Last week another book plopped into my post box: this time one inspired by the cult of Pinterest, where many creatives share and collect ideas for crafty projects to make at home. Pinterest Perfect! is an interesting beast – taking an online phenomenon and attempting to turn it back into a good old fashioned printed read. So we are introduced to 8 different artists who use Pinterest to promote their business, with each sharing some simple ideas for DIY projects, and ways to kick start creativity. Sidebars explain some basic tips for the best way to use Pinterest to inspire and build your own hobby or business.
Most of the featured artists are based in America, and seem to share a similar aesthetic, with easy to recreate projects that are most suitable for those new to the world of making. I particularly like Japanese inspired ideas by Marisa Edghill and beautiful typography by Molly Jacques. Also included are two illustrators, including our very own Gemma Correll, who shares her tips for creating self portraits and fun animal drawings: by far my favourite part of the book.
Does it work? Yes and no. The book is beautifully put together and I like the way that you are encouraged to use the book like a notebook, taking the online into the real world and allowing you to add your own ideas after each project. However, Pinterest itself is an almost endless source of inspiration, and a book can only ever present a tiny fraction of the potential discoveries to be made online. Having said this I find that sometimes you just can’t beat an actual book to get the creative juices flowing, and this is a great volume to peruse if you are of a similar persuasion and fancy discovering some interesting new artists along the way.
Pinterest Perfect! is available from Walter Foster now, priced £12.99
Written by Amelia Gregory on Wednesday May 7th, 2014 10:45 am
London Zine Symposium 2011. All photography by Amelia Gregory.
At the London Zine Symposium art students and anarchists sit cheek by jowl, page sometimes sharing an overloaded trestle table. It can be a somewhat uncomfortable relationship – I picked up one zine that featured a page that cited all the reasons why art students’ zines are inferior to ‘real’ zines: not least their tendency to flog a whole table of handcrafted goodies alongside.
I can see their point – zines began life as a way to express ideas that might not otherwise find an outlet, approved and have been adopted by artists as a way to showcase work with a view to commercial propagation. But that doesn’t stop me being a big advocate of up and coming artists’ zines – it’s a wonderfully cheap medium to showcase work when cost is a real issue for many artists and illustrators just starting out. Of course, if that work has something intelligent to say, then all the better, and who said that anarchism and artistry have to be mutually exclusive anyway? The London Zine Symposium proves that there is plenty of room for all comers – it’s become a great success because the sprawling DIY ethos of the zine network creates supportive communities.
It was extremely hot and claustrophobic in the Rag Factory this weekend, so I whisked through as quickly as I could and probably missed loads of great stuff. Here’s my pick of what I found at this year’s London Zine Symposium.
I’ve long been a fan of Jess Wilson, who has been featured multiple times in Amelia’s Magazine and in Amelia’s Anthology of Illustration. One of her side projects is Duke Press, and here’s a selection of what she had on offer: lovely stuff all of it.
At the back people were tackling their own Zine projects, and it looked like they were having a lot of fun with cut up newspapers and Pritt sticks.
Nobrow were there with a table full of brightly coloured products – not entirely sure how they fit into the London Zine Symposium, but I’ll always be seduced by their wares. I particularly liked the bright new postcards, which I suspect are Risograph products.
I bumped into former Amelia’s Magazine intern Amy Knight, who is now working as an arts writer in Brighton. Her particular group of interns vanished in a puff of smoke a few years ago and I’ve heard very little from them since, so it was nice to hear what she is up to now. Very proud!
Mark Pawson had pole position at the end, with his usual table full of fabulousness.
I was lured to Katie Green‘s table by the nicely matching palette of pea greens and rustic browns… then we both realised that she too is an Amelia’s Magazine contributor, one that I haven’t met before. She produced a beautiful image for my Everything is Connected theme in issue 10, and since then has been busy producing her own zine, The Green Bean, an ode to all things creative and sustainable.
She’s also been working on an Arts Council funded graphic novel and recently spent some time on a retreat where there was nothing but sheep…. inspiring a gorgeous sketch book of her “woolly friends”. I was easily seduced into buying one of her lovely fimo bean broaches.
Hugh of Landfill Editions makes the most amazing publications on his Risograph machine. He kindly gave me a copy of Mould Map #1… which features the work of a whole host of new and up and coming illustrators, all wonderfully rendered in florid neon orange and purple. It includes the inimitable abstract work of former Amelia’s Magazine contributor Colin Henderson and I have been hankering after it for awhile. Thankyou Hugh!
I must say that when it comes to my own purchases I tend to gravitate towards the more radical story zines, and so with my last pound coin I bought a copy of Out of the City and Into the Trees, a written zine that spans six years of diary entries written whilst living in trees on protest sites. I look forward to reading it.
London Zine Symposium 2011. All photography by Amelia Gregory.
At the London Zine Symposium art students and anarchists sit cheek by jowl, sometimes sharing an overloaded trestle table. It can be a somewhat uncomfortable relationship – I picked up one zine that featured a page that cited all the reasons why art students’ zines are inferior to ‘real’ zines: not least their tendency to flog a whole table of handcrafted goodies alongside.
I can see their point – zines began life as a way to express ideas that might not otherwise find an outlet, and have been adopted by artists as a way to showcase work with a view to commercial propagation. But that doesn’t stop me being a big advocate of up and coming artists’ zines – it’s a wonderfully cheap medium to showcase work when cost is a real issue for many artists and illustrators just starting out. Of course, if that work has something intelligent to say, then all the better, and who said that anarchism and artistry have to be mutually exclusive anyway? The London Zine Symposium proves that there is plenty of room for all comers – it’s become a great success because the sprawling DIY ethos of the zine network creates supportive communities.
It was extremely hot and claustrophobic in the Rag Factory this weekend, so I whisked through as quickly as I could and probably missed loads of great stuff. Here’s my pick of what I found at this year’s London Zine Symposium.
I’ve long been a fan of Jess Wilson, who has been featured multiple times in Amelia’s Magazine and in Amelia’s Anthology of Illustration. One of her side projects is Duke Press, and here’s a selection of what she had on offer: lovely stuff all of it.
At the back people were tackling their own Zine projects, and it looked like they were having a lot of fun with cut up newspapers and Pritt sticks.
Nobrow were there with a table full of brightly coloured products – not entirely sure how they fit into the London Zine Symposium, but I’ll always be seduced by their wares. I particularly liked the bright new postcards, which I suspect are Risograph products.
I bumped into former Amelia’s Magazine intern Amy Knight, who is now working as an arts writer in Brighton. Her particular group of interns vanished in a puff of smoke a few years ago and I’ve heard very little from them since, so it was nice to hear what she is up to now. Very proud!
Mark Pawson had pole position at the end, with his usual table full of fabulousness.
I was lured to Katie Green’s table by the nicely matching palette of pea greens and rustic browns… then we both realised that she too is an Amelia’s Magazine contributor, one that I haven’t met before. She produced a beautiful image for my Everything is Connected theme in issue 10, and since then has been busy producing her own zine, The Green Bean, an ode to all things creative and sustainable.
She’s also been working on an Arts Council funded graphic novel and recently spent some time on a retreat where there was nothing but sheep…. inspiring a gorgeous sketch book of her “woolly friends”. I was easily seduced into buying one of her lovely fimo bean broaches.
Hugh of Landfill Editions makes the most amazing publications on his Risograph machine. He kindly gave me a copy of Mould Map #1… which features the work of a whole host of new and up and coming illustrators, all wonderfully rendered in florid neon orange and purple. It includes the inimitable abstract work of former Amelia’s Magazine contributor Colin Henderson and I have been hankering after it for awhile. Thankyou Hugh!
I must say that when it comes to my own purchases I tend to gravitate towards the more radical story zines, and so with my last pound coin I bought a copy of Out of the City and Into the Trees, a written zine that spans six years of diary entries written whilst living in trees on protest sites. I look forward to reading it.
Made You Look is a documentary about the contemporary DIY graphic arts scene in the UK, lovingly put together by Anthony Peters of Imeus Design. Via candid interviews with top British creatives, publishers and agency owners the film explores how people are turning towards analogue means of creating things, even though we are living at the height of the digital era. The film is due for limited theatrical release in 2015 and will be premiered at a major UK Arts festival. I asked Anthony to write me an exclusive piece about his project, so read on, be inspired, and back the project here: this is a film that deserves to do well.
Made You Look is a documentary that began life in mid 2013 as a film about the DIY scene in UK graphic design and illustration. We take the rich graphic arts scene for-granted now but back in the early 2000’s there were very few key figures, and many of those people are now held in high regard.
Ben The Illustrator.
Anthony Burrill.
Nobrow Books.
Along the way a different story began to emerge, there seemed to be an unusually large amount of artists using traditional methods of making things. Letterpress, linocuts, screenprinting, live drawing, riso, papercraft… all these methods and many more were now increasingly popular.
Helen Musselwhite.
Ed Cheverton.
Brecht Vandenbroucke print for Nobrow.
So our subtext became our core story, and using candid interviews with artists such as Anthony Burrill, Hattie Stewart, Helen Musselwhite, members of Peepshow collective, Ian Stevenson, Ben O’ Brien and Kate Moross we managed to create a story which discusses the perils and pitfalls of creativity in the digital age.
Andrew Rae.
Print Club London.
So many of us are living our lives skipping from screen to screen, viewing the world through a pixelated filter, creating things that only ever exist on hard drives. It’s the height of the digital era, yet many cultural movements are taking things back to basics, we have slow culture movements and craft based movements popping up all over the place. These movements aren’t really about nostalgia, rather a way to stay connected to the tactile, real world that exists beyond the screen.
Will Hudson, It’s Nice That.
Pete Fowler.
We do live in an incredible age. Regardless of what medium an artist uses, its fair to say that very few contemporary creatives could have a career without the trappings of the internet, and this is where the tension lies in the film.
Look & Yes 2004.
Kate Moross.
Its beautiful to hear the surprising responses from some artists when asked seemingly naïve questions such as ‘how would you feel if the internet was switched off forever tomorrow?’
But of course we won’t spoil the film by sharing any of these answers yet!
Hattie Stewart.
Ben The Illustrator.
We have had an incredible response to our trailer, with over 30,000 views, and have had invitations to film festivals and to educational Q&A screenings across the globe.
We are now running a Kickstarter campaign to be able to find the resources to finish the film. We have a few final bits of filming to do, plus post production tasks like Grading and audio post work. We would also love to be able to license music from artists like Bibio, CFCF, ISAN & Zoon Van Snook as well as having a score composed by Mathieu Karsenti.
Look us up if you would like to be part of the film!
Anthony Burrill, Adams of Rye.
Adrian Johnson.
So what are you waiting for? Get involved and help make Anthony’s film a great one.
Written by Amelia Gregory on Tuesday October 21st, 2014 10:31 pm
As part of my drive to get more crafty in 2014 I intend to bring you a selection of things to make and do at home, hopefully at least one a month. I reason that if I post these projects on my website then I’ve got license to spend the time making said things out of all the stuff I have saved and stashed around the house over the years… not easy for me to justify in a world where I am working every snatched hour that I have away from the child. But yes, I want to use my hands, and I want to hand craft things like everyone else I write about, even if the outcome is not as polished and perfect.
First up is my DIY Valentine’s Day Hanging Heart Decoration, a delicate light weight mobile to hang up in the house at this time of year, or to gift your loved one. This was inspired by a hanging heart encrusted with buttons that I drooled over in a relative’s house over Christmas, which I looked at and thought ‘I am sure I can do that myself’. My only worry was what kind of wire to use; something solid enough to keep its shape, yet pliable enough to bend. Fortunately pinterest came to the rescue and I discovered that old wire coat hangers make the perfect base: we have plenty of those around the house, often broken. I also have lots of fabric scraps and ribbon remnants, and plenty of beads, plus some very narrow gauge wire. And so my idea was born. Here’s how I made my decoration, modelled above by Snarfle.
You will need: a wire coat hanger, fabric scraps or ribbon remnants, small seed beads, sequins or similar, 0.4mm or 26 gauge wire (easily available from ebay or craft shops) Lindt chocolate bunny bells and hearts.
1. Cut the hanging curve off your coat hanger (unless you want to use it to hang your final decoration, in which case invert the following instructions) – the twisted part will become the base of your heart. Bend your coat hanger into a heart shape by pulling out the sides so that they are smooth and pushing the centre inwards. Don’t worry too much if you don’t get a smooth shape – I didn’t. It won’t matter too much as long as you get the general shape right, because you can cover up unsightly lumps and bumps with fabric. You will need to apply a certain amount of brute force, but it is surprisingly (and satisfyingly) easy to reshape a wire coat hanger. The size of this heart is dictated by the wire coat hanger (it’s large) but I like that this decoration makes use of something that would otherwise be thrown away.
2. Cover up the sharp base of your heart shape with a few layers of masking tape, so your decoration doesn’t spike someone if it falls. Select a variety of fabric scraps or ribbon remnants and start wrapping them around the coat hanger, working outwards from the base. I used a selection of ribbons that I have collected from various presents and chocolate boxes over the years. Tie the second one to the first one and so on until you have covered the whole coat hanger, and finish off by rewrapping and tightening up your first ribbon or scrap with the last one. I made a feature of the ties, but you could tuck them in for a smoother appearance.
3. Thread your Lindt bunny hearts and bells evenly on both sides of the heart (or you could attach whatever you fancy really, it’s just that I seem to have collected an awful lot of these). You can check the mobile is balanced by placing the centre – where the hanging thread will be attached – on the tip of your finger. Now if you are minimalist you could stop here… or you could keep adding to your hanging heart decoration, which is what I did.
4. Use your 0.4mm gauge wire to encrust the heart with whatever you like. I decided to use some little quartz seed beads and holographic red and pink sequins that I found in my hoard. I used wire lengths of approximately 40cm so that I didn’t get in too much of a tangle, cutting another length when needed. Wrap the wire tightly around the base a few times to secure it and then thread on a bead or sequin before wrapping it around again. Every now and again thread a bead away from the main shape and then twist the wire together below it. This is a technique commonly used for making tiaras: read more about how to do this here – it’s very easy and quick to do. When you get to the end of each section make sure to wrap the wire around the base a few times tightly again. The wire works well to keep the main fabric or ribbon in place, particularly at the base, and at the points where you have attached Lindt bells. Just before you finish be sure to check that the weight of the heart is balanced on both sides, as detailed above.
Eh voila, attach a ribbon to the centre, and you are done. It doesn’t get much more simple, does it? Why not make one yourself and spread the love with a hand made touch this Valentine’s Day. If you haven’t got time to make your own gift this year, then do check in with my selection of gift ideas by some of my favourite designer makers, right here.
Written by Amelia Gregory on Monday February 10th, 2014 5:09 pm
Having spearheaded the new London folk scene with their debut album, theremedicalNoah and the Whale are back with their hands full up, releasing a new single, album and film out this summer. We talk school plays, Daisy Lowe, weddings, gardening, Werner Herzog in the studio with the effortlessly charming frontman, Charlie Fink.
Photos by Katie Weatherall
Amelia’s Mag: You’ve got a whole host of new releases coming up – single, album, film – how are you feeling about it all, happy/nervous/excited?
