Amelia’s Magazine | Whose City? The G20 Protesters Come To Town

IDIOT SON OF STELLA AND GEORGE

An eclectic mix of art work by a group of like minded people exploring expressionism through art.
Peckham Square, tadalafil page 28th of March 2- 6pm

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In the Pines

Jack Strange
Limoncello 2 Hoxton St London, rx opening 27th of March 6.30 – 8.30pm, case exhibition: 26th – 28th of March 11am – 6pm and by appointment until 2nd May 2009.

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Order and Disorder

Wilhelmina Barns-Graham
A look at a very unique collection of paintings and prints, several have never been publicly exhibited before.
Art first in Cork street, 24th March – 23rd April

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One or Several Wolves

Priya Chohan, Coral Churchill, Annelie Fawke, Kwang-Sung Hong, Heidi Locher and Anne E Wilson.
A group of artists look at conceptual motivations within Art, using a variety of media each artist explores the relationship between concept, material and final work created.
Kingsgate Gallery, 20th March – 5th April Free

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Bandits present

New installation work from Glaswegian artists littlewhitehead.
The Bun House Bandits, 96 Peckham High Street London. Preview: 15th March 2009, 4pm. Exhibition: 16th March 2009 – 29 March 2009, 11am–11pm

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Being and nothing-ness

Youngmi Kim, Kiwoun Shin and Seunghyun Woo
Three Korean artists explore the notion of “being” through various multi media methods, the exhibition includes paintings, videos and sculptures.
Nolias Gallery, 60 Great Suffolk St SE1. Private view: 26thMarch at 6pm- 9pm, exhibition: 27th March- 7TH April 200 10:30Am-6pm,

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We are his body

installation art work inspired by the artist’s exploration of the cross in today’s society.
Viewing at Christ Church URC 663 Barking rd Plaistow E13 9EX, 25th March 6pm

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Kate Marshall: Live Painting.

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This dextrous figurative painter will be doing a live drawing and painting gig at Movida, Argyll Street on April 2nd. Arrive at 9.30pm, you might get a free drinky. She’ll be starting work at 10pm. Check out the event on facebook.
I just woke up from the best nightmare I ever had, store at least I think it was a nightmare. I mean, side effects I’ve heard of mutton dressed as lamb and a wolf in sheep’s clothing, health but last night I saw a couple of ladies, dressed as a wolf and a sheep respectively, among other things.

But what was this, what had I stepped into? Well I found the best person to ask, Annie Oldfield. A lovely young lady from Leeds, dressed as a wolf! I thought it would be fun to create a one-off themed party where you can listen to music all night that`s in some way related to animals: Animal Collective (Panda Bear), Deerhunter, Modest Mouse (the list is endless), eat crackers and, of course, what themed party is complete without fancy dresses. Shark, tiger, zebra, duck, crab, swan, cat (there were lots of cats) all had turned out.

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After Annie along with friend Bonnie Wan came up with the idea they went to
DJ/Promoter friend Dave Bassinder (Underachievers) and Filthy animals! was born.

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Not one for getting down on the dance floor, that was no problem here, you could keep yourself occupied by making animal balloons or watching films played on a big screen, obviously starring our fantastic furry friends. Or grab a piece of paper and give origami a go, make some sort of flapping pterodactyl. Of course the term filthy suggests more than balloon modeling so a few cheap drinks and many tunes later and the dance floor got the attention it deserved, well you spend all day making a costume you gotta show it off, right?

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It`s a real shame it had to end as there are no plans for further repercussions. If you read this Underachievers “BRING BACK THE ANIMALS and KEEP EM FILTHY”!
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I have something to admit, viagra sale I am a warehouse party virgin. By warehouse parties I mean not-really legal parties, treat which announce their locations via facebook messages about five minute before they start and you quickly have to get yourself to some remote north London spot in Zone 4. For me there is nothing fun about the obvious issue of trekking all the way out there just for the police to shut it down at twelve. Or 11.30 PM on New Years Eve, rx which is what happened to one of my friends!

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After one of our writers posted about their last exhibition I decided i couldn’t miss the LuckyPDF warehouse party, even better it was all above board and legal. There were rather fancy gold flyers promoting the event and they even hired their own bouncers, who were at the door all night checking ID. While this might take some of the thrill away for regular warehouse party goers I rather enjoyed being somewhere with plumbing and electricity. My favourite part was not having to trail across London to a Saw-esk industrial park, because the event was just off Peckham high street. As the LuckyPDF people boldly proclaimed before the event, “The people of South London shalt need to travel to East London any longer for their Huge Party needs.”

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I arrived at eleven and the queue to get in was absolutely insane, luckly i’d sent a RSVP email, but I still had to wait a good fifteen minutes to get into the rooms even once I was through the main gate. This was no thrown together event, they had obviously put a lot of effort into sound and lighting, which was refreshing and very welcome. As I entered the bottom room floor I was immediately hit with throbbing lights and heavy bass. There were hoards of people, I couldn’t even begin to count how many attended the event, but nothing was too serious. I think something about the fact it was in a warehouse just made the whole event more relaxed, there was a lot less people there just to smoke and be seen than there were people just wanting to have fun. No “this is the dance floor, this is the bar” locations usually explicit in gig venues meant people were just doing what they wanted where they wanted.
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The LuckyPDF warehouse party aimed to be “a rampant music/art extravaganza that will continue til the early morn..” The music was definitely there with the order of the day being, “Bass, Bass, Garage, Electro, Bass, Drum n Bass, Swing, Tango, Nintendocore and Bass”. There were Dj sets from 10 PM – 4AM from South London party circuit favourites, XXX, My Panda Shall Fly and Tomb Crew, plus many, many more. These Dj’s were well selected and well received (apart from whoever kept cutting tracks short in the top room!) effortlessly mixing cutting edge bass tracks with forgotten classics.

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However, I was completely perplexed about the other bit, you know the art. Unless really, really small (microscopic) art has come in fashion since the last exhibition I went to I would swear that there wasn’t any. It could have been hidden by the hoards of people there, but still if you’re going to advertise art it would be helpful if people could see it. Previously this would have annoyed me, but I feel i’m just starting to get the point of collectives such as LuckyPDF and it’s peers. Although these guys are artists, they’re not together to try and promote a certain type of art or medium over any other. With the exception perhaps being Off Modern who have a whole Off Modern manifesto on their website. As far as I know there is no particular theme or common interests in the work of the organisers of these events and if there were it would be purely incidental. It’s more a case of getting people excited about South London. Which something that hasn’t happened since (dare i say it) the YBA’s, and they all rushed off to live in the East End or houses in the country as soon as they could anyway.

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I will forgive the LuckyPDF guys just this once having an event light of the art and heavy on the music (which draws people in and allows them to charge entry fee), because they have stated that they’re a not for profit organisation, and I hope the money they made will be going into more exhibitions. And when they do I’ll be there, pen in hand, because I can’t wait to see what they’re going to do next.
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Photography by Ted Williams

Monday 23th

The Rakes
release their third album, symptoms KLANG, buy information pills today and to celebrate the band will play a special gig at London’s Rough Trade East at 6pm tonight.
The follow up to ‘Ten New Messages’ is pure and the best of The Rakes as you can check out on lead track ‘1989‘.
Wristband collection 1 hour prior to gig, first-come-first-served basis-one per person.

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The Rakes

Tuesday 24th

It`s crunch time at The Social and the venue welcomes Kid Carpet to promote his new single, followed by Moonfish Rhumba with their electro beats and peculiar lyrics.
If great music is not enough to take your mind of recession, this month the venue provides the Crunch Time Rant where you can take your anger to the stage, step on to a soapbox and speak out your thoughts.
Doors 6pm, 99p.

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Moonfish Rhumba

Wednesday 25th

Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen receives Joseph Mount, aka Metronomy and DJs, including the opulent pop of Your Twenties (whose harmonious frontman is Metronomy’s former bassist).
8pm, £7, adv £6.

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Metronomy

Thursday 26th

Plugs, My Tiger My Timing and Shock Defeat at the Paradise By Way Of Kensal Green for a bit of electro/disco rock.
7:30, £7, adv £5.

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My Tiger My Timing

Friday 27th

The three new yorkers forming The Virgins land in town for some dance rock at Koko London.
9:30pm, £7, £5 before 11pm, concs £4.

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The Virgins

Saturday 28th
Up for some healthy girlie pop? Betty and the Werewolves bring their female fronted indie-ditty-pop vocals (they do count with one boy on the drums!) to Bardens Boudoir next Saturday.
8pm, £6.

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Betty and the Werewolves

Sunday 29th
Close (or begin?) your week with the Society of New Music – an avant garde event featuring Wet Dog live at The Social.
7pm, £2.

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Wet Dog

To all you vintage addicts I bring you salvation!

On April the 4th a vintage bonanza will be hitting the streets of Bethnal Green to bombard you with their scandalously cheap vintage, viagra 40mg so prepare yourself Shoreditch! I understand if you are dubious, case “what makes it unique in comparison to the endless array of oversaturated vintage fairs and markets in London” I hear you say? Well, the differentiation is that at this event you won’t be leaving empty handed if you left the house with a mere twenty pounds. This is vintage on an extremely tight shoestring, for any savvy shopper the affordable vintage fair is akin to the sensation of being a child in a sweet shop again!

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Heralded as the largest vintage fair in north England, the organizers have delved the nation with their noble quest for affordable vintage, leaving no stone unturned. Our loyal travellers have unearthed hidden gems and want to bring you the fruits of their labour! So cast aside the idle and banal window shopper, let your hair down and embrace your style hungry primordial urges. The fair is an emporium of vintage wonderment; there are style advisors, a customisation and alternations area, swapping area as well as bundles of vintage clothes and furniture.

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But the most exciting element of the fair has to be the pay by kilo vintage stall. This really is vintage paradise; trawl to your heart’s content safe in the knowledge it’s not going to cost you much more then your weekly grocery shop. The phenomena is commonplace with our European counterparts, but kilo shopping will be making its debut here in the UK. So get trawling and scout some hidden gems, this might just be your chance to revive your wardrobe from the brink of darkness and inject a whole new burst of life. What other chances would you get to weigh out your clothes, just like you would weigh out your sugar?

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They have catered for your every whim feeding your ears and taste buds with a nostalgic trip down memory lane. With music spanning the decades from the bohemian 60s to the energetic 80s, not forgetting a whole host of cake stalls and beverages to whet your appetite.

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So don’t miss out, get down there 11am pronto on the 4th of April, I for one will be installing my vintage bargain radar and heading down myself!
Everyday at the office here, treatment while we`re writing our articles and drinking our teas, we try to go through the many cd`s we receive daily and now and then there`s one that catches everybody`s attention, making everyone in the room ask “who`s this”?
That`s exactly what happened when Cari put on the single from up and coming group My Tiger My Timing. In less than 30 seconds heads were bopping and legs were shaking unanimously. This Is Not The Fire is so catchy that I`ve been listening to it non stop since Tuesday.

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They play a delightful, totally danceable afro beat, electro-pop and still they compare themselves with bands like Metronomy and Casio Kids. While most of the groups desperately run away from extreme pop and commercial tracks, MTMT does exactly the opposite, recognizing their will for creating easy listening and fluid beats.

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The foursome was formed in 2008 in south east London and their debut single was produced by Andy Spence of New Young Pony Club and will be released April 6th 2009 downloadable through Silver Music Machine.

Tuesday I had the chance to see them live at Cargo and I`m definitely looking forward to the entire album, it was quite an electrifying performance. Here`s a little video of the last song:


Yesterday, buy a few of the Amelia’s Magazine girls went along to witness the G20 protests in the City of London. The day had dawned to brilliant sunshine, and clear blue skies, which meant that the sight and sound of the police helicopters hovering overhead was even more pronounced. The events which were due to unfold promised to be extraordinary, and I was keen to see what was going to happen. It was hard to know what to expect, but here was the run down. Four different carnival parades, were to converge around the Bank Of England, and protest the current economic and environmental climate. We were guided there by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, leading the processions from four rail stations. We were setting off from Liverpool Street, led by the Green Horse – representing climate chaos. Walking from Brick Lane to the station, I was struck at how different the city seemed. Spitalfields Market, and all the restaurants around it were closed. There were not many city workers around, but those who were out and about were dressed down. I didn’t see a single suit around me.

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G20protests4.jpgThe Barbican towards The Bank of England. It was enjoyable to be part of such a good natured crowd and it was fun to watch all the shop owners standing outside their establishments, watching with fascination at the colourful carnival proceeding past them.

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As we walked towards Bank we passed Northern Rock. Some clever jokers had hung a sign inside their office entitled ‘We Love Money”. As I went to take a picture they hastily pulled the sign down. I could only marvel at the thoughtlessness of that statement, wasn’t it hundreds of thousands of pensioners money that they had lost – was that the money in question that they loved so much? After a brief stop, we marched into the space around The Bank Of England. I was shocked by the amount of people who were here. Estimates at 4,000 are not an exaggeration. The place was packed. Having only ever seen this section in London as a thoroughfare for busy, frantic city workers, and crammed to the gills with buses, it was surreal to see it filled with so many protesters. No cars, just people.

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After about 45 minutes, we were ready to head back to the office. I went to walk past a row of police and quickly found that I couldn’t get through. Not quite understanding the situation I was unconcerned, thinking that they were guarding just one exit. Knowing there were plenty more exits around Bank station we wandered back to the road that we had come in on. Again, we were met with a throng of police. They stood arms locked. Still assuming that this was something that would be resolved soon, we sat down and scrounged some crisps off a girl sat next to us. (Not expecting to be there for long, we didn’t take any food, and not much water.)

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Then some of the police vans next to us started to move through the police and drive away. We thought that this was our cue to leave as well, and strode towards the police. They immediately closed ranks. It was at this moment that I took in the situation. They had cordoned us all in; we had unwittingly become kettled. (This word now chills me to the bone). No one was going anywhere without their say so. the crowds started to fill up and began asking questions. As I was nearest the front I asked how long this situation would last for. “Don’t know” came the response. Many people started asking why this was happening, but the police would not respond. Our crowd was large, and there was not an ‘anarchist’ in sight. Many tried to squeeze towards the police and told them that this was violating their human rights, and was against the law. Again, no response.

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We were soon packed so tightly that it was like being at the front of a gig, but instead of watching a band, we were staring into the hard faces of men who refused to talk to us, and would sooner beat and arrest us then let us get past them. At this point the crowd surged and we fell into each other. The police shouted at us “Get back!” a woman shouted “Where to?!” We were trapped in a scrum, and the police were pushing us back while we were being pushed forward. I saw riot police walk towards us and I felt a surge of panic. We had been trapped by the police and there was nothing that we could do. I pleaded with the officer in front of me to let us go (I can now see how futile that was). I said that we were scared, and asked if a riot were to kick off, who are they going to protect? “I can’t answer that” was the response. Women started shouting that they had children from school to pick up, jobs to get to. The most common cry to the police was “Why won’t you speak to us?” I got so fed up from this feeling of powerlessness that I phoned the news desk at BBC News. I shared my feelings of worry to the reporter on the other end of the phone; and told her the scenario. I relayed what the officers had told one girl to do who said that she needed the toilet – “you can go in the street”; what they told one boy who said that he wasn’t even part of the protest – “You are now”. The BBC reporter told us that this situation was happening at every exit of the march. She said, “You are all being tarred with the same anarchist brush, this is their tactic”.

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Around an hour later, still in the same position, a man passed out in front of me. He had been standing quietly, not trying to defy the police, and his only movement for the two hours that we were held was to quietly read a peace of paper that he had in his hands. I had looked at it at one point and could see that it was a Psalm. Thankfully, the officers took him away and led him to an ambulance. Just as I started to feel that it was going to be an all night cordon, my friends phone rang. A friend of hers told her that they had just opened one of the exits round the corner and we bolted for it. Walking to the tube, we were jumping up and down with exhilaration. We began receiving updates that the RBS building was being stormed, and that the police were beating protesters. What had started off as a peaceful and well meaning protest was quickly turning into something much darker, but who was at fault? If you asked anyone in the 4,000 strong crowd they would have no trouble telling you. The police’s tactic of kettling us, purposely providing us with no information and locking us in for two and half hours was easily going to generate the mayhem that they had predicted. Nonetheless, I am so pleased that I attended. It was always going to be an interesting day, I just wish that the peaceful protesters would have been treated better and not denied their basic human rights.

Categories ,activism, ,Direct Action, ,Environment, ,G20, ,Kettled, ,Police, ,Protest

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Alice Early, approved from her graduate work

Kingston University might be a hop, skip and a jump from the capital, but the 2010 fashion graduates aren’t letting a little thing like distance stop them from becoming real contenders in the fashion stakes. I went along to Graduate Fashion Week to find out just what the noise from the suburbs is all about. 

Standing at the front of the cavernous Earl’s Court 2 arena, River Island’s Graduate Fashion Week sings it’s assault on the senses, a holding pen for the designers of the future. Bright lights, pumping music and hundreds of discerning fashion devotees mill around institutes’ stands; groups form and disperse, giggle and buzz through the milieu. ‘I like her shoes, I wonder if that’s a wig, isn’t that Vivienne Westwood?!’

Amongst the activity, a stand glows at the front, a beacon of minimalist beauty: welcome to Kingston. 

Representative students are dressed in clean black t-shirts, hints of their individuality breaking through with a slick of lipstick or a quiff set just-so. White stands display student portfolios. The monochrome serenity of Kingston’s presentation is impressively slick, but I am struck by how, behind the blank white covers, the students’ portfolios come alive with a turn of the page. Illustrations of every kind dance like flickbook figures running across the paper, the minute but ornate versions of the catwalk to come. Pocketing an equally gorgeous guide to the designs to be shown, I’m soon heading off to Kingston’s prime time catwalk slot, seated just in time for the lights to go down. 


Live front row illustration by Lauren Macaulay

Alice Early’s designs make for a grand debut with her exploration into the craft of tailoring; rounded cape shoulders and flowing dresses enhance the silhouette of the slinky models, but leather tops and soft, wearable tailoring on high waisted trousers show Early has been paying attention to the direction of fashion today. Baby blues and smattering of peacock prints add a subtle femininity that appears in drops across Kingston’s show.

