established artist Part2ism (was the exhibition partly named in honour of him?!) was given pride of place with his immense, glistening jigsaw piece dominating a whole wall of the gallery.

Last, but most definately not least, Carlos Zuniga’s work held my attention before I left the show. From afar this set of illustrations hadn’t looked like much but, on closer inspection, they proved to be some of the deepest and most rewarding images on display. Working with a telephone directory, Zuniga had carefully crossed out names and numbers until features of faces had come into view. It’s not until you look at Zuniga’s website, however (and see that this project is comprised of other works made up of hundreds of local directory pages), that you realise the enormity of what this artist has achieved. Mind boggling!

The Brick Lane Gallery will be welcoming visitors to live spray painting performances from some of the exhibiting artists on Sunday the 13th. So go, enjoy the exhibition, and then be inspired by seeing how it’s done! Roll on ‘Free for Wall! part 3′!

Written by Sarah Barnes on Friday July 11th, 2008 1:00 am

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Water is accessible through a tap. Most of us, pills price (if were not trendy art students who squat) pay expensive water bills to have this privilege of running water. So why do I find myself forking out my hard earned pennies on bottled water during the day? WIth the recommended daily amount of at least 4 pints a day (equivalent to 2 litres), the disorganized and thirsty of us may waste up to four golden pounds to fulfill our liquid fix.

So there’s my rant out of the way. The main issue here is not just our pockets, but our environment. You would have had to have been hibernating over the last year if you are not aware and taking part in the risen popularity of recycling. Great! Yet, in actual truth a large proportion of recyclable materials end their time in Landfill, or even worse our beautiful oceans. Estimated to take between 500-1000 years to biodegrade we need to crack down on this issue. Even the relatively small proportion of plastics which are given a stab at the recycling process are transported around the globe to be reincarnated before returning to their origin. Again, this is a far cry from ecological efficiency. Before I ramble further, for those of us which are not inspired to change habits purely through concern for our planet, I remind them of the recent rumors of harmful toxins which disposable plastics are potentially leaking into fluids.

So there we have it. I’m not complaining about our sudden splurge of sun, but our rate of plastic disposal is rocketing during these summer months. Which leads me to the introduction of the reusable and recyclable aluminium drinks bottle courtesy of the clever SIGG people. Celebrating 100 years of establishment, the SIGG designs prove that although old timers, they are still able to produce an environmentally friendly and visually strong alternative to the plastic bottle. Constructed from a single piece of aluminium using minimum waste manufacturing processes the leak proof, easy to clean, seamless bottles are available in a range of sizes and designs whether you prefer a sleek professional sip or an illustrated cheerful gulp.

As Amelia models, the Sigg bottle is very handy for festivals and teeth cleaning!

Ah, sick the ICA, bar one of London’s finest scrums. But somehow it’s always worth it – and tonight it certainly is. First up, Herculean one-man-band, Bass Clef. Let’s start with an instrument inventory: trombone; Theremin; Roland IR-606; whistle; cowbell; drumsticks; Behringer mixing desk; cd deck and echo chamber microphone (as Ralph himself might call it) all shrouded in an unhealthy obsession with seminal Soviet dystopian novelist Yevgeny ‘We’ Zamyatin. The very polite Bass Clef aka Ralph Cumbers is quick to make point of the slothenly ground-seated audience who quickly adjust to two feet (I wonder, would they have taken to the floor if it wasn’t such a balmy summer evening).

After several years operating out of Bristol, Bass Clef’s sound bears the marks of that city’s bass-centric tradition. Yes it is as his name indicates all about the bass. I can’t help but mention Hackney Hardcore’s ‘Dancehall Dangerous‘ (Clef is now resident there) but if I mention Smith and Mighty, and Massive Attack as geographical forebears to the Bristol bass sound exhibited by Clef tonight the picture might become clearer, and Lennie De Ice’s ‘We Are I.E.’ would appear to be a reference point for Clef on both the quality of bass line and use of clicky snare hits.