Charlie Fink: All of the above… I dunno, we did the album so long ago… From the last album, I realised the only satisfying feeling you’re going to get is the feeling you get when you’ve finished it and you think it’s good, that’s the best it gets. Reading a review of somebody else saying it’s good is good to show off to your mum, but it doesn’t really mean anything. Likewise, if there’s something you believe in and someone says it’s bad, you’re still going to believe in it.
AM: And the live shows must add another dimension to that?
CF: Yeah. What I’m excited about really is that this record realises us as a band more than the previous one. So that’s going to be really exciting to go out and play that live to people.
AM: And is there anything in particular that has done this or has it been the natural progression of the band?
CF: It’s a million small things, from us playing together more, us growing up, learning our trade a bit better, from what happens in lives and the records you listen to. I very much try to rely as much as I can on instinct and satisfying myself. And this is not a selfish thing because the only way you can supply something worthwhile to somebody else, is if you’re totally satisfied with it yourself. Doing the right things for us and hoping that’ll transfer to the audience.
AM: Was there anything in particular you were listening to whilst making the record?
CF: The things I’m listening to now are different from the things I was listening to when I wrote the record. When I first started the record, I was listening to ‘Spirit of Eden’ by Talk Talk, which is a different sounding record to what we did. Nick Cave, lots by Wilco…
AM: So tell me about the film, ‘The First Days Of Spring’, that accompanies the album (of the same name)… which came first?
CF: The first thing was the idea of a film where the background and the pace was defined by an album. But it totally overtook my whole life. It’s one of those things you start for a certain reason and then you keep going for different reasons. The inspiration was sort of how people don’t really listen to albums anymore, they listen to songs. We wanted to try making an all emersive record where the film puts people into it. We’re not dictating that this should be the only way people listen to music, we just wanted to offer something alternative. On a lot of records these days, you don’t feel like the unity of the album gives it more strength than each individual song. Whereas with this record, the whole thing is worth more than the individual parts. That’s how I see it anyway.
There’s this quote from I think W. G. Collingwood that says, ‘art is dead, amusement is all that’s left.’ I like the idea that this project, in the best possible way, is commercially and in lots of other ways pointless. It’s a length that doesn’t exist. It’s not a short film or a feature, it’s 15 minutes and the nature of it is that it’s entirely led by its soundtrack. It’s created for the sake of becoming something that I thought was beautiful.
AM: And Daisy Lowe stars in it, how was that?
CF: She’s an incredibly nice and intelligent person. I met with her in New York when we were mixing the album and I told her I was doing this film… She was immediately interested. And her gave her the record as one whole track which is how I originally wanted it to be released. Just one track on iTunes that had to be listened to as a whole and not just dipped into. She sent me an email two weeks later, because she’s obviously a very busy person. With her listening to the album, a kind of live feed of what she thought of it. Making a film and having her was really good because she kept me motivated and passionate. She genuinely really took to this project. The whole cast as well, everyone really supported it and it was a pleasure to make. I had to fight to get it made and understood. It’s one of those things that people either passionately disagree with or agree with. From thinking it’s absurdly pretentious or beautiful. Fortunately all the people working on the film were passionate people.
AM: So is film making something you want to continue with?
CF: Yeah, definitely! At some point I’d like to make a more conventional film. The thing that really stuck with me about making a film was surround sound. When you’re mixing a film, you’re mixing the sound in surround because you’re mixing for cinemas. You realise the potential of having five speakers around you as opposed to just two in front of you. The complexity of what you can do is vast. So I’d love to something with that. If you record in surround sound you need to hear it in surround sound, so maybe some kind of installation… Then another film after that…
AM: You’ve been put into a folk bracket with your first album, is that something you’re ok with?
CF: I like folk music, I listen to folk music but then every folk artist I like denies they’re folk. It’s one of those things, it doesn’t really matter. We played last year at the Cambridge Folk Festival and I felt really proud to be a part of that. It’s a real music lovers festival. That was a really proud moment so I can’t be that bothered.
AM: I recently sang your first single, ‘5 Years Time’, at a wedding, do you ever imagine the direction your songs may go after you write them?
CF: Wow. That’s really funny. I’ve had a few stories like that actually. It’s touching but it’s not what I’d imagine.
AM: Do you write songs in that way? Some bands set out to write a love song, dance song etc…
CF: I can’t really remember how I write… I was writing last night but… do you drive?
AM: I just recently failed my test.
CF: Perfect! Well, you know when you start driving you have to think through everything – put my foot on the clutch, take it off the clutch etc. Then when you’ve been doing it a while, you just do all those things without even knowing you’ve done them. That’s how it feels with songwriting, I can’t really remember doing it. It just happens how it happens. Or like gardening… you’ve just gotta chop through and it’ll come.
AM: Is being in a band everything you imagined it to be?
CF: For me it’s more about being creative. I do some production for people, the band, the writing and now the film. I just love what I do and just keep doing it. I follow it wherever it goes. The capacity I have for doing what I do is enough to make it feel precious.
AM: So are there any untapped creative pursuits left for you?
CF: At the moment what I’m doing feels right. I never had any ambitions to paint. I don’t have that skill. I think film and music have always been the two things that have touched me the most.
AM: So how about acting?
CF: I did once at school when I was 13. I played the chancellor in a play the teacher wrote called ‘Suspense and a Dragon Called Norris.’ Which had rapturous reactions from my mum. I don’t think I could do that either. When you direct though you need to understand how acting works. It’s a really fascinating thing but I don’t I’d be any good at it.
AM: Do you prefer the full creative potential a director has?
CF: The best directors are the ones that build a character. Building a character is as important as understanding it. It needs major input from both the director and the actor. You can’t just give an actor the script and expect it to be exactly right. You need to be there to create the little details. The way they eat, the way they smoke… That’s an important skill.
At this point, Charlie asks me about a note I’d made on my reporter’s pad, which was actually a reminder about a friend’s birthday present. Which draws the conservation to a close as we recite our favourite Werner Herzog films. Turns out, he shares the same taste in film directors as my friend.
If Charlie from Noah and the Whale tells us he likes Wilco, then we like Wilco. It’s as simple as that. It’s time to get educated.
Wednesday 26th August
The Hot Rats
The Old Blue Last, London
Otherwise known as half of Supergrass plus hot shot Radiohead producer, The Hot Rats get their kicks taking pop classics by, amongst others, The Beatles and The Kinks and infusing their own alt-rock psychedelica – worth a gander.
Thursday 27th August
KILL IT KID Madam Jo Jos, London
Their blend of durge blues, barndance and freestyle frenzy jazz blues make KILL IT KID a gem to behold in a live setting.
Friday 28th August
Swanton Bombs Old Blue Last, London
If you like your indie adorned in Mod and brimming with angularity, then Swanton Bombs will be pushing the trigger on your buttons.
Saturday 29th August
South East in East Festival – Teenagers In Tokyo, Tronik Youth, Ali Love, Publicist Vibe Bar, London
It’s all about South East London – full stop. In this cunning event, it up sticks to East London, where synth-pop Gossip descendents, Teenagers In Tokyo headline a night of New X Rave.
Sunday 30th August
The Gladstone Open Mic Night The Gladstone, London
As it’s Bank Holiday Weekend and all the bands are at Reading/Leeds Festival, London is starved of big gigs. No fear, The Glad is here – A little known drinking hole in Borough that continually serves up a plethora of folkey talent… and pies!
Sunderland born designer Rosie Upright is truly passionate about design. Aren’t we all I hear you say? Well, health she’s up, recipe all hours, medical day or night… cutting away with her trusty stanley knife… stopping only when her numb fingertips plead for rest. Do your fingertips bleed? I thought not! Rosie developed her unique hand-crafted techniques whilst at university in Epsom, where she learnt all the usual computer design programs… and then decided to steer clear of them. She’s fled the suburbs of Epsom now, to live in London town with all the other hopeful new freelancers. She spends her days photographing, drawing, organising balls of string… and deciding what hat to wear.
We caught up with Rosie for a little chat…
Hi, how are you today?
I’ve got a bit of a sore throat coming on, the irritating children over the road are noisily playing some kind of shooting game, a car is beeping its horn continuously just below my window, itunes is refusing to play anything other than Billy Idol (which I’m not in the mood for), my coloured ink cartridge has just ran out, I’ve got a blister from my favourite pink shoes, an uninvited wasp is stuck in my blinds, my ginger hair has faded to a weird brown, I forgot to buy milk and Ronnie Mitchell is still crying on Eastenders – but apart from that I’m topper thanks.
What have you been up to lately?
Fingers in pies, fingers in pies!
Including…cross-stitch and a week in a cottage in Norfolk (no telephone signal or internet connection, bloody lovely!)
Which artists or illustrators do you most admire?
I don’t think I would have done a degree in graphic design if my ever-encouraging parents hadn’t taken me to a Peter Saville exhibition at the Urbis in Manchester many moons ago. Made me see the ideas process at its very best and the crucial-ness (that’s not even a word!) of initial doodles and sketchbooks.
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” Where would any of us be if it weren’t for Dr Seuss?
I really love a bit of Russian Constructivism, in particular Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova, bloody genius. Mr Vaughan Oliver, for making us all think differently about where to crop the image, for being an ongoing influence and for that opportunity. Harry Beck, Robert Doisneau and most recently Philippe Petit.
If we visited you in your hometown, where would you take us?
Stroll down to Seaburn beach because when you don’t live next to the sea anymore you really miss it, and it has really nice sand. Then to my very best friend Sarah Bowman’s house, to play with Peggy Sue the kitten, have mental vegetarian sandwiches off a cake stand, and a glass of red wine, ice cubes and coke. We should pop to an art shop in Darlington and then to The Borough, the best pub for tunes, a pint of cider and a Jaeger bomb.
Who would most love to collaborate with creatively?
Mike Perry and YES art studio please. Thank you.
When did you realise you had creative talent?
When some hippy artist came into my junior school to create banners for some event at the local library with us. I was told after five minutes of colouring it in that I had to go away and read because I couldn’t keep within the lines.
If you weren’t an artist, what would you be doing?
A teenage Mam or an actress, haven’t decided which yet.
Where would you like to be in 10 years time?
I’d like to be the designer than graphic design students hate because their tutors always tell them to get their book out of the Uni library. And I’d quite like to have my own shop in London, Brighton or maybe Newcastle (or all three, and maybe Paris then if we’re going crazy) selling things made by me!
What advice would you give up and coming artists such as yourself?
Take other peoples advice but make your own mistakes, don’t be a dick and always colour outside of the lines.
How would you describe your art in five words?
Hand made/ typography/ narrative/ personal/ I’d like to say idiosyncratic too but don’t want to sound like a twat.
What is your guilty pleasure?
Seeing people fall over.
(and cake)
If you could time travel back or forward to any era, where would you go?
It was horrific enough moving away to University and into London and trying to find a job and start my life up. I think if I had to go backward or forward to another era I would probably just straight up die. Having said that though I would like to be a highwayman’s assistant.
Tell us something about Rosie Upright that we didn’t know already.
I can’t wait till I’m an old lady so I can wear those lacy nighties from Marks & Sparks and I love animals in clothes.
What are you up to next?
Going to make a cuppa tea, kill this wasp and then take over the world.
While most of us at the tender age of 19 rooted our existence in smacking down vodka jelly shots at the bar with kebabs at four in the morning and the Hollyoaks omnibus on a Sunday, pilule some people, of course, are born to shine in different ways. Take, for instance, London College of Fashion student Millie Cockton, somebody who has already had their work featured in a shoot for Dazed and Confused, styled by Robbie Spencer.
As a lover of clean lines and beautiful silhouettes, Millie looks for the wearer to bring their own identity to her gender non-specific pieces. At the moment under new label Euphemia, with her AW09/10 about to be stocked in London boutique and gallery space Digitaria, after being chosen to be the first guest designer at the Soho store. Check out the Dazed piece to see some brilliant Shakespearian-style ruffs that Millie has also created working with paper (a material proving popular as with Petra Storrs, who I featured last week).
Each to their own, mind you. I could totally do all that, if I wanted to.
At the age of 19 you’ve already received quite a lot of attention – how has that been?
It’s been great so far! It’s very flattering but its also very daunting! I am on a constant learning curve and my work is developing all the time so although the attention is great it creates a lot of pressure!
Describe your design aesthetic in three words.
Clean, sculptural, understated.
Who do you see wearing your designs? Are they reflective of your own personality?
I like to think of a real mixture of people wearing my designs. I love the way that the same garment can look completely different on different people- for me its all about the individual and how they carry themselves, bringing their own identity to the piece.
I don’t think that my designs are necessarily a true representation of my personality and personal style. I feel that my designs are more of a reflection of the aesthetic that i find desirable and aspirational.
Thinking about the ruffs featured in Dazed, people have touched on the theatrical nature of your designs – is the idea of performance important to you in fashion?
The idea of performance within fashion is something that interests me but I wouldn’t say that it’s a key element within my own designs. I like the notion of a performative element within a piece or a collection as i think that it helps gain a further understanding and insight of the designers thought process and inspiration.
What else do you respond to?
I am constantly discovering new sources of inspiration, being so young I know that I still have so much to learn!
I like to use elements of craft within my designs, such as origami style folding. Craft elements can add interesting details to simple pieces.
What are your plans for the future? Who would you like to work for?
I am about to launch my new collection which will be stocked in Digitaria, recently opened on Berwick St, Soho. I have just started to work with Digitaria’s creative director , Stavros Karelis and stylist Paul Joyce on some future projects which are really exciting and I am thoroughly enjoying. I want to continue learning and developing my ideas, challenging myself and most importantly keep having fun!
‘Having fun’ of course might well translate to ‘becoming future fashion empress of the galaxy’. This is a talent to watch out for.
The Camp for Climate Action 2009 is almost upon us – now’s the time to gather ourselves and prepare to swoop. Convinced that the response to climate change needs more? Ready to share skills, stomach knowledge and experiences? To be part of the grassroots swell of people demanding a difference? To get out there and do something?
Be ready next Wednesday, 12th August, from noon, in London. We’re going to swoop on the camp location together. The more people the better. Secret until the last moment, you can sign up for text alerts and join one of the groups meeting scattered about central London before moving together to the camp.
Why Camp? We can all meet each other and learn stuff – reason enough? – I mean, an enormous, public, activist-friendly child-friendly student-friendly climate-friendly gathering with an ambitious and well-prepared programme of workshops covering all things from Tai Chi for those of us up early enough, through histories student activism, DIY radio, pedal-powered sound systems, legal briefings, stepping into direct action, singing, dancing, jumping and waving.
Why London? Climate Campers have listed ten reasons to focus on London – right up the top of that list is : tall buildings and low flood plains. London is big corporate central, the City square mile itself accounting for a huge proportion of the UK economy, that FTSE100-flavoured slice of barely accountable, shareholder driven pie. And yet, as the Thames Barrier should always remind us, the whole city sits low on the ground. Just check out what the centre looks like with a few metres rise in sea level.
So what’s first? The Climate Camp Benefit party/shindig/jamboree/palooza/knee’s-up/gala ball/discotheque/rave/soiree at RampART, 9pm-3am this Friday 21st August. Consisting of fun/revelry/ribaldry/tomfoolery/jocularity/jive/merriment/high kinks, low jinks, jinks of all stature/cheer/gambol/horseplay & frolic. With bands & DJ’s including Rob the Rub & Sarah Bear & those amazing skiffle kids ‘The Severed Limb’. That’s at:
9pm-3am
rampART, 15 -17 Rampart Street,
London E1 2LA (near Whitechapel, off Commercial Rd)
Donations on the door much appreciated (and needed!) – all going straight to Climate Camp
And then? The Swoop – Night Before – Londoners and out-of-town visitors are welcome to ‘the night before the swoop’ – near the bandstand in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, 7-8.30pm, Tuesday 25th August – for any last minute info, a legal briefing and an opportunity to join an affinity group and get excited. Lincoln’s Inn Fields is just behind Holborn tube station – this map here might help.