Sophie Hudspith’s rose and teal sheer knitwear seems to play under the lights of the catwalk, a fine lattice intricately woven together. Meanwhile, Lucy Hammond takes to the other end of the feminine spectrum with her tongue-in-cheek girl about town sweaters pronouncing ‘I Love Knitting, I’m not Shitting’. If Dennis the Menace can put up with her potty mouth he’d love Hammond’s knit’n’purl girl decked in red and black stripes and oversize, floorlength scarfs inspired by the work of Sonya Rykiel.

Nathalie Tunna showcases some of my favourite designs of the show in cute, round shoulder dresses, completed by a zesty palette of pastels. The lines of her garments have an exactness befitting of Jackie O, but a playfulness is inherent in the accessories as leather trim backpacks and printed holdalls make an appearance.    

For an institute hitting so many marks, it’s odd that 21 year old knitwear Zac Marshall should announce that he likes ‘getting it wrong’. But experimentation and an exploration into deconstruction and altering panelling have left Marshall with a wrong-and-yet-so-right collection of menswear. The audience could barely take their eyes off their cute, hand-knitted creatures adorning the jumpers, but clever twists on tailoring meant Marshall’s clothes are more than just fancy dress costumes.

David Stoneman-Merret’s garments share a sense of hyperactive jumper joy (you know the joy, when you find that amazing jumper with a teddy bear eating a cheeseburger on it in a charity shop for a pound), with pixelated digital prints of flowers and his Nan in a Christmas hat. Her death two years ago inspired an exploration into the garments worn by the elderly and the darker realms of dementia, but David is adamant that his Nan would be jumping for joy too: ‘She would have loved the attention- she’d be telling everyone ‘That’s me on that top!’ I’d have to agree with Nanny Stoneman Merret, appearing on such odd but strangely entrancing garments is an accolade to be proud of. 

Naama Rietti sends models down the catwalk with breathtaking, contorted knitted headwear and matching neck pieces. They twist and come to life as faces emerge from their fabric as a bestial addition to a collection scattered with snakeskin prints and rich blue furs coats.

Angharad Probert’s lust for large scale ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ style fur creations is evident as models strut to a hypnotic, trendy beat; the large collars and dip-dye effect rustling to the rhythm. Sheepskin and fur headpieces hint at mohicans and transform the catwalk into a beautiful Darwinian manifestation, complete with extra details such as razor sharp teeth adorning leggings. Panelling slits reveal gasps of skin on a knee or shoulder, the armour of the modern warrior woman.

Zheng Zeng mixes up the female shape with contours etched into the patterns, dipping and diving over the curves of the body and ballooning on the shoulders like a superhero. 
The final two showings cross polar opposites in fashion but bring the show to a fantastic finale. First Vivian Wong shows her deconstructed business suits – parts removed, ripped up and replaced. Wong creates entirely new shapes on the body; a lapel is moved and a neckline becomes a triangle, or a collar hangs glibly down. In a comment on the recent MP expenses scandal, Wong is asking her audience what it means to have a rule or a uniform broken down, taken back to the drawing board and reimagined in a new way. Her suits conjure glimpses of the 1980s power woman but distinct lines on the body and luxury greys and browns bring the look up to date.

Finally, Harriet de Roeper closes the show in style, as her moody, androgynous suits are paired with Dr Martens, in an homage to the anarchy of Lord of the Flies. Flies stamp the exterior of her suits in spludges and splashes, a sense of chaos that jars against the formality of button up collars and polo necks. 

As the last model trails off the catwalk, I’m struck by the maturity inherent in much of Kingston’s work. Whilst fashion inspiration can be tenuous and at times somewhat off the mark, the Surrey fashion gang have certainly been doing something right. Collections express a clear and solid direction. For a class that draws so much inspiration from rebellion against tradition, it would be promising to see the next students amp up the risks a little more, but you can’t complain about a graduate collection that is making this writer head off for some serious talks with her bank manager.

Alice Early, pills from her graduate work

Kingston University might be a hop, and skip and a jump from the capital, cheapest but the 2010 fashion graduates aren’t letting a little thing like distance stop them from becoming real contenders in the fashion stakes. I went along to Graduate Fashion Week to find out just what the noise from the suburbs is all about. 

Standing at the front of the cavernous Earl’s Court 2 arena, River Island’s Graduate Fashion Week sings it’s assault on the senses, a holding pen for the designers of the future. Bright lights, pumping music and hundreds of discerning fashion devotees mill around institutes’ stands; groups form and disperse, giggle and buzz through the milieu. ‘I like her shoes, I wonder if that’s a wig, isn’t that Vivienne Westwood?!’

Amongst the activity, a stand glows at the front, a beacon of minimalist beauty: welcome to Kingston. 

Representative students are dressed in clean black t-shirts, hints of their individuality breaking through with a slick of lipstick or a quiff set just-so. White stands display student portfolios. The monochrome serenity of Kingston’s presentation is impressively slick, but I am struck by how, behind the blank white covers, the students’ portfolios come alive with a turn of the page. Illustrations of every kind dance like flickbook figures running across the paper, the minute but ornate versions of the catwalk to come. Pocketing an equally gorgeous guide to the designs to be shown, I’m soon heading off to Kingston’s prime time catwalk slot, seated just in time for the lights to go down. 


Live front row illustration by Lauren Macaulay

Alice Early’s designs make for a grand debut with her exploration into the craft of tailoring; rounded cape shoulders and flowing dresses enhance the silhouette of the slinky models, but leather tops and soft, wearable tailoring on high waisted trousers show Early has been paying attention to the direction of fashion today. Baby blues and smattering of peacock prints add a subtle femininity that appears in drops across Kingston’s show.

Sophie Hudspith’s rose and teal sheer knitwear seems to play under the lights of the catwalk, a fine lattice intricately woven together. Meanwhile, Lucy Hammond takes to the other end of the feminine spectrum with her tongue-in-cheek girl about town sweaters pronouncing ‘I Love Knitting, I’m not Shitting’. If Dennis the Menace can put up with her potty mouth he’d love Hammond’s knit’n’purl girl decked in red and black stripes and oversize, floorlength scarfs inspired by the work of Sonya Rykiel.

Nathalie Tunna showcases some of my favourite designs of the show in cute, round shoulder dresses, completed by a zesty palette of pastels. The lines of her garments have an exactness befitting of Jackie O, but a playfulness is inherent in the accessories as leather trim backpacks and printed holdalls make an appearance.    

For an institute hitting so many marks, it’s odd that 21 year old knitwear Zac Marshall should announce that he likes ‘getting it wrong’. But experimentation and an exploration into deconstruction and altering panelling have left Marshall with a wrong-and-yet-so-right collection of menswear. The audience could barely take their eyes off their cute, hand-knitted creatures adorning the jumpers, but clever twists on tailoring meant Marshall’s clothes are more than just fancy dress costumes.

David Stoneman-Merret’s garments share a sense of hyperactive jumper joy (you know the joy, when you find that amazing jumper with a teddy bear eating a cheeseburger on it in a charity shop for a pound), with pixelated digital prints of flowers and his Nan in a Christmas hat. Her death two years ago inspired an exploration into the garments worn by the elderly and the darker realms of dementia, but David is adamant that his Nan would be jumping for joy too: ‘She would have loved the attention- she’d be telling everyone ‘That’s me on that top!’ I’d have to agree with Nanny Stoneman Merret, appearing on such odd but strangely entrancing garments is an accolade to be proud of. 

Naama Rietti sends models down the catwalk with breathtaking, contorted knitted headwear and matching neck pieces. They twist and come to life as faces emerge from their fabric as a bestial addition to a collection scattered with snakeskin prints and rich blue furs coats.

Angharad Probert’s lust for large scale ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ style fur creations is evident as models strut to a hypnotic, trendy beat; the large collars and dip-dye effect rustling to the rhythm. Sheepskin and fur headpieces hint at mohicans and transform the catwalk into a beautiful Darwinian manifestation, complete with extra details such as razor sharp teeth adorning leggings. Panelling slits reveal gasps of skin on a knee or shoulder, the armour of the modern warrior woman.

Zheng Zeng mixes up the female shape with contours etched into the patterns, dipping and diving over the curves of the body and ballooning on the shoulders like a superhero. 
The final two showings cross polar opposites in fashion but bring the show to a fantastic finale. First Vivian Wong shows her deconstructed business suits – parts removed, ripped up and replaced. Wong creates entirely new shapes on the body; a lapel is moved and a neckline becomes a triangle, or a collar hangs glibly down. In a comment on the recent MP expenses scandal, Wong is asking her audience what it means to have a rule or a uniform broken down, taken back to the drawing board and reimagined in a new way. Her suits conjure glimpses of the 1980s power woman but distinct lines on the body and luxury greys and browns bring the look up to date.

Finally, Harriet de Roeper closes the show in style, as her moody, androgynous suits are paired with Dr Martens, in an homage to the anarchy of Lord of the Flies. Flies stamp the exterior of her suits in spludges and splashes, a sense of chaos that jars against the formality of button up collars and polo necks. 

As the last model trails off the catwalk, I’m struck by the maturity inherent in much of Kingston’s work. Whilst fashion inspiration can be tenuous and at times somewhat off the mark, the Surrey fashion gang have certainly been doing something right. Collections express a clear and solid direction. For a class that draws so much inspiration from rebellion against tradition, it would be promising to see the next students amp up the risks a little more, but you can’t complain about a graduate collection that is making this writer head off for some serious talks with her bank manager.


Alice Early, sickness from her graduate work

Kingston University might be a hop, order skip and a jump from the capital, viagra sale but the 2010 fashion graduates aren’t letting a little thing like distance stop them from becoming real contenders in the fashion stakes. I went along to Graduate Fashion Week to find out just what the noise from the suburbs is all about. 

Standing at the front of the cavernous Earl’s Court 2 arena, River Island’s Graduate Fashion Week sings it’s assault on the senses, a holding pen for the designers of the future. Bright lights, pumping music and hundreds of discerning fashion devotees mill around institutes’ stands; groups form and disperse, giggle and buzz through the milieu. ‘I like her shoes, I wonder if that’s a wig, isn’t that Vivienne Westwood?!’

Amongst the activity, a stand glows at the front, a beacon of minimalist beauty: welcome to Kingston. 

Representative students are dressed in clean black t-shirts, hints of their individuality breaking through with a slick of lipstick or a quiff set just-so. White stands display student portfolios. The monochrome serenity of Kingston’s presentation is impressively slick, but I am struck by how, behind the blank white covers, the students’ portfolios come alive with a turn of the page. Illustrations of every kind dance like flickbook figures running across the paper, the minute but ornate versions of the catwalk to come. Pocketing an equally gorgeous guide to the designs to be shown, I’m soon heading off to Kingston’s prime time catwalk slot, seated just in time for the lights to go down. 


Live front row illustration by Lauren Macaulay

Alice Early’s designs make for a grand debut with her exploration into the craft of tailoring; rounded cape shoulders and flowing dresses enhance the silhouette of the slinky models, but leather tops and soft, wearable tailoring on high waisted trousers show Early has been paying attention to the direction of fashion today. Baby blues and smattering of peacock prints add a subtle femininity that appears in drops across Kingston’s show.

Sophie Hudspith’s rose and teal sheer knitwear seems to play under the lights of the catwalk, a fine lattice intricately woven together. Meanwhile, Lucy Hammond takes to the other end of the feminine spectrum with her tongue-in-cheek girl about town sweaters pronouncing ‘I Love Knitting, I’m not Shitting’. If Dennis the Menace can put up with her potty mouth he’d love Hammond’s knit’n’purl girl decked in red and black stripes and oversize, floorlength scarfs inspired by the work of Sonya Rykiel.

Nathalie Tunna showcases some of my favourite designs of the show in cute, round shoulder dresses, completed by a zesty palette of pastels. The lines of her garments have an exactness befitting of Jackie O, but a playfulness is inherent in the accessories as leather trim backpacks and printed holdalls make an appearance.    

For an institute hitting so many marks, it’s odd that 21 year old knitwear Zac Marshall should announce that he likes ‘getting it wrong’. But experimentation and an exploration into deconstruction and altering panelling have left Marshall with a wrong-and-yet-so-right collection of menswear. The audience could barely take their eyes off their cute, hand-knitted creatures adorning the jumpers, but clever twists on tailoring meant Marshall’s clothes are more than just fancy dress costumes.

David Stoneman-Merret’s garments share a sense of hyperactive jumper joy (you know the joy, when you find that amazing jumper with a teddy bear eating a cheeseburger on it in a charity shop for a pound), with pixelated digital prints of flowers and his Nan in a Christmas hat. Her death two years ago inspired an exploration into the garments worn by the elderly and the darker realms of dementia, but David is adamant that his Nan would be jumping for joy too: ‘She would have loved the attention- she’d be telling everyone ‘That’s me on that top!’ I’d have to agree with Nanny Stoneman Merret, appearing on such odd but strangely entrancing garments is an accolade to be proud of. 

Naama Rietti sends models down the catwalk with breathtaking, contorted knitted headwear and matching neck pieces. They twist and come to life as faces emerge from their fabric as a bestial addition to a collection scattered with snakeskin prints and rich blue furs coats.

Angharad Probert’s lust for large scale ‘Where the Wild Things Are‘ style fur creations is evident as models strut to a hypnotic, trendy beat; the large collars and dip-dye effect rustling to the rhythm. Sheepskin and fur headpieces hint at mohicans and transform the catwalk into a beautiful Darwinian manifestation, complete with extra details such as razor sharp teeth adorning leggings. Panelling slits reveal gasps of skin on a knee or shoulder, the armour of the modern warrior woman.

Zheng Zeng mixes up the female shape with contours etched into the patterns, dipping and diving over the curves of the body and ballooning on the shoulders like a superhero. 
The final two showings cross polar opposites in fashion but bring the show to a fantastic finale. First Vivian Wong shows her deconstructed business suits – parts removed, ripped up and replaced. Wong creates entirely new shapes on the body; a lapel is moved and a neckline becomes a triangle, or a collar hangs glibly down. In a comment on the recent MP expenses scandal, Wong is asking her audience what it means to have a rule or a uniform broken down, taken back to the drawing board and reimagined in a new way. Her suits conjure glimpses of the 1980s power woman but distinct lines on the body and luxury greys and browns bring the look up to date.

Finally, Harriet de Roeper closes the show in style, as her moody, androgynous suits are paired with Dr. Martens, in an homage to the anarchy of Lord of the Flies. Flies stamp the exterior of her suits in spludges and splashes, a sense of chaos that jars against the formality of button up collars and polo necks. 

As the last model trails off the catwalk, I’m struck by the maturity inherent in much of Kingston’s work. Whilst fashion inspiration can be tenuous and at times somewhat off the mark, the Surrey fashion gang have certainly been doing something right. Collections express a clear and solid direction. For a class that draws so much inspiration from rebellion against tradition, it would be promising to see the next students amp up the risks a little more, but you can’t complain about a graduate collection that is making this writer head off for some serious talks with her bank manager.


Live illustration of the UEL front row, doctor by Lauren Macaulay

Kicking off Graduate Fashion week, search the East London Show was a blend of slick, commercially-minded pieces, and the challenging designs this pocket of London is famed for. From the glossy brochure showcasing the class of 2010, to several wearable, beautifully crafted collections, it could quite easily have been a commercial catwalk show.
 
Several collections chimed with existing trends – Charlotte Macke’s black moulded felt and macramé dresses, with accessories draped with chain-mail, were a reminder of the ‘urban warrior’ we have seen marching catwalks for a few seasons, and there were countless versions of the nineties body con, maxi length and minimalist aesthetic that Louise Goldin and Marios Schwab have played with.  

Equally easy on the eye was Jane Branco’s “Kiss Me Deadly” collection of draped, soft-toned silk-jersey dresses, and Queesra Abbas Dad’s upmarket traveller, with models wrapped up in fur hats, camel coats, brocade trousers and matching suitcases, off on an exotic expedition. Both collections wouldn’t have looked out of place on a luxury label’s shop floor.  

But you come to a graduate show expecting fresh blood, and there were plenty of students who brought the East London edge.


Live catwalk illustrations by Lauren Macaulay

Bunmi Olayi’s ‘Matriarchy’ collection went for the warrior vibe, but with striking results. Inspired by the Ekpe ‘leopard masquerade’, a women-only cult in pre-colonial Nigeria, and Scottish missionary Mary Slessor (a revolutionary figure in the Victorian age) Olaye’s designs were a fierce combination of the tribal and traditional. Models stormed down the catwalk with sticks topped with pom-poms, and feathered masks and headdresses, their bodies clad in a sharp Victorian silhouette. This was playful power dressing, with well-tailored jackets, balloon sleeves, and a sweet skirt suit in burnt ochre and deep red, adorned with raffia, bells and beads, and cartoonish giant pom-poms.  

Another stand-out name was Johanna Greenish. ‘Unfold’, a collection of simple, exquisitely crafted monochrome pieces, explores “the effect of folding and unfolding fabric”. Layers of rough, unfinished materials were manipulated into geometric shapes, and origami-like creations were toughened up with leather accents – from a leather dress with a paper-thin collar, to rippling skirts paired with thick leather belts. The star of the show was a top that unfolded in two different directions, creating a ‘concertina’ on the model’s chest.  

Uniform across the collections was the attention to detail –with eye-catching accessories just as exciting as the clothes. Diana Gevorgian’s collection of black leather suits and sheer organza shirts were inspired by “metal roosters bought from a car boot sale”, evident in the metal decorations of feathers adorning everything from leather gloves to the avant-garde shoes.  

“The starting point was a photograph of nuns smoking”. Hard to believe, but Stephanie Hemphill’s collection of short, cobalt wool dresses, grey hooded tops and latex peekaboo layers were a contemporary take on the nun’s habit. We doubt you’ll be seeing these designs down a convent anytime soon, but Hemphill’s clean, futuristic designs were some of my favourites in the show.


Live catwalk illustrations by Lauren Macaulay

Also worth a mention was Anna Grzegorczyk’s “Patterns of the Earth”, a rustic range of cocoon shaped dresses, paired with thick wooden sandals, and clunky jewelry. Inspired by “trips to Scandinavian countries” and “the beauty and harshness of Norwegian Fjords”, each dress had an organic feel, with hand-dyed fabrics, and soft romantic shapes. Each garmet was decorated with ripples and cracks from a book of natural patterns, and whilst the shapes weren’t particularly adventurous, they billowed around the frame beautifully.  

