Amelia’s Magazine | Graduate Fashion Week: Ravensbourne

Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 Le Temps du Sommeil
Francis Alÿs Tate Modern La Ronde
La Ronde by Francis Alÿs

Last week Francis Alÿs: A Story of Deception opened at the Tate Modern. In the first room we are faced with the artwork that inspired the exhibition’s name: a film of a flickering mirage in the Patagonian desert. Water appears to flood across a dusty highway… vanishing into the distance in a hypnotising shimmer. Originally from Belgium, viagra 40mg Alÿs has been a resident of Mexico City since the mid 1980s, sickness although his work often explores the politics of a worldwide diaspora. Each room encapsulates a particular project, remedy often showcasing the original source material, such as news clippings, and the tiny but beautifully formed oil paintings that Alÿs produces alongside films and other ephemera.

Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 newsclippings
news clippings collected by Francis Alÿs.

Life in teeming Mexico City has provided rich material to plunder – especially in the constant walking walking walking of the city’s street vendors, echoed in the delicate collages displayed in a light box – and the casual violence which Alÿs imitates by carrying his own gun on prominent display through the streets (in Re-enactments) until he is arrested.

Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 ambulantes
 Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 ambulantes
collaged images by Francis Alÿs, featuring ambulantes.

Paradox of Praxis 1 (Sometimes Doing Something Leads to Nothing) is one of the most famous pieces created by Alÿs. In it Alÿs pushes a block of ice around the streets until it is completely melted. Constant movement is a constant theme: whether kicking a can endlessly around the streets (a performance that ended when the absorbed Alÿs stepped in front of a car) leading sheep in a circle or pouring green paint out of a can to retrace the armistice border between Israel and Jordan.

Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 Paradox of Praxis
Still from Paradox of Praxis by Francis Alÿs.
Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010
Still from The Loop by Francis Alÿs.
Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 The Green Line
Still from The Green Line by Francis Alÿs.

Through all his methods of creation Alÿs never reaches a single point of resolution, an idea which is explored in the Rehearsal series, wherein a Beetle car is driven up a hill to the tune of a brass band, rolling backwards every time the music reaches a pause, much like Latin American modernisation, which always seems to find some reason for delay.

Alÿs questions the role of the artist in the political, transforming everyday objects into new roles. Half way through the exhibition the floor of a room is covered with rubber car mats decorated with a pop art graphic of a silenced mouth, and Camguns are created out of scrap wood, metal and film canisters. Since 2000 Alÿs has been throwing himself into the eye of the tornadoes that he chases through the countryside, seeing in these natural phenomena an echo of political chaos. If peace is found in the centre will it be possible for change?

Some of the newest work by Alÿs revolves around the concept of the tornado, implosions and explosions – a work in progress which is presented complete with post it notes on a wall in the last room. Some of the beautiful oils in this collection echo the delicate work of ongoing series Le Temps du Sommeil, which features 111 miniature oil paintings on recycled wood that feature dreamlike scenes reminiscent of the actions that crop up time and again in his other work. Not only does Alÿs enjoy the privacy of working in a traditional medium, he also uses the money from the sales of such paintings to finance his larger and less houseworthy projects.

A must see exhibition for anyone with an interest in how multimedia can be to used to effectively tackle difficult political subjects. It runs until 5th September 2010.
Francis Alÿs Tate Modern La Ronde
La Ronde by Francis Alÿs

Last week Francis Alÿs: A Story of Deception opened at the Tate Modern. In the first room we are faced with the artwork that inspired the exhibition’s name: a film of a flickering mirage in the Patagonian desert. Water appears to flood across a dusty highway… vanishing into the distance in a hypnotising shimmer. Originally from Belgium, try Alÿs has been a resident of Mexico City since the mid 1980s, cheapest although his work often explores the politics of a worldwide diaspora. Each room encapsulates a particular project, often showcasing the original source material, such as news clippings, and the tiny but beautifully formed oil paintings that Alÿs produces alongside films and other ephemera.

Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 newsclippings
news clippings collected by Francis Alÿs.

Life in teeming Mexico City has provided rich material to plunder – especially in the constant walking walking walking of the city’s street vendors, echoed in the delicate collages displayed in a light box – and the casual violence which Alÿs imitates by carrying his own gun on prominent display through the streets (in Re-enactments) until he is arrested.

Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 ambulantes
 Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 ambulantes
collaged images by Francis Alÿs, featuring ambulantes.

Paradox of Praxis 1 (Sometimes Doing Something Leads to Nothing) is one of the most famous pieces created by Alÿs. In it Alÿs pushes a block of ice around the streets until it is completely melted. Constant movement is a constant theme: whether kicking a can endlessly around the streets (a performance that ended when the absorbed Alÿs stepped in front of a car) leading sheep in a circle or pouring green paint out of a can to retrace the armistice border between Israel and Jordan.

Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 Paradox of Praxis
Still from Paradox of Praxis by Francis Alÿs.
Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010
Still from The Loop by Francis Alÿs.
Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 The Green Line
Still from The Green Line by Francis Alÿs.

Through all his methods of creation Alÿs never reaches a single point of resolution, an idea which is explored in the Rehearsal series, wherein a Beetle car is driven up a hill to the tune of a brass band, rolling backwards every time the music reaches a pause, much like Latin American modernisation, which always seems to find some reason for delay.

Francis Alÿs Tate Modern Rehearsal
Francis Alÿs Tate Modern Rehearsal
Stills from Rehearsal by Francis Alÿs.

Alÿs questions the role of the artist in the political, transforming everyday objects into new roles. Half way through the exhibition the floor of a room is covered with rubber car mats decorated with a pop art graphic of a silenced mouth, and Camguns are created out of scrap wood, metal and film canisters. Since 2000 Alÿs has been throwing himself into the eye of the tornadoes that he chases through the countryside, seeing in these natural phenomena an echo of political chaos. If peace is found in the centre will it be possible for change?

Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 Silencio
Silencio by Francis Alÿs.
Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 Camguns
Camguns by Francis Alÿs.

Some of the newest work by Alÿs revolves around the concept of the tornado, implosions and explosions – a work in progress which is presented complete with post it notes on a wall in the last room. Some of the beautiful oils in this collection echo the delicate work of ongoing series Le Temps du Sommeil, which features 111 miniature oil paintings on recycled wood that feature dreamlike scenes reminiscent of the actions that crop up time and again in his other work. Not only does Alÿs enjoy the privacy of working in a traditional medium, he also uses the money from the sales of such paintings to finance his larger and less houseworthy projects.

Francis Alÿs Tate Modern Tornado
Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 Le Temps du Sommeil
Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 Le Temps du Sommeil
Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 Le Temps du Sommeil
Details from Le Temps du Sommeil by Francis Alÿs.
A must see exhibition for anyone with an interest in how multimedia can be to used to effectively tackle difficult political subjects. It runs until 5th September 2010.
Francis Alÿs Tate Modern La Ronde
La Ronde by Francis Alÿs

Last week Francis Alÿs: A Story of Deception opened at the Tate Modern. In the first room we are faced with the artwork that inspired the exhibition’s name: a film of a flickering mirage in the Patagonian desert. Water appears to flood across a dusty highway… vanishing into the distance in a hypnotising shimmer. Originally from Belgium, this web Alÿs has been a resident of Mexico City since the mid 1980s, information pills although his work often explores the politics of a worldwide diaspora. Each room encapsulates a particular project, often showcasing the original source material, such as news clippings, and the tiny but beautifully formed oil paintings that Alÿs produces alongside films and other ephemera.

Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 newsclippings
news clippings collected by Francis Alÿs.

Life in teeming Mexico City has provided rich material to plunder – especially in the constant walking walking walking of the city’s street vendors, echoed in the delicate collages displayed in a light box – and the casual violence which Alÿs imitates by carrying his own gun on prominent display through the streets (in Re-enactments) until he is arrested.

Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 ambulantes
 Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 ambulantes
collaged images by Francis Alÿs, featuring ambulantes.

Paradox of Praxis 1 (Sometimes Doing Something Leads to Nothing) is one of the most famous pieces created by Alÿs. In it Alÿs pushes a block of ice around the streets until it is completely melted. Constant movement is a constant theme: whether kicking a can endlessly around the streets (a performance that ended when the absorbed Alÿs stepped in front of a car) leading sheep in a circle or pouring green paint out of a can to retrace the armistice border between Israel and Jordan.

Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 Paradox of Praxis
Still from Paradox of Praxis by Francis Alÿs.
Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010
Still from The Loop by Francis Alÿs.
Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 The Green Line
Still from The Green Line by Francis Alÿs.

Through all his methods of creation Alÿs never reaches a single point of resolution, an idea which is explored in the Rehearsal series, wherein a Beetle car is driven up a hill to the tune of a brass band, rolling backwards every time the music reaches a pause, much like Latin American modernisation, which always seems to find some reason for delay.

Francis Alÿs Tate Modern Rehearsal
Francis Alÿs Tate Modern Rehearsal
Stills from Rehearsal by Francis Alÿs.

Alÿs questions the role of the artist in the political, transforming everyday objects into new roles. Half way through the exhibition the floor of a room is covered with rubber car mats decorated with a pop art graphic of a silenced mouth, and Camguns are created out of scrap wood, metal and film canisters. Since 2000 Alÿs has been throwing himself into the eye of the tornadoes that he chases through the countryside, seeing in these natural phenomena an echo of political chaos. If peace is found in the centre will it be possible for change?

Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 Silencio
Silencio by Francis Alÿs.
Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 Camguns
Camguns by Francis Alÿs.

Some of the newest work by Alÿs revolves around the concept of the tornado, implosions and explosions – a work in progress which is presented complete with post it notes on a wall in the last room. Some of the beautiful oils in this collection echo the delicate work of ongoing series Le Temps du Sommeil, which features 111 miniature oil paintings on recycled wood that feature dreamlike scenes reminiscent of the actions that crop up time and again in his other work. Not only does Alÿs enjoy the privacy of working in a traditional medium, he also uses the money from the sales of such paintings to finance his larger and less houseworthy projects.

Francis Alÿs Tate Modern Tornado
Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 Le Temps du Sommeil
Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 Le Temps du Sommeil
Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 Le Temps du Sommeil
Details from Le Temps du Sommeil by Francis Alÿs.
A must see exhibition for anyone with an interest in how multimedia can be to used to effectively tackle difficult political subjects. It runs until 5th September 2010.
Francis Alÿs Tate Modern La Ronde
La Ronde by Francis Alÿs

Last week Francis Alÿs: A Story of Deception opened at the Tate Modern. In the first room we are faced with the artwork that inspired the exhibition’s name: a film of a flickering mirage in the Patagonian desert. Water appears to flood across a dusty highway… vanishing into the distance in a hypnotising shimmer. Originally from Belgium, recipe Alÿs has been a resident of Mexico City since the mid 1980s, healing although his work often explores the politics of a worldwide diaspora. Each room encapsulates a particular project, this often showcasing the original source material, such as news clippings, and the tiny but beautifully formed oil paintings that Alÿs produces alongside films and other ephemera.

Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 newsclippings
news clippings collected by Francis Alÿs.

Life in teeming Mexico City has provided rich material to plunder – especially in the constant walking walking walking of the city’s street vendors, echoed in the delicate collages displayed in a light box – and the casual violence which Alÿs imitates by carrying his own gun on prominent display through the streets (in Re-enactments) until he is arrested.

Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 ambulantes
 Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 ambulantes
collaged images by Francis Alÿs, featuring ambulantes.

Paradox of Praxis 1 (Sometimes Doing Something Leads to Nothing) is one of the most famous pieces created by Alÿs. In it Alÿs pushes a block of ice around the streets until it is completely melted. Constant movement is a constant theme: whether kicking a can endlessly around the streets (a performance that ended when the absorbed Alÿs stepped in front of a car) leading sheep in a circle or pouring green paint out of a can to retrace the armistice border between Israel and Jordan.

Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 Paradox of Praxis
Still from Paradox of Praxis by Francis Alÿs.
Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010
Still from The Loop by Francis Alÿs.
Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 The Green Line
Still from The Green Line by Francis Alÿs.

Through all his methods of creation Alÿs never reaches a single point of resolution, an idea which is explored in the Rehearsal series, wherein a Beetle car is driven up a hill to the tune of a brass band, rolling backwards every time the music reaches a pause, much like Latin American modernisation, which always seems to find some reason for delay.

Francis Alÿs Tate Modern Rehearsal
Francis Alÿs Tate Modern Rehearsal
Stills from Rehearsal by Francis Alÿs.