Awesome. See you soon.
Ctrl.Alt.Shift dropped us a line to let us know about a comics-making competition so get your promarkers and layout pads at the ready. Ctrl.Alt.Shift Unmarks Corruption is giving you the opportunity to design a unique comic style story. Ctrl.Alt.Shift is the experimental youth initiative politicising a new generation of activists for social justice and global change. The competition hopes to raise awareness of the Ctrl.Alt.Shift and Lightspeed Champion goals and views by inspiring this generation of designers to work together.
Oscar nominated Marjane Satrapi, medical V V Brown and Lightspeed Champion are amongst the judges for the Ctrl.Alt.Shift Unmasks Corruption competition launched today. Corruption is both a cause of poverty, and a barrier to overcoming it. It is one of the most serious obstacles to eradicate.
Entrants to the competition will be in with the chance to create a unique comic style story in collaboration with acclaimed musician and writer Dev Hynes aka Lightspeed Champion. After the first round of judging at the end of September, shortlisted entrants will be given Lightspeed Champion’s comic script as inspiration and asked to create a visual adaptation of the story.
The winning commission will be published in a comic alongside new work exploring the issue of Corruption by some of comic’s greatest talents. The work will also be showcased as part of a new exhibition, Ctrl.Alt.Shift Unmasks Corruption, later this year at Lazarides Gallery, Soho.
To enter the competition please send relevant examples of your visual work along with your contact details to Ctrl.Alt.Shift by Friday 25th September by visiting www.ctrlaltshift.co.uk/unmaskscorruption.
Five short listed artists will then be given a comic brief to respond to and a winner chosen by a panel of judges including: Marjane Satrapi (Writer and Director of Academy Award Nominated Animated Film Persepolis) Paul Gravett (Comica founder), V V Brown and David Allain (Musician and Comic Book Writer/Artist duo), Lightspeed Champion and Ctrl.Alt.Shift.
The competition is restricted to UK Residents only
For further information about the competition please contact John Doe on 020 7749 7530 or Hannah@johndoehub.com / Jo.bartlett@johndoehub.com Brooke Roberts is my favourite new designer. Why? Well, more about after exchanging several emails with her over the last few weeks, for sale for a young designer making such waves in the industry, her witty and playful personality has impressed even via my inbox! Having worked with such characters such as Louise Goldin and Giles, her avant- garde aesthetic really shines through in her highly tailored and retro-feel designs. Miss Roberts is going places, and she’s more than willing to take us along with her!
What made you want to be a designer? What’s your design background?
I’m definitely not one of those designers who always knew that’s what they wanted to do. I did a degree in Applied Science at Sydney University (I’m from Australia) and worked as a radiographer for a year before moving to London to find out what I wanted to do. I did some work as a stylist with a fashion photographer (random hook-up). I knew his girlfriend and she knew my massive extensive collection of vintage clothes and shoes. My mum had a boutique when I was growing up and I loved clothes – I just never knew it was going to be my career.
I did a few jobs in London (pub, bank – more randomness) before realising I wanted to study fashion. I went to London College of Fashion and Central St.Martins (graduated 2005) wanting to be a pattern-cutter or tailor. I really wanted to create, rather than design. I get most satisfaction from making beautiful things and being involved in the whole process. I have a close working relationship with my suppliers, and go to the factories to develop my garments. I cut them all myself, which is probably bordering on control freakery, but I feel it shows in the final product and I can realise my designs exactly as I imagine them.
I’m waffling. I worked for Giles for two seasons after I left Uni, and started with Louise Goldin when she launched her label. We worked together for three years (until last October when I launched my label).
What are your inspirations for your collections?
I get lots of inspiration from my radiography job (I do that part-time to fund my label). So I’m running between the hospital and my studio all the time. I have used CT (cat) brain scans this season to create knit fabrics and digital prints. My obsession with reptile skins never seems to go away, and I have worked with Anwen Jenkins (awesome print designer) to create skull slice python skin prints. Basically, the python scales are replaced with multi-dimensional skull slices.
Apart from that, I research at museums and LCF Library. This season went to the British Museum and discovered Yoruba sculpture and traditional costumes. I researched these for silhouette and style lines. I also looked at Niger garments. They’re beautifully colourful, vibrant and flamboyant.
What are your favourite pieces from your latest collection?
Umm. I wear the cat suit most. I actually met my boyfriend the first time I wore it. So I’m renaming it Lucky cat suit. I also love the Flex jacket in red snakeskin. The razor sharp points make me feel like I am ready for world domination!
What was it like working with Giles Deacon and Louise Goldin? What did you learn from them?
I learnt that I hate taking orders from others! I’m really not one to toe-the-line. I am a perfectionist and this drives other people mad sometimes. I was a pattern-cutter at Giles, doing mostly tailoring, which suited me fine. Most people wanted to do the showpieces, but I was most happy cutting jackets. Giles is a really lovely bloke. Working with him was really my first experience of doing shows and the pressure and stress of getting everything done.
With Louise, my job was broader because in the beginning it was just the two of us. I learnt so much, I can’t even write it down. I worked in the London studio and the knitwear factory in Italy. I had the opportunity to learn knitwear programming, selecting yarns and cutting and constructing knit. I still work in the factory for my own label and really love it. The other big thing was learning about running a business and starting from scratch. The hoops you have to jump through, the process of getting sponsorship, doing shows, sales and production… It’s a massive undertaking starting your own label. And I still chose to do it! Bonkers.
Who do you think are the most important designers of your generation?
Hmm. Well, I like the work of Tina Kalivas and Gareth Pugh. If we’re talking most important, it has to be Gareth.
What do you think are the problems facing young designers at the moment?
The biggest problems are funding and dealing with suppliers, particularly for production. Creating a beautiful product that you can reproduce is actually really difficult! You need to understand the technicalities of fabrics and construction (or hire someone who does) otherwise it all goes wrong.
What’s next for Brooke Roberts?
In fantasy land, what’s next for Brooke Roberts is a holiday. In reality, I’m working hard on marketing and sales for London Fashion Week. I’m collaborating with jewellery designer Chris Edwards and shoe and bag designer Laura Villasenin on side projects for the label. Look out for skull slice stacked rings and metal bone-fixation embellished super-soft bags for SS10!!
Not slim tomatoes, viagra dosage narrow cucumbers or squashed, um, squashes – no, we’re talking about digging for victory in our own meagre abodes. With allotment waiting lists stretching beyond a century in Hackney and not many of us owning the half-county some how-to books seem to assume, options on grow-your-own approaches might look limited. But before you get the howling fantods at the piling impossibilities. As those of you who read the Amelia’s Magazine review of Growing Stuff (an Alternative Guide to Gardening) will know well, even the meagrest city apartment can burst forth in cornucopic life.
And but so then it seems the thing to do is simply to get a pack of seeds and a container and get growing, no hesitation about it. If a brief pause in favour of screenreading sounds like it could lead to better inspiration, I entreat you, read on. There’s a glut of blogs and enthusiasts all over the place to speak to or read up upon. Here are just a few of our favourites.
Life on the Balcony tells Fern Richardson’s encounters with gardens small and smaller, great for fresh faces and old hands alike, with an awesome friendly dirt cheap ways to garden.
Carrie, of Concrete Gardening blogging fame (true in a juster world), digs organic urban gardening, and has gotten into gardening without the erm, garden, since buying a house in the city (Philadelphia) and sees all the possibilities of planting up, sideways and over – just recently blogging about taking things to the next level and climbing up on her roof to plant out veggies, seedlings to sit and soak up sun.
Herbs and Dragonflies is written by a group set up by Kathy Marshall back in 2008 for the Pudsey Carnival and have been creatively, craftily planting since, encouraging others to get their green fingers dirty – doing activities with children and volunteering about the place. Most recently, they encouraged us blog-readers to leave the comfort of plastic planters and terracotta pots – most anything can sit with some soil in it. They suggest novelty Cadbury’s Fingers tins, I’ve used fancy jamjars, and seen anything from skips to wellington boots enlisted in the service of greenery.
Emma Cooper (I’m cribbing now from the ‘Growing Stuff’ contributor biogs page) lives in Oxfordshire with two pet chickens – Hen Solo and Princess Layer – and six compost bins. She has written an ‘Alternative A-Z of Kitchen Gardening’, which Karen Cannard The Rubbish Diet reckons is ‘an inspirational tour of an edible garden that can be recreated in the smallest of backyards. An essential guide for a new generation of gardeners who are keen to join the kitchen garden revolution.’And she blogs about anything from compost to pod plants to the future of food…
Madeleine Giddens loves herbs, which I guess you’d guess from the name of her blog – Mad About Herbs. But there’s nothing off the wall about any of it, she’s plunged into an obsession and come out smelling of roses and lavender, buzzing about bees too, recently, and their favourite flowers.
So there you have it, just a few spots and pointers. Good evening, and wishes for a fruitful weekend from Amelia’s Magazine.
The Royal Bank of Scotland. RBS. Formally known with pride as the “oil and gas bank” due to their close alliance with the fossil fuel industries. What on earth would I have to do with them? They may have lost the unfortunate moniker, treat partly due to a hugely successful campaign by People and Planet student activists who launched a spoof ad campaign and website named the Oyal Bank of Scotland before delivering a host of greenwashing awards – but they’re certainly not due for any special ethical mentions yet.
Not yet.
There was of course a massive £33 billion bank bailout from the taxpayer for RBS last year. But RBS didn’t spend the money on anything worthwhile. Oh no, the truth is that RBS still has oily blackened hands. Most people will remember the Fred Goodwin debacle, he who managed to retire at the age of 50 on a £16 million pension funded by taxpayers. But that’s not the whole of it – since the bailout some of our money has been used to arrange loans for the fossil fuel industries worth a staggering £10 billion, including a substantial sum for E.ON, the company that wants to build a new coal fired power station at Kingsnorth. Despite the best efforts of activists – there was an impromptu snowball fight during the winter, Climate Rush held a luncheon dance and Climate Camp set up camp down the road at Bishopsgate – RBS continues to invest in unsustainable resources.
But the good news is there is hope for change!
As I’ve got more and more involved with activism I’ve got to know members of PLATFORM, who together with People and Planet and the World Development Movement have launched a legal challenge against our government to make sure that public money used for bailouts is put towards building sustainability. PLATFORM is an organisation that combines art with activism, research and campaigning, so in many ways we are perfect partners and I was really excited when they recently approached me to collaborate on an exciting new project at the Arnolfini gallery in Bristol.
As part of a wider festival named 100 Days, PLATFORM will be co-producing over 50 events, installations, performances, actions, walks, discussions and skill shares over a period of two months. This season is called “C words: Carbon, Climate, Capital, Culture” and is intended to highlight what needs to be done to change the world in the run-up to the incredibly important (but unlikely to solve anything) COP 15 conference (think Kyoto 2 – it failed first time around so why would it succeed now?) in Copenhagen in December.
Your part in this audacious experiment?
We’re going to re-envision RBS as a bastion of sustainability – the Royal Bank of Sustainability in fact. And it will be down to you to create the artwork… once more I will be running one of my becoming-somewhat-regular open briefs. We would like you to submit either a logo or a poster (or both) that will suggest a swing in the direction of all things sustainable in the most imaginative way possible. Around ten of the best artworks will be shown for a week at the prestigious Arnolfini gallery in Bristol as part of the whole shebang, culminating with a public judging and prize-giving overseen by yours truly and helped out by the folk at PLATFORM and no less than the Marketing Manager of the Arnolfini, Rob Webster, and Fiona Hamilton of Soma Gallery (Bristol), a woman with great taste in the arts who runs a cult art shop that has been a long standing supplier of my print magazine. We might even invite someone powerful from RBS! (invite being the operative word) After the event PLATFORM will profile you on their website with links to yours, and prior to the actual event I’ll be posting the best entries onto my website – one good reason to get your artwork in as quickly as possible.
If you are interested read on:
What you need to know:
Ideas:
Yeah yeah – we all know wind turbines are great news and polar bears are having a terrible time, but for this brief we’d like you to think a bit outside the box. We’ll be looking for the most refreshing ways of thinking about how we can live in the most sustainable way possible, and most importantly how RBS could play a possible role in aiding this transition to a low carbon world. Don’t forget that we, the taxpayers, own 70% of RBS – why not make it into the people’s bank? You should make clear in your chosen design the re-imagining of the old RBS into the new. Instead of investing in carbon-intensive industries the new RBS will serve the public interest by investing only in socially conscious, ethically driven, and environmentally sound projects.
Style:
Think serious or earnest, kitsch or ironic, warm and fluffy, abstract or illustrative; whatever best communicates the concept and appeals to the broader public, the press and perhaps even people in government. It should engage and inspire. You can collage photography on your computer or paint with your fingers and toes – what matters is the outcome. We want to see imagery that speaks of something new, radical and POSSIBLE. Think positive social force. We love the Obama image that was used in the run up to his election – the reworking of his image in a simple pop art style somehow speaks volumes about new, positive change – and has fast become an iconic piece of graphic design, so we thought we’d use it here to demonstrate that you don’t have to be too literal in your interpretation of the brief to create a successful image. If you choose to create a poster remember that it could be made as an advert.
Technical specifications:
your image should be created to these sizes and scannable or put together on a computer:
A1 for the poster.
A2 or squared off A2 for the logo.
Please send me a lo resolution version but make sure you work to these sizes. We will arrange for the printing of your image should it be chosen.
Deadline:
We need your submissions to reach me by Monday 2nd November. Please send lo res versions of your design to info@ameliasmagazine.com
Future projects:
Please bear in mind that if we really love your work we might want to use it in further literature and exhibitions. Just think, your work really could persuade RBS to change course at a pivotal point in our history. What a fabulous idea!
Join the facebook event here to stay in touch with updates
And join the “Stop RBS using public money to finance climate change” facebook group here
Below is a list of links you might want to peruse for inspiration:
Get scribbling folks! Any queries please contact me directly via email rather than on the comments below.
If you have been to a UK festival in the last few years, pharm chances are that at some point you found yourself dancing in the OneTaste tent. Having residency at Glastonbury, sicknessBig Chill and Secret Garden Party to name but a mere few, OneTaste have acquired a devoted fan base of festival goers who want a guarantee that when they walk into a tent they will get the following components; top quality live music, an high-spirited and friendly crowd, and twenty four hour revelry.
OneTaste in Hyde Park, London
Yet their festival appearances are just one aspect of the multifaceted music troupe. When they are appearing at say, SGP or Glasto, they perform as a collective of musicians, poets and artists who, for many of the festivals, break bread and share space with Chai Wallahs. When they put on events in Greater London and Brighton, (where every night is different from the last), their roots run deep, towards diverse and innovative singers, performers and spoken word artists. They are fiercely proud of their reputation of facilitating and nurturing emerging talent; promoting, not exploiting it, connecting with the audience and creating a true OneTaste family, both onstage and off.