In a show of strong, ‘warrior’ inspired shapes, strong colours and heavy embellishment, Grzegorczyk’s pared-down palette and natural aesthetic was rather refreshing.


Live catwalk illustrations by Lauren Macaulay

Images courtesy of catwalking.com

Photography by Mini Mouse

Left Field Films is producing an exciting new documentary film on climate change and is asking for your help to get it completed. Since 2009, order Just Do It: get off your arse and change the world has been following the mischievous antics of UK Climate Change Activists. Emily James, here the film’s director was granted unprecedented access to document a variety of direct actions from the fraught G20 protest, buy the occupation of Blackheath by Climate Camp to Copenhagen and the spectacular failure of the UN COP 15 climate talks.

This is the briefest of introductions to a film that will inspire you to get off your arse and change the world and does no justice to the breadth and width of the activities and activists who inspired the project.

Heard about the time a load of bikes closed down Westminster?

YouTube Preview Image

For more videos documenting the variety of actions appearing in the film, check out the Just Do It website.

What makes this film really special is that it will be completely non-commercial and is being produced by a combination of volunteers and film professionals. As none of the costs will be coming from sales Just Do It are asking the public to help fund the production costs, to enable this exciting documentary to be released completely for free under creative commons.

Launched on Monday 14th June, the crowd funding appeal enables you to help make a film you would like to see by putting your money where you mouth is and sponsoring the film.

Photography by Kristian Buus

This is a community engaged film in which the move away from a financially driven production model towards self publishing enables the contributors and the wider team to have far more rights and input than if this was a commissioned documentary. Importantly Just Do It are able to tell the stories of the activists without the editorial or stylistic concerns of a Broadcaster.

Just Do It is the story of people standing up to worldwide governmental inefficiency to tackle the problem of Climate Change. It is a tale of people getting up, leaving the house and taking a stance for what they believe. Just Do It introduces the people behind the politics as they stand up against corporations and the subsequent treatment they receive.

Photography by Rob Logan

The film is: “a story of heroic individuals throwing themselves against the might of the machine, because it’s the right thing to do, regardless of success or failure. By telling their story, we hope to inspire and incite others to do the same.” Just Do It 2010.

Photography by Rob Logan

By releasing the documentary under creative commons Just Do It are making this film “in a way that reflects the culture that it is about. We want to give it away rather than capitalise on it, and support the Creative Commons and Free Culture movement.” Just Do It 2010

Photography by Kristian Buus

What are you waiting for? Just Do It!

Directed by Emily James it follows the story of 3 organisations, 2 loose affiliations and one domestic extremist: Marina Pepper (Seen in the Last Picture).

Categories ,Activists, ,Bike Rush, ,Campaign Against Climate Change, ,Climate Camp, ,Climate Change, ,Climate Rush, ,Cop 15, ,copenhagen, ,Creative Commons, ,Free Culture, ,g20, ,Just Do It Film, ,Just Do It: get off your arse and change the world, ,Kristian Buus, ,london, ,Marina Pepper, ,Minnie Mouse, ,Plane Stupid, ,Rob Logan

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Amelia’s Magazine | Climate Camp in the City

Monday 16th.

Name The Pet and Micron63 supply full-frontal, this remedy hard-hitting electro vogueing tunage at Madame Jojos in Soho, cialis 40mg London.
Madame Jojo’s, Brewer Street, Soho, London.

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Name The Pet.

Tuesday 17th.

Betty Frances launches her spooky new bluesy folk EP at The Electroacoustic Club, with support from The Johnny Parry Trio. Get there by 8, though, to catch the amazing, 6’9”, delicate-fingered story-crooner The Black Maria Memorial Fund – this chap is a mild-mannered superhero of the first order.
The Slaughtered Lamb 34-35 Great Sutton St, Barbican EC1V 0DX

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The Black Maria Memorial Fund.

Televised Crimewave are playing an Instore at Pure Groove.
6-7 West Smithfield, London EC1A 9JX

Wednesday 18th.

The Long Lost play at Prick Your Finger on Wednesday 18th March at 7.30pm. A band on Ninja Tune that sound like Astrid Gilberto dropped into a bubblebath with Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Belle, and Sebastian. http://www.ninjatune.net/thelonglost – London, There is a password for the resourceful with pricked fingers.
Prick Your Finger, 250 Globe Rd, Bethnal Green.

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The Long Lost.

Thursday 19th.

Gold Teeth and Crystal Fighters, two bands from the Amelia’s Intray are sure to pack a lively night with afrobeat rubbing up against dark pervertronic shocks.
The Paradise, 19 Kilburn Lane, Kensal Green W10 4AE

Friday 20th.

Sparks, the band that cannot die, will be fondling their keyboards for their hardcore devotee fanbase. Infiltrate, if you dare. Is Kentish Town big enough for the both of you?
HMV Forum, 9 – 17 Highgate RD, Kentish Town

Meanwhile, Piano Magic perform their sugary wisdom. For fans of classically trained Warp records.
Barden’s Boudoir, 36 Stoke Newington Rd, N16 7XJ

There’s also a warehouse party at the Busey Building.
133 Rye Lane, SE15

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Piano Magic.

Saturday 21st.

Upload Alldayer Festival. Trek out to Grays, near Thurrock for a loutish slobfest hosted by Front magazine. Highpoint will probably be Kunt And The Gang with his Bontempi synthpop ditties about unspeakably rude things. Did you spill my pint?
In a field.

A bit more relaxing and central, on the other hand, you could see Perunika performing their all-girl acapella Bulgarian Folk music.
The Cross Kings, 126 York Way, King’s Cross N1 0AX.

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Perunika

Sunday 22nd.

Nadja, Cappilary Action and DJs in your dream-local.
Barden’s Boudoir, 36 Stoke Newington Rd, N16 7XJ.
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Maybe I have become a bit blase after so much rushing, ask but for some reason the brilliantly termed “swoop” didn’t phase me. To the point that I decided that I had time to visit the G20 Meltdown goings on with a mere half hour to spare before the swoop at 12.30 on the 1st of April outside the European Climate Exchange. Attempting to locate the Climate Action march, viagra approved led by a green horse, approved I headed down Threadneedle Street towards the Bank of England. A friendly female officer ushered me onwards as I sauntered past police lines and I decided that there was no chance of a kettle here, at least not just yet. Ahead of me was the most amazingly constructed dead canary, held aloft to symbolize the death of Canary Wharf.

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Increasingly aware of the clock ticking I darted further into the morass of people spilling into the junction from all sides, snapping as I went.

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In ten minutes I was ready to leave, but by now the atmosphere had changed and the kettle was on. Trying my best not to panic I asked a second police officer if I could please please leave. To my utmost surprise – having ascertained that I was on my own —he let me past the cordon where other journalists had failed.

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With minutes to spare I grabbed my bike and sped off to Bishopsgate, noting the preponderance of people with trays of food, backpacks, pop-up tents and even great wreaths of flowers en route, apparently unhassled by the police. The road seemed already closed to traffic, as if we were expected!

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Suddenly there was a commotion at the north end of the street, and a flurry of people clustered together in the road. Someone yelled “not yet!” to which I retorted “too late!” I mean, once you’ve started pitching your tent on a major thoroughfare in central London you’re hardly going to stop politely and wait a minute more to meet GMT time are you?! The police tried half-heartedly to drag people off, as they hastily climbed inside their tents, with one joker popping out the top of his kids’ tent in full hunting gear.

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By the time I had glanced up again the whole street was a bustle of people and tents as far as the eye could see. A Carbon Casino with ghetto blaster sound system was hoisted up onto a carefully scouted bus shelter.

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Bunting was unfurled and strung up between lampposts, food was trundled in on trailers, a toilet gazebo hosting the compost loos arrived and a vegetable stall was set up beneath a banner emblazoned Farmers Markets Not Carbon Markets. Vivienne Westwood walked past. All so surreal, all so very good.

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Gradually the infrastructure took shape, with a kitchen sited near the centre of the site and three separate workshop spaces successfully set up at intervals along the road.

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Here people could learn everything from the latest climate science to effective self defence, and of course the more intricate ins and outs of Carbon Trading and why it is such a bad idea. Perhaps now would be a good time to mention more on why Climate Camp decided to focus on Carbon Trading.

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Our previous targets have included Heathrow and Kingsnorth, where huge new projects will put in peril our ability to rapidly cut carbon as quickly as we need to if we are to keep Climate Change in check. The government and big business justify their plans for a third runway and a new coal fired power station with Carbon Trading, whereby carbon is bought and sold as if it were any other commodity. The trouble with this concept is that it encourages growth which is simply not possible if we are trying to cut carbon emissions, as any sane person realises.

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So by picking out the European Climate Exchange (which is a worldwide hub for this activity) Climate Camp hoped to highlight a problem that very few people talk about. We chose to swoop on the day before the G20 because this meeting of leaders from the top 20 richest countries was intended to sort out the world’s financial problems. They intend to do this with the same failed economic system that has dreamt up Carbon Trading as a solution to Climate Change. By setting up Climate Camp at the heart of the problem we sent a clear signal to our leaders that we cannot continue putting our faith in the current financial system when it so clearly doesn’t work. Needless to say, the outcome of the G20 has been as ill-considered as expected.

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Over $1 trillion dollars will be magiked out of thin air to push into our failing economic systems. Hurrah, all is well!

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But back to the street that I so often cycle down, now so transformed. Guerilla gardeners wandered past with mini barrows of primula and spray cans in hand – a nod to the guerilla gardening movement which aims to reclaim our common land, planting useful plants on public spaces.

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Ironically, April 1st was also the 360th anniversary – to the day – of the moment when the Diggers reclaimed Saint George’s Hill as common land, and on which they planted parsnips, carrots and beans. The area is now a gated community for the rich and a sad indictment of the way that land has been parcelled off for the elite across the world. We later sang, en masse, the famous Digger’s Song – A World Turned Upside Down, by Leon Rosselson.

The media centre was busy fielding journos, and a welcome group coalesced to meet and greet newcomers, which by now numbered many badly dressed down bankers who were easily spotted a mile off.

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If you got closer they could generally be heard saying something moronic, but I think they found it hard to find fault with our actions and we may even have educated some of the more open-minded ones.

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However, I think it’s worth noting the sad truth is that some people will never care about any issue unless it directly affects themselves or their family. Happy in their comfortable lives they remain content to consume far more than their fair share of resources, whilst others across the world starve because of their activities.

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Faces were painted, samosas were sold, guitars were strummed. A giant game, an adaption of snakes and ladders – runways and windmills – was played, complete with oversize dice. The police seemed to be leaving us alone.

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As the day wore on more and more people drifted in from the surrounding protests to see what was going on. On the northern perimeter the legal observers for Climate Camp got stuck in a strange sandwich between police lines and black block.

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When I returned later the mood had altered dramatically – a group of 5-Rhythms dancers dressed in orange and gold had organised themselves into a self-named gold block. They were dancing frantically, periodically dragging others into their merriment, sweating in enlightened ecstasy.

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Gingerbread bankers were handed out to passersby, and everywhere I looked people were sharing their food. I bumped into a bunch of schoolgirls still in uniform from the morning’s classes. One of them recognized me – I looked after her as a small child on a camp. Legal observers sat in a row sketching the police in front of them.

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Occasionally I would bump into another Climate Camper from our London neighbourhood, looking similarly frazzled to how I was starting to feel. And I bumped into Robots in Disguise, and half of Tatty Devine.

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The atmosphere was still up, jovial, but I was worried that my camera battery was getting low and decided to head home to download photos and recharge batteries before the mood changed, as I suspected it would when dusk fell. On my return twilight was approaching rapidly between the tower blocks and the atmosphere had turned still more carnivalesque, with people really getting into the stop-start nature of human powered bike pedal sound systems. Limboing was all the rage and some cheeky girls got on top of a police van to boogie.

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Many more people were joining us from a day at work, but the police were also increasing rapidly in number as they were called off duty elsewhere. Suddenly (at about 7.30pm) and without warning, they pushed forcefully into the site from the south end, beating people out of their way as they did so with riot shields and battons, even as surprised protesters raised their hands in the air and chanted the now familiar refrain “this is not a riot.”

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Up until now everything had seemed so relaxed, but I for one knew that it was only a matter of time before the police decided to use more force. They may have stood by mildly amused as we entertained and educated each other in the hot sunshine of the afternoon, but by nightfall it was clear that things were about to get significantly more messy. We were now in a kettle, with people unable to get in or out, a state that remained for the next 5 hours. Those who had just arrived were utterly bemused as to the reasons for this, but there wasn’t any reasoning to do. A big consensus meeting was held at the north end to decide what we should do, and hundreds of people took part in hand wiggling to confirm that they would be staying the night. (I had my doubts about this outcome – those there to party no doubt mistook the implications of this, ie. that it would mean standing our ground and keeping the police out, not more dancing and getting drunk.)

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Now seemed a good time to hold the much hyped celidh, so I located our new Climate Camp celidh band, the Carbon Raiders, and we put into practice the music we’ve been practicing over the past few weeks. Soon enough there in front of me was the familiar sight of hundreds of smiling people dancing together.

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We only managed to follow a few steps correctly, but it didn’t matter; freestyling joy was the order of the day. It was as if the lines of riot cops were a million miles away, rather than 2 metres over my shoulder. For awhile afterwards much carried on as before, with many enjoying the fluffy baked potatoes for tea that remained warm to the touch – despite having been cooked the day before – many in my very own oven.

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Towards midnight many were getting anxious – they’d been planning to get home, to get to work the next day. We started to become aware that there were hundreds of people outside trying to get in and those sitting on the bus shelter could see people being violently beaten back from our perimeter.

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It wasn’t until yesterday that I found out the full extent of the surrounding kettles – one friend was caught in a mini kettle of 25 people for 2 hours in a narrow and claustrophobic alley, some beaten to the ground before finally being released. Marina had come down from the Meltdown and, finding herself unable to get in set up camp in the middle of Broadgate with her kettle and teacups. She showed me the bruises from the police the next day – huge great welts down her arm, but she was proud that her fine china remained unscathed throughout the ordeal. Why were these people kept away from us? Many of my friends were unable to get into the camp, despite having travelled long distances to protest. Still others were trying to retrieve belongings left inside the camp, which have since vanished – the police sent in cleaning crews at the end that apparently sent everything straight to landfill. Is this lawful? To keep someone from their belongings and then consign them to oblivion?

Once the police had beaten everyone away from our perimeters they drafted in huge amounts of riot cops (10 deep in places) to drive us off the road. There was clearly no way they were going to let us stay there for the full 24 hours and risk having us block the road for another day of commuter traffic. I believe their orders were something along the lines of needing to keep the streets clear in case a world leader wanted to get past. Most people, tired and intimidated, left as soon as they were able to, with just a dedicated few left to guard the lines. The police surged forward with no advance warning once more, picking up and tossing carelessly aside our beloved Pedals bike powered sound system. A great cry of dismay went up from the crowd – this was willful destruction of property for no discernible reason.

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Police, jaws set in aggressive grimaces, were flailing out at cowering protestors who sat on the floor with their hands in the air. Is this what democracy looks like? When the right to protest is treated with such disdain? Despite promises to the contrary, no attempt at communication was made. The same old story seems to be repeating itself time and time again.

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As a camper climbed a traffic light to retrieve a banner I overheard a policeman sneering that he hoped he slipped and fell. Is this what we pay our taxes for? The police are not here to protect the interest of the ruling elite, they are here to facilitate lawful protest and protect the welfare of all citizens. Yet this attitude is sadly lacking. For every friendly humane copper there are 50 behind him or her who revel in the carnage that provoking a riot ensures.

My friend was snatched from the front line and so I retreated from my position inches from the police to retrieve his belongings and take them out to him. I was also concerned by this point about my camera being taken and the photos erased – there were already reports of this having happened to other photographers earlier in the day. It seemed increasingly obvious how things were going to end, and sure enough when I made it back around the block ten minutes later the street was clear, apart from a dreadful mess of abandoned tents and bedraggled bunting. It was very sad to see the state of the street, when Climate Camp is so committed to clearing up so that no trace remains. But what choice did we have? We just didn’t have the resources to clear up more than those individuals left behind could personally manage. We stuffed as much bunting as we could into a backpack and trundled home, feeling emotionally bruised and battered.

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…But what a day! We swooped, we camped, and we raised the issue of Carbon Trading higher up the political agenda than it has ever been before. I feel certain that many people came away feeling much more empowered and assured that it is possible to create another world. Now we start work on ideas for the Climate Camp this summer, August 26th – September 2nd. Throughout 2009 we will be focusing on the failures of our current economic system, for the same principles of free markets cannot possibly save us from Climate Chaos. The only solution is to decrease consumption, increase efficiency, and find alternatives to fossil fuels, fast. Put the dates in your diary now. And follow us on the main Camp Twitter and Twitter for London-based campers.

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Categories ,activism, ,Carbon Trading, ,Climate Camp, ,Community, ,Direct Action, ,Environment, ,G20, ,Police

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Amelia’s Magazine | Climate Camp Logo and Poster Callout!

Monday 20th

Slow Club is a duo formed by Charles and Rebecca, this web buy information pills who both come from Sheffield. He does the singing and plays the guitar; she deals with the drums and all sorts of weird instruments, from bottles of water to wooden chairs. The result? You can go hear for yourself tonight at Barfly.
7pm. £5.

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Slow Club

Tuesday 21th

We Fell To Earth and special guests at the ICA theatre. Richard File (UNKLE) and PJ Harvey-ish singer/bassist Wendy Rae doing something that they call “sinister and kind of arousing rock music”.
8pm. £10.

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We Fell To Earth

Wednesday 22th
Vessels will be at Buffalo Bar this Wednesday launching “Retreat”, a collection of songs including a single, some remixes and an unreleased track by this Leeds five-piece.
8pm. £6.

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Vessels

Thursday 23th
Camera Obscura make a come back with “My Maudlin Career”, the band’s fourth studio album that is coming out today.
All their sweet freshness that you could feel from the first single out entitled “French Navy” will be performed on the stage of Shepherds Bush Empire next Thursday.
7pm. £13.50.

