Amelia’s Magazine | Reclaiming Craft

With many universities leaning heavily towards womenswear – in some cases wholly – Epsom pleased many with several of its strongest collections coming from menswear designers. One of the running themes throughout the Epsom show seemed to be an obsession with blood, advice buy the body and corporal violence (you’ve got to wonder what’s going on down there) with one dress revealing a Westwood-esque red, cialis 40mg jewelled wound-like gape on its back.

Not pandering to this was Antigone Pavlou, viagra buy who opened the show with loud, bold and funky collection for the streetsmart city boy, with bomber jackets, tracksuits and distressed denim (the latter a phrase that struck fear into my heart when I first read it in the notes, only to be pleasantly surprised). With coloured headphones carelessly slung around the models’ necks, the designer plainly had a clear lifestyle in mind and played to its strengths in all the right ways, combining strong block primary colours with clashing graphic prints.

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If some previous designers during GFW have shown a tendency to elevate and romanticise the pastoral, I think Pavlou successfully did the same for the city, offering an attractively laid-back vision of urban life where you pull on some comfortable but sharp threads, plug into your walkman and swagger down the street, content to shut the outside world away for a moment, a sentiment I’ve evidently been drawn to in featuring CTRL and Daniel Palillo in recent weeks. Another menswear designer of note was James E Tutton, whose reversible designs (addressing the issue of functionality in contemporary fashion) we’ll be featuring later in the week.

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Soozi Welland’s ‘Geeks Know Style’ penultimate menswear collection was best received by the audience, with an endearing ode to all things geeky: spectacles, anoraks, bobbled hats, bow ties, and socks tucked into trousers. The geek has oft been described as the personification of a roll of duct tape, with functional apparel that will always get you out of a sticky situation, and Welland’s designs seem to celebrate this idea, with an abundance of oversized pockets, accessorising her looks with binoculars and cameras.

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By the last look, though, this geek had got himself a makeover, and was now spec-free, with the bow tie sexily hanging loose and sporting a satin and velvet playboy jacket. An endearing and humorous collection that I thought was commercially viable too, and that’s no mean feat.

Amongst the womenswear Stephanie Moran gave us a hard-hitting collection about desire, fabulously quoting Mae West ‘s ‘Ten men waiting for me at the door?…send one of them home I’m tired’, and a vision of the glamorous dominatrix. One of the standout pieces was a cream PVC dress with a cinched feather corset around the waist, and for better or worse, one of the most popular trends during GFW was feathers. This was certainly one of the better examples:

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Considering Epsom had given us notes on each designer and their collection, I think it was admirable that Moran’s designs needed no explaining whatsoever, with her models bombing down the runway dressed in all manner of things naughty.

A particularly well-crafted collection was April Schmitz’s, who gave us a series of garments with some serious work put into unusual fabrics including hardware, folded leather and metal rings and eyelets. Entitled ‘Visions of the Future’ it gave a throwback to 1930s aviation with leather flight caps, a retro colour palette and the repetition of some swinging circles, with panels ejecting out of the garments providing strange contraption-esque silhouettes that you expected to take off at any moment.

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Feathers popped up again, this time from Lucie Vincini with a stunning jacket from an eclectic menswear collection. Mixing embroidered jumpers with carrier bag trousers, basket weave coats with a jacket constructed out of Royal Mail bags, it showed that it is possible to draw from resources across the board and still construct a cohesive collection. A thrifty delight, and with its recycling sensibilities, obviously an Amelia’s Magazine favourite!

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Photos: Catwalking.com

Radical Nature: Art and Architecture for a Changing Planet 1969–2009

Barbican Art Gallery
Barbican Centre
Silk Street
London EC2Y 8DS
19 June – 18 October

Daily 11am-8pm except Tue & Wed 11am-6pm
Open until 10pm every Thursday

Tickets: £8/£6 concs, ailment £6 online

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A new season of ecologically focused exhibits, talks, events and screenings is taking place over the Summer at the Barbican. Kicking off the proceedings is this fascinating exhibition which deals with land art, environmental activism, experimental architecture, and inspiring ideas about utopian solutions to the urgent matter of climate change.
See the Barbican website for full details of all events over the next few months.