I have known of OneTaste for years, being friends with some of the artists who have performed with them. Having shamelessly utalised their tent at this years Secret Garden Party to dance, drink, chill, detox and then re-tox, I felt it was time to get to know them a little better. The perfect opportunity came at the recent OneTaste night at the Bedford in Balham which I attended recently on a balmy Thursday night. The vaudeville past of the Globe Theatre within the Bedford was an apposite setting for the style of event that OneTaste puts on. As the preparation for the evenings entertainment began in this deeply historical building, I managed to catch a quick chat with the creator of OneTaste, Dannii Evans, where we talked about the rhymes, reasons and the meaning behind this unique and innovative event.
photograph by Kim Leng Hills
When I saw OneTaste’s excellent night in the Jazz Cafe a while back, I saw a lot of different styles of music and spoken word. What would you say is the one common thread that unites everyone?
We’ve always been trying to find out what the thread is! It is definitely not genre, we do every single style and welcome every style, probably the only genre we haven’t booked yet is heavy metal! The thing that links us all together .. (pauses)… is that everyone has got a massive social conscience; it is not always explicit, but it is implicit within a person, it’s in their art. It’s something that holds us all together, everyone at OneTaste has that in mind – that there is a bigger picture and that we need to better ourselves in everything that we do.
The OneTaste music and spoken word night, started four and a half years ago by myself, and Jamie Woon. We basically started it in order that these musicians can do something where they could get paid.
You pay the performers? That’s so rare!
Definitely. We wanted to put on a night where the quality of every single act was really high and it could be where musicians could start their career, so that was the premise. Also the concept is that the event is always half music, half spoken word.
So is it a collective, a record label, an event? I’m kind of confused!
It started off as an event, with us meeting a number of artists and acts that we got on really well and gelled with, who we took on tour around festivals, and then out of spending three months together we formed the OneTaste collective. It started becoming an artist run collective where people would help with the actual event production and then it ended with them all collaborating on material together.
How do artists become part of OneTaste? Is it something that they can dip in and out of?
Absolutely, it’s not exclusive. It grew organically, it’s not an in or out thing – it happens more naturally than that.
Do you have to audition to get in?
To take part in the OneTaste night, either myself or someone running it have to have seen them live. Audience engagement is very important to us, to reach out and to be able to communicate with the audience is really vital. The live aspect and their live dynamic with the crowd is so important, so while they don’t audition, we do need to see how they will perform.
So it seems to have grown hugely in the last four years; Can you give me an idea of the numbers of acts that you have worked with?
In the collective, we have around 30 acts that we are currently championing, but in the last four years we have worked with around 300 artists. The audiences have grown from 40 people to 300 here at the Bedford, 500 at the Jazz Cafe, and 5,000 at the recent gig we did in Hyde Park.
How does OneTaste promote its artists?
It has always been very grass roots, we’ve never done an advert, it’s always just been people coming down and then telling their friends and from that it grew really quickly.
Are there many of the artists signed to labels, and do you help them along their way?
We do, we give them industry advice – we develop their music, or spoken word, we try to help where we can. Some of the artists like Jamie Woon or Portico Quartet have gone on to get more media attention and they kind of carry the OneTaste name with them and still do gigs for us.
What is the direction that OneTaste is heading in?
Potentially, we might have our own venue at festivals next year, which is really exciting. We have a digital compilation coming out, the first one will be coming out in September, and eventually we may form a OneTaste record label.
Gideon Conn performs at OneTaste Bedford.
Dannii and I continue chatting for a short while, and after this she has tasks to do. The audience is filling up, and the night is about to start. Sitting on a bench in the back with a big glass of red wine, I watch the event unfold. The performers are electric, and completely different from one another, yet equally complimentary. Most appear to be old friends, and loudly cheer each others performances. The atmosphere is infectious, I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed myself so much at a gig (and it’s not because of the wine!). I’m quite au fait with the open mic nights and acoustic gigs of London, but I haven’t been to a night which is as cohesive and inclusive as OneTaste. If you want to experience it for yourself, OneTaste are easy to find. Check out their Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Flickr for images, articles, and dates about upcoming shows, which include a September 8th gig at The Distillers in Hammersmith and 27th September at The Hanbury Club in Brighton.
This week Climate Camp 2009 swoops on London, this site aiming to pressure politicians ahead of the Copenhagen climate change summit in December. Climate Camp will achieve this by encouraging individuals to think about lifestyle changes possible both collectively and personally to prevent climate change.
Sharing these sensibilities, the French Collective Andrea Crews encourage a new life philosophy outside the corporate rat race so often associated with London and other major cities. Being introduced to the fashion/art/activist collective Andrea Crews felt like a breath of fresh air often associated with Amelia’s magazine, a long time supporter of sustainable fashion, craft, activism and individual design.
Andrea Crews Collective express their desire for economic and social change through “the use and the reinterpretation of the second-hand garment” calling it “a social, economic and ethical choice.” A choice displayed by the sheer volume of abandoned second hand garments used throughout the catwalk shows, art exhibitions and activist events. The group criticise the relentless waste of modern consumption, fast fashion has helped to create, through visualising the stress on land fill sites around the world in their staged events. Subsequently by ignoring market pressures: mass seduction and seasonal calendars, Andrea Crews re-introduces a slower, more individual fashion culture through the processes of sorting and recycling.
The Crews Collective march to the same tune as Climate Camp, not only by caring for the environment but in their dedication towards an alternative developed sustainable economy. Andrea Crews encourages mass involvement stating that the project “answers to a current request for creative energy and social engagement. Recycling, Salvaging, Sorting out, are civic models of behaviour we assert.” Thus the power of low-level activism or grass roots activism becomes apparent, if enough people participated with Climate Camp or The Andrea Crews Collective. The pressure on governments to look for an alternative way of living would be undeniable.
The ever-expanding coverage of ethical, eco fashion on the internet plays testimony to the idea that the individual is changing. The Andreas Collective through their exquisite catwalks –particularly the Marevee show with the appearance of clothes mountains which the models scrambled over to reach the runway- draw attention to the powerful position regarding sustainability, fashion can occupy if it so chooses.
All quotes and images are from the Andrea Crews website. DIY LONDON SEEN The Market Building
Covent Garden, doctor London WC2 8RF
Until 5th September
DIY LONDON SEEN hopes to illustrate the growth of the movement inspired by the ‘Beautiful Losers’, doctor which is now a global phenomenon, generic by showcasing the work of local artists whose work takes the ethos of the Alleged gallery Artists and runs with it.
Show runs from: 28th August- 2nd September ’09,
with a preview on the 27th September from 6.00-9.00pm
Artists: Ellen Burroughs presents intricate technical drawings of a surreal nature, Sophie Axford-Hawkins shows bespoke jewelery that follows an identical theme.
The Jake-OF Debut UK Solo Show
Austin Gallery
119A Bethnal Green Road,
Shoreditch London E2 7DG
Running from the 3rd-16th September.
The opening evening is on the 3rd at 6:30pm.
Featuring a collection of his best print, sculpture and instillation work from the past four years. The show will include prints from the Quink series and the first original Quink painting to be exhibited.
So Long Utopia East Gallery
214 Brick Lane
?London ?E1 6SA
Until 2nd September
EASTGALLERY is proud to present the first solo exhibition of UK artist Sichi. ‘So Long Utopia’ will feature a thematic collection of new paintings and drawings. ??‘So Long Utopia’ is an energetic exhibition focusing on the theme of the lost Utopian dream. The artworks in this collection are of portraits, statements and imagined characters, where any premonition of ‘Utopia’ is quickly dispelled by the creatures inhabiting Sichi’s dystopian world.
Opening 19 August 6:30 – 8:30
20th – 31st August
Free
A busy August Bank holiday weekend is almost upon us, dosage and if you cant make it to Climate Camp starting on Wednesday there is plenty of other events to keep you occupied this week.
Festival of The Tree 2009
Delve into the world of wood and trees with sculptors, workshops, walks, art exhibitions and more with all proceeds going to treeaid, a charity that is enabling communities in Africa’s drylands to fight poverty and become self-reliant, while improving the environment. Weston Arboretum has a week long run of activities, with the organisers calling it a radical transformation from last year with exciting new additions.
Check the full programme of events here.
From Monday 24 – Monday 31 August…
Open daily from 9am-5pm?Admission: Adult £8, Concession £7, Child £3.?
Camp for Climate Action
A week long event kicking of this wednesday with with a public co-ordinated swoop on a secret location within the M25, make sure you sign up for text alerts and watch Amelias twitter for updates. Join your swoop group here, the locations have been revealed so get planning your route.
Check the great list of workshops here, and get ready for some climate action.
There’s workshops to suit everyone from direct action training to consensus decision making for kids, as well as evening entertainment from the Mystery Jets among others. Come along for a day or the whole week.
Wednesday 26 Aug 2009 to Wednesday 02 Sep 2009
E-mail: info@climatecamp.org.uk
Website: www.climatecamp.org.uk
Carshalton Environmental Fair
The Environmental Fair is one of the biggest events in the London Borough of Sutton. 10,000 people attend with over 100 stalls with environmental information, arts and local crafts, with stages showcasing local musical talent, a Music cafe and a Performing Arts Marquee. Food stalls and a bar thats also showcasing some local talent. There is a free bus operating from Sutton.
Adults £3, concessions £1 and kids get in free.
Monday 31st August
Contact: fair@ecolocal.org.uk
Website: http://www.ecolocal.org.uk/
Green Fayre
Range of Green craft workshops where you can learn about the most pressing environmental issues and how you can live a more sustainable life, all set in the Welsh country side. Yurt making, permaculture design, spinning, screen printing, pole lathe, bird box making, cooking from the hedgerows and much more.
Date: Friday 28 Aug 2009 to Monday 31 Aug 2009
Weekend Camping for the family £40?E-mail: info@green-fayre.org
?Website: www.green-fayre.org
Benefit gig for Anarchists Against the Wall
At RampART social centre, music with Hello Bastards, Battle Of Wolf 359,Suckinim Baenaim (Israel), Julith Krishum (Germany). The AWW group works in cooperation with Palestinians in a joint popular struggle against the occupation.
Monday 24 August 2009 19:00 RampARTSocial Centre?15 -17 Rampart Street, London E1 2LA?(near Whitechapel, off Commercial Rd)
London Critical Mass
Cyclists get together to take control of the roads around London usually with a sound system in tow. The London Mass meets at 6.00pm on the last Friday of every month on the South Bank under Waterloo Bridge, by the National Film Theatre.
Not got a bike, dont worry, any self propelled people from skateboarders, rollerbladers to wheelchairs are welcome.
Friday 28 August 2009
Website: http://www.criticalmasslondon.org.uk/ Earth First Gathering 2009 was held over last weekend. It’s an event we’ve been looking forward to since it appeared in our diary back in July. Check out our Earth First preview for more information. We all pitched up our tents in the wettest place in Britain which unluckily lived up to its name, doctor but although it didn’t feel like summer it didn’t stop any of the numerous workshops from going ahead and there was even a handy barn where people could take refuge if their tents didn’t survive the downpours.
There were chances for people to get to grips with water activities like building rafts and kayaking on the nearby Derwent lake, help plenty of discussion groups and chances for people to learn new skills. A forge kept many enthralled, viagra me included, and it was great to see the dying trade in action and people learning from the experienced blacksmiths.
Seeds for change, a group that holds workshops for action and social change, were down at the camp, get in touch with them if you’re thinking of holding your own event and they will be willing to facilitate a range of engaging talks and discussions. Tripod, a Scottish based training collective working with grassroots and community groups is another to check out – there is plenty to benefit from with training and support that gears towards social action.
Earth First has been going for decades and with direct action at the heart of what they do, it has helped and nurtured many to get involved and start taking action themselves rather than relying on leaders and governments. Look out for the next gathering, as EF notes, “if you believe action speaks louder than words, then Earth First is for you.”
We legged it up the amazing waterfall that created a great backdrop to the camp before tea one evening to get some great views over the valley.
Joining the queue for our meals was a daily highlight, you could browse the radical bookstall along it that had numerous zines and books for sale. Then the food, put on by the Anarchist Teapot, was amazing and i was queueing up for seconds at every opportunity. Evening entertainment was put on by a ramshackle group of poets and musicians and hecklers, and sock wrestling was also a new experience for me, got to try that one again.
On cue the heavens opened on the last night, but I managed to get my tent down and joined the chickens in the barn where I literally hit the hay.
Just thought I’d say well done to the police FIT team who were able to navigate the windy and tricky road to turn up most days: good effort! The Legion in Old Street has undergone a bit of a refurb since the last time I was there. Vague recollections of dodgy sauna-style wood panelling on the walls and a Lilliputian stage awkwardly occupying one corner are now banished by what seemed like an even longer bar than was there before. The venue has had a fresh wave of new promoters which appears to have progressed it from a jack of all things club-based, website like this in an area drowning in the like, there to somewhere incorporating a broader musical palette. A case in point tonight, being the headline band, Death Cigarettes.
I’d seen Death Cigarettes a couple of times around various East London venues over the last twelve months. For a band whose reputation is in part founded on an explosive live show, the cavernous confines of the Legion seemed to take some of the sting out of them, compared to more intimate settings.
Musically, they inhabit that driving New York No Wave inspired sound – thrashing guitars, pounding drums and rumbling bass coupled with urgently delivered vocals. An obvious comparison is with early Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and there is certainly more than a touch of Karen O in enigmatic lead singer Maya.
With this band though, the music is only half the story. Coming on unusually late for a Sunday night, Maya emerges from the encaves of a slightly startled audience to take the stage to join the rest of the band as they thrash away around her. It’s not long though before she heads back out into the throng… One group of people were ensnared by her mic lead, another was treated to an intimate introduction with a flying mic stand before Maya suddenly reappears behind the audience, exhorting the crowd before her from atop a table. At this point, the guitarist also wanted a piece of the audience action and decides to go walkabout, before concluding the set with a piece of probably not premeditated Auto-Destruction, reducing his guitar to matchwood.
Death Cigarettes have certainly been making a few noises of late, with the likes of Artrocker and The Fly singing their praises, and they are set to appear at the Offset Festival (new guitar permitting). For a band with a distinct approach to their music and performance, it will be interesting to see if they will, over time, develop their sound to the same extent that NYC steadfasts, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, have so spectacularly done. Liberty prints have become something of a British Institution in the fashion world, cialis 40mg inspiring the current vintage scarf and headband trend as well as influencing designers to include whimsical prints in their own creations (basically everybody on the high street). Prints conjure up an image of refined country values, thumb and have a truly English feel to them, stomach reminding us of our grannies chicly riding their bicycles in winding country lanes after World War 2 (maybe that’s just my overactive imagination!)
Until 2nd September an entire exhibition is being dedicated to this quintessentially British item on the fourth floor of the London Liberty store, and Amelia’s Magazine think you should get in touch with your inner fifties housewife and check it out!
Aptly entitled Prints Charming, the designs at Liberty’s exhibition certainly do what they say on the tin. Six designers were invited to contribute to the show to create their own unique take on Liberty’s iconic prints. Designs span from the pottery artist Grayson Perry’s enigmatic creations featuring tombstones, teddy bears, knuckle-dusters, swings, roundabouts and bicycles mounted on fabric, to uber-famous Meg Matthews’ teeny floral print wallpaper pieces given an injection of rock and roll heritage (like Meg herself) with snakeskin and skulls motifs. Other artists involved with the project include Paul Morrison, Mike McInnerney, Michael Angove, Anj Smith and Simon Hart, each taking an individual and modern approach to the eponymous Liberty print.