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Camera Obscura

Friday 24th

Je Suis Animal single launch party for the upcoming release ‘The Mystery of Marie Roget’ 7″ at The Victoria. Support comes from Betty and The Werewolves and Hong Kong In The 60s. People from Twee as F*** also promise free cupcakes for earlybirds so that is a Friday night out you can not miss.
9pm. £6/ 5 concessions.

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Je Suis Animal

Saturday 25th

The Camden Crawl Festival brings the best of Indie to town. Line up for Saturday looks like great performances will be on stage. The Maccabees, Little Boots, Marina And The Diamonds and The Golden Silvers are only a few to be named.
12pm. £32.50 (Saturday only).

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The Golden Silvers

Sunday 26th
Due to the Casiotone for the Painfully Alone‘s sell-out London show on 27th April, a new show has been added on Sunday 26th April – also at The Luminaire. Releasing their fifth album, Vs. Children, the band succeeded to make a record that feels just as warm and intimate as the first.
7:30pm. £8.50, adv £8.

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Casiotone for the Painfully Alone
On the cover of this CD, sickness Caroline Weeks appears to be a healthy, seek pink-skinned young woman. However, sildenafil fill your ears with her music, and you will be in no doubt that she is a ghost. And her clarinettist, too. Ghosts! Caroline has been to the other side, and seen things, and now wanders around my auditory cortex in a Victorian gown, lamenting the moment that life’s glories were cruelly wrenched from her grasp. Maybe Caroline drowned in a lake, or caught one of those Jane Austen chills, or fell under a horse, or was cuddled to death by an overaffectionate simple boy cousin. I can’t begin to imagine what happened to her polter-woodwindist. Probably choked on his reed.

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This is the spookiest music I have heard in a long time. She feels like a sister to SixToes, playing with similar moods, guitar work and larynx-trembling. But much spookier. I can’t help but think of Winona Ryder in Beetlejuice, a morbid teenager rejecting the world from her wilfully glum bedroom. So it’s not a huge surprise to discover that Caroline is also Ginger Lee, colleague of Natasha Khan in Bat For Lashes. Although you can actually dance to some of Natasha’s ditties, there is the moody, brooding moroseness there too. But while Bat For Lashes keeps this in the realm of relationships with sprinklings of dreamy visions, Caroline Weeks takes it to the pure Victorian pre-Pankhurst inner world of reflective femininity.
It turns out that all the lyrics are taken from the poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay, an early Twentieth Century American who was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Musically, it is very accomplished. Recorded quite simplistically, with a few dramatic reverb effects, the instrumentation has plenty of room to shine. The guitar gently drifts between dextrous, finger-picked, rhythmic regularity and airy pausing in a lovely, caressy, wavey kind of way. But it’s the tender voice that dominates, or haunts, the album. Caroline sings to you. It’s deeply personal, and unwavering in its humourless, sorrowful plea. And there is much depth of feeling and depth of lyric, which I cannot really do justice to here.
This is simply music to surrender to. Alone. Dim the lights, let the shadows fall across your soul and be utterly, utterly alone with the ghost of Caroline Weeks.

La Weeks is performing at The Good Ship in Kilburn on May 19.
Tuesday 21st April

2pm
Institute of Education?
20 Bedford Way, buy
?London WC1H 0AL?

“How to Educate Children in the UK About Sustainable Development”
discussion with Professor Randall Curren, more about Institute of Education. Info: fbrettell@ioe.ac.uk or call 020 7612 6000

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(Image courtesy of Lea Jaffy, email leajaffy_1@hotmail.com for further illustrations)

Wednesday 22nd April

“The Green Agenda: Are We Engaging The Consumer?”
9:30am

Dorich House Museum
67 Kingston Vale,
London SW15 3RN

The rise and rise of the green agenda is creating an ever increasing number of green initiatives, CSR projects, and local and national government proposals. Almost all organisations – both commercial and non commercial – want to establish their green credentials and communicate them to the consumer.
To explore these issues and to find new ways of engaging the customer, Kingston University has brought together a number of leading experts from a wide range of sectors – manufacturing, retailing, NGO’s, academics and a number of consultancies.
For full programme information and to book please go to http://business.kingston.ac.uk/flavor1.php?id=398.
Contact: Wendy Eatenton
?Tel: 020 8547 2000 ext. 65511
?Email: rm.rettie@kingston.ac.uk

“Can Developing Country Needs For Energy Be Met Without Causing Climate Change”

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(Image courtesy of Lea Jaffy, email leajaffy_1@hotmail.com for further illustrations)

1.00pm
Committee Room 14
Palace of Westminster, London
SW1A 2PW
Recent studies suggest a large potential for clean energy projects in Sub-Saharan Africa; if fully implemented, they could provide more than twice the regions current installed power-generation capacity. It has been posited that Latin America has a comparative advantage in maximizing clean energy opportunities; energy consumption could be reduced by 10 percent over the next decade by investing in energy efficiency. This suggests that the adoption of clean energy technologies typically results in a “win:win” situation for developing countries: reducing costs and emissions.
But many developing countries have been failing to reach their full productive potential for years. Growth diagnostic studies in many developing countries regularly identify constraints such as lack of grid electricity and poor infrastructure. Typically, levels of investment in the electricity sector in developing countries are around 50 percent of needs. Credit constraints mean that the cheapest available options are often chosen as opposed to those that deliver environmental benefits. So can developing country needs for energy be met without causing climate change?  How can developing countries be incentivised to adopt cleaner energy? And what steps do developed countries need to take to facilitate this?

Professor Sir David King, Gordon MacKerron. Info: 7922 0300/ meetings@odi.org.uk/ ODI

Thursday 23rd April

“Financial Meltdown and The End of the Age of Greed”

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(Image courtesy of Aarron Taylor, www.aarrontaylor.com)

7pm
Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place, W2 1QJ
Info: 7479 8950
£10 Online booking now available
This event will be moderated by Michael Wilson, Business Editor of Sky News
Paul Mason talks about the ongoing financial crisis that has brough the global economy to the brink of depression. Gordon Brown hailed the result of deregulation as the ‘golden age’ of banking in the UK. Mason will give insights into how deregulation is at the heart of the collapse of the banking system in September and October 2008 and how it led to expanded subprime mortgage lending, an uncontrollable derivatives market, and the lethal fusion of banking and insurance.
http://www.frontlineclub.com/events/


Saturday 25th April

People’s Republic of Southwark April Mini Eco-Fair
People’s Republic of Southwark
Brandon Street/Orb Street
SE17

12.00pm – 4.00pm 
On Saturday 25th April, 12-4pm, People’s Republic of Southwark’s mini eco-fair goes all the way to SE17, to the Nursery Row Park http://www.nurseryrowpark.org/SaveNurseryRow/Welcome.html , a beautiful green space located just behind the East Street Market (between Brandon and Orb Street).?? We are hoping to have another great day out for everyone and some of the activities for the day are:?- mulching the orchard?- planting sunflower seeds?- making art?- a free shop (space where you can swap/give away/take things you need for free – bring easy-to-carry usable things you don’t need, ex clothes, dvds, books. and swap them for something you do need or simply give them away to someone who does; please don’t bring anything bulky or electrical)?- seed swap (get your window boxes, balconies, gardens ready for spring and summer)?- you can also find out about local environmental projects, issues and campaigns. ?Or just come along for a chat
Prepare to throw your sensibilities and all sense of conventionality out of the window! Why I hear you scream? Well, search this week sees Alternative Fashion Week bombard an unsuspecting Spitalfields in all its wonderful obscurity. Forget all the opulence of London Fashion Week; Alternative Fashion Week is going to assail you with raw, viagra buy un-censored Fashion Design.

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The event unlike London Fashion Week is open to everyone and free for the designers to participate. It will be running all this week from the 20th-24th of April at Spitalfields Traders Market. So get your skates on people and get on down for all the outlandish action. With 15 shows a day, it will see at least 10,000-hop foot through their doors. Applicants range from recent graduates to independent designers keen to establish themselves in the fashion sphere. The participants are an eclectic range of designers from a myriad of different fields from the theatre to circus, so be prepared for a vivacious show. In conjunction with the free daily shows, the event hosts an adjacent market from noon till three showcasing a whole treasure trove of accessories, Womenswear and textiles for us to feast upon.

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Here is a sneak peak at one of the accessory designers that will showcase her A/W collection at the event. Helen Rochfort’s innovative designs focus on all things delectable. Infact just glancing at her liquorice allsorts bag is enough to have me running to the nearest sweet shop for a fix. She describes her delectable designs as simply “ a sprinkling of vintage and a dusting of retro all whipping together with a kitsch twist of humour” So keep your eyes out for Rochfort’s designs, they are hard to miss!

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The event prides itself on its promotion of sustainable fashion, and actively supports recycling and ethical sourcing. It’s organizers are The Alternative Arts, a group based in East London that invests in local artists and projects in the community. Its overriding ethos is the importance of accessible fashion and art in the public domain.

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The event is a riot of creativity that questions our ideological view of fashion design; Alternative Fashion Week provides that vital foundation for applications to bridge the gap between them and the seemingly intimidating abyss of the fashion industry.

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So keep your eyes peeled as Amelia’s Magazine will be reporting from the front line this week to bring you all the zany fun and frolics!
Sometimes the stories for Amelia’s Magazine come to us. And this story is one of unimaginable corruption by one of the worlds largest companies, search aided by an equally unscrupulous government. While there will never be a happy ending to this tale, medicine there may be, tadalafil after many years of campaigning, justice finally delivered. I was emailed recently by a group called Remember Saro-Wiwa, asking if I would attend a talk entitled Wiwa Vs Shell at the Amnesty International House in London.

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I went along to the event, which was fully attended, and listened to what this case was about. In 1995, a man called Ken Saro-Wiwa, along with eight colleagues from the Ogoni region of Nigeria, was executed by the Nigerian State for campaigning against the devastation of the Niger Delta by oil companies, specifically Shell Oil. Thankfully, this is not where the story ends. On May 26th, 2009, after fourteen years, Shell will stand trial in New York for complicity in human rights abuses in Nigeria, including the execution of Ken Saro Wiwa and his eight colleagues. The purpose of the evening was to highlight the case, and I listened in horror and disbelief to what has been happening in Nigeria. Having not known much about the unethical way that oil companies conduct their business – and the ways in which they silence their objectors – I could almost not comprehend what I was hearing. The panel speaking included Katie Redford, a U.S lawyer and co founder of EarthRights International, which, along with the Center for Constitutional Rights has filed the case against Shell.

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She discussed the upcoming trial, and included the seemingly never-ending charges which have finally been brought against them. As well as the charge of complicity in crimes against humanity, they are being charged with torture, arbitrary arrest and detainment. We learnt that this is a groundbreaking case – companies of this size do not usually find themselves in court for their actions – however reprehensible. If Shell are found liable, they could be forced to pay damages that could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars.

We learnt about the situation between Ken Saro-Wiwa and Shell. From the time that Shell had started producing oil in the Delta in 1958, the local communities had been concerned about the levels of pollution, along with the gas flares which were coming from Shell’s production plant. Furthermore, drilling operations were routinely destroying farmers lands with oil spillage and rendering the lands unsuitable for use. When faced with such levels of devastation to their land (and health), it seems only natural that the communities would protest.

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Unfortunately for them, Shell and the Nigerian Government were not in the business of facilitating these protests; instead, Shell would employ the presence of the Mobile Police Force, who were also known as the “kill and go”police. At one such protest, the MPF massacred 80 people and destroyed around 500 homes. Saro-Wiwa, who had always been a prominent figure in the campaigns against Shell was arrested and charged under bogus offences – unlawful assembly and conspiring to publish a ‘seditious’ pamphlet. On November 10th, 1995, Saro-Wiwa, along with 8 others was executed.

Speaking at Amnesty International, Ben Amunwa, who was chairing the evening, used a quote from Milan Kundera to help surmise the subsequent fight to continue with Saro-Wiwa’s cause, and bring long awaited justice : “The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting”. I spoke with one of the campaigners behind Remember Saro-Wiwa afterwards and asked how others can get involved. He told me that ” We’re currently in the process of developing a website and hopefully actions people can take as part of the shell guilty campaign, we hope to use viral films, the media and activist actions to generate loads of attention on Shell around the trial. At the moment it’s just about spreading awareness of the trial to warm people up for actions they can take further down the line.    

In the meantime we would encourage people join the facebook group. Our current aim is to get 1000 members. One way we are thinking about framing this call out is:

Take the 999 action:

9 Ogoni activists died for their cause
2009: the year their relatives must see justice and gas flaring in Nigeria must end
9: the number of your friends we urge you to invite to join this group.”

Everyone involved with this case will be eagerly awaiting the outcome of the trial in New York. After the panel had finished, I spoke with Katie Redford and asked her whether she felt positive about the outcome of this groundbreaking trial. She explained that while no one can predict whom the jury will side with, or what the outcome may be, the fact that a global and powerful company such as Shell will be finally held accountable for their actions in the Niger Delta demonstrates the power that non-violent protesters actually wield. Although it took twelve years to get to this stage, it seems like justice is finally being administered.
Born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, viagra buy living in Utrecht in Holland and half Spanish, online Maria Stijger is a fashion photographer who has recently sprung to my attention. Her style of surrealism mixes with vintage meets modern. Maria’s playful personality results in beautiful images which if nothing else are aesthetically striking.

Maria, link you’re images are beautifully created. How long have you been doing photography for?
I took my first photograph around the age of six and from then I always thought that it was a kind of magic. But I never picked it up seriously until I got out of high school, graduated from art school and after doing a lot of different things, including working as a photographer’s assistant. I started producing my own fashion stories about two years ago.

Is it true your work has been recognised by the Dutch publications of Elle and Marie Claire??
Yes, I’ve also had my work published in HMagazine (a magazine available in Barcelona) twice, and in professional and weekly magazines, newspapers, and once in a book about jewellery.

I really enjoyed the old fashioned-romantic-fairy tale-esc sequence of the photoshoot shown here:
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What is the story behind this?

Well, I always like to make little fantasy stories, you can make up your own just looking at the series and here I was looking for an old feeling, using the atmosphere of the space that I found one day when I visited a party in the building. It’s a big building in the eastern part of Holland used by squatters. The guy that runs the place has a fantastic store inside it, where he sells all kinds of beautiful things he finds in old houses he restores. It is about a girl who is lost in time; she lives in a world of her own, surrounded by all this old stuff. She is a little bit weird, but happy and enjoying herself. She puts on shoes that are too big, plays with old porcelain dolls and likes funny hats. There is no story with a beginning and an end, but I like to make more images in my head, fantasize about what she does. I hope that others will do this too!

Do you prefer to work to a specific brief in your work?
No, in my personal work I really like to brainstorm in advance and come up with a lot of ideas, pick out the best and look for the right location, model and the stylist brings the clothes and things and we make our own décor if possible. But on the day of the shoot, I want to just let it all go and go with the flow of the day, see what comes on my path and switch if something doesn’t work. I like it when the whole team participates and gets excited and understands the feeling that I try to create and comes up with good ideas and then there is a buzz that I cannot describe…

Quite a lot of your work I found reflected some surrealism, would you say you have a specific style of photography, or does it vary?
I really love the Latin American magic realism and I try to use this in all my personal work as much as possible. I love surrealism, theatre and movies, things that are old. I love to mix it with modern age and fashion. I try to do this as often as I can, especially in my personal work, sometimes I like to go a little bit further than my commissioners want, so in the end my work varies quite a lot. But I like to show them that side as well so I always take some shots that link to this theme and sometimes they love it too!

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Can you explain the series of gloves images?

This was a great series to make! We had so much fun! We wanted to do something with beautiful gloves, but not in a studio or with a model. So I came up with this idea to make animal shapes, shadow play. I have a very old magic lantern (Lanterna Magica) that gives this great old feeling because of the dust and the frame. So this was the perfect combination mixing the old with the new fashion. We sold this particular series to (Dutch) Elle magazine.

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Who would you say influences and inspires you?
A lot! Things like literature, art, music, European film, but not specifically one person. There are so many great and diverse people that I love for what they do, I couldn’t point out just one.

Can you see a progression or a change in your work from when you first started to now?
Yes. In the beginning I only concentrated on landscapes and snapshots of people. Now I love to make stories using fashion. I’d say it’s a big change, and I guess it will never stop changing. I like to move around and experiment.

Do you have a muse?
No not really, I value my boyfriend’s opinion a lot. So in that sense I guess it’s him!

What do you do in your spare time?
At the moment I am expecting our first child, so my extra activities are not so exciting ha-ha. But I love going to the woods, going out with friends and listening to music. I also love to make sweet little stuffed monsters, exploring other realms of creativity! Most of my time is for photography though. And my family is very important too.

When you were younger, what did you wish to be when you grew up?
Ha-ha, first I wanted to be a dentist, but I loved arts and crafts and drawing so much, that I discovered that this was “my thing”. Although my parents were scared that I’d drown in the competition and of course it is more difficult for an artist to make a good living, I knew that there was no other option for me. I get bored quite easily, so I need to occupy myself doing creative things with other creative and inspiring people.

Thanks Maria, and good luck with the bun in the oven!

You can view Marias work at here.
And contact her here.
Happy Earth Day, here Amelia’s Magazine readers!

April 22nd is Earth Day (mainly for America, but we can still take part in celebrating it – it is everyones Earth after all!) If you are in America, then check out http://earthday.net/all_events to see what is going on around your neck of the woods.

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Images courtesy of Sachiko, http://www.loveandhatesati.com/

Perhaps this is fortuitous timing because this is also quite an interesting day in terms of the Government 2009 Budget. Hands up who was watching the budget today? I can understand if lazing around in the sun took top priority, so leave it to me to fill you in on the important facts.

Namely, that this is the first year that a carbon budget has been announced. Alistair Darling announced £1 billion will go towards funds to tackle climate change. This budget aims to cut 34% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. £375 million has been promised over the next two years for energy and resource efficiency in households, businesses and public buildings. £70 million will also be spent on small-scale and community low carbon energy and resource efficiency. With regards to fuel duty, increases in the duty are aimed to reduce emissions and pollution, saving 2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year by 2013-14.