His use of a repertoire of instruments not necessarily considered to be traditionally ‘dub’ is key to the unique sound and performance tonight. The sound is built up with the use of pedals and effects units to create a layered stratum of sonic jabs and reverb-ridden polyphonies that is reminiscent of the classic Dub sound but never as sparse. Clef’s set exudes strong avant-garde tendencies and for certain he was expounding this sound long before the only current scene with which he might be associated was born.

As if fresh from one of their famous NYC guerrilla street gigs the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble – eight brothers, the progeny of epic horn man Phil Cohran accompanied by drummer 360 – take the stage. The crowd is eager and hyped. This is the horn section for real. Like those viciously sampled by hip hop greats such as Public Enemy and Gangstarr but with real brass, real breath and real spit.

These guys rock their instruments with true party clarity and hip hop sensibilities. As they play they sway and glean touching such bases as the Salsoul Orchestra, Etiopiques, Blue Note and mid-70′s Herbie Hancock as they disseminate their ‘musical medicine’ with true jazz pedigree. It never feels dated – as it might easily do. It’s ‘Inner City Blues’, the soundtrack to a Donald Goines novel, Mardi Gras, Crooklyn Clan, fresh, fresh, fresh, all for today. 360 drums with the precision of Idris Muhammad, and the brothers play like it’s for the last time, in a room as hot as Sal’s Famous.

There is a strong element of crowd participation – not naff here – which adds to the block party vibe. The lights go down; the cell phones go up (instead of lighters). The waftiest moment of the night seems to work for the crowd – like panacea. At the end of the evening, after a very long encore, the players are introduced one-by-one James Brown-style. The crowd pour out onto the Mall, the humidity, the jazz, the summer is here!

Last night after leaving the team Amelia’s free drink fest that was the Havana Club Exhibition I wandered over to Cargo full of anticipation (and rum) for Ratatat. I’ve had not seen Ratatat live before so I really didn’t know what I was expecting. But as feature on the constant play on my ipod, information pills I was sure it was going to be good.

Shuffling into Cargo just before 9 I realised with impeccable timing Micachu‘s support set was due to start in a few minutes. I was introduced to Micachu through fellow Amelia’s intern, pharm Sarah. I don’t think Sarah would mind if I let you all into a little secret; Sarah loves (maybe that should be capitals) Micachu. Enjoying the fading sun in the beer garden I realised said lady was sat a few centimetres away, Sarah really would be super jealous I thought to myself. The praise heaped on Micachu by Sarah and others is most definitely justified.

Watching Micachu as she performed with her band, The Shapes strumming her ukulele I was struck by how much she reminded me of Jaime T. In pretty much every way. The way she sings with a slight snarl of the lip (Elvis would be beaming), the stance, the strumming, even the way she looks! I’m not suggesting she rips off Jaime T, just that there are some unintentional similarities.

However Micachu was very much a warm up for the main event. The crowd seemed restless, and for an apparently sold out gig I was wondering where the swarm of people where. Grabbing the attention of the said crowd, was achieved by the inventive use of an oyster card and a vacuum cleaner. But even Micachu seemed to be keen on hearing Ratatat, with her praise of them uttered frequently.

So the moment I and everyone else had waited for was drawing near. The room started filling up, and I was no longer in any doubt as to the sold out nature, myself squeezed between over enthusiastic youths and a smooching couple. The projector flicked a Pioneer display across the screen, lighting up the instruments waiting for their owners. With all the waiting bodies and the unlikely sunny day, Cargo has been transformed into a sweat box. Nice. I receive a kick from the enthusiastic youths. Forty minutes later and still waiting I am reminded why gig going annoys me. Finally, as I’m giving up hope of every making it home at a reasonable hour Ratatat enter the stage.

Ratatat launch into song after song, with little verbal interaction with crowd. Apart from the encouragement for head nodding by the tour-only keyboard player whose gigantic curly mop is nodding frantically. I don’t think I’ve seen so many heads nodding in near enough unison, ever. However, it quickly transpires I am stood behind Mr. Nodding Dog who takes it to the next level. With every nod, his head runs the risk of flying off his neck and into my face. In a feat Cyclops would have been proud of I maintain one eye on Mr. Nodding Dog and one on the stage. For an instrumental band, its comes as no surprise to see visuals to lend support to a performance. But, super trippy visuals are unexpected. Slowed down images of geometric shapes and kung fu have a hypnotic quality. I even spotted Arnie pre-politics looking every bit the last action hero.