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Sarah Bridgland: In Place- New Collage Works

Man and Eve Gallery
131 Kennington Park Road
London SE11 4JJ
19th June – 1st August

Thursday – Saturday, 12 – 6pm

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Bridging the gap between sculpture and collage, Sarah Bridgland’s intricate paper creations combine her own made printed media with junk shop treasure to form nostalgic pieces of meticulous craftsmenship. Simultaneously dreamlike and miniature while remaining technically genius, Bridgland’s collection of new work will transport you to other colourful, playful worlds.

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Various Artists: Two Degrees 2009

Toynbee Studios
28 Commercial Street
London E1 6AB
16-21 June

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The opening night of Two Degrees, Artadmin’s week long programme of politically, socially and environmentally charged events, is this Tuesday. Getting it’s name from last month’s report that a hugely damaging global temperature rise of 2C could be a mere 40 years away, the 20 or so artists involved are putting the issue of climate change at the forefront of our concerns.
The opening night features among other things Daniel Gosling’s video installation ‘I Can Feel the Ice Melting’ and the forward thinking London based group Magnificent Revolution generating music for the evening with a live bicycle-powered DJ set.

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R-art assist BASH@The Sustainable Art Awards 2009

BASH STudios
65-71 Scrutton Street
London EC2A 4PJ
June 16th

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Open Sailing by Cesar Harada

“The Sustainable Art Awards are open to any UK artist working within on the themes of sustainability, environmental issues, climate change and ecology. R-art will provide the awards for the SAA, these mini eco sculptures are the oscars of eco art! Sustainable Art Awards are a 2 week showcase of eco talent @ BASH Studios.
The Sustainable Art Awards is part of Respond! who aim to engage arts audiences in discussing and questioning environmental change. Respond! highlights how the arts industries are in a unique position to communicate environmental issues. Featuring exhibitions, talks, programmes, workshops and other activities. Respond! is an initiative co-founded by the Arts and Ecology center at The Royal Society of The Arts and BASH Creations.”

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Swapshop

Camden Arts Centre
Arkwright Road
London NW3 6DG
20th June
12:00 – 5:30pm

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Current artist in residence Alexandre da Cunha is putting together a Swapshop, which is becoming an ever increasingly popular means for people to get together and shed some of their unwanted belongings in exchange for new. Anything goes at this particular exchange; buttons, furniture- even art. To book your own stall please contact Ben Roberts on 0207 472 5500.

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Out of Range

The Rag Factory
16-18 Heneage Street
London E1 5LJ

12th June 22nd June
12-6pm daily, Saturdays 10-6pm
Free

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Tigran Asatrjan

If the extensive material on show at Brick Lane’s Free Range isn’t enough to satisfy your graduate show cravings, hop along to The Rag Factory to catch Out of Range where work from 29 emerging UK and European photographic artists recently set free from the University for the Creative Arts at Rochester is on display. The work promises to be fresh, innovative, exciting and diverse.

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Dominic Allan: The Irresistible Lure of Fatty Gingo 

Transition Gallery
Unit 25a Regent Studios
8 Andrews Road
London E8 4QN

13th June – 5th July
Fri – Sun, 12-6 pm
Free

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With what might just be the best title of an exhibition I’ve ever heard, Allan’s work is self described as ‘a world of rotten teeth, bubble and squeak and uncommon sense.’ With an unhealthy interest in British seaside culture and the bizarre link-ins local holiday getaways have with sugar coated junk we feast on, Allan’s work is repelling, alluring, mysterious and addictive all at once.

Monday 15th June
The Freewheeling Yo La Tengo at the Southbank Centre, sales London.