The exhibition reads like a piece of installation art. In fact, art aside there is much more happening. Take note of the furniture and décor (mirrors, chairs, chandeliers and tables) coated in Liberty prints, heavily featured throughout the window display designed by Interiors company Squint. Not forgetting that the store’s entire exterior is decorated in the Betsy micro-floral print. The show also includes full size dolls dressed in Liberty rags, a Wendy house covered in strips of print by artist Helen Benigson, and vintage bicycles by classic bike-maker Skeppshult redesigned with a Liberty twist (complete with feather headdress!)
Being an exhibition, the history of the iconic print is thrown in for good measure too. Documentation of the label’s historic collaborations can be found throughout, featuring modern legends such as Chloe Sevigny for Opening Ceremony, APC, NIKE and Kate Moss for Topshop. This is an art-fashion collaborative experience not to be missed!
Everything designed is available to buy; whether that be in fabric, notebook, scarf, luggage tag, boxer short, wellie boot or lampshade form! With the endless list of talent involved, there’s no doubt something to catch anyone’s magpie eye. Several prints are one-off pieces made especially for the show, such as Matthews’ wallpaper, therefore ensuring a chance of grabbing a piece of history in the making. And who doesn’t love a bit of print patterning? After all, with the current revival of all things retro, Liberty prints are up there with shoulder padding and acid wash in fashionistas’ hearts! So get down to the exhibition before the opportunity to soak up the artistic atmosphere disappears (like most the stock will be sure to do!)
Swap shops, ampoule Freeshops, generic give away shops, visit this site they all aim to go against the capitalist framework, and often people can’t quite get their heads around the idea, that, yes it is free and you can take it!
When I dropped by the free shop near Brick Lane, I received firsthand experience of this when a woman asked the way to the ‘trendy’ Shoreditch area and when invited to look around the Freeshop declined with a shrug of the shoulders. It appears it just wasn’t hip enough, that or she couldn’t quite comprehend the idea of a piece of clothing for under 50 quid.
When speaking to some of the squatters, the Freeshop felt like an organic progression from the original squat in the building: “The idea of this Freeshop had come out from a series of workshops held in the squatted building last month. Originally, the building was opened up for a free school, and when that was over we realised we had this shop front on Commercial Street and felt it would be interesting to kind of undermine the shops down the road.” Donations from friends helped to get it off its feet and now they seem to be undated with more than enough.
With our ‘throw away society,’ Freeshops can form direct action and can engage people to think about the way they live and consume. They also see it as a chance to try and engage with the community, which means the squatters don’t get isolated in the neighborhood. They also feel the shop was an important medium of communication to people. It seems to be working well with most people having a chat or picking up leaflets when they come in to look around. The basic idea is that it should not just be about taking things, but sharing ideas too.
The squatters make efforts to engage with the community, with flyers sent out when they set up shop. Although the state has rigid bureaucratic rules to follow regarding squats they hope that support from the community will help their cause. The court date regarding an impending eviction is on 28th August, but they are hopefully looking to get it adjourned. Signatures and people giving support certainly can’t hinder their defense.
As well as offering clothes, shoes and household items, the Freeshop also has space for regular workshops and events where members of the community and network can get involved. A wind turbine course is in the pipeline so make sure you drop in to check when it’s happening.
I had a chat with one of the squatters to get a better insight into the ideas and experiences behind the Freeshop.
Have you had any experiences of Freeshops before you came here?
Berlin, Barcelona, Bristol all have set up freeshops and there are plenty more around the world. One time in Barcelona went down the main commercial road with a stall, loads of people came to pick up stuff, completely ignoring the chain stores. It was like people were just interested in consuming products wherever they came from. The cops were called of course.
Can you get moved on for that?
Maybe, I mean, but look at the number of people selling sausages in the centre of town – it depends on how big or moveable the stand is. We had the idea of maybe setting something up down in Hanbury Street, just at Spitalfields Market, but that’s just an idea so far.
What kind of people do you get coming in?
Some homeless people come in and others, how shall we say, are like the kind of people who go down Brick Lane on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. There’s a really broad range.
Can people get involved in the Freeshop?
Come along to say hello or to the meeting on Tuesdays, that’s a good place to start, talk about and organise things we want to make happen, maybe do a shift in the shop.
Do you look to publicise, and how do people find out about the Freeshop?
There’s a big difference between being on the net and Facebook/social networking, and just relying on old style traditional methods, just by being here, and it works like a shop that people can just come into. It’s good to see how far just traditional ways can get us, and if that works well, then maybe others will do the same. It’s not rocket science, there’s no big intellectual concept behind it, it’s just a free shop.
Located on Commercial Road at the end of Quaker Street, drop in to pick up some new stuff while it lasts and offer your support.
What was formerly the Lush store in Covent Garden’s main piazza is now host to the exhibition ‘DIY London Seen’, this site a homage to the subjects of the film ‘Beautiful Losers’.
The film recounts the story of a group of likeable young suburban artists who, approved despite creating work outside the established art system in 1990s NYC, more about very quickly rose to commercially vaunted fame and success.
Their ethos, borne of skateboarding, punk, graffiti and DIY living, was to be an artist without adhering to art history or education. Doing what you love whatever the rest of the world thinks. These artists, Harmony Korine, Ed Templeton, Mark Gonzales, Barry McGee, Shepard Fairey, Jo Jackson, Thomas Campbell, Deanna Templeton, Stephen Powers, Chris Johanson, Mike Mills and the late Margaret Kilgallen were united by the then curator of Alleged Gallery, Aaron Rose, now Director of the film “Beautiful Losers’.
In the 90s, the Beautiful Losers’ work was outsider. In 2009, the art exhibited at DIY London Seen is mainstream commercial fodder that is regularly used for major branding.
However, this fact doesn’t reflect negatively on the spirit of the artists’ work or the exhibition itself. It merely highlights an unprecedented support for the arts (commercial or otherwise) and a vastly adjusted attitude about what it means to be an artist where to be commercial does not mean being a ‘sell-out’.
The space is donated by Covent Garden London, which provides gallery space in the West End to diverse forms of art through part of Covent Garden’s Art Tank movement.
The exhibition is curated by Bakul Patki and Lee Johnson of ‘Watch This Space’. Their previous experience in the commercial and critical art markets spans over ten years and as a result, they know how to put together a good exhibition.
The private view, replete with canapés filling enough to make a full dinner, was packed mainly with trendy young adults in their 20s and early 30s and a few stylish characters in their 40s. The invitees milled about in the two-storey, three-roomed space, drinking free cider, looking at the art and gathering in pockets outside to chat and smoke.
The exhibition space boasts 52 pieces of mainly original art including a seven foot tall mirror-tiled bear created by 21-year-old Arran Gregory and a lightbulb suspended from the ceiling, revolving on a record as it spins (I kept hoping that the bulb would eventually melt the record but instead the record keeps endlessly spinning).
There is a lot of illustration and photography of the sort you see around in many galleries in East London and on various advertising paraphernalia and as usual, some of it is good.
What stands out most about the exhibition is how, in a decade and a half, enough has changed so that what might once have been outsider art is now perfectly at home and fully catered for in the bustling centre of one of London’s most well-trafficked areas.
Young artists and older artists, property organisations, the public and the commercial world are a blur, shaking hands in every direction.
Disused property is now the breeding ground for emerging artists and successful commercial art curators are there to provide fully functioning and well-run exhibitions.
Whether the Beautiful Losers were the seminal artists paving the way for opportunities afforded to such artists as those of London Seen or not, they were lucky enough to rise to success. The acceptance of skateboard, graffiti, DIY culture could have come earlier, later or not at all.
London Seen and Beautiful Losers are reminders that in a commercially driven market making art isn’t about how much the public loves, or ignores, what you do. As trends come and go, their message is to never forfeit the ethos of doing what you love whatever the rest of the world thinks. History will always move forward and with it, the randomness of success.
Check out DIY London Seen in Covent Garden until 5th of September at 11, The Market Building, Covent Garden, London WC2 8RF.
Beautiful Losers is now available on DVD from the ICA.
I always look forward to the Northumbria University BA fashion degree show for two reasons. One, price because it’s always effing good – the innovation, salve technique and creativity on display is second to pretty much nobody at Graduate Fashion Week. Secondly, I studied at the university, so this review might seem like a big fat plate of bias – I assure you, though, that it isn’t.
Nestled on the front row in between Style Savage Steve and the ever wonderful Hilary Alexander (who bopped, sketched and scribbled her way through the show) I was a little concerned that my big lens (baaaooowappp) might block the view of either of these fashion journalists. Neither said anything though, so I think I got away with it…
Opening the show with an explosion of glam-rock-meets-Elvis-meets-Lady-Gaga, Naomi New presented a very polished micro-collection featuring exaggerated shoulders of leather, spikes and studs, and horse-hair tails. Models strutted back and forth with real sex appeal and the quality of Naomi’s craftsmanship looked, from what I could see, incredible.
The key theme in this year’s show was digital prints, and it’s a testament to the late, great Alexander McQueen’s legacy that this is such a mainstay on graduate catwalks. Faye Chamberlain’s was the most striking of collections, owing to its wild neon prints reminiscent of MIA’s Kala album cover, and blingy embellishment. Short, short dresses with spikey hips challenged the traditional constraints of the female form.
Further print patrons included the work of Sophie Dee and Ludmila Maida. Sophie Dee presented a feminine, playful collection of vibrant prints, micro shorts and bubble skirts, accessorised with childlike objects such as candy floss and helium balloons, harping back to the glory days of the seaside. Ludmila Maida’s collection was a slightly more mature one, with elegant maxi dresses in neon, gathered into sections to create flattering asymmetrical shapes.
Gemma Williamson also hopped on the print train, with her slightly eery collection making use of religious iconography.
Illustration by Gemma Williamson from her graduate work
Menswear was, as always, well represented; one of the few menswear graduates to win the prestigious Gold Award in recent years was a Northumbria student. Sara Wilson set the standard with a mixture of soft tailoring and Japanese influence – loose fitting blazers were teamed with skinny trousers and shorts, while snood-like pieces of material attempted to cover the face, giving each outfit a martial-art feel.
Louise Dickinson’s inspired outfits seemed to draw influence from historical Britain and tradition in general. An oversized Barbour-style jacket here and a triangular-shaped cape printed with a vintage map there made for a intriguing and genuinely unique collection.
But it was Caroline Rowland’s eccentric tailoring that captured my imagination the most. A bit Sebastian Flyte, a bit Dries Van Noten, it was the perfect mix of traditional tailoring and quirky design flair. Ill-fitting gingham shirts (I presume on purpose) were teamed with tucked-in waistcoats and patterned bow ties, while cropped blazers looked great with high-waisted tailored trousers. You can never go wrong with a sock suspender either.
And now for a quick round of some of my favourite womesnwear collections. It’ll have to be a whistle-stop tour because I have 3 other shows to write up and I’m having my hair cut in an hour.
One of my absolute faves was Julie Perry, who combined body-concious all-in-ones with Meccano-style leather creations. These outfits had real sex appeal – not one for the supermarket but definitely for the fierce fashionista who isn’t afraid to show off. Julie’s pieces were architectural in shape and hinted at a little bit of kink.
Illustration by Julie Perry from her graduate work
Holly Farrar’s super sleek collection toyed with masculine tailoring and models had structured shoulders with outfits tapering downwards. Defined v-necklines gave the outfits an overall geometric look and were very sophisticated indeed.
Illustration by Holly Farrar from her graduate work
These gemoetric-slash-linear-slash-structured themes ran through many a collection, executed most effectively by Stephanie Price. Her futuristic collection married materials with aesthetic appeal with flattering shapes – mesh covered body-concious shift dresses had a dazzling effect, as did this dynamic jacket…
Illustrations by Stephanie Price, from her graduate work
Closing the show was Victoria Kirby, who had clearly been selected for her fresh innovation and coutourier-like craftsmanship. Elegant floor sweepers made from silk and velour had the appearance of two dresses in one, cut and merged down the middle. Exaggerating the shoulders and synching in at the waist created beautiful feminine shapes that flattered.
Illustration by Victoria Kirby, from her graduate work
All photography by Matt Bramford
Unlike for those who unhappily planned their weddings for last Saturday when it was howling with rain in the south of England, ask Saturday 5 June was a glorious day for a wedding. I caught a glimpse of one such happy couple with their nearest and dearest dressed for best. They were having their pictures taken in the gardens at the entrance to Southampton’s Palmerston Park , about it where I was headed I walked down towards the Ejectorseat Arts Festival.
From The Drawer Show by Centric Collective
As I was admiring Centric Collective’s Drawer Show of recontextualised bedroom furniture, physician I heard a bearded art lover posit “The question is, is that a real wedding being photographed in the park, or is it something staged by the organisers as a piece of art?”
Trust me children, it was a real wedding, and not one of pretentious beardy art lovers either.
Honestly some people should hear themselves. But it’s these varied perspectives and expectations that bring the community into these sorts of events.
Knitty Noras Free Range Knitting
“We’re trying to knit a tree… And get people thinking about knitting in different ways,” a member of Knitty Noras told the camera. Throughout the day anyone could step in and knit to wrap an enormous scarf around the tree under which they were all sitting. Any wool left over will be sent to Knit-A-Square in South Africa, where it will be made into blankets for children orphaned by AIDS. Seems a bit of a convoluted way to help orphans to me, but whatever gets you making I suppose.
Next I met two lovely mature lady artists; Jeanne Mills and Margart Lomer, who had hung pretty melted plastic creations and painted ships in plastic bags – goldfish-at-the-fair style from a tree, referencing Southampton’s naval heritage.
I’m just going to come clean, I don’t really get the current obsession with site specific community interaction art. To get funding for projects these days you seem to have to be responding to local history or seducing minority or underrepresented groups. True, some great art does come out of it (for example Rachael Pengilley’s fabulous stamp birds, inspired by little known local history facts about Henfield) but if your local history is dull, having some arty type make it into a mural, or an abstract sculpture is not going to make it any less boring (even unboring poets like Shelley can be used as the excuse for terrible public art if they happen to be from near somewhere like Horsham), and if you hold arty events and activities the only people who’re going to want to engage are people who are already into that sort of thing. You’re not going to get the chavs – and be honest with yourselves – you don’t actually want them.
But you know what’s a good thing on its own? Good art. And good activities for children. If you make something that’s attractive and interesting, everyone will get something out of it. And if you want to make paper aeroplanes with kids in the park, that’s a good thing, they’ll love it – and the chavs too. But you don’t have to tell them it’s because of the history of the Southampton Hall of Aviation (which by the way, is awesome) therefore art.
Bear in the style of amazing illustrator Emily Harper, who is responsible for designing the artwork for the festival’s branding
The prevailing aesthetic of the art and music areas of the festival was bunting. Can you call bunting of itself an aesthetic? I just decided you can.
There was a DIY bunting tent where visitors were invited to decorate a triangle to be added to the string (That’s community art again – but I’ll forgive it for being a genuinely fun family activity, and for being bunting); beautiful papercut style bunting around the print workshop tent; prints hung like bunting from string in the Johny Toaster tent, not to mention miles and miles of varied bunting besides, twined around the iconic bandstand and the vegan barbecue tent (delicious).