Andy Atkins, executive director at Friends of the Earth spoke to The Guardian, and said that he was disappointed by the budget, adding
“The Government has squandered a historic opportunity to kickstart a green industrial revolution, create tens of thousands of jobs and slash UK carbon dioxide emissions. The green sheen on this year’s budget will do little to disguise the fact that yet again the government has merely applied a sticking plaster to a low-carbon industry on life support.”

So, do you think that the Government are doing enough to tackle climate change? Let us know what you think of the new budget at hello@ameliasmagazine.com

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Image courtesy of Sachiko, http://www.loveandhatesati.com/
Sort of initiating the summer festivals around the area, information pills Stag & Dagger takes place next month bringing zillions of awesome groups to the city. Oh come on, order like you haven`t seen thousands of flyers and posters all over the city? Here in East London they are everywhere!

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The event actually happens in one single day and with one ticket you can have access to all the gigs (yes, I said all the gigs).
London is the first one and then Stag goes for a short roadtrip taking everybody to Leeds and Glasgow on the consecutive days.

The line up for London is particularly fantastic, with over 140 names distributed in 21 venues such as Cargo, 93 Feet East and Hoxton Bar & Kitchen.

I, as a proud Brazilian, am super excited to see Lovefoxxx, who is currently taking a well deserved break from CSS after a massive success last year, but will be having a solo performance at Catch.

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Lovefoxxx

There is also Cold War Kids, our dearest Slow Club, Wet Dog, My Toys Like Me, Moshi Moshi and plus an endless list of musical geniuses.

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Slow Club

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My Toys Like Me

Many many many gigs and venues to be able to organize yourself and enjoy it all in one day only. Super difficult task, isn`t it?
Since the list is huge, I suggest you go check their website for the complete offer. Can you believe there is still more people to be announced? Man, there is no end to it.
And have I said how much does the pass cost? Freaking £16.50! Ridiculously cheap.
I still have no idea on how I`ll choose the gigs to go. At first I thought about making a list of pros and cons for each of the bands. Yeah right. Better start now …
Here at Amelia’s Magazine we are always bounding up and down in excitement whenever we unearth a designer that is striving to take care of mother earth along with creating delectable pieces for all us avid fashionistas! Our latest find Ada Zanditon ticks all our boxes, sildenafil hoorah!

At the forefront of her field, buy more about Zanditon is raising the flag for innovative ethical fashion design. Injecting a healthy dose of cool into eco-fashion Zanditon’s ethos is clear, elegant, pioneering and experimental designs that challenge the conventionality and boundaries of sustainable design.

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Zanditon brings a new dimension to haute couture, a area that has not been widely broached in ecological design. Her collections are an eccentric tour de force venturing through medieval volumitous silhouettes to theatrical ruffles, all in a subdued palette of neutral blacks to muted greys and teals. Her collections convey a journey and have a real sense of fluidity. Her latest A/W collection is no exception, inspired by the literary novel Soil and Soul by Alastair Mc Intosh the book charts an ecological journey to prevent mass construction in cherished lands in Ireland. The collection subsequently has a distinctly celtic feel that is entrenched by Zanditon’s interest in Irish mythology, the collection utlises a range of prints custom designed and woven by Ada. Aswell as working in Fashion Design she also works as a Ilustrator.

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Zanditon has been shrouded with accolades, having excelled though university, with a first at London College of Fashion in Womenswear Design in 2007. She then went on to cause waves in the fashion sphere, winning an award for most creative collection at her debut at The Ethical Fashion Show in Paris in October 2008. Zanditon’s success has grown in momentum ever since and has went on to collaborate with Gareth Pugh on his pattern designs and to create a capsule collection for Oxfam out of re constructed recycled clothing.

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1. Tell me a little bit about yourself Ada?

I created my ethical and sustainable womenswear business in March 2008. I have exhibited at London Fashion Week as part of Estethica (Feb09) and at Ethical Fashion Show in Paris (oct08) where I won an award for most creative collection which includes the prize of fabric sponsorship from CELC masters of linen. I also make multimedia illustrations which have recently been exhibited in a show in Moscow alongside the work of Mark Le Bon.

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2. Your work has a environmental ethos, what inspired this?

A friend wrote her final year thesis about the environmental impact of fashion and much of the information really surprised me because it was not something I had considered in depth before although I had always been interested in Green issues since childhood. I then attended an event organised by anti apathy at which Katharine Hamnett spoke about her work in the sector of organic cotton and what it meant to her as a designer. The environmental impact of any product starts with the designer and their choices. I don’t feel limited by choosing this as a path, I feel it is a great opportunity for me as a designer to create things that I not only perform aesthetically and functionally but which I can believe in having real value to people and planet.

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3. Do you think enough is being done within the fashion sphere to promote sustainable fashion design?

It depends on the definition of enough, its a lot better than it used to be, in fact there have been weeks and months when you cannot open a magazine or a paper without there being something on sustainable design but of course there can always be more. For me it will never be enough until it is no longer necessary to promote something as sustainable because it is expected both by the designer, the buyer and the consumer that it should be designed sustainably. However I think that we have come a long way even in the last five years and I really admire and respect the hard work of the label from somewhere not only for their brand but also for putting so much passion into creating and sustaining Estethica.

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4.Do you have any advice for inspiring eco- designers?

Think of yourself first as a designer , i.e think that anything is possible and then really research and consider your concepts. Look also at what is available close to you, in your town, your country. Local is a huge part of living more sustainably.
Personally for me I am happiest when people look at my work, exclaim how much they like it and then look confused and say “but how is this eco?” because it doesn’t look like their perception of what eco friendly clothing looks like. People will adopt more sustainable life styles either through neccesity or desire. Neccesity usually comes after catastrophe so I prefer desire.

5. What do you use as a main stimulus when your designing?

A concept. I chase after something that is illusory. Its a tyeing together of different strands, its not exactly story telling but it’s got similarities. The images can be anything but the structure to my working process comes from a fascination with an idea. Or that is at least one half. The other half is people, muses, personalities and I have to say I dress very differently to the clothes I design. I think this is because I want to design clothes that have elegance, strength and allow a women to express being sexy and intelligent at the same time. I am a tom boy personally! If I had my way I would just wear jeans ,
leggings and t shirts all the time….

6. Your also an illustrator as well as a designer, does your art work inter breed into your fashion work?

Absolutely. For my aw 09 collection drew the art work that I had woven by Vanners as a silk jacquard. For my graduate collection I created prints inspired by Mayan glyphs and space travel that were digitally printed onto Silk Jersey. I also create prints for various other labels. My silhouettes and shapes in my collection also influence the shape and look of some of my
illustrations.

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7. Your illustrations have a distinctly multi-media feel, take me through your working processes?

Its quite mysterious sometimes even to me….. I start by drawing usually directly with fineliners. I might not have anything particular in mind… or just one or two images of the subject if there is one. These are usually very different to the thing I am drawing itself which often comes more from my mind’s eye. I sketch a lot from life of objects and people but hardly ever make studies that connect the sketches to the illustration. I think this is because I remember and imagine 3 dimensional imagery/objects much more than words. Then I continue via creating texture through photography and painting. All of this gets scanned in, and then a lot of photoshop and illustrator later…… and I arrive at a point where I think the balance is just right between the image I have by now an idea of and chaos. Like the clothing I think its quite an organic process.

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So keep your eyes peeled for Ada Zanditon, with fans such as Patrick Wolf I have an inkling we haven’t heard the last from this talented lady.
The UK is more than a little obsessed with celebrity. But what if you’d just dropped out of the sky, visit this site say, and had no idea who these faces were that ignite people’s collectively salivating curiosities. Better yet how would you paint them? For artist Yuko Nasu that scenario isn’t far off. When she first arrived in London from Japan four years ago, she had no idea who these revered celebrities were. In fact to her, they were just as anonymous as she felt she was in her new environment.
Coming face to face with one of Yuko’s “Imaginary Portraits” your subconscious goes into overdrive trying to place the face until you realize abruptly that you’ve been staring, hard. The portraits’ fluidity and the simple strokes of vivid color are utterly mesmerizing and has recently earned her a second successful solo exhibit, “John Doe” this time at The Arts Gallery

yukoA.jpg

Although she didn’t watch much TV at first, like so many of us Yuko picked through the gossip mags and short papers on the commute home and became intrigued by the recurring faces of media personalities. As she points out “To someone else they’re special but to me they’re no one, an unknown.” That unique experience informs her perspective and reflects a culture with an often grotesquely overdeveloped interest with celebrity. In an amusing twist of fate, one of her ambiguous paintings of Kate Moss was scooped up by the model-mum’s beau Jamie Hince. It seems familiar faces can be distilled into even the barest of essentials and still be recognized.

yukoA1.jpg

After completing her MA in Fine Art at St.Martins she went on to Global Arts Practice at Chelsea College continuing her series of adjoining portraits, based on the horizontal roll call of tv personalities in the back section of the papers. When questioned about the arrangement she says, “They’re like playing scales on an instrument.” There certainly is a meditative repetition to her method. A training of the subconscious so that you can suspend the cerebral part of your mind when you work, letting it flow. Not sure which happened first Yuko explains that at some point she began to take more risks with her portraits, challenging herself and gaining confidence from the results. Although she’s still quite anxious about viewer’s responses.

yukoA3.jpg

Yuko reached a turning point when, after trying unsuccessfully to denote features, she splashed some turpentine on the surface to erase or as she says “delete” the face. She feels her work began to develop a more cartoony quality, a genderless but still identifiable face.

yukoA4.jpg

She started allowing the accidents to happen, as she says “like a river to flow”. The river analogy brings me quickly to the topic of shodo or Japanese calligraphy, also closely linked to Buddhism and meditation. At the heart of shodo are three strokes, “tome-hane-harai” or stop-jump-sweep. The gestural quality of Yuko’s pieces and the absence of belabored heaviness are evidence of her enviable sensitivity to the freedom and balance in her work. She makes no drafts but dives into the paintings without preconception, feeling that “It would make them boring”, opting instead to simply create more paintings and have a wider selection to chose from at the end.

yukoC.JPG

The speed at which she paints depends on the surface she’s trying to create and her paintings can take anywhere from 15 minutes to a month to complete. “If I realize I’ve made a mistake, I’ll delete everything and sometimes turn the painting upside down and start again.” Not surprisingly her influences are Francis Bacon for the dynamism and strength of his images. Dutch artist Marlene Dumas’ for the tonality and passionate energy they emit and Mari Sunna’swork for its intimacy and its dark earthy browns and red.

yukoA2.jpg

Yuko prefers to work in oils because “the colors are more beautiful and acrylic is too plastic, has no depth.” Cringing at the price though she admits when she first arrived in the UK “The only oil paints I had were a box of damaged/defective paints given to me by Mr. Hayakawa, vice-president of Japanese paint manufacturer Kusakabe, who’d come to my show in Ginza Tokyo.” Yuko has certainly put some distance between then and now with awards for being one of St.Martins brightest stars, her work appearing in French Elle, Vogue and an interview in Art World Magazine. Yuko Nasu’s paintings elegantly address the issue of displacement and identity, especially anonymity. The motion and speed in her images is a reflection of the way we live our lives, where details may be blurred but hey, we get the idea. Keep a sharp eye out for this one!

A serious look at developing countries role in climate change needs a serious location, and and the talk that I attended yesterday entitled “Can Developing Country Needs For Energy Be Met Without Causing Climate Change?” was held at The Houses of Parliament. Running late as usual, web I raced through the streets of Westminster, purchase which was actually quite difficult to do as there was a huge police presence and a protest taking place (I believe it was a Stop The War group). By now, I have become used to finding myself in the middle of a busy, noisy protest with police helicopters flying overhead, and I was briefly tempted to throw myself into the mix, but remembered that I had a prior engagement, so I hot-footed it over to Parliament.

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(Image courtesy of Lea Jaffy, lea_jaffy1@hotmail.com)

The room was steeped in solemn grandeur. I took a seat, and surveyed the room and its inhabitants. Naturally, I was the only red faced and breathless one from running through the halls of Parliament. The talk began by Professor Gordon MacKerron, Director of SPRU (Science and Technology Policy Research ) at the University of Sussex, and was followed by Sir David King, who at one point was a Government adviser and now chairs the Smith School of Enterprise and The Environment at Oxford University, a think tank that is pioneering ways in which to tackle the issues of climate change.

The talk started off in a relatively light note, with Prof Mackerron saying that perhaps the element of emergency over the situation of climate change has not been taken seriously enough due to the fact that many think of it as global warming; and have connotations of “warmer summers and vineyards sprouting up in England”. The reality, he assured us, was rising sea levels, melting ice caps and unpredictable weather systems, not the ability to have more barbeques in the back garden. Sir David King asserted that “now is the time to put radical ideas on the table to sweep away the molasses that we are wading through as we tackle climate change”.

Professor Mackerron went on to explain that the term “developing countries” has different groups; one would be the lowest income countries, which mostly include the countries, which are to be found around the equator, especially sub-Saharan Africa. Statistics have shown that they are only responsible for an extremely small proportion of all Greenhouse Gas Emissions, so the quick answer to the events headline question is that if their energy needs are met, it will not significantly affect climate change. The issues with the other countries are slightly more complex. Continents such as India and China are most likely to be affected by climate change, and are also the least resilient to the impact. However, they are also making huge economic growth, and burning a great deal of coal – just under half the world’s amount. I was surprised to hear that both India’s, and China’s Governments are keen to embrace low carbon technologies, especially wind and nuclear power. China has pledged to improve energy efficiency by 205 by 2020. Meanwhile, India’s Prime Minister says that he wants to have a ‘low carbon footprint’. However, it is difficult to see how this is realistically going to happen exactly because of the rates of their economic growth – Professor MacKerron explained that “in order for China to play its part in a global mitigation effort, it would need to reach an emissions peak between 2020, and 2030″. And they show no signs of slowing down now.

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(Image courtesy of Kerry Lemon)

Sir David King spoke about Brazil, and what it can do to reduce its carbon footprint – in fact, he said that there was only one thing that it could do – stop deforestation. Sir King had met with Brazil’s President, Luiz Da Silva and told him this. He found the response as unexpected as we did – that the President announced, “By 2025 we will stop all deforestation”. This is a curious thing to say, he felt especially because so much of Brazil’s business is done as a result of deforestation.

Sir King also talked about ideas for alternative energy that are currently being investigated. I couldn’t quite comprehend one method; which appears to be extremely viable – and that is the technology that Holland and Norway have developed which harnesses energy from salinity power plants. It sounds unbelievable, but scientists and engineers are planning to use the difference between saltwater and fresh water found at river mouths to generate electrical power. Not being much of a scientist I decided that I would research it further when I got back, and while I still don’t quite understand how it works, the fact is that it could generate a large percentage of a countries power needs. As the board summarized in closing, with regards to climate change; “we have the tools, but no one yet is picking them up in the proper way.” We can only hope that technologies such as the above will be championed and funded so that they do become the tools that we work with to save our planet.
The UK is more than a little obsessed with celebrity. But what if you’d just dropped out of the sky, clinic say, and had no idea who these faces were that ignite people’s collectively salivating curiosities. Better yet how would you paint them? For artist Yuko Nasu that scenario isn’t far off. When she first arrived in London from Japan four years ago, she had no idea who these revered celebrities were. In fact to her, they were just as anonymous as she felt she was in her new environment.
Coming face to face with one of Yuko’s “Imaginary Portraits” your subconscious goes into overdrive trying to place the face until you realize abruptly that you’ve been staring, hard. The portraits’ fluidity and the simple strokes of vivid color are utterly mesmerizing and has recently earned her a second successful solo exhibit, “John Doe” this time at The Arts Gallery

yukoA.jpg

Although she didn’t watch much TV at first, like so many of us Yuko picked through the gossip mags and short papers on the commute home and became intrigued by the recurring faces of media personalities. As she points out “To someone else they’re special but to me they’re no one, an unknown.” That unique experience informs her perspective and reflects a culture with an often grotesquely overdeveloped interest with celebrity. In an amusing twist of fate, one of her ambiguous paintings of Kate Moss was scooped up by the model-mum’s beau Jamie Hince. It seems familiar faces can be distilled into even the barest of essentials and still be recognized.

yukoA1.jpg

After completing her MA in Fine Art at St.Martins she went on to Global Arts Practice at Chelsea College continuing her series of adjoining portraits, based on the horizontal roll call of tv personalities in the back section of the papers. When questioned about the arrangement she says, “They’re like playing scales on an instrument.” There certainly is a meditative repetition to her method. A training of the subconscious so that you can suspend the cerebral part of your mind when you work, letting it flow. Not sure which happened first Yuko explains that at some point she began to take more risks with her portraits, challenging herself and gaining confidence from the results. Although she’s still quite anxious about viewer’s responses.

yukoA3.jpg

Yuko reached a turning point when, after trying unsuccessfully to denote features, she splashed some turpentine on the surface to erase or as she says “delete” the face. She feels her work began to develop a more cartoony quality, a genderless but still identifiable face.

yukoA4.jpg

She started allowing the accidents to happen, as she says “like a river to flow”. The river analogy brings me quickly to the topic of shodo or Japanese calligraphy, also closely linked to Buddhism and meditation. At the heart of shodo are three strokes, “tome-hane-harai” or stop-jump-sweep. The gestural quality of Yuko’s pieces and the absence of belabored heaviness are evidence of her enviable sensitivity to the freedom and balance in her work. She makes no drafts but dives into the paintings without preconception, feeling that “It would make them boring”, opting instead to simply create more paintings and have a wider selection to chose from at the end.

yukoC.JPG

The speed at which she paints depends on the surface she’s trying to create and her paintings can take anywhere from 15 minutes to a month to complete. “If I realize I’ve made a mistake, I’ll delete everything and sometimes turn the painting upside down and start again.” Not surprisingly her influences are Francis Bacon for the dynamism and strength of his images. Dutch artist Marlene Dumas’ for the tonality and passionate energy they emit and Mari Sunna’swork for its intimacy and its dark earthy browns and red.

yukoA2.jpg

Yuko prefers to work in oils because “the colors are more beautiful and acrylic is too plastic, has no depth.” Cringing at the price though she admits when she first arrived in the UK “The only oil paints I had were a box of damaged/defective paints given to me by Mr. Hayakawa, vice-president of Japanese paint manufacturer Kusakabe, who’d come to my show in Ginza Tokyo.” Yuko has certainly put some distance between then and now with awards for being one of St.Martins brightest stars, her work appearing in French Elle, Vogue and an interview in Art World Magazine. Yuko Nasu’s paintings elegantly address the issue of displacement and identity, especially anonymity. The motion and speed in her images is a reflection of the way we live our lives, where details may be blurred but hey, we get the idea. Keep a sharp eye out for this one!