Alÿs questions the role of the artist in the political, transforming everyday objects into new roles. Half way through the exhibition the floor of a room is covered with rubber car mats decorated with a pop art graphic of a silenced mouth, and Camguns are created out of scrap wood, metal and film canisters. Since 2000 Alÿs has been throwing himself into the eye of the tornadoes that he chases through the countryside, seeing in these natural phenomena an echo of political chaos. If peace is found in the centre will it be possible for change?

Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 Silencio
Silencio by Francis Alÿs.
Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 Camguns
Camguns by Francis Alÿs.

Some of the newest work by Alÿs revolves around the concept of the tornado, implosions and explosions – a work in progress which is presented complete with post it notes on a wall in the last room. Some of the beautiful oils in this collection echo the delicate work of ongoing series Le Temps du Sommeil, which features 111 miniature oil paintings on recycled wood that feature dreamlike scenes reminiscent of the actions that crop up time and again in his other work. Not only does Alÿs enjoy the privacy of working in a traditional medium, he also uses the money from the sales of such paintings to finance his larger and less houseworthy projects.

Francis Alÿs Tate Modern Tornado
Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 Le Temps du Sommeil
Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 Le Temps du Sommeil
Francis Alÿs Tate Modern 2010 Le Temps du Sommeil
Details from Le Temps du Sommeil by Francis Alÿs.

Worth it to see these paintings alone, this is a must see exhibition for anyone with an interest in how multimedia can be to used to effectively tackle difficult political subjects. It runs until 5th September 2010.

Vivienne Westwood, viagra 100mg illustrated by Kerry Lemon

While things like free booze and miniature pies are thoroughly good perks of a fashion week, buy information pills it is also completely inevitable that you somehow manage to end up with hundreds of bits of paper and about six half-drunk bottles of water rolling around in your bag, and sure enough by the time I reached the Ravensbourne show I had unwittingly acquired three in the space of forty five minutes. Out of all the shows at Graduate Fashion Week, Ravensbourne is the hottest ticket – so hot, in fact, that only Vivienne bloody Westwood was in the audience. We found out afterwards that she’s working on a climate change television project with the college’s media course and went to support the fashion students. Her presence proved a bit of a personal distraction during the show and I seemed less concerned about what I was thinking than what she was thinking. It was a bit difficult to tell though.
 
Judging by the pleasantly psychotic combinations of ideas on show one can only presume that the class of Ravensbourne BA 2010 took a trip to the zoo on a cocktail of hallucinogens and then sat down to design their collections. With the extensive parade of animals on show it was like the four-footed refugees of Noah’s Ark had washed up on the beaches of Graduate Fashion Week – after a more muted and minimalist BA show from Central St Martins, it was a eye-popping joy to watch, with cartoons and pop art emerging as other pungent themes. The show was opened by Bobby Charles Abley with a menswear collection that proved children’s cartoons and bondage need not be two mutually alienating concepts, even if they are more than a little disturbing when thrown together. Speech bubble printed trousers, stuffed teddy bears and hoods with animal ears were paired with bondage straps in innocuous looking primary colours.
 
While Ravensbourne is particularly well known for producing amazing digital prints, Sera Ulger’s womenswear collection featured beautifully hand painted animal motifs on silk, featuring a crow, a lemur, a tarsier and an owl with its eyes in suggestive places on a selection of mohair dresses.


 
Ravensbourne took the Menswear Award for the second year in a row with Thomas Crisp’s elegantly tailored collection of leather and velvet jackets, based on Parisian street gangs in the late 1800s.


 
Amy Addison’s designs featured digital prints, miniskirts, thigh high socks and sleeves ending in boxing gloves…

…while Jessica Holmes’s cocktail dresses were emblazoned with ducks and Dumbos.