The art market displayed a modest selection of local talent; various local artists and print makers, small record labels, students, t-shirt designers and plenty of activities and workshops including amazing stencilling on skate board decks, lino printing and the unlikely How to set up a record label workshop which I am sad to have missed.
Bottom right you can see the very chill and awesome Gustav Balderdash (Tristan) starting off the collaborative painting that went on into the night.
Standout for me was Tomoko Morimoto’s lovely jewellery using fragments of beautiful printed origami paper and glass beads (you can see them on her etsy page, and website she assured me coming soon), and the collaborative drawing on giant boards.
Obviously, no-one had yet seen this flyer at this point.
The art scene in Southampton exists at the intersection of what I perceive as the somewhat old-school-established fine art oriented organisations, such as A Space, behind the exciting ArtVaults projects, which house exhibitions in listed sites including parts of the old City Walls. The John Hansard Gallery and Southampton City Art Gallery always have an impressive selection of international shows and local initiatives. These all rub shoulders rather uncomfortably with the more graphic-oriented live art scene going on at events like monthly Turn Up and Draw – live music and illustration night Log Jam (they put the ART into PARTY). Secret Wars, now an international competitive art phenomenon (London site) where two artists draw live at each event in a sudden death league style competition started here in Southampton about 5 years ago at the same time as Kench, another live drawing event linked with live music performance at the Soul Cellar. Not long after the Art House came into being who organise events and exhibitions year round including the Southampton Zine Fair and who were the driving force behind the Ejectorseat Festival.
These guys are very much in touch with the student graphic art scene coming out of the illustration department at Solent University where there has long been a strong emphasis on drawing, printmaking and hands on activities like bookbinding, all of which were very present at Ejectorseat. Fine art, fashion and graphics students and a growing number of graduate-run local design initiatives were present, too – such as Johny Toaster who had a stall in the art market displaying amazing prints as well as hosting live drawing all day and bookbinding workshops.
Red Hot Press doing extreme lino printing using a road roller with help from Solent art Students, with the results above.
Johnny Toaster stall, Billy Mather in the yellow t-shirt also did live drawing during the performance by Baku Bankai
Haunted Stereo in the Bandstand – lovely art folk sounds.
The musical line-up performed in the Bandstand at the southern end of the park and included as array of local talent. I didn’t see any of the acts after 7pm as I had a prior engagement at a ska punk gig – the kids can’t fly single launch at which I channelled my inner 15 year old in my recently-brought-out-of-retirement Dr. Martens (they’re on trend, you know) and shared my sweat with dozens of half naked teenagers. But that’s another story.
Waking Aida – instrumental/post rock
I did manage to see (and draw) the earlier afternoon delights of Waking Aida and Baku Bankai, who, with a break in the middle for some amazingly energetic collaborative mass drumming performance, set a very atmospheric festival fell with their intense sounds. Baku Bankai performed in wrestling masks, hunched round their ironing boards of knobs and electronic bits whilst live drawing took place as part of the performance. I also enjoyed Haunted Stereo, who had a much more melodic indie thing going on, although I was feeling a bit drawn out by then, so sorry no sketches!
Baku Bankai Minimal/Dance Electronica
One other part of the evenings entertainment I’m sorry to have missed was the Paper Cinema performance in the film tent. I hear that it was amazing: a live theatre storytelling company using intricate papercut illustrations and a live soundtrack.
Events like Ejectorseat are crucial in bringing together disperate artistic populations in towns like Southampton where, as is often the case wherever you are, there is so much going on that people are unaware of. The festival atmosphere brings people together, like a summer fête. I think organisers would do better to allow some parts of this ideal to be what they are, and encourage participation from groups with less artistic credentials – schools for example – to organise more activities and stalls.
I hope the festival will come back next year on an even bigger scale, bringing with it more talent and interest. I have it on good authority from Megan at The Art House that next year there will be even more bunting. HOORAY!
I failed to find out the name of this unusual act, singing music hall numbers with animatronic hats – amazing!
Unlike for those who unhappily planned their weddings for last Saturday when it was howling with rain in the south of England, Saturday 5 June was a glorious day for a wedding. I caught a glimpse of one such happy couple with their nearest and dearest dressed for best. They were having their pictures taken in the gardens at the entrance to Southampton’s Palmerston Park , where I was headed I walked down towards the Ejectorseat Arts Festival.
From The Drawer Show by Centric Collective
As I was admiring Centric Collective’s Drawer Show of recontextualised bedroom furniture, I heard a bearded art lover posit “The question is, is that a real wedding being photographed in the park, or is it something staged by the organisers as a piece of art?”
Trust me children, it was a real wedding, and not one of pretentious beardy art lovers either.
Honestly some people should hear themselves. But it’s these varied perspectives and expectations that bring the community into these sorts of events.
Knitty Noras Free Range Knitting
“We’re trying to knit a tree… And get people thinking about knitting in different ways,” a member of Knitty Noras told the camera. Throughout the day anyone could step in and knit to wrap an enormous scarf around the tree under which they were all sitting. Any wool left over will be sent to Knit-A-Square in South Africa, where it will be made into blankets for children orphaned by AIDS. Seems a bit of a convoluted way to help orphans to me, but whatever gets you making I suppose.
Next I met two lovely mature lady artists; Jeanne Mills and Margart Lomer, who had hung pretty melted plastic creations and painted ships in plastic bags – goldfish-at-the-fair style from a tree, referencing Southampton’s naval heritage.
I’m just going to come clean, I don’t really get the current obsession with site specific community interaction art. To get funding for projects these days you seem to have to be responding to local history or seducing minority or underrepresented groups. True, some great art does come out of it (for example Rachael Pengilley’s fabulous stamp birds, inspired by little known local history facts about Henfield) but if your local history is dull, having some arty type make it into a mural, or an abstract sculpture is not going to make it any less boring (even unboring poets like Shelley can be used as the excuse for terrible public art if they happen to be from near somewhere like Horsham), and if you hold arty events and activities the only people who’re going to want to engage are people who are already into that sort of thing. You’re not going to get the chavs – and be honest with yourselves – you don’t actually want them.
But you know what’s a good thing on its own? Good art. And good activities for children. If you make something that’s attractive and interesting, everyone will get something out of it. And if you want to make paper aeroplanes with kids in the park, that’s a good thing, they’ll love it – and the chavs too. But you don’t have to tell them it’s because of the history of the Southampton Hall of Aviation (which by the way, is awesome) therefore art.
Bear in the style of amazing illustrator Emily Harper, who is responsible for designing the artwork for the festival’s branding
The prevailing aesthetic of the art and music areas of the festival was bunting. Can you call bunting of itself an aesthetic? I just decided you can.
There was a DIY bunting tent where visitors were invited to decorate a triangle to be added to the string (That’s community art again – but I’ll forgive it for being a genuinely fun family activity, and for being bunting); beautiful papercut style bunting around the print workshop tent; prints hung like bunting from string in the Johny Toaster tent, not to mention miles and miles of varied bunting besides, twined around the iconic bandstand and the vegan barbecue tent (delicious).
The art market displayed a modest selection of local talent; various local artists and print makers, small record labels, students, t-shirt designers and plenty of activities and workshops including amazing stencilling on skate board decks, lino printing and the unlikely How to set up a record label workshop which I am sad to have missed.
Bottom right you can see the very chill and awesome Gustav Balderdash (Tristan) starting off the collaborative painting that went on into the night.
Standout for me was Tomoko Morimoto’s lovely jewellery using fragments of beautiful printed origami paper and glass beads (you can see them on her etsy page, and website she assured me coming soon), and the collaborative drawing on giant boards.
Obviously, no-one had yet seen this flyer at this point.
The art scene in Southampton exists at the intersection of what I perceive as the somewhat old-school-established fine art oriented organisations, such as A Space, behind the exciting ArtVaults projects, which house exhibitions in listed sites including parts of the old City Walls. The John Hansard Gallery and Southampton City Art Gallery always have an impressive selection of international shows and local initiatives. These all rub shoulders rather uncomfortably with the more graphic-oriented live art scene going on at events like monthly Turn Up and Draw – live music and illustration night Log Jam (they put the ART into PARTY). Secret Wars, now an international competitive art phenomenon (London site) where two artists draw live at each event in a sudden death league style competition started here in Southampton about 5 years ago at the same time as Kench, another live drawing event linked with live music performance at the Soul Cellar. Not long after the Art House came into being who organise events and exhibitions year round including the Southampton Zine Fair and who were the driving force behind the Ejectorseat Festival.
These guys are very much in touch with the student graphic art scene coming out of the illustration department at Solent University where there has long been a strong emphasis on drawing, printmaking and hands on activities like bookbinding, all of which were very present at Ejectorseat. Fine art, fashion and graphics students and a growing number of graduate-run local design initiatives were present, too – such as Johny Toaster who had a stall in the art market displaying amazing prints as well as hosting live drawing all day and bookbinding workshops.
Red Hot Press doing extreme lino printing using a road roller with help from Solent art Students, with the results above.
Johnny Toaster stall, Billy Mather in the yellow t-shirt also did live drawing during the performance by Baku Bankai
Haunted Stereo in the Bandstand – lovely art folk sounds.
The musical line-up performed in the Bandstand at the southern end of the park and included as array of local talent. I didn’t see any of the acts after 7pm as I had a prior engagement at a ska punk gig – the kids can’t fly single launch at which I channelled my inner 15 year old in my recently-brought-out-of-retirement Dr. Martens (they’re on trend, you know) and shared my sweat with dozens of half naked teenagers. But that’s another story.
Waking Aida – instrumental/post rock
I did manage to see (and draw) the earlier afternoon delights of Waking Aida and Baku Bankai, who, with a break in the middle for some amazingly energetic collaborative mass drumming performance, set a very atmospheric festival fell with their intense sounds. Baku Bankai performed in wrestling masks, hunched round their ironing boards of knobs and electronic bits whilst live drawing took place as part of the performance. I also enjoyed Haunted Stereo, who had a much more melodic indie thing going on, although I was feeling a bit drawn out by then, so sorry no sketches!
Baku Bankai Minimal/Dance Electronica
One other part of the evenings entertainment I’m sorry to have missed was the Paper Cinema performance in the film tent. I hear that it was amazing: a live theatre storytelling company using intricate papercut illustrations and a live soundtrack.
Events like Ejectorseat are crucial in bringing together disperate artistic populations in towns like Southampton where, as is often the case wherever you are, there is so much going on that people are unaware of. The festival atmosphere brings people together, like a summer fête. I think organisers would do better to allow some parts of this ideal to be what they are, and encourage participation from groups with less artistic credentials – schools for example – to organise more activities and stalls.
I hope the festival will come back next year on an even bigger scale, bringing with it more talent and interest. I have it on good authority from Megan at The Art House that next year there will be even more bunting. HOORAY!
I failed to find out the name of this unusual act, singing music hall numbers with animatronic hats – amazing!
The creme de la creme of East London’s artists and designers come together for Art Against Knives: a 2 day event and exhibition to raise awareness of knife crime in the community and to raise money for the medical treatment of Oliver Hemsley the 20 year-old Central St Martins student, shopbuy who was left paralysed after being stabbed multiple times on Boundry Street.
Art Against Knives promises to be inspiring both artistically and socially.
Evening of live illustration, animation screenings, raffle brought to you by art whizz kid Rose Blake and the rest of the This Is It Collective to raise money for their degree show at Kingston. There will be DJs as well as live music from Sheeps and Arthur Delaney. General fun will be provided in abundance.
Fleur Oakes- The Glass Pingle “In My Garden I am Quenne”
showing now
A simply beautiful piece mixing embroidery and corsetry by Fleur Oakes illuminates the front window of knitters’ paradise Prick Your Finger. Review and interview with Fleur to follow this week in the mean time check out the knitting projects here.
“In My Garden I am Queene”, Prick Your Finger, open Monday – Saturday, 260 Globe Road, London.
Beneath the pavement… The beach
Sexton (London) & Dominique Lacloche (Paris)
The exhibition consists of new work by the two artists work.
Swine flu art masks- an exhibition of plague masks
Exquisite masks made due to the media hysteria regarding Swine flu, These masks are hand stitched and made as delicate collectable art object.
Hepsibah Gallery, 112 Brackenbury Road, London W6 0BD
30th Apr – 6th May 2009
Constellation
Clay Perry
The exhibiton showcases the photographers images of the 60′s avant-garde art scene.
England & Co, 216, Westbourne Grove, Notting Hill, W11 2RH
Tuesday, 5 May from 11:00 – 18:00
Free entry
Etchings (Portraits)
Glenn Brown
A new collection of etchings from the artist.
Karsten Schubert, 5-8 Lower John Street,London W1F 9DR
Ends on the 8th May 2009, Monday to Friday 10am – 6pm
An exhibition of works by Paul Bennett and Ellie Good
Paul Bennett: expressionist paintings using oil and graphite on canvas. Ellie Good: In this series of oil paintings and portraits exploring light.
Lauderdale House, Highgate Hill, London N6 5HG
28th Apr – 10th May 2009, Tue – Fri 11-4pm, Sat 1.30-5pm Free entry
Art Against Knives
4th-5th May 2009
The creme de la creme of East London’s artists and designers come together for Art Against Knives: a 2 day event including exhibition to raise awareness of knife crime in the community and to raise money for the medical treatment of Oliver Hemsley the 20 year-old Central St Martins student, approved who was left paralysed after being stabbed multiple times on Boundry Street.
Art Against Knives promises to be both inspiring both artistically and socially.
Textured textile temptation at the Hayward’s retrospective of French feminist artist Annette Messager.
Annette Messager, until 24th May 2009, The Hayward, Southbank Centre, London
Art in Mind
ends 11th May 2009
Eclectic collaborative show at the lovely Brick Lane Gallery featuring 13 contemporary artists.
Art in Mind, until next Monday, The Bricklane Gallery, 196 Brick Lane, London.
The Red Room Platform Presents: Women’s Edition
6-9pm, 10th May 2009
Pan-generational artists, activists and thinkers validate the position of feminism in modern society through provocation, performance and debate.
Berlin- born Isa Genzken brings her colourful sculptures to the newly refurbished, East London favourite- Whitechapel Gallery
Isa Genzken: Open Sesame! Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, London
Art Against Knives
4th-5th May 2009
The creme de la creme of East London’s artists and designers come together for Art Against Knives: a 2 day event including exhibition to raise awareness of knife crime in the community and to raise money for the medical treatment of Oliver Hemsley the 20 year-old Central St Martins student, ampoule who was left paralysed after being stabbed multiple times on Boundry Street.
Art Against Knives promises to be both inspiring both artistically and socially.
Textured textile temptation at the Hayward’s retrospective of French feminist artist Annette Messager.
Annette Messager, until 24th May 2009, The Hayward, Southbank Centre, London
Art in Mind
ends 11th May 2009
Eclectic collaborative show at the lovely Brick Lane Gallery featuring 13 contemporary artists.
Art in Mind, until next Monday, The Bricklane Gallery, 196 Brick Lane, London.
The Red Room Platform Presents: Women’s Edition
6-9pm, 10th May 2009
Pan-generational artists, activists and thinkers validate the position of feminism in modern society through provocation, performance and debate.