ClimateCamppenknife.jpg

Regular followers of my blog will know that I’ve been involved with Climate Camp for nearly two years – ever since I attended what I like to term the “University of Climate Change” at Heathrow in 2007. Before then I had been aware of the environmental issues we face, capsule but I had been unable to properly articulate why I felt so uncomfortable and useless – I knew that we humans were responsible for the perilous state of our climate, but I had not fully accepted the extent of our situation. I certainly didn’t understand what I could personally do to make a change given the narrow timeframe we now have to avert Climate Chaos.

But then something extraordinary happened. I went to all the talks and workshops on offer and got myself an education. Suddenly I felt empowered by the passion of the incredibly well informed people around me, people who were prepared to actually take direct action to avert Climate Change. For there are only two ways to solve the mess we are in. On the one hand we have to relearn how to live more sustainably and communally – which will inevitably lead not only to a lower carbon lifestyle, but an altogether more satisfying life. And at the same time we have to stop the government and multi-national corporations from putting profits before the welfare of our planet. Because without their commitment to our future we’re quite simply buggered.

Climate Camp is amazing quite simply because it tackles both these strands. Climate Camp empowers people to learn from each other within a working model of a fully sustainable community, and allows us to take direct action together to stop the causes of Climate Change. Because Nature Doesn’t Do Bailouts, this year Climate Camp will be sited somewhere within Greater London between 26 August – 2 September, near the financial institutions that have shown such disdain for the future of our world.

But… we need to start mobilising now, and this is where you come in. If you are a typographer or an illustrator or a designer we need your help! We need you to help us produce an amazing logo and poster image for our publicity. We can’t offer you any money because everyone who contributes to the Climate Camp process does so because they want to help solve Climate Change, not for financial gain. But we can offer you an amazing opportunity to contribute to an amazing movement that is really making a change in the world.

There are two parts to this brief. Part one has to be completed and submitted in only three weeks – by Friday 15th May – so that we can start the first phase of flyering and networking. For part two we have a little longer…. til Friday the 5th of June. In an ideal world you would submit to both. But if you can’t then pick one and give it your all. We’re looking for diverse imagery that reflects the themes of our camp and our goals as a whole! We can’t wait to see what you produce for us!! If your work is chosen expect to see it everywhere….

Brief 1
We need a Climate Camp 2009 name logo. Last year we had the iconic penknife logo (above) designed by UHC in Manchester. It has now been adopted by the French Climate Camp so its life continues. The fabulous illustrator Adrian Fleet created the Climate Camp in the City logos for the event on April 1st in Bishopsgate, both of which you can see below.
The new Climate Camp 2009 logo should also be simple, bold and iconic, easily translatable into both large and small copy.
It should encapsulate the key themes of Climate Camp in one inspiring image.
The words Climate Camp 2009 must be part of the logo.
It should be squarish in nature so that it can be used on other media such as badges.
It should work well in black and white as well (so make it high contrast!)

Technical Information. PLEASE READ!
Please send your design to info@ameliasmagazine.com on an email clearly headed CLIMATE CAMP LOGO any time before the closing date of Friday 15th May. The sooner the better!
SIZE: Please create this logo at high resolution so that it can be blown up to an A2 poster size if needed. For this reason it is recommended to work in Illustrator. If using Photoshop please work at a resolution that works at 300 dpi at A2 size in CYMK mode. Please send me a low res version of your file when you submit your work, no larger than 3MB.

If your design is picked to be used I will be in touch immediately after the closing date to let you know. Please be aware that we may need to ask you to make some minor alterations to fit different medias.

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Brief 2
We would like a more complex image to use on big posters, similar to the one that Leona Clarke (see below) created for the London neighbourhood last year. This can incorporate many more ideas from the list of suggested imagery below, but should remain focused on the positive. The words Climate Camp 2009 should be included somewhere, and there should also be space to add a further subtitle or slogan (yet to be decided) and important info such as website and sms details. (as can be seen on the London poster)
Technical Information. PLEASE READ!
Please send your design to info@ameliasmagazine.com on an email clearly headed CLIMATE CAMP POSTER any time before the closing date of Friday 5th June. The sooner the better!
SIZE: Please design your image at a resolution of 300 dpi in CYMK Mode to fit an A2 poster. Please send me a low res version of your file when you submit your work, no larger than 3MB.

If your design is picked to be used I will be in touch at some point after the closing date to let you know. We have plans to put on a widely publicised exhibition of the best entries, possibly with an auction to help raise money for Climate Camp funds. For this we will need original artwork and you will of course be invited to the event if yours is chosen.

Join the facebook event to keep abreast of updates here.

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IMAGERY IDEAS TO INSPIRE YOUR DESIGNS:
We would like you to be inspired by some (or all!) of the following imagery ideas:

Looking towards a positive future:
making things ourselves, a sense of DIY
self sufficiency, make do and mend, teaching each other skills, compost loos
wind turbines, solar panels and other renewable energies (sun, sea, tide)
growing our own food, living locally and lightly on the earth
colourful tents, marquees, flags and lots of bunting making our own city
cracked pavement with flowers growing though, green vines growing up buildings
working by consensus – groups of people making decisions together so that everyone is happy with the outcome
happy campers, living communally – eating well, dancing, making music
the circular links of sustainable action
people of all ages including children and old people protesting together
“swooping” down on a campsite with a mass of people

Contrast between our world now and the future we aspire towards:
sunrise/sunsets
money flying through the air, and a stack of cards falling down
bubbles coming out of the stock exchange
Bank of England doric columns, skyscrapers, Gerkin (iconic buildings)
things falling apart or falling off
person standing on the wreckage of the failed economy (or a coal station / gas line) holding a wind turbine or other good thing!
people taking versus people sharing
planes causing climate change, versus travel by bike, foot, boat and train
biofuel degradation of rainforest and other ecological systems
the perils of the system – as represented by graphs and skyscrapers, bankers and money
banker’s deals/ handshakes, ticking clocks representing a timebomb
scales of injustice and exploitation
tipping points from which there is no return to a just world for all
heat of a future world if we don’t avert climate change
lack of food, water and habitable land

More specifically – styles you might consider working in:
lo-fi DIY aesthetic
soviet style propaganda
ideas that work well in black and white lo-fi printing
super colourful and detailed styles too
movie poster aesthetics

Categories ,activism, ,Climate Camp, ,Direct Action, ,g20, ,heathrow, ,kingsnorth, ,Open brief, ,sustainability

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Amelia’s Magazine | Dirty White Gold: new documentary-in-the-making unpicks cotton

Life Is Precious sign from Dirty White Gold
Roadside sign in India, from the film’s trailer

Dirty White Gold is Leah Borromeo‘s film about cotton. It exposes a whole crop of problems with our clothes by unspooling high street supply chains right back to cotton seeds. Even what you think is a sweatshop-free t-shirt unravels to reveal a thread supplier using child labour, or a farmer in such heavy debt he’s killed himself. These cotton-to-coffin suicides are destroying Indian farming families.

Dirty White Gold
Blood on the maps: film poster design by Peter Kennard @at_earth

Dirty White Gold “goes right the way back to seeds,” says Leah. “It’s a Saturday night date film.” Ha ha.

We’re here on a sunny Sunday afternoon as part of the Stoke Newington Literary Festival, and Leah‘s been invited by new magazine Stir to talk about her film. It’s not unusual now to promote and campaign around a film while you’re still making it, and after a successful round of crowdfunding, filming in India is complete and Dirty White Gold is now on its London leg.

Until a few years ago, Leah was deputy foreign editor at Sky News. That job ended when she made the news herself while protesting in her bra at the G20 summit. She was arrested for impersonating a police officer (there was also a truncheon and a tank involved).

Leah Borromeo, Dirty White Gold
Leah Borromeo filming Dirty White Gold

Leah comes across as both fun and formidable. On second hand clothing, she says. “No, it doesn’t smell of death. New clothes smell of death. You know that ‘new clothes’ smell you get when you walk into a shopping centre? That’s formaldehyde. On clothes marked 100% cotton, often they’re only 73% cotton. The rest is chemicals.”

I knew that ‘new clothes’ smell was too good to be true.

Who's Behind The Rotten Cotton - Dirty White Gold
Dot questions where her cardigan was made: poster by Dr.D

It all comes back down to our old friend, capitalism. As the trailer says, “what you are witnessing is the death throes of smallholder agriculture, under the onslaught of corporations”. Farmers are tempted away from subsistence farming by cash crops, produced for their commercial value rather than for use by the farmer. So the farmer buys a box of cotton seeds, plus licenses, pesticides and insecticides (the Indian government has a 15% holding in one of the largest insecticide companies). He pays for labour to spray all those chemicals, and the money he gets back isn’t enough to make up what was spent. Plus, he’s competing on unlevel fields against US and EU farmers who get subsidies.

Trailer: watch the cotton industry unravel

So what can be done about rotten cotton?

“You can’t wander in with a colonial attitude,” says Leah. “It has to be organic. There are resistances in India, there needs to be education. There are collectives which support farmers switching to organic, and then make sure they get a fair price. But the market has to be there. At the moment farmers aren’t going for it because they’re scared.”

There are stats and facts, and then we’re onto actions we can take when we’re shopping.

“Ask yourself: do I need to buy it?” says Leah. “It’s not so much what you buy, as whether you should be buying in the first place.”

Secondly, “pick up a needle. There are lots of people who can repair clothes for you. The Denim Doctor is a guy in Salford who repairs jeans like new.”

Lastly, “think about where you buy.” Leah recommends shopping second hand or from Traid, and Claire from Traid who is in the audience explains that Traid supports the Pesticide Action Network and other projects to help improve the global textile supply chain. This makes me like their TRAIDremade label (available online) even more.

The clothing supply chain was an issue I thought I had all sewn up, especially with articles after the Savar building collapse about which high street stores are supposedly okay to shop from. But this film looks set to unpick the way we shop, and hopefully the way our clothes are made. Right back to the seed.

Follow the progress of the film: @dirtywhitegold and Dirty White Gold on Facebook

Categories ,cotton, ,Denim Doctor, ,Dirty White Gold, ,Dr. D, ,g20, ,India, ,Leah Borromeo, ,Pesticide Action Network, ,peter kennard, ,Savar, ,Sky News, ,STIR, ,Stir Magazine, ,Stoke Newington Literary Festival, ,traid, ,Traid Remade

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Amelia’s Magazine | Earth Listings: 2nd – 8th November 2009

Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2009

Diamond Tears by Verena Paloma Jabs at Tatty Devine

PANIK – CHANGING FACES

6 NOVEMBER – 28 NOVEMBER 2009 PRIVATE VIEW THURSDAY 6.30 – 9PM
26 ARGYLE SQ. ENTRANCE FROM ARGYLE WALK LONDON WC1H 8AP

Calaveras: Mexican Prints for the Day of the Dead

Make It Print It Pack It Ship It

Check out the range of talks and discussions this week, treat there is a chance to vent some anger at some cops in a more legitimate manner than normal as well as plenty of events pushing for action on a deal at the Copenhagen Climate Change Talks.

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Illustration by Anneka Tran

Architecture and Climate Change – The Sustainable City
Tuesday 3rd November 2009 ?

Acclaimed architect, visit planner and former Mayor of Curitiba, Jaime Lerner, discusses his visionary ideas concerning cities and their future. Lerner’s talk will look at design in structuring urban growth as well as focusing on the importance of public transportation as well as engaging with some of the key issues affecting the built and natural environment now and in the future.

Time: 6.30pm
£8, £5 concession
Venue: RIBA, 66 Portland Place, London W1B 1AD
?Website: http://www.architecture.com

Fast Facilitation – An action-packed taster course
Wednesday 4th November 2009

Getting a group together focusing on environmental issues in your neighborhood, or looking to take a new role in a discussion group? This course is suitable for people with little or no experience of facilitation. This course aims to help you design, facilitate and evaluate meetings or workshops that engage and include all participants effectively in order to achieve desired outcomes.

Time: 9.30am – 5.00pm
Venue: 212 High Holborn, London, WC1V 7BF
Website: http://www.the-environment-council.org.uk/training.html

Establishing a food forest: the Permaculture way
Thursday 5th November 2009?

An inspiring and practical film from permaculturist Geoff Lawton about the potential of permaculture forest gardening to design abundant human ecosystems. Part of a programme of film and events to accompany C Words: Carbon, Climate, Capital, Culture – an exhibition by artist-activist group PLATFORM and their collaborators.

Venue: Arnolfini, Bristol
Website: http://www.arnolfini.org.uk/whatson/exhibitions/details/416

Met open discussion about policing of the G20
Thursday 5th November 2009

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The Met police will be hosting a public meeting about policing of the G20 demonstrations, chances for people to vet their anger, frustration or glee at seeing protestors get beaten up. The police will be answering questions and making sure the media see they are taking some initiative, although I’m sure continuing their oppressive tactics away from the spotlight.

Time: 9.30am – 12.30pm
Venue: London’s Living Room, City Hall

Climate Emergency Copenhagen forum
Saturday 7th November 2009

Looking everything we need to do to stop climate change in it’s tracks, 10% cuts by end 2010 and the case for emergency action. Creating a million climate jobs by end 2010, decarbonising our transport fast and looking at the Copenhagen talks, and the deal we need and the deal we’re likely to get. Plus plenty of workshops on the day.

Venue: South Camden Community School, Charrington St., London, NW1 1RG
?Time: 12 – 6pm
Website: www.campaigncc.org

Put People First G20 Counter Conference
Saturday 7th November 2009

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The Put People First G20 Counter Conference will bring together academics, activists, campaigners, unions and policy makers to debate alternative policies to promote jobs, justice and a safe climate. Following on from earlier this year, where we marched in our tens of thousands to demand the G20 Put People First. However, we’ve seen nothing but a return to business as usual.

Time: 10am – 5.30pm
Venue: Central Hall Westminster SW1 9NH
Website: http://peopleandplanet.org/navid8537

Green Sundays
Sunday 8th November 2009

Bored with lazy Sunday afternoons? Why not go down to Green Sundays at the Arcola Theatre and explore environmental issues in a relaxed and chilled out manner? The event provides an opportunity for like-minded people to get together to learn about the planet while listening to live world music, film, spoken word, games and discussion.

Time: 3:00pm – 7:30pm
Venue: Arcola Theatre, 27 Arcola St, London, E8 2DJ
Website: www.greensundays.org.uk

Categories ,10% cuts, ,Activists, ,arnolfini, ,bristol, ,C words, ,campaigners, ,Capital, ,carbon, ,climate, ,Climate Change, ,Climate Emergency Copenhagen forum, ,Culture, ,earth, ,environment, ,Facilitation, ,g20, ,Green Sundays, ,listings, ,Met police, ,permaculture, ,Put People First, ,sustainable, ,unions

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Amelia’s Magazine | UK Uncut, Green & Black Cross, Black Bloc & the March for the Alternative.

buy purchase _Another_Level, approved _4x4x3m,_mixed_media_including_reclaimed_wood,_glass_flowers,_taxidermied_bird,_flower_pots,_2009_courtesy_the_artist_and_EB&Flow” width=”480″ height=”320″ class=”aligncenter size-full wp-image-38966″ />
Katie Louise Surridge, Another Level. Mixed media including reclaimed wood, glass flowers, taxidermied bird, flower pots.

Amidst the renovations and general detritus that inevitably comes when you do a top to toe renovation of a two floored building, Nathan Englebrecht and Margherita Berloni are guiding me around the former print works in Leonard Street, EC2 which will soon form the light-filled gallery space for EB&Flow. In the run up to the April 2nd opening, the gallery founders – both twenty somethings who met on an art business course – seem as cool as a proverbial cucumber and in good spirits as we tour the premises, chatting all the while about their vision for the space and how it will serve and suit their artists in residence. While art galleries are certainly not hard to come by in this neck of the woods, there is something very noteworthy about this particular endeavor, and that is the galleries extensive level of support to the artists who will exhibit in their gallery. Their aim is to cultivate long term relationships with the artists in residency, and share an ethos that they will try to make anything happen for them; advising them on their careers, placing them in collections, even paying for material costs if necessary.


A selection of works by some of the 10 artists who will be exhibiting at the group show Since Tomorrow
Gemma Anderson
Albemarlensis, Pahoehoe Lava


Ketil by Shannah Bupp.


Silent Are The Echoes by Nicholas Mcleod

During the time that their work is exhibited at EB&Flow, they are also given studio space within the gallery. (After a period, the walls will be removed and the studio becomes an exhibition in itself). It soon becomes clear that Nathan and Margherita feel passionately about this, discussing at length something which is somewhat of a current hot topic – the sense that artists are not provided with enough support and advice during their time at art school with regards to the business of art; (a subject that was recently discussed in Jessica Furseth’s article here). “We never felt that artists had the right platform in which to exhibit and the support that was needed to develop their careers”, Nathan explains. Born out of this is an additional feature of the gallery; an educational programme kicking off at the end of April that will discuss issues such as collecting, curatorial practice and artist professional development. They list a few of the topics that will be covered, such as the legality issues of selling art, re-sell rights, how to store art, how to do art fairs…..all things relevant and vital to a burgeoning artists career. It’s worth mentioning that these courses and lectures will be open to all. Check the EB&Flow website for further details.


Margeherita and Nathan, EB & Flow.

I ask Margherita and Nathan what they are looking for in an artist, and what type of work will feature at EB&Flow. “There is a certain aesthetic line going through our choice of artists”, Nathan explains, with Margherita adding “we steer away from very conceptual stuff and minimalist art; we want something rich and interesting to look at”. Their first collection is entitled Since Tomorrow, curated by Attilia Fattori Franchini and features work (using disciplines such as installation, painting, sculpture and photography) from ten emerging artists exploring the dynamics of space and providing responses to the question ‘ what is the space we are living at the moment and how do we represent it?’. Work will be shown by Briony Anderson, Gemma Anderson, Neil Ayling, Ross M. Brown, Shannah Bupp, Sue Corke, Dylan Culhane, Alessandro Librio, Nicholas McLeod, Katie Louise Surridge and Cristian Zuzunaga.