Ratatat played a good mix of tracks from ‘LP3′ and ‘Classics’ and hearing the first few bars of ‘Lex’ I almost forget to keep an eye on Mr. Nodding Dog, he obviously liked that one too, alerting me, as his nodding takes on a dangerous turn. Ratatat were pretty much what I was hoping for live, I had high expectations and they did live up to them. However, after the 40 minute late start I decided to call it a night after hearing ‘Wildcat’. I had hoped to hear the irresistible chimes of ‘Seventeen Years’, but I guess I’ll never know.

Last Thursday the amelia’s crew (minus one or two members) scampered down to the Dray walk Gallery after work, viagra sale looking a bit dishevelled (I’m talking about myself not the others- that would be just plain rude!) Ploughing through my emails half an hour to finishing work, shop one particular email entitled ‘rum and art’ prickled my attention. ‘100 pieces of Havana’ involved 100 artists showcasing their interpretations of Cuba in an 100 hour art exhibition. Hollaring at the others to come and join me in a bit of Cuban fun, plus one or two servings of rum was an easy plea.

Walking in on the open spaced gallery, we were met with an array of exciting art, exhibiting a spirit and vivacity that is so focal to Cuban life. Graffitti, illustration, photography, fashion design, it was all there. Some highlights included Will Tuck‘s goldfish in a bottle, Kate Harrison’s mixed media piece and illustrations by ‘rude’.

will tuck’s fish!

kate harrison’s piece

illustration by ‘rude’

matthew hawkin’s piece

‘hedonista’ by billie jean

The only thing that puzzled me was why so much of the art centred on Havana Club bottles. No sooner had I read the press release than I realised that Havana club rum had commissioned the initiative. The release even concluded ‘The iconic logo, strong heritage and vibrant history have made it a sought after brand loved by artists and talent over the world’. Indeed! I didn’t know Cuban life equated to Havana club rum.

Despite this, the exhibition was fun and fresh with a colourful range of art employing different medias. There was always a piece to grab your attention just around the corner. It was a shame that works were limited to selling the brand in a slightly more liberated way to a series of free ad campaigns. Rather than sitting on the side, making art the focus, Havana Club had infiltrated the exhibition, attempting to fuse both brand and art together. Havana club should know they may be able to dull our senses for an evening, but inevitably the sober fact that art will always rein over corporate indoctrination, will arise the next day.

From the outside, cost it looks to be a couple of aged shoe and bag shops, visit but once through the doors, the shelves of shoes have been transformed to shelves of liquor and the bar, leather sofas and art work lead to the assumption of a local hang out for trendy East Londoners. Although I’ve heard it gets quite packed at night, the afternoon hours are a good time to go if you’re more interested in looking at the most recent exhibitions. You can find This Is All I Came to Do currently on display. It’s the first ever public show for ithoughtiwasalone, a new website created this year by extremely talented, Italian photographer, Lele Saveri. Designed to feature photographs from talented up and coming artists, the site helps to give them the proper exposure they deserve. A few of the artists include, Ben Rayner, Luca Desienna and Andrea Boscardin.

As I made my way over to the first wall of images, I felt as though I was invited inside of a photographer’s critique session. The lack of frames, mattes and appearing in no particular order allowed each piece of art to be viewed truly as what they are. The photographs captured the simplicity of ones daily actions, yet used extraordinary lighting to make it a moment worth freezing. My favorites included the sunlight creeping into a bed and the silhouette profile of a girl.

It was great to see fresh new faces with anticipation of more great work to come. This Is All I Came to Do will be on display at Dream Bags and Jaguar Shoes through August 24, so hurry down to check out the new art.

All Photography By: Alex Bartolomei

Written by Michelle Heimerman on Wednesday July 30th, 2008 10:34 am

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