Tonight’s gig is one not to be missed- The Jonas Brothers at Wembley, health only joking of course. If you like your music a little more deflowered and lots more awesome, then I excitedly announce that Yo La Tengo will be playing the Southbank Centre tonight as part of Ornette Coleman’s Meltdown Festival. Yo La Tengo have shaped what is almost the last 20 years with their beautiful music which moves between eerie girl boy woozy vocals and minimal keyboards, to rocking genre bashing highs. Also ‘I’m Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass’ is the best album title ever!

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Tuesday 16th June
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs at Pure Groove, London.

I really love dinosaurs, so imagine my delight when I saw that a band called Totally Enormous Extinct Dinousaurs are playing Pure Groove on Tuesday evening. Being a music editor and planing gig going around loving extinct creatures is never the best idea so I checked their myspace and I can conclude my top 3 favourite things about this band, in descending order are:
3. They dress as dinosaurs a lot!
2. They have the longest list of alphabetised dinosaurs listed as their band members (Alphabetisation being my second favourite thing after fore-mentioned dinsosaurs)
1. Their keyboard tinged synthy-fun electro sounds so fun it makes me want to make up all kinds of dances called things like the ‘Triceratops Jive’ and the ‘Stegosaurus Shake’.
What’s your favourite dinosaur?

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Wednesday 17th June
Jolie Holland at Dingwalls, London.

When Tom Waits says he likes something you can pretty much tell it’s going to be good and Jolie Holland doesn’t disappoint. This Texan singer has had Waits’ outspoken support since the very beginning of her career, and her fresh take on traditional folk, country, blues and jazz place her as a definite protegée of Waits, as well as a talented musician in her own right.

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Thursday 18th June
A Hawk and a Hacksaw at Cecil Sharp House, London.

A Hawk and Hacksaw have skittered and clattered their way into my heart with their Klezmer- Indie hybrid loveable mess music. It sound like if Neutral Milk Hotel (indeed they share a drummer) got lost in the Baltic States for several decades in the early 20th century, armed only with a full brass band and a trusty band of wolves who were also in their own Mariachi band- and quite frankly how could that not sound amazing?

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Friday 19th June
Clinic at The Lexington, London.

I was lucky enough to see Clinic play last year and they are terrifying (they wear surgical masks) and brilliant in equal measure- like a melodic nightmare, lots of keyboards, creepy samples, garage-y clatters and wails are a-given, yet they manage to be as enjoyable as they are creepy.

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Saturday 20th June
Kitsuné Maison Party at La Scala, London.

We reviewed the Kitsune Maison 7 compilation a while back and liked it, they’re having a party at La Scala featuring Delphic (pictured below underwater), Chew Lips, We Have Band and Autokratz to name but a few. I can’t help but compare it to the Strictly Come Dancing tour that happens after the show ends; with everyone’s favourites appearing live, so maybe it’ll be like that but a very hip, French version.

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Continuing our festival preview adventure

I don’t like camping. Going to bed shivering and waking up sweating doesn’t appeal to me much, mind and claustrophobia in a two-man tent isn’t fun either. Don’t even mention the word ‘porta-loo’…But all this I will get over for Lounge on the Farm.

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For the past four years, sickness thousands of people have invaded Merton Farm in Canterbury, with a view to enjoying laid-back choons and getting down to some serious lounging. Despite it’s status as a ’boutique’ festival (one of The Time’s top twelve Boutique festivals, dontchaknow), there’s plenty to muck in with, down on the Farm.
Each of the six stages caters to a different taste, The Cow Shed hosting The Horrors, Edwyn Collins and The King Blues (as well as whoever you want, thanks to the You Say, They Play initiative – just mind the dung), Farm Folk, leaning towards a more acoustic experience and The Bandstand, rockin’ out the opera and punk rock karaoke.