A Beautiful Struggle by Katie Louise Surridge

Amongst the core group of artists whose work will be opening the gallery is Katie Louise Surridge, a Slade School of Fine Art graduate. (She will also go on to have a residency at the EB&Flow gallery). Her work will particularly resonate with anyone who lives in grimy, rubbish strewn London because Katie has the ability to make something beautiful out of the underbelly of the city. Her installations use found objects which she sources during scavenging missions done mainly along the Thames, creating a utopia out of what has been left behind and discarded. While I was talking with Nathan and Margherita, Katie was busy getting a sense of the space that will feature her (very big) installation. She works mostly with natural materials, such as aged wood and metal; “natural materials that have been used in this urban scheme, and then reverted back to being natural again”. “I have this fascination with what’s left behind”, she continues, “I like the aesthetic of what the river washes up – it’s been there for a long time and it’s aged and it feels like its got a bit of history behind it”. Discovering Katie’s work makes me realise how little I know about what gets discarded in big cities, and how much waste washes up around us.


So Over by Katie Louise Surridge

It’s impossible not to warm to Katie, especially after discovering the following facts about her:
– She once found an S+M style gag washed up in the river and took it to the pub, thinking that it was a dog collar.
– She was in the Boy Scouts as a child (not the Brownies)
– She is a self confessed obsessive hoarder
– Her beloved dog is going to be featured on a ‘Dog Borstal’ style TV show
– She is saving up to buy a metal detector to assist her scavenging expeditions.

Since Tomorrow: Exhibition Dates, 2 April – 26 May.


Dylan Culhane, and his work Mechanotron which will feature in Since Tomorrow.

March 26 2011-UK UncutUK Uncut gathers on the South Bank on Saturday 26th March 2011. All photography by Amelia Gregory.

Unless you have been living under a rock you will be aware that there was a huge anti-cuts March for the Alternative on Saturday 26th March 2011. In the days since then the press has been dominated with both outrage from the government that “hooligans” should be allowed to roam the streets, order and on the other side, order shock at the way in which once again the police and media have mistreated protestors. As anyone who was following me on Twitter will know I was involved on the UK Uncut action, pharmacy which involved an occupation of Fortnum & Mason… yet another large corporation culpable of massive tax avoidance: This action led to by far the largest numbers of arrests and charges on the day: a staggering 138 of the 149.

March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory

March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory

On my way through London I saw the most enormous amount of creativity, from pound coin shields to a Trojan Horse cunningly installed at the centre of Oxford Circus – and of course plenty of banners bursting with witty one liners: included in this blog post are just a few of the amazing sights from the day. With a march numbering possibly half a million and upwards (something the government has been quick to downplay) there were surely many great ones that I missed – especially the legendary message “I was told there would be biscuits” carried by a small child on someone’s shoulders. I broke away from the march early on to take part in UK Uncut actions on Oxford Street and then at Fortnum & Mason.

March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory

Demonised by the press for their behaviour, UK Uncut have been quick to fight back with their version of events: really, the police and media should know better. Both UK Uncut and Green & Black Cross – the support network that provided legal observers and arrestee support – have grown out of Climate Camp networks and ways of organising to take on completely new identities of their own. As a result some of those involved are no strangers to wrongful arrest, police brutality and political policing: remember Heathrow, Kingsnorth, G20 and Ratcliffe anyone? These people know what they are doing; naturally the unfair arrests of UK Uncut was filmed and immediately shared, the footage unsurprisingly making the front page of the Guardian.

March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory

Some people might wonder what on earth the links between the anti-cuts movement and Climate Camp are, but Climate Camp has always been rooted in a desire to address the social inequalities of capitalism – for example a breakaway group in London is currently looking at ways to campaign around fuel poverty. One of the favourite slogans at the COP15 Climate conference was System Change not Climate Change – we can’t cure the problem with simple quick fix answers, but rather by tackling the whole global neoliberal system. A brutal plan to cut services such as libraries and the NHS will undermine the fabric of a just society, affecting the poor most. Meanwhile the rich are able to avoid huge tax bills at a time when we desperately need to start building a green economy that is not based on endless profit. Clearly these inequalities are something that green activists are keen to tackle.

March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory

Climate Camp has also always been a broad mix of liberalism and radicalism, so it’s no surprise that UK Uncut is as well. The very name Green & Black Cross indicates how the group combines the more autonomous anarchist streaks of activism with the skills, infrastructure and ideologies built up within the green movement. It supports grassroots social struggles in the UK and during the March for the Alternative the Green & Black Cross provided Legal Support, Action Medics and Action Kitchens. They even had a basic compost portaloo roaming the streets in a supermarket trolley – but in the event it was never used: it’s hard to get into a kettle once it is formed. They will be independently advising on all arrests during the day at a defendants’ meeting on Saturday 2nd April and were generally out in force to offer biscuits and legal advice as soon as arrestees were released.

March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory

Since the arrests UK Uncut activists have had to field a barrage of commentary from the media, which has been ever quick to notice the anarchic element of their protest. Their sit in at Fortnum & Mason was largely peaceful – protestors ate their own sandwiches and listened to performances and speeches – but on Newsnight a spokesperson was asked to denounce all protestor violence. She did a marvellous job of neither condoning nor condemning it: there were people from all backgrounds in Fortnum & Mason. For some it will have been their first experience of direct action (read this shocking report of the arrest of a 15 year old girl) and others were part of the Black Bloc earlier in the day – the two are not mutually exclusive. UK Uncut has an incredibly loose non-hierarchical structure, and to be successful it must somehow find a place for those of all backgrounds.

March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia GregoryInside Fortnum & Mason. They look super scared don’t they?

Most UK Uncutters recognise that there is more to successful activism than a simplistic black and white damnation of violence, but the more liberal end of the spectrum may well be new to the idea that damage to property is not considered violence by many activists – see here for a definition – so there is going to be a rapid need to redefine and educate as soon as possible. Most of the targets for property damage on Saturday were well thought through – big banks that avoid tax, Topshop, BHS and so on. Who threw paint, and who broke windows? It’s not clear, but the targets were clear enough. Some people, whether you agree with it or not, think it is more effective to inflict damage on a well selected target than to simply march from A-B and then listen to speeches. After all, what did it ever do to stop the Iraq war? Direct action through the ages has proven that targeting property can be highly effective – the Suffragettes were never afraid of inflicting collateral damage. Last year at Climate Camp windows were smashed at the RBS head offices in Edinburgh to demonstrate concern against their continued investment in fossil fuels.

March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory

By Trafalgar Square at night some rogue elements (possibly pissed up) were clearly provoked into throwing glass bottles at police, never something I would recommend however bad police brutality gets (and by all accounts it did get REALLY bad) because I personally don’t believe that violence against people is ever acceptable. But I do believe that the Black Bloc as a considered and thoughtful tactic is something that our movement needs: people who are willing to put their bodies and actions on the front line to stop those who are damaging the fabric of our “democratic” society. Many of them were very young, possibly disaffected veterans of kettling at the student demos last year – others were highly organised groups who came to join the march from across the country. Those involved will undoubtedly have slightly different views as to process and outcome but recent online dialogues prove that diverse parts of the movement are keen to work together. Rather than dismiss Black Bloc actions as the nihilistic work of masked “hooligans” we would do well to consider the underlying reasons why this is seen as an appealing tactic utilised by at least a thousand people last weekend. After all, we’re all in this together… and this is just the beginning of our future.

March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory

Further reading:
Why Fortnum & Mason?
Video footage from the UKuncut action
An open letter from the Brighton Solidarity Federation of Anarcho-Syndicalists
People are worth less than property
A night in the cells is nothing to a lifetime imprisoned by cuts
Reasons why the cuts are a bad idea
Dominic Campbell experiences police brutality in Trafalgar Square
Political Dynamite: We should use the word violence with the greatest care.
Leah Borromeo: Protestors can’t disown the “violent minority”.
Why the UKuncut arrests threaten future protests
What is the Black Bloc? Information page.
Laurie Penny – What really happened in Trafalgar Square
My UK Uncut arrest made me a political prisoner
Climate Camp 2010 in Edinburgh – my commentary
Climate Camp 2009 in Copenhagen – my commentary part one, part two and part three.
G20 Climate Camp in the City – my commentary
Ratcliffe: Did PC Mark “Flash” Kennedy ensure my arrest as one of the Ratcliffe 114 ?- my commentary
Climate Camp at Kingsnorth in 2008.
One of the first UK Uncut protests: Sir Philip Green and his Topshop billions get the UK Uncut treatment.
The Third Estate: A message to Critical UK Uncut activists.
Latent Existance: a report by the 15 year old who was arrested.

Categories ,Anarchism, ,Anarcho-Syndicalists, ,Anti-capitalism, ,Anti-cuts, ,Banners, ,BHS, ,Black Bloc, ,capitalism, ,Climate Camp, ,COP15 Climate conference, ,Cuts, ,Democratic, ,Direct Action, ,Dominic Campbell, ,economy, ,Fortnum & Mason, ,g20, ,Green & Black Cross, ,Green New Deal, ,Green Party, ,Hooligans, ,kingsnorth, ,Liberal, ,March for the Alternative, ,Neoliberalism, ,Newsnight, ,NHS, ,Oxford Circus, ,police, ,Political Dynamite, ,Ratcilffe, ,Suffragettes, ,Tax Avoidance, ,The Third Estate, ,topshop, ,Trafalgar Square, ,Trojan Horse, ,UK Uncut, ,Veggies, ,Violence

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Amelia’s Magazine | UK Uncut, Green & Black Cross, Black Bloc & the March for the Alternative.

March 26 2011-UK UncutUK Uncut gathers on the South Bank on Saturday 26th March 2011. All photography by Amelia Gregory.

Unless you have been living under a rock you will be aware that there was a huge anti-cuts March for the Alternative on Saturday 26th March 2011. In the days since then the press has been dominated with both outrage from the government that “hooligans” should be allowed to roam the streets, and on the other side, shock at the way in which once again the police and media have mistreated protestors. As anyone who was following me on Twitter will know I was involved on the UK Uncut action, which involved an occupation of Fortnum & Mason… yet another large corporation culpable of massive tax avoidance: This action led to by far the largest numbers of arrests and charges on the day: a staggering 138 of the 149.

March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory

March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory

On my way through London I saw the most enormous amount of creativity, from pound coin shields to a Trojan Horse cunningly installed at the centre of Oxford Circus – and of course plenty of banners bursting with witty one liners: included in this blog post are just a few of the amazing sights from the day. With a march numbering possibly half a million and upwards (something the government has been quick to downplay) there were surely many great ones that I missed – especially the legendary message “I was told there would be biscuits” carried by a small child on someone’s shoulders. I broke away from the march early on to take part in UK Uncut actions on Oxford Street and then at Fortnum & Mason.

March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory

Demonised by the press for their behaviour, UK Uncut have been quick to fight back with their version of events: really, the police and media should know better. Both UK Uncut and Green & Black Cross – the support network that provided legal observers and arrestee support – have grown out of Climate Camp networks and ways of organising to take on completely new identities of their own. As a result some of those involved are no strangers to wrongful arrest, police brutality and political policing: remember Heathrow, Kingsnorth, G20 and Ratcliffe anyone? These people know what they are doing; naturally the unfair arrests of UK Uncut was filmed and immediately shared, the footage unsurprisingly making the front page of the Guardian.

March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory

Some people might wonder what on earth the links between the anti-cuts movement and Climate Camp are, but Climate Camp has always been rooted in a desire to address the social inequalities of capitalism – for example a breakaway group in London is currently looking at ways to campaign around fuel poverty. One of the favourite slogans at the COP15 Climate conference was System Change not Climate Change – we can’t cure the problem with simple quick fix answers, but rather by tackling the whole global neoliberal system. A brutal plan to cut services such as libraries and the NHS will undermine the fabric of a just society, affecting the poor most. Meanwhile the rich are able to avoid huge tax bills at a time when we desperately need to start building a green economy that is not based on endless profit. Clearly these inequalities are something that green activists are keen to tackle.

March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory

Climate Camp has also always been a broad mix of liberalism and radicalism, so it’s no surprise that UK Uncut is as well. The very name Green & Black Cross indicates how the group combines the more autonomous anarchist streaks of activism with the skills, infrastructure and ideologies built up within the green movement. It supports grassroots social struggles in the UK and during the March for the Alternative the Green & Black Cross provided Legal Support, Action Medics and Action Kitchens. They even had a basic compost portaloo roaming the streets in a supermarket trolley – but in the event it was never used: it’s hard to get into a kettle once it is formed. They will be independently advising on all arrests during the day at a defendants’ meeting on Saturday 2nd April and were generally out in force to offer biscuits and legal advice as soon as arrestees were released.

March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory

Since the arrests UK Uncut activists have had to field a barrage of commentary from the media, which has been ever quick to notice the anarchic element of their protest. Their sit in at Fortnum & Mason was largely peaceful – protestors ate their own sandwiches and listened to performances and speeches – but on Newsnight a spokesperson was asked to denounce all protestor violence. She did a marvellous job of neither condoning nor condemning it: there were people from all backgrounds in Fortnum & Mason. For some it will have been their first experience of direct action (read this shocking report of the arrest of a 15 year old girl) and others were part of the Black Bloc earlier in the day – the two are not mutually exclusive. UK Uncut has an incredibly loose non-hierarchical structure, and to be successful it must somehow find a place for those of all backgrounds.

March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia GregoryInside Fortnum & Mason. They look super scared don’t they?

Most UK Uncutters recognise that there is more to successful activism than a simplistic black and white damnation of violence, but the more liberal end of the spectrum may well be new to the idea that damage to property is not considered violence by many activists – see here for a definition – so there is going to be a rapid need to redefine and educate as soon as possible. Most of the targets for property damage on Saturday were well thought through – big banks that avoid tax, Topshop, BHS and so on. Who threw paint, and who broke windows? It’s not clear, but the targets were clear enough. Some people, whether you agree with it or not, think it is more effective to inflict damage on a well selected target than to simply march from A-B and then listen to speeches. After all, what did it ever do to stop the Iraq war? Direct action through the ages has proven that targeting property can be highly effective – the Suffragettes were never afraid of inflicting collateral damage. Last year at Climate Camp windows were smashed at the RBS head offices in Edinburgh to demonstrate concern against their continued investment in fossil fuels.

March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory

By Trafalgar Square at night some rogue elements (possibly pissed up) were clearly provoked into throwing glass bottles at police, never something I would recommend however bad police brutality gets (and by all accounts it did get REALLY bad) because I personally don’t believe that violence against people is ever acceptable. But I do believe that the Black Bloc as a considered and thoughtful tactic is something that our movement needs: people who are willing to put their bodies and actions on the front line to stop those who are damaging the fabric of our “democratic” society. Many of them were very young, possibly disaffected veterans of kettling at the student demos last year – others were highly organised groups who came to join the march from across the country. Those involved will undoubtedly have slightly different views as to process and outcome but recent online dialogues prove that diverse parts of the movement are keen to work together. Rather than dismiss Black Bloc actions as the nihilistic work of masked “hooligans” we would do well to consider the underlying reasons why this is seen as an appealing tactic utilised by at least a thousand people last weekend. After all, we’re all in this together… and this is just the beginning of our future.

March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory
March 26 2011-UK Uncut. Photography by Amelia Gregory

Further reading:
Why Fortnum & Mason?
Video footage from the UKuncut action
An open letter from the Brighton Solidarity Federation of Anarcho-Syndicalists
People are worth less than property
A night in the cells is nothing to a lifetime imprisoned by cuts
Reasons why the cuts are a bad idea
Dominic Campbell experiences police brutality in Trafalgar Square
Political Dynamite: We should use the word violence with the greatest care.
Leah Borromeo: Protestors can’t disown the “violent minority”.
Why the UKuncut arrests threaten future protests
What is the Black Bloc? Information page.
Laurie Penny – What really happened in Trafalgar Square
My UK Uncut arrest made me a political prisoner
Climate Camp 2010 in Edinburgh – my commentary
Climate Camp 2009 in Copenhagen – my commentary part one, part two and part three.
G20 Climate Camp in the City – my commentary
Ratcliffe: Did PC Mark “Flash” Kennedy ensure my arrest as one of the Ratcliffe 114 ?- my commentary
Climate Camp at Kingsnorth in 2008.
One of the first UK Uncut protests: Sir Philip Green and his Topshop billions get the UK Uncut treatment.
The Third Estate: A message to Critical UK Uncut activists.
Latent Existance: a report by the 15 year old who was arrested.

Categories ,Anarchism, ,Anarcho-Syndicalists, ,Anti-capitalism, ,Anti-cuts, ,Banners, ,BHS, ,Black Bloc, ,capitalism, ,Climate Camp, ,COP15 Climate conference, ,Cuts, ,Democratic, ,Direct Action, ,Dominic Campbell, ,economy, ,Fortnum & Mason, ,g20, ,Green & Black Cross, ,Green New Deal, ,Green Party, ,Hooligans, ,kingsnorth, ,Liberal, ,March for the Alternative, ,Neoliberalism, ,Newsnight, ,NHS, ,Oxford Circus, ,police, ,Political Dynamite, ,Ratcilffe, ,Suffragettes, ,Tax Avoidance, ,The Third Estate, ,topshop, ,Trafalgar Square, ,Trojan Horse, ,UK Uncut, ,Veggies, ,Violence

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Amelia’s Magazine | Deptford X Arts Festival 2010: A Review


Felicity Brown Gabrielle dress, online illustrated by Kate Copeland

Amidst the commotion of catwalks and exhibitions at London Fashion Week, one website had everyone talking; Young British Designers. Grabbing attention with their eye-catching launch video, the team behind YBD are providing a platform for the fashion conscious everywhere to buy designs by the next generation of British greats. Ada Zanditon, Jena.Theo, Jasper Garvida, Eudon Choi and Felicity Brown are just a few of fashion’s bright young things being championed by the site, where you can read about the designers themselves as well as investing in their clothes, shoes and accessories. But who is behind the venture? Though they are prolific on Twitter and becoming a household name amongst bloggers and press, little has been revealed about the individuals behind Young British Designers; until now.  