Berlin- born Isa Genzken brings her colourful sculptures to the newly refurbished, East London favourite- Whitechapel Gallery
Isa Genzken: Open Sesame! Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, London
The spirit is there, check but where are the green fingers? When I was little I used to love watching my mum tending to the garden. I remember the pride and excitement she would feel when her flowers were in full bloom. As I got older, information pills I imagined that the desire to start growing plants, flowers and veg would manifest itself….. but it never really bloomed. It doesn’t help that my ‘garden’ is a small concrete balcony in East End London, and I had always imagined that gardening was essentially a bit of a chore. Then I realized that I was approaching this issue completely the wrong way. Gardening is not just about allotments, trips to garden centres on a Sunday afternoon, and Radio 4 playing in the backround (not that there is anything wrong with these things), its about having fun – creating produce; eating it, drinking it – you won’t disagree when you see the recipe for Grow Your Own Mojito – fundamentally, it is about achieving that sense of intense satisfaction when you realize… “I made that!”. With this newfound understanding, I could see that my lack of gardening space excuse was pretty flimsy. When you grasp that the world is your oyster, you can also see that it is your flowerbed as well.
With this in mind, the imaginative people behind “Growing Stuff – An Alternative Guide To Gardening” have put together a how – to guide to everything horticultural. With sections on guerilla gardening, growing carrots in Wellington boots, and the aforementioned guide to making your own mojito’s; this is not your typical gardening book. There are contributions by ‘punk’ gardeners, ‘worm farming junkies’, teenagers and artists, which makes ‘Growing Stuff’ as accessible as you could hope for. Absolutely every person, no matter their level of gardening skills – or lack of – will be able to grow stuff after reading this book.
I spoke with two contributors to Growing Stuff recently about their involvement with the book, as well as their other activities. Emily Hill and Will Gould are also artists who create ‘living sculptures’ that aim to walk a line between the man-made and the wild.
Hey Emily, I like the suggestions that you and Will have done in Growing
Stuff. There is definitely an element of fun and whimsy to your
gardening ideas; like Cartoon Cress, and Carrot Wellies. Is this the
style in that you two both work? And do you feel that this is the best way to
initiate would be gardeners?
Emily: Life’s too short, get out there and get your hands dirty, just give it a go! Of course it should be fun, and if it isn’t, it’s time to take a minute to think about what’s out of balance in your life; gardening’s a great leveller, and can really help you work things out. There’s nothing like a home-grown cherry tomato bursting in your mouth to cheer you up!
Will: There are plenty of books out there which describe how to grow plants but they are not necessarily accessible to people who don’t see themselves as gardeners. By making the growing a bit more fun and whimsical we hope to de-mystify the growing of stuff. Plants want to grow and if you give them half a chance they will, so we feel it is better to have fun and be creative while trying to grow something. After all even if you fail to grow anything, you’ve had some fun.
What other easy-peasy suggestions might you have for gardening
novices- especially ones in an urban sprawl?
Will: Just try buying a packet of salad seeds-lettuce and coriander are dead easy, plant them on top of some moist compost in a pot and put them on your windowsill. It’s hard to go wrong.
Emily: Tease out a passion, try growing something bright purple, or something that smells nice, or both! You don’t have to do much, just buy a plant and water it! I started with French Lavender on my balcony.
Do you think that growing stuff is becoming more of a young persons
game now?
Will: It’s about time, why miss out on all those glorious years of growing.
Emily: It’s definitely something that has caught our generation’s imagination, maybe its something to do with our collective childhood memories. I remember picking raspberries with my granddad; it was like finding little ruby coloured droplets of edible treasure at the bottom of the garden!
How did you and Will get into gardening, and how did you end up
collaborating with this book?
Will: I grew up in a small house with a big garden, so it kind of came naturally. The book came from a request for artists who work with living things to submit ideas.
Emily: We both grew up in the country, all neglected and wild! For me, artistry came naturally, getting into gardening came later, when I found a bit of outdoor space to cultivate. We saw an advert on the Arts Council’s website and just went for it!
I have read that you two create ‘Living Structures’ – can you tell me a
little about this? What future projects are you working on?
Emily: We started off by making a portable composting toilet for our allotment with old bits of shed and two huge cartwheels; we made a cubicle that looked like a Victorian beach hut and planted a garden on the roof and gave it two window boxes full of flowers. We wanted to recycle ourselves, so we mixed our own wee with rainwater collected from the roof, and created a system to pump the mixture around the plants to feed them, anything left over drained into a reed bed at the back of the structure. It was quite charming really, and very popular…have a look, its called ‘The Jakes’ and was submitted for Margate Rocks last Spring (www.margaterocks.com).
Will: We are both interested in structures, which have a life of their own. For us, this involves growing plants, which either make up the structure, or contribute to the working of a functional building.
We are currently working on outdoor environmental projects in schools and incorporate the growing of stuff wherever possible and it is always possible!
Artist AJ Fosik’s sculpted characters look like your high school mascot that went AWOL and ended up at a full moon party in Thailand. Or perhaps the stuffed and mounted head of some big game he vanquished in a spirit dream and was able to sneak back under the border patrol of consciousness (quite a feat really I hear they’re rather tight). His technicolor wooden sculptures certainly carry the sense of having seen the otherside and with their hypnotic fluorescent eyes they seem all too than eager to take you there as well.
According to his myspace page AJ Fossik is 66 years old. Sure, unhealthy maybe on his second time round on the carousel of life. perhaps wise beyond his years, what is for certain is that this Philadelphia born artist is onto something. Currently exhibiting printed works at Giant Robot Gallery in NY, it is his psychedelic sculptures which have really roared onto the scene. Made of hundreds of small, individually cut and hand painted wood, his animal effigies and their symbolism strike a chord with the collective consciousness, especially in the US. Aside from being the California state animal, a campsite mischief, cartoon character and omnipresent sports team icon, the bear is one of the largest and most regal North American animals, a reminder of the vastness and awesome natural beauty experienced by the earliest pioneers.
A country whose experience at the moment consists of what is referred to as a “bear market”, one in which stockholders, all in the same blind panicked, decide to sell! sell! sell!, driving the value of stocks deep into the ground (sounds familiar). Not that far off really from the wooly winter hibernator’s image of reclusion and introspection. To Native American shamans the bear represents qualities of steadfastness and patience making excellent teachers. In dreams, bears represent a healing cycle, where the dreamer has retreated into himself in order to regenerate and to create something new and valuable in his life.
For this particular breed of artist the road out was not a conventional one. After years as a teenage urban nomad on the streets of Philadelphia, a city often at odds with itself, Fosick eventually drifted to NY where he obtained a degree in illustration from New York’s Parson’s and a 2007 solo show in the city’s Jonathan Levine Gallery. The name he goes by he adopted from an Australian “verb to describe the act of people sifting through mine washings or waste piles to look for any gold that might have been missed; sorting through the garbage to find gold.” However, like many things in our global soup it apparently seeped into another language where it means something different altogether. “From what I can gather,” he says with a good natured appreciation of irony, “the spelling I use means ‘to shit oneself’ in Hungarian.”
A peek into the global origins of this furry ursine idol is just as intriguing. In Hindu mythology the bear’s name “riksha”
(also in Sanskrit, Celtic, Greek and Latin believe it or not) derive from the word for star, which in turn comes from the word light, shine, illuminate. Ahhhha.
The term for Great Bear, “sapta riksha”, is also the symbolic dwelling of the Seven Rishis, whose name is related to “vision” and are called the Seven Luminaries. It was through them that the wisdom of the past was transmitted to the present. A rich past for the unassuming bear.
AJ Fosick is an artist who, one could argue, has an abnormal fixation with carving his own path through the great unknown. No wonder then that he refers to his pieces as “existential fetishes”. And hey, who couldn’t use one of those? And perhaps the missing little league mascots and unemployed stockbrokers of the world have joined Albert Camus on a beach somewhere in South East Asia and are doing some soul searching. In my dreams.
The spirit is there, look but where are the green fingers? When I was little I used to love watching my mum tending to the garden. I remember the pride and excitement she would feel when her flowers were in full bloom. As I got older, ask I imagined that the desire to start growing plants, physician flowers and veg would manifest itself….. but it never really bloomed. It doesn’t help that my ‘garden’ is a small concrete balcony in East End London, and I had always imagined that gardening was essentially a bit of a chore. Then I realized that I was approaching this issue completely the wrong way. Gardening is not just about allotments, trips to garden centres on a Sunday afternoon, and Radio 4 playing in the backround (not that there is anything wrong with these things), its about having fun – creating produce; eating it, drinking it – you won’t disagree when you see the recipe for Grow Your Own Mojito – fundamentally, it is about achieving that sense of intense satisfaction when you realize… “I made that!”. With this newfound understanding, I could see that my lack of gardening space excuse was pretty flimsy. When you grasp that the world is your oyster, you can also see that it is your flowerbed as well.
With this in mind, the imaginative people behind “Growing Stuff – An Alternative Guide To Gardening” have put together a how – to guide to everything horticultural. With sections on guerilla gardening, growing carrots in Wellington boots, and the aforementioned guide to making your own mojito’s; this is not your typical gardening book. There are contributions by ‘punk’ gardeners, ‘worm farming junkies’, teenagers and artists, which makes ‘Growing Stuff’ as accessible as you could hope for. Absolutely every person, no matter their level of gardening skills – or lack of – will be able to grow stuff after reading this book.
I spoke with two contributors to Growing Stuff recently about their involvement with the book, as well as their other activities. Emily Hill and Will Gould are also artists who create ‘living sculptures’ that aim to walk a line between the man-made and the wild.
Hey Emily, I like the suggestions that you and Will have done in Growing
Stuff. There is definitely an element of fun and whimsy to your
gardening ideas; like Cartoon Cress, and Carrot Wellies. Is this the
style in that you two both work? And do you feel that this is the best way to
initiate would be gardeners?
Emily: Life’s too short, get out there and get your hands dirty, just give it a go! Of course it should be fun, and if it isn’t, it’s time to take a minute to think about what’s out of balance in your life; gardening’s a great leveller, and can really help you work things out. There’s nothing like a home-grown cherry tomato bursting in your mouth to cheer you up!
Will: There are plenty of books out there which describe how to grow plants but they are not necessarily accessible to people who don’t see themselves as gardeners. By making the growing a bit more fun and whimsical we hope to de-mystify the growing of stuff. Plants want to grow and if you give them half a chance they will, so we feel it is better to have fun and be creative while trying to grow something. After all even if you fail to grow anything, you’ve had some fun.
What other easy-peasy suggestions might you have for gardening
novices- especially ones in an urban sprawl?
Will: Just try buying a packet of salad seeds-lettuce and coriander are dead easy, plant them on top of some moist compost in a pot and put them on your windowsill. It’s hard to go wrong.
Emily: Tease out a passion, try growing something bright purple, or something that smells nice, or both! You don’t have to do much, just buy a plant and water it! I started with French Lavender on my balcony.
Do you think that growing stuff is becoming more of a young persons
game now?
Will: It’s about time, why miss out on all those glorious years of growing.
Emily: It’s definitely something that has caught our generation’s imagination, maybe its something to do with our collective childhood memories. I remember picking raspberries with my granddad; it was like finding little ruby coloured droplets of edible treasure at the bottom of the garden!
How did you and Will get into gardening, and how did you end up
collaborating with this book?
Will: I grew up in a small house with a big garden, so it kind of came naturally. The book came from a request for artists who work with living things to submit ideas.
Emily: We both grew up in the country, all neglected and wild! For me, artistry came naturally, getting into gardening came later, when I found a bit of outdoor space to cultivate. We saw an advert on the Arts Council’s website and just went for it!
I have read that you two create ‘Living Structures’ – can you tell me a
little about this? What future projects are you working on?
Emily: We started off by making a portable composting toilet for our allotment with old bits of shed and two huge cartwheels; we made a cubicle that looked like a Victorian beach hut and planted a garden on the roof and gave it two window boxes full of flowers. We wanted to recycle ourselves, so we mixed our own wee with rainwater collected from the roof, and created a system to pump the mixture around the plants to feed them, anything left over drained into a reed bed at the back of the structure. It was quite charming really, and very popular…have a look, its called ‘The Jakes’ and was submitted for Margate Rocks last Spring (www.margaterocks.com).
Will: We are both interested in structures, which have a life of their own. For us, this involves growing plants, which either make up the structure, or contribute to the working of a functional building.
We are currently working on outdoor environmental projects in schools and incorporate the growing of stuff wherever possible and it is always possible!
Tuesday 05/06/09
The Real Dirt on Farmer John
Permaculture Picture House
7.00pm
Upstairs at Passing Clouds, visit web
1 Richmond Road, salve E8, abortion ?just off Kingsland Road behind the pub.
A monthly evening of films, presentations, poetry, drink, food and fun ?focusing on positive solutions in the current state of crisis. Each evening ?will have a different theme and begin with a film or presentation followed by? space to meet with others till closing time.? ?When?
1st Tuesday of every month, doors open at 7pm. Films, (when shown) start at 8pm.
How much?
£2.00 donation on the door.
Please try to arrive by 8pm when films are being shown to avoid disruption. ?Entry may be restricted once film has started. ?5th May: The Real Dirt on Farmer John. (82 mins)
Follows Farmer John’s astonishing journey from farm boy to counter-culture? rebel to the son who almost lost the family farm to a beacon of today’s ?booming organic farming movement and founder of one of the nation’s largest? Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms. The result is a tale that ebbs ?and flows with the fortunes of the soil and revealingly mirrors the changing ?American times.
The Stern Review stirred up the controversy surrounding the economics of climate change. This lecture will review these issues and give an assessment of the debate – where it is leading and what issues remain open.
Geoffrey Heal is a visiting professor at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at LSE, Paul Garrett Professor of Public Policy and Business Responsibility, and professor of finance and economics at Columbia Business School.
This event will take place from 6.30-8pm in the Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House, LSE, Aldwych. If you would like to attend this event, please email me on V.Pavey@lse.ac.uk
6pm -7pm
British Museum
Great Russell Street,
London, WC1B 3DG
Oil goliath BP, already forced to postpone its centenary party at the British Museum on April 1st, has rescheduled the event for May 6th. Art Not Oil will be throwing A Wake for BP as guests arrive at the British Museum between 6pm and 7pm on the new date.
People wanting to come and say: “BP — your Party’s over!” and wish the behemoth a ‘happy last birthday’ are more than welcome. The British Museum’s main gate on Great Russell Street will find a contingent of the Brazen Pranksters playing tunes to usher in a new era of Climate Justice and Ecological Sanity.
Thursday 07/05/09
Earthwatch Lecture — Conserving Biodiversity in the Americas
Speakers: Dr. Richard Bodmer (Durrell Institute of Conservation & Ecology, and the Wildlife Conservation Society) & Dr. Kathleen Sullivan Sealey (University of Miami). Chaired by explorer, writer and TV presenter Dr. George McGavin.??The very fact that the Amazon and the Caribbean are such attractive locations renders them all the more vulnerable to over-exploitation. Hear how Earthwatch scientists are addressing this issue in the Peruvian Amazon and on the coasts of the Bahamas.
Saturday 9/10th May
Permaculture Introductory Weekends
Hornsey Rise Gardens, North London
For any further information or to register contact londoncourses@naturewise.org.uk
The Introductory weekend, is a ‘potted’ permaculture course, looking at the foundations of permaculture and learning about some of the practical tools it offers. The weekend course can be considered a ‘stand alone’ introduction to Permaculture ethics, principles and design, or else can be a lead-in to the more in depth full 72 hour Permaculture Design Course. Photos from past courses.