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I’ll be spending most of the weekend with Gong, Canterbrerians of the ’60s who sing of teapot taxies, and the Wolf People, hairiest band I’ve ever seen who weren’t actually animals, down at the psychedelic Furthur Tent, and doubtlessly joining Mr. Scruff for an epic six hour afternoon tea mash-up at the Hoedown – blanket and thermos a!
requisite.
Lounge is foremost a local festival (for local people…) and it wouldn’t be, well, right, without Psychotic Reaction, Amber Room, Cocos Lovers, Syd Arthur, Electric River and Zoo For You, to name but a meagre few of the Kentish best performing this year.

It’s not all about the music though, in fact, in the Meadows area it’s not even about the music. New for 2009, the Meadows contains an outdoor theatre, petting zoo (pigs or partay?!) and The Red Tent if you feel in need of some spiritual healing after all the exhausting lounging about. Natural Pathways will be providing bushcraft courses, fulfilling all your wild wo/man fantasies and the Make do and Mend lane focuses on local craftsmen and their skills, with workshops running all weekend.

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Whatever tickles your pickle, solar powered cinema or life-drawing class – and music too – Lounge on the Farm is the perfect place to do exactly that.

Lounge on the Farm runs from the 10th to the 12th of July, at Merton Farm, Canterbury. Weekend tickets £85, day tickets, £35

Free Range at The Old Truman Brewery is Europe’s largest graduate art and design show with free admission. Graduates of everything from interior design to fine art who studied outside of London finally get a chance to showcase their talents in the countries capital.
I’ve been to a few Free Range shows this summer already, approved but last Thursday’s exhibition of photography graduates was the one I was most excited about.

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In this age art can really be anything, web Kant has been moved to the back seat and nobody thinks art has to be beautiful anymore. That said it’s almost impossible for photographers not to take images that look good. Just by being photographed the most mundane subject is rendered interesting and the most ugly object or person becomes so lovely that you just want to lick their glossy surface.

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The best of all the exhibitions on that week had to be Swansea, stuff Farnham and Maidstone. With so many photographers on show it seems pointless to make a reductive comment on whether entire graduate years were good or bad so I’ve decided to create a contact sheet if you will, of the people whose photographs looked that bit extra special.

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Jack Davis

I spent my first ten minutes in Free Range looking at Jack Davis’ landscape photographs. In them great colour and composition immediately makes the viewer forget that the scenes are completely empty.

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Lauren Eldekvist

In Lauren Eldekvist’s evocative series Landscapes, unmade beds are photographed and shown huge on the Truman Brewery’s walls. For the artist the bed “connotes the human condition; birth, life, sex, sleep, illness and death”. The pieces remind me very much of one of my favourite artists Felix Gonzalez Torres and his billboard photographs of an empty, but obviously slept in, bed.

Also intriguing were James Rugg’s photographs, which aim to capture small instances, chance meetings and gestures. In them the simple act of a girl twirling string around her fingers becomes something we should give our undivided attention to.

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James Rugg

Over at Maidstone University College of the Arts there were some strong conceptual works.
Lee Gavin presented an installation of Mapping a project that he undertook after the death of his Grandfather, he decided to cycle to Elvington in Kent, the birthplace of his Grandfather. Lee showed as his work the tent and bike he used for the trip and an interactive google map of the journey (available from his website and well worth a look.)

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Lee Gavin

As a lover of old box televisions and a distruster of 40” LCD monstrosities I almost cheered when I saw Jack Quick’s work. The artist is stepping into Nam June Paik rather large shoes with his television manipulation photographs and sculptures in which he attempts to challenge uses for, sadly, now defunct technologies.

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Jack Quick

Cassandra Vervoort questions the role of the photographer and the weight of their influence and command over the photographed. In these “social experiments” she asks subjects to have a five-minute sleep in her bed while she is naked underneath the covers.

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Cassandra Vervoort

There were other photographers creating situations for their unwitting volunteers to perform in. Gemma Bringloe was one, “Can you turn around, sit down, stand up and sit down” … “Can you take off as many clothes as possible”.