 
We’ve also come to expect a lot of accomplished knitwear. Harriet Clinch’s retro knitwear was basically a walking seventies ski lodge – simple jumpers and a star-spangled poncho with a vast selection of different knits thrown into the mix – stripes, bobbles, fair isle and cables, accessorised with sheepskin oven mitts and even a knitted camera. 

photographs courtesy of catwalking.com

Categories ,1800s, ,Amy Addison, ,Bobby Charles Abley, ,cartoons, ,Central Saint Martins, ,Climate Change, ,Digital Prints, ,ducks, ,Earls Court, ,fashion, ,Graduate Fashion Week 2010, ,Harriet Clinch, ,knitwear, ,london, ,menswear, ,Pop Art, ,ravensbourne, ,Sera Ulger, ,Ski, ,Teddy Bears, ,Thomas Crisp, ,Velvet, ,Womenswear

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Amelia’s Magazine | Film Preview: Dirty Oil

All images courtesy of Laura Callaghan

Where would you assume America most of its oil from? If I’d been asked a couple of days ago I think I would have mumbled something about wells in the middle east while imagining There Will Be Blood style prospectors. Actually, health it turns out, dosage the truth is that the majority of the oil US citizens use to run their cars, and everything else, comes from as close to home as Alberta, Canada.

Leslie Iwerks’ forthcoming documentary Dirty Oil aims to tell the largely untold story of the Canadian Tar Sands.  Iwerks was previously nominated for an Oscar for Recycled Life, a short documentary about a Guatemala City garbage dump. Now she’s carrying on her ecological documentary making with this film about the devastating environmental effect of the way fuel we use every day is made.

Tar Sands are naturally existing deposits of bitumen, a very dense form of petroleum, which when processed is what you and I use every time we get in a car, or on a bus.  There are a lot of these deposits in Canada, recently they’ve come to be considered as part of the Earth’s oil resources. The problem, (or at least one of the problems ) with that is that the process of extracting liquid fuel from the sands  uses a massive amount of energy and generates up to four times as much pollution in the earth’s atmosphere for the same amount of fuel produced.

Because it needs an awful lot more processing before it can be used than the conventional sort of crude oil (the There Will Be Blood kind of crude oil) it’s actually extremely expensive to process this sort of oil. So why does America get almost all of its oil this way now? The fact is that conventional crude oil has been almost all used up and is so rare now that this expensive, polluting method is a way for people to carry on using up oil without even noticing a change. This isn’t entirely being swept under the carpet though, 1600 migrating ducks have become a symbol for people who want to speak out against the oil production in Canada.

In April 2008 these ducks, landed on what appeared to be a large lake in Western Canada. By now you’ve probably guessed, this “lake” wasn’t a lake at all, but a store for the toxic waste from the tar sands. This waste, known as tailings, is a mixture of horrible chemicals and poisons all covered with a sludgy slick of oil which would have stuck to the ducks feathers on contact, drowning them. To the migrating birds, the store, called a tailings pond, would have looked like an enticing open expanse of water to take a break in. The oil company have said that they do have a bird deterrent system in place at the tailings pond. Unfortunately, on the day these ducks flew overhead, the system had been turned off because of unseasonably cold weather. These duck deaths are the subject of an ongoing court case between the oil company and the Canadian authorities. It seems like the case the media has called ‘The Dead Duck Trial’ is a step toward the authorities really beginning to stamp down on the oil companies and the damage that their processes might be causing.

Last year Canada introduced a new directive stating that producers have to present plans to cut fluid tailings, that’s the toxic waste ponds, like the ones these ducks landed on. As well as the effect on ducks and plants and fish, the direct effect on human health is serious worry for people in Alberta, it has been suggested that a rare and particular sort of Cancer has been found in people living in areas the plants. Residents blame the oil sands, which are 160 miles north from the village. Unsafe levels of chemicals were found in the Athabasca River which flows from the sands and through the village, even though the oil companies say that there’s no way their toxic waste would leak into the water supply.

During his election campaign, President Obama talked often about the US’s addiction to “dirty, dwindling oil”, the difficult question though, is what is the alternative and how do we work towards that?

Leslie Iwerts has said that her hope, when filming Dirty Oil was that one person might leave the cinema and make a positive change in their energy consumption, “They might then come out and say ‘I didn’t know that one windmill can generate over $300,000 of electricity every year… Well, let me go and research that. Maybe I want a windmill on my farm to bring in money, or save money, or both.’”

While I don’t have a farm to put my windmill on, I’m certainly going to be getting on my bike and thinking now about what else I can do to avoid using fuel that could have been mined at such awful cost to the earth. I hope you will too, otherwise we’re all dead ducks.

Categories ,canada, ,dead ducks, ,dirty oil, ,ducks, ,Eleanor Whalley, ,Leslie Iwerts, ,oil, ,pollution

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