Tell us about the people behind Young British Designers; how did you end up working together? 
YBD comprises four people, Adriana, Stuart, Debra and Julian – two couples. Adriana and Stuart had a great idea to champion developing British design talent and approached Deb and Julian to enable the idea to fly; all four were totally taken with the concept, it seemed such an obvious thing to do, none of us could really believe that nobody had thought of it before. Then came London Fashion Week in February 2010 – the breadth of new, naïve British talent was clear for us to see and the thought of bringing it all together ‘under one roof’ (so to speak) became an increasingly enthralling prospect. But every idea needs its seminal moment, for us it was Adriana and Debra entering the hall at Vauxhall Fashion Scout that cold and windy Monday afternoon; the room was empty – and the utterly beautiful Felicity Brown dresses called across the room. For us, that moment encapsulated the sheer joy of finding new talent – and in knowing that we could bring our own talents and experience to introduce them to an emerging global market. 


Eudon Choi Grey Lace Up Military Shoe Boot, Rae Jones Scarlett Leather Brogues, illustrated by Kate Copeland

We ended up working together because of a shared passion, but it was more than that – our skills were compatible: design, marketing, business, sustainability and communications. We also wanted to take a risk – a risk on a new venture, to do something really significant in our own way. We like each other too.  

It’s a difficult time for young British designers starting out today; what inspired you to champion them in this way?  
No one focuses purely on the promotion of new British talent – a handful of designers make it through to retailers each year, but it’s not many and even those that do are a small part of massive collections made up primarily of well known, established names. We believe that many more of our designers deserve to be showcased and that our designers’ stories be more thoroughly told and their developing brands be enhanced. We also believe that this is absolutely in keeping with the developing trend for highly individual style statements amongst increasingly discerning consumers. ? 

Your launch video is impeccably styled and really captures the timelessness of British style. What do you think distinguishes British fashion designers from the rest of the world? 
We hope the video captures the passion we all have for British fashion, the cues from the past, the energy, the excitement, the ready to risk all and have a go idealism. The sheer bloody eccentricity and quintessentially quirkiness only to be found on this island. Wonderful. 


Illustration by Kate Copeland

How do you go about selecting which designers to feature? 
We are really emotional and subjective in our approach to selecting the designers for our collections – does the design make our heart sing? The hairs on the back of our neck stand on end? Can we imagine that our customers will love it as much as we do?    

You feature a number of ethical designers on YBD; do you think more designers will start taking sustainability into consideration as the ethical fashion industry grows? 
Great design is at the heart of solving the problems of natural resource depletion and global warming. Our wish is to promote the talents of the best British designers and to encourage them to see the beauty in an ethical heart to their designs … and we will promote the beauty they create to our customers. Delivering sustainable and ethical solutions take on many forms, we’re delighted to promote the recycled materials in Issi’s bags, the employment of impoverished Hungarian workers in making Emesha’s beautiful clothes and in encouraging the continued employment of local manufacturing in the UK.  


JW Anderson Saint Circle Ring, Lucy Hutchings Zelda Necklace, illustrated by Kate Copeland

Lots of your designers are showing at LFW, which presentations moved you most? 
Jena.Theo – because they so successfully retained their original style signature yet moved forward to embrace both a new season and a new confidence. Eudon Choi for showing all the assurance of a brand that is well established and all the freshness and energy of a designer who is still exploring the limits of his talent. 

What are your hopes for the future of YBD? 
That leading retailers come together online and off to enthusiastically support the best interests of our developing talent by promoting them generously and not seeking to put their own interests first by insisting on exclusivity of supply. This in turn limits a growing brand and can stifle it and its demand at its most crucial fledgling stage.

All products are available now over at Young British Designers!

Illustration by Annejkh Carson

I have absolutely no idea why I’ve struggled so much with this one. It’s no secret that I love Carolyn Massey, find so I was ecstatic as I dashed up the Portico Rooms’ stairs again to see what S/S 2011 had in store. Massey, this web of course, didn’t disappoint and this was by far my favourite outing on menswear day.

This season saw Carolyn draw inspiration from picture books, notably – Tibor Kalman’s (un)Fashion and Jackie Nickerson’s Farm. The influence of the stark images in these two publications was clear and Massey had taken the visual culture of these opposing landscapes and fused them together.

Entering the room, Massey’s army of models stood in an arrow-facing shape. At first, attendees bunched together in front of the models, unsure as to what exactly to do, but the show was predictably oversubscribed and they soon started to spill all over the place. I quickly dashed around trying to take photographs so that I wouldn’t have a million people in the background, which was stressful I tell ya. I love taking pictures in the static shows. You can probably tell. I took my eyes off the collection for a while (subconsciously, I think, to prevent myself from de-robing these boys and legging it with a handful of coats) and got a little obsessed with taking photographs of the models’ heads.

This collection was by far Carolyn Massey’s most sophisticated yet. Her unique approach to contemporary tailoring keeps journos guessing season after season as to what each new collection will hold. Moving on from her utilitarian collection for A/W 2010, which featured a muted colour palette, lots of heavy fabrics and military blazers, this time around Carolyn presented a softer, more wearable array: more English, more practical, more fun.

Massey’s sophisticated eye for colour was omnipresent with a gorgeous selection of petrol blue, sand, rust, navy and a burst of bright orange. This dreamy colour palette was applied accross the entire collection; on drawstring sports-luxe trenches, tailored jackets and rolled-up trousers. The onset of stripes used on tailored shirts managed to dilute a generally smooth collection. The influence of Eastern military and battle is evident, too.

Each piece in the collection radiated a timeless feel – and while Massey’s collections couldn’t ever be described as anything less than super contemporary, they also avoid being trend-led and instead focus on more connected, enduring style.


Illustration by Annejkh Carson

This season, to my unashamed glee, also sees Carolyn introduce accessories. Suede desert boots in tonal colours similar to the collection are featured, as are the most desirable black leather cases, which come in varying sizes and are modelled on vintage doctors’ cases.

I’ve been mesmerised by fashion film this season, with many designers producing films to show alongside their static presentations (Craig Lawrence, Sibling and Ziad Ghanem have been my faves). This was no exception – a film directed by Chris Brooks played discretely in the corner, featuring a gent making his way through a green landscape. Beautifully shot and edited, it really enhanced the hour we had to enjoy the collection. See it here.

When I discovered that Massey would be hosting a presentation this season rather than a catwalk show, like many other designers, I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. My general feeling after seeing so many, though, is that they’re far more preferable. Catwalk shows are over in a flash; you have literally seconds to view an outfit, photograph it and digest it. With a presentation, though, particularly one with as much style as Massey’s, you have a really good chance to absorb everything. There’s also something quite haunting about stock-still models who avoid eye contact and barely move, and allowing press and buyers to see your work and craftsmanship in so much detail widens their opportunities to criticise. With Carolyn Massey, though, it simply allowed us to see exactly what she’s capable of.

Keep an eye out for an interview with Carolyn in the coming weeks, if I can ever pin her down…!

All photography by Matt Bramford

Deptford X Festival Mark Titchner We Are Everywhere
We Are Everywhere by Mark Titchner for the Deptford X Festival.

If you are a regular reader of this blog you will know that good PR is everything, sildenafil which is why, medical despite a scrappily written email, no rx I was enticed to forgo a Design Museum briefing for a personal guided tour of the Deptford X festival with Turner Prize nominated artist Mark Titchner, followed by lunch.

CND mural, Deptford
I love this perfectly preserved CND mural that I passed on my way to Deptford.

After initial confusion over where to go (due to said scrappy email being hard to read) I first arrive at the Deptford Project, a delightful converted railway carriage cafe and the proposed lunch spot (but more on that later) before I finally locate my hosts at the local Albany theatre. In the event it is just as well I braved the rain on my bike for what turns out to be a very personal guided tour with Mark, who by the way is one of my very favourite artists and a lovely person to boot.

Deptford X Festival Deptford Project space
Deptford Project space. See their website for an image of the railway carriage cafe.

Deptford X has been promoting the best contemporary art from the local area for five years, but this is the first year they’ve had such a prominent “lead” artist for the project – director Matthew Couper having pursued Turner Prize nominee Mark Titchner (who formerly lived and worked in Deptford, though his studio is currently in Shoreditch) until he agreed to take part. Mark arrives shortly after me and quickly launches into an explanation of how he helped oversee the submission process – which was only finalised in June and July, at which point artists were allocated a budget of £750 each. Together we bemoan the lack of college tuition on how to fill in a good funding application – something which quite often becomes such an important part of an artists’ discipline. The applicants were a surprise: rather than being at the start of their careers many were much older, clearly a reflection of the diversity of artists working in the local area. Mark describes how one older artist, when chosen, “was so made up she was almost in tears”, and established local artist Liz Harrison was a popular choice for winner of the overall Deptford X award.

Mark Titchner for the Deptford X Festival.

As we set off to view the first exhibit I walk with Mark and discover that he became a new dad just a few weeks ago. A squirrel scampers across the road as he regales me with tales of more urban wildlife: the fox and cubs at the bottom of his Brockley garden. But he’s not worried about the safety of his new baby boy Ellis “unless I smear him with peanut butter or something”.

Our first stop off is on a bridge above the Deptford Creek, a prominent and ever present feature of the area. Sue Lawes has colonised the slimy sludge with multiple rows of half submerged blue Willow Ware patterned plates. Creekery is a commentary on the invasive inhabitants of Britain’s waterways, as well as the ebb and flow of our relationship with China – now our favoured source of cheap manufacturing.

Deptford X Festival Creekery by Sue Lawes
Creekery by Sue Lawes.

A brisk walk on leads us to a digital installation by Trisant (otherwise known as Julian Hughes Watts) where Mark particularly admires the industrially fitted plasma screens. Product Range Repeat features lurid digital shapes reminiscent of perfume advertising and coloured in the same shrill pinks and purples. The perpetual judder creates an eerily unsettling feeling.

Deptford X Festival Trisant aka Julian Hughes Watts
Deptford X Festival Trisant and project director Matthew Couper
Trisant and project director Matthew Couper.

Gallery Plots is an area of shed crates with a Mark Titchner-esque mural on the wall alongside. I step briefly into a particularly discombobulating piece from Bearspace, featuring a graphic padded foam wall inspired by modernist architecture and a loud screeching sound.

Deptford X Festival Expect Nothing mural
Deptford X Festival Bearspace

In front of the space there is a big red bus which bears a red ticker tape message urging passersby to call a freephone number with ideas for how to make the world a better place. Upfront is an interactive piece from Jan Hendrikse and the resulting messages will be broadcast during the festival.

Deptford X Festival Jan Hendrikse
Mark appears in the wing mirror of the Upfront bus.

Next we visit one of the three banners that Mark has made for the festival – the huge words We Are Everywhere emblazoned down the side of a redevelopment. The old industrial site once housed artists studios, but is now being transformed into the eponymous luxury flats. As we gaze up at the statement a group of local schoolboys scrap playfully beneath the scaffolding – it seems the perfect spot for Mark’s art.

We Are Everywhere by Mark Titchner for the Deptford X Festival.

Walking on, Mark tells me how he was inspired to create this piece by the book of the same title by activist and visionary Jerry Rubin (who later recanted and became an entrepreneur and businessman): we stop at the junction and he points out CCTV cameras everywhere around us. His work for Deptford X is about relationships, what keeps us thinking a certain way, where the voice inside us comes from and our rights to speak and be heard. He’s intrigued by the power of words to challenge the way we think, but messes with their place so that instead of everywhere, I read ‘eve’ and ‘here’.

I am surprised and pleased to hear that Mark Titchner was at the G20 protests, where he was kettled for most of the day along with fellow artists Gillian Wearing, Michael Landy, Georgina Starr and Paul Noble. He muses on the irony of later that night attending a posh dinner at the Whitechapel Art Gallery.

Under some arches I am led into the gallery space for photographer Paul Anderson, who has shot the youth of Deptford for a comparative study with 80s Harlem. A man is assiduously polishing the huge glass frames that hold the beautiful gelatine prints. They remind me why I love real film so much: that wonderful grainy feel just can’t be achieved on digital film.

Deptford X Festival Paul Anderson Here and Now
Deptford X Festival Paul Anderson Here and Now
Deptford X Festival Paul Anderson Here and Now
Photography by Paul Anderson.

We pause at another railway arch a bit further along where two artists, Kit Merritt and Hanna Clarke, have put together a joint show that just the night previously has won them the Fringe prize. The proposal for 1 Week came from a mutual love of archives and needless documentation. For the project they put together a list of non mutual contacts and then set up a makeshift office from which to document the process, all of which can be read, looked at and listened to around the walls of the exhibition space.

Deptford X Festival Kit Merritt and Hanna Clarke
Deptford X Festival Kit Merritt and Hanna Clarke

Three questions were asked (depending on the roll of the dice), the answers from which they created “epic spreadsheets”. Many people simply never returned their calls, which they found just as interesting as those that did: they speculate that many saw their advances as an unwanted invasion of time and some were just obsessed with keeping personal details to themselves, ironic at a time when so many people publish everything about their personal lives on the likes of Facebook. It’s a very thought-provoking and deserving winner of the Fringe Award but I am quickly dragged back out into the rain for time is getting short. I feel glad to have my guides for I have now completely lost my bearings as we tour the back streets of Deptford.

Deptford X Festival Kit Merritt and Hanna Clarke
Kit Merritt and Hanna Clarke.

Why Birds Sing by Liz Harrison was the overall winner of the Deptford X fest and Mark proudly leads me into the Deptford train station to hear this “humble” piece – subtle recordings of birdsong piped into the station.

Deptford X Festival Liz Harrison Why Birds Sing

Along the raised platform we view the less successful work of Harry Blackett, a heavily pixelated view of a posh bridge in Florence. I’m not sure why one would particularly want to connect or compare Deptford and Florence but maybe it would have worked if you could actually see the beauty of a Florentine bridge against urban Deptford – as it is the pixels render the image incomprehensible, and us reliant on the written explanation. Never a good thing.

Deptford X Festival Harry Blackett
Drive-Thru by Harry Blackett.

Our final stop is at the Old Police Station, where Mark Titchner is instructed to pose back to back with the Matthew Couper underneath another banner, this time depicting an abstracted graph of life expectancy in the UK intertwined with the enigmatic words A Point Suspended In Nothingness.

Mark Titchner for the Deptford X Festival.

Mark leaves and I am taken towards the old police cells to view the work of still more artists. Painted tromp l’oeil on a brick wall by Annabel Tilley fails to tickle me but inside I am very taken by the embellishment of disused cells which have taken on a whole new meaning: plumped up with cushions, decorated with a Mondrian-like collage of news cuttings and converted into a disco chamber.

Deptford X Festival Annabel Tilly Drawing the Likeness of Brick
Annabel Tilly’s Drawing the Likeness of Brick. Erm…. and the point is?

Deptford X Festival Old Police Station cells
Deptford X Festival Old Police Station cells

It is nearly 2pm by the time we finish our rainy tour of Deptford X. Despite the fact that I am starving and a long bike ride from home I am pretty willing to call it quits over lunch so that I can get back to work… but I am sadly not given that option. The offer of lunch has been *accidentally forgotten* and at a crossroads I am sent on my merry way with only the charming local news photographer to accompany me back to my bike at the Albany.

The Deptford X Festival is just one of many bijoux arts festivals that run across the capital every year and about which I knew nothing prior to my visit. Mark Titchner’s involvement has been really hands on: helping to chose artists, judge the winners, attending the opening event and even coming along to spend precious time charming the likes of moi. For a well known artist he really didn’t have to agree to this, and for that I respect him even more. Deptford X is an intriguing festival that features the work of some very interesting established and emerging artists – now they just need to up the PR game.

Categories ,A Point Suspended In Nothingness, ,Annabel Tilley, ,Bearspace, ,Brockley, ,Creekery, ,Deptford, ,Deptford Project, ,Deptford X, ,Deptford X Festival, ,Design Museum, ,Fringe Award, ,g20, ,Gallery Plots, ,Georgina Starr, ,Gillian Wearing, ,Hanna Clarke, ,Harry Blackett, ,Jan Hendrikse, ,Jerry Rubin, ,Julian Hughes Watts, ,Kit Merritt, ,Kit Merritt and Hanna Clarke, ,Liz Harrison, ,Mark Titchner, ,Matthew Couper, ,michael landy, ,Old Police Station, ,Paul Noble, ,Product Range Repeat, ,shoreditch, ,Sue Lawes, ,The Albany, ,Trisant, ,Turner Prize, ,Upfront, ,We Are Everywhere, ,Whitechapel Art Gallery, ,Why Birds Sing

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Amelia’s Magazine | Climate Camp at Glastonbury 2010: Line up information

Glastonbury-June-2009-Climate Camp
Can it really be a year since the last Glastonbury? In 2009, try for the first time, for sale Climate 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.

Glastonbury-June-2009-Climate Camp workshop
Glastonbury-June-2009-Climate Camp paddling pool
Glastonbury-June-2009-First Aid Kit
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.

Glastonbury-June-2009-tripod training
Glastonbury-June-2009-tripod training
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
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?

YouTube Preview Image

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
Anna Log
My Luminaries
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
Kirsty Almeida
Danny and the Champions of the World
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
Kyla la Grange
Patch William
Patch William
The Federals
The Federals
Dry the River
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 the Temp
Pete Lawrie
Pete Lawrie
Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.
Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.
Robinson
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.

Glastonbury-June-2009-Grand Raffle presented by 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.

Categories ,Anna Log, ,blues, ,Climate Camp, ,Danny and the Champions of the World, ,Danny Chivers, ,Depeche Mode, ,Direct Action, ,diy, ,Dry the River, ,Fleet Foxes, ,folk, ,g20, ,Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly., ,glastonbury, ,Green Fields, ,Green Kite Midnight, ,Jimi Hendrix, ,Kirsty Almeida, ,Kyla la Grange, ,Mumford and Sons, ,Newislands, ,Nick Cave, ,Patch William, ,Pete Lawrie, ,Pete the Temp, ,Pink Floyd, ,Pyramid Stage, ,RBS, ,Robin Ince, ,Robinson, ,Rossport, ,screenprinting, ,Shangri La, ,Shell, ,soul, ,the beatles, ,The Federals, ,Tripod Stage, ,Tripod Training, ,twitter, ,We Aeronauts, ,White Stripes

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