9/10th May, 8/9th August, 7/8th November.
Led by: Mark Warner Graham Burnett and, Nicole Freris ??Fees: Introductory Weekends: £120 full cost, concessions/flexibility available subject to discussion
The beautiful window display this month at Prick Your Finger is bound to catch the eye of even the most unobservant passer-by; Fleur Oakes has embroidered a corset by with mystical and magical creatures and symbols that is bound to have the whole of Bethnal Green gaping. (front view of corset)
In My Garden I am Queene is a stitched homage to yester-year; Fleur sourced the corset pattern from 1585, sale and the style and many of the techniques were those used in the 17th century, cialis 40mg even it’s name is a play on a quote from Pre-raphealite painter Burne- Jones.
The past echoes through the piece from these aesthetic choices to the vintage kid gloves lining whose ghostly fingers that hang down in macabre decoration. (back view with faggot stitch detail)
The corset is lovingly embroidered with intricate flowers, viagra 100mg lace moths, eyes, a magnificent menagerie of bizarre creatures with some of the best names in the history of mytho-zoology, taken from the book ‘House of the Spirits’ by Isabelle Allende. A modern novel that still manages to fit into the quintessentially Elizabethan feel of the piece. (1 of 6 moths all in needle lace, they take 3 hours to make.)
Personal favourties here at Amelia’s Magazine HQ are the Marbat- a combination of marsupial with bat wings, the Maladapard – a mallard’s head with a leopard’s body (of course) and this chap: the Boarfinch. (Boarfinch detail in long and short stitch)
Fleur’s work really needs to be seen to be believed, so head down to Prick Your Finger for a peek and to pick up one of Fleur’s embroidered buttons. (Fleur Oakes embroidered buttons on sale now)
For all you embroidery aficionados more specific details about technique, the lovely staff at Prick Your Finger will be more than happy to oblige .
Prick Your Finger, 260 Globe Road, London.
The Californian cool kids that make up LoveLikeFire are ready to hit the ground running with their new single “William“. Soon to follow will be “Tear Ourselves Away“, viagra dosage which will be yours to own from August 09. While they are looking forward to winning us over with their indie majestic melodies, medicine us Brits are relative latecomers to the LoveLikeFire phenonemon, which has already blazed a trail in America. So what are we waiting for?! LLF will be in England soon, performing at venues around the country. Check their MySpace for details. Hopefully when they perform in London, they will have lined their stomachs, because yours truly has offered to be their official pub crawl companion. I’m thoughtful like that! The other day, I had an online chat with Ann Yu, vocalist of LoveLikeFire. She filled me in on LLF’s bio, their musical sounds and influences, and why we could see a collaboration in the future with a little band called The Killers……
Hey Ann; by the way, I am very jealous of your location. You are in San Francisco right? My brother lives in Mill Valley, Marin County, so I know it well
(Anne) Oh wow, yes that is really close to S.F only twenty minutes or so…are you in London?
Yes, East London. Do you know the area?
No, not very well, I am very excited to spend two weeks there, I hope we can do some sightseeing. I think we’ll be staying one night in East London, in Hackney. I hear it’s the cool fun place with lots of stuff to do at night?
That is near us! And we do make very good tour guides…. our speciality is tours of pubs and bars! So are the upcoming gigs your debut shows in London?
Yes! first time over, and we actually play the day we fly in!
Good luck with that! I wanted to ask a couple of questions about your fantastic new album; you seem to have accumulated a serious fanbase, especially from the US press. But for us Brits who are unfamiliar with your work – how would you describe your music?
In adjectives I would say – somewhat dark and pretty, bittersweet at times, dynamic, emotional not emo, indie rock and pop, at times dreamy, at times more direct.
Good adjectives! Your Wikipedia profile also describes Britpop influences. Is that a fair description?
Has your sound developed with your newest work – or have you always had a clear idea about your musical styles?
It’s hard to try to keep to a specific sound all the time, but there are always similar moods I think. But we’ve gone more in a pop-esque direction with the album, i think we veer in and out of dreaminess always, sometimes more than others – and this album is less dreamy than songs before it.
What was inspiring you when you were making this record?
Lyrically I tried to be very honest with myself, and not think too much about who would be listening really, I would say that sometimes I have tendencies to be imbalanced, and so trying to find inner happiness and well being was a big inspiration – without sound too new agey cheesy .
I’m all for New Age! I’m a bit of a hippy in an urban sprawl
Yes, i feel like i am a wannabe urban hippy!
Do you collaborate with the rest on the band on all the tracks or are you the main songwriter?
For Tear Ourselves Away, I brought most of the songs to the band and everyone contributed their ideas which was great; lately we’ve been much more collaborative but it changes all the time. We try to freshen up the creative writing perspective
There is a story that I have heard about you – an urban myth maybe? That you and the guys from The Killers were room mates at one point?
Oh there are several urban myths with that. I was a roommate of one of the guys in The Killers, where we all practiced. I was in college when they were playing their songs every night, i know those songs inside and out now.
I bet! Could you see a LoveLikeFire/Killers collaboration at some point?
We’ve talked about it with them, who knows when that might be but there are a few things that might happen later this year…..
So watch this space! I am interested in your backround as a violinist – am I correct in saying that you trained as a classical violinist prior to this?
Yes, I took private lessons and played in school for my grade school, junior high years but my private lesson teacher always told me that I should have started much younger – and that at some point I wouldn’t be able to compete with kids who had been playing since they were six.
It goes without saying, but you are obviously now versed in two very different styles of music now. Can you be as personal and honest in both styles? Which do you find is a better outlet?
Definitely playing in a band and writing songs, there is nothing better than this in my humble opinion…you can write so many different stories with a few chords – I never did that with violin – only learned other peoples music.
Do you ever sneak the violin into any of your tracks?
Haha, no, i’m very rusty now, we did have an amazing session violinist and cellist come in and play on a few tracks, they were sooo wonderful. They did the parts in practically one take each.
How long have you been together as a band?
LoveLikeFire has been a band since 2006..
What were you in before?
I was in a twee/indie pop shoegaze band called Evening Lights…we are thinking about putting out a digital release of our material actually!
A website used ‘shoegazing’ as an adjective to describe LoveLikeFire. Seeing that you described your previous band as such – is that fair description for your current band?
There is definitely some shoegazing elements in LoveLikeFire, we’ve never been a self proclaimed shoegaze band but we like some of those elements for sure.
What is the relationship like between you and the others in the band?
There is no Fleetwood Mac action going on with us, although that might be another urban myth! (mmm). I really love them, i enjoy being on stage with them and off stage…sweeet sweet boys – I only mentioned Fleetwood Mac because whenever i see mixed gender bands i am always curious of whether they is any interband relationships happening!
I think it is a wise idea not to base your band on the antics of Fleetwood Mac!
Hahah, at one show someone did call out to me Stevie Nicks!! and i wondered what they meant by that?
High praise indeed! But yes, I can’t quite see it myself
Do you have any other side projects?
I do an electro side recording project, called Adios Control, which lets me have an outlet for something different.
I guess you don’t have much time for that now though?
It’s tough, there is very little time for much at all these days.
And you are off on tour now……. what can we expect from your live shows?
Actually we don’t leave for a couple of weeks, i’m at home in San Francisco! four people that really love being on stage together and my own honest interpretation of the songs at every show at that moment is that too vague?
No that is great! I won’t take up more of your time now…….
But I think when you come over you should get in touch, and we can be your London tour guides…..
We would LOVE that!
This Sunday saw a hoard of eager revelers take a break from sun gauging to descend upon the alternative epicenter of the East End for the annual fun and frolics of the London Zine Symposium.
So I eagerly hop footed down to Brick Lane by 12 o’clock sharp for the highly anticipated event. I was met by a throng of zine fanatics packed to the rafters in the rather cramp confines of The Rag Factory on Henage Street.
With such a vivacious ambience the fair was all a little bewildering, information pills I have to concede I am still a zine novice so I felt a little inadequate amidst the array of comic book sages and regulars! Iconic figureheads in the zine scene such as Mark Pawson are more akin to heroes in this domain then mere artists.
I made a beeline for friend and fellow Amelia’s Magazine illustrator Holly Trill to catch up on how their zine “Meow Magazine” was going down with the punters. I also had an ulterior motive for heading straight over to the stall, order not being one for nepotism but I was actually selling my very own knitted cake creations there! I am sure most readers are now accustom to my knitting fetish/obsession!
Alas they didn’t fly off the table in a flurry of “hot cakes” (apologies pun inevitable). I think I was out shone by the array of delectable and more importantly edible treats that other stalls had to offer. How could I compete with sumptuous vegan cupcakes! However I was pleased to see an abundance of eager fans hastily grappling at issues of Meow Magazine. I had to indulge in a copy myself, there check out the work of Helen Vine, her beautifully intricate approach to mark making creates an almost wooden aesthetic and texture to her drawings. Definitely a lady to keep your eyes peeled for!
I trawled my way through the masses to investigate more stalls, it turned out to be a seemingly impossible quest, the unbearable heat and sheer quantity of people made browsing difficult. However I did unearth a few gems on my escapades round, a particular favourite had to be Brighton based fanzine “Shebang”. It’s beautifully curated, featuring not only aesthetically pleasing cutesy illustrations, but it’s a brimming with interviews, reviews and even travel guides.
The day not only showcased a vast array of diy zines comics and handmade treasures but workshops and lectures for budding artists eager to break into the scene. Seminars ranged from historic overviews addressing the sociopolitical scene behind zine cultures, too practical workshops aimed to nurture new talent addressing key topics such as how to organise a symposium and how to compile your own zines!
All in all it was a frenzine of fun and frolics, roll on the next symposium!ym
Written by Melodie Ash on Wednesday May 6th, 2009 12:05 pm
Can it really be a year since the last Glastonbury? In 2009, try for the first time, for saleClimate Camp was given it’s very own space in the Dragon Field just above the Craft Field as you wend your way down to Shangri La. This year we’re back to once again educate and entertain festival goers at our beautiful site only a few minutes walk from the Old Railway Line.
Workshops, illness at play, and First Aid Kit playing at the Climate Camp Tripod Stage in 2009.
In 2010 Climate Camp is targeting the Royal Bank of Scotland, which has been bailed out with £50 billion of public money that is now being used to finance the extraction of fossil fuels across the world, with no regard for climate change or the destruction of communities that it causes. We will be camping near the RBS global headquarters in Edinburgh, Scotland, between 19th-25th August, but in the meantime to find out more about why we decided to focus on RBS this year come along and take a look at our exhibition at Glastonbury, then pick up a copy of our Never Mind The Bankers newspaper to peruse over a cup of tea or share with friends. We will be running DIY screenprinting workshops where you can learn how to screenprint your clothing with an anti RBS slogan. Simply bring your own or print onto one of our tshirts or bags. A great activity for kids! There will also be a chance to take part in Tripod Training: Tripods are used to blockade and secure a space on a direct action protest; come find out how to put them up and climb them safely. Good fun, and no previous experience or skills required.
Tripod Training.
Then of course there is our fabulous music, poetry and comedy line up, put together by yours truly. Read on to find out who will be gracing our Tripod Stage…. Pyramid Stage eat your heart out, this is where the real talent is.
Green Kite Midnight.
When I wrote up about the Climate Camp presence at Glastonbury in 2009 in my blog I talked about my hope that my band Green Kite Midnight would be able to play as the Climate Camp house band in 2010, so I’m very excited to report that we will be doing daily gigs this year. Five years ago I co-founded the barndance troupe Cutashine out of a desire to make traditional collective dancing more fun: after all, what’s better than a dance where you get to meet other people and really work up a sweat?
With Cutashine I played at gigs all over Glastonbury for several years, then left to start Green Kite Midnight through my contacts in Climate Camp; a band that supports and plays at direct action protests. Our first gig was at the Climate Camp in Bishopsgate during the G20 in April last year, we played to 800 people at the Blackheath Climate Camp in August 2009, and more recently we went on a 10 day solidarity bike ride together to play gigs to support the struggle against the Shell gas pipeline at Rossport in Ireland. With myself as emcee (I’m a gobby shite, so turn your mind away from those boring barn dances you might have attended as a child) we can teach anyone how to barn dance, so please come and join us.
And now for the rest of our fabulous line-up:
Anna Log
My Luminaries, photography by James Dean White.
On Thursday we kick off four days of renewably powered music with a fabulous folky female. Anna Log – singer with pop folk band We Aeronauts – will be doing a solo set accompanied by her trusty uke. After our first ceilidh Glastonbury Emerging Talent winners My Luminaries round the evening off with a special semi-acoustic set of their epic indie rock.
Kirsty Almeida
Danny and the Champions of the World
On Friday Kirsty Almeida opens for us with her bass heavy soulful Bayou blues, then we’re pleased to welcome the epic musical dreamscapes of Newislands, described as Pink Floyd meets Depeche Mode. After that it’s time for some other Climate Camp regulars, Danny Chivers, Claire Fauset and Merrick, to grace the stage with their “triple-headed tag team political poetry extravaganza”. They’re all friends of mine that I’ve seen perform before so I highly recommend their set, which will be repeated on Sunday afternoon. As a closer we have the country-tinged big band folk of Danny and the Champions of the World.
Kyla la Grange
Patch William
The Federals
Dry the River
To kick the day off on Saturday we welcome an exclusive Glastonbury appearance from a talented newcomer with a stunning voice; Kyla La Grange creates soaring melodies and is nearing completion of her debut album. Then comes Patch William – the dreamy lovechild of Nick Drake and Jimi Hendrix, who are followed by the scuzzy rock sound of York boys The Federals, described as a cross between the White Stripes and The Beatles. Then, time for a very special guest. Following my interview with Robin Ince a few weeks he very kindly promised to come by and do us a *special secret set* which will be a must see for all comedy fans at the festival. Tell all your friends! And come on by for a very intimate set from this well known comedian. Dry the River end the day with their beautiful melodic folk, singing songs of religion, history and community to rival those of Fleet Foxes and Mumford & Sons.
Pete the Temp
Pete Lawrie
Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.
Robinson
On Sunday we’ve got another packed day to end the festival. Pete the Temp returns to wow us with his comedic eco-political music and spoken word, then we look forward to hearing the bittersweet gospel blues of latecomer Pete Lawrie, who confirmed just as our flyer had gone to print. I am particularly pleased to welcome Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. the official moniker of singer songwriter Sam Duckworth. He will be showcasing music from his new album due for release later this year, and I’ve got a soft spot for him because he appeared in the print version of Amelia’s Magazine. Robinson will play a gypsy cajun folk set before we round off the festival with our GRAND RAFFLE. If you see our outreach team out and about please give generously to support Climate Camp and come along to our grand prize giving, which will be hosted by the inimitable Danny Chivers.
The Grand Raffle presented by Danny Chivers in 2009.
Don’t forget to follow myself and Climate Camp on twitter to find out how the festival is going; we can always live in hope that 3G reception will be better than it was last year! But most of all, don’t forget to come and visit us… and bring your friends along with you. I will of course write up a full report on my return. For a reminder of what to expect read my blog from last year here.
For a map and full timing information for all bands and workshops see this listings page.
Written by Amelia Gregory on Tuesday June 22nd, 2010 5:47 pm