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Gemma Bringloe

And finally Laura Jenkins, who produced my favourite project of the entire show. The Tender Interval is brilliant in it’s simplicity. Actors were called forward in complete darkness and instructed to kiss. The photographs provide a record of the interval immediately before the kiss.

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Laura Jenkins

Free Range exhibitions continue until the middle of July. The Private view for the next group of photography shows is 6PM on Thursday. For a full list check out the Free Range website.

Words like ‘buzz’ and ‘hype’ sometimes transpire to be untrustworthy words bandied around by desperate press offices, ed but with the mid-afternoon Ravensbourne show the anticipation is undeniably huge. And rightly so – after rave reviews (two more alarm words) as well as producing the winner for the past two years, search we’re expecting an awful lot, ambulance and luckily we were not disappointed. In fact, far from it – it would be easy to ramble hyperbolically about how consistently brilliant the show was, or to point out how as a university it’s completely isolated in GFW by its galactically high standard, as elitist as that sounds, so I’ll try and keep focused.

If you’ve been following our reports (and you will have done if you know what’s good for you) you’ll have been aware of this years’ output of some truly outstanding menswear. Ravensbourne, of course, was no exception, with menswear designers Calum Harvey and Hannah Taylor opening and closing the show respectively (both of whom I’ll be interviewing in the coming days). Harvey had made a collection constructed from raw materials scavenged from car interiors, attesting to the strengths of the transformative powers of recycled fashion and making something beautiful – and indeed, wearable – out of something normally perceived as solely functional.

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A selection of huge knits (the oversized scarf on the opening look was a favourite) were followed by jackets layered with woven and shredded seatbelts worn over sheer shirts and gold pinstripe trousers. Making it no surprise that he later won the http://www.gfw.org.uk/event/winners.aspxTextile Award, Harvey had created a gorgeous paisley pattern on a shirt out of frayed gold zips, while seatbelts also served to layer and tier to help create voluminous silhouettes, in one case a high collar for a knitted jumper, whilst continuously coupling the industrial looking wool with plaid and tweed to neutralise the effect.

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The last look – an enormous tulle tiered cape in grey and black – seemed to typify a collection that was eminently wearable whilst staying on the right side of theatrical, and as for the patent leather bag with seatbelt fastener – yes please.

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Mehmet Ali’s menswear (which later won the Menswear Award) was a gorgeously sophisticated collection in a neutral palette of pink, cream and wine, layering summer jackets and waistcoats for the occasional Brideshead-lite feel. A series of simple and exquistively crafted designs that was lent a sweet personal touch by the use of Ali’s own suitcase with his initials emblazoned across.

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A strong showing for the womenswear came from Hannah Buswell ‘s collection of Missoni-esque knits, combining multi-patterned cardigans with knitted dresses for a beautiful and commercial winter collection.

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Laura Yiannakou was girly, quirky and unusual, working with digital prints and synthetic fabrics to create a colourful and seriously modern collection for the fashion forward woman.

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Yasmina Siddiqui also impressed with a series of Viktor & Rolf-style illustrated prints tied to ordinary silk dresses; surrealist prints that created unusual silhouettes, attempting to understand and rebrand perceptions of art and fashion:

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Hannah Taylor’s knitwear as the closer was easily the evening’s most enjoyable and surprising. Entitled ‘You’ll Grow Into It!’ it was a selection of oversized knits covered in animals ranging from tiny ducks to guinea pigs to foxes, paired with multicoloured balaclavas and enormous pom-pom headpieces (what did I tell you last month?)

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It successfully recreated the endearing sense of childlike fun in trying on something too big and it falling around your knees; combining loud designs with mustard-colour Rupert Bear pants, tweed trousers and enormous pom-pom collars. I especially loved the knitted balaclavas (creating an ironic sense of menace that could never be fully realised when you’ve got a massive guinea pig plastered across your body).

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Aside from this, irony is something that would elude such a collection that by nature was so ostensibly warm and affectionate, with a strong sense of sentiment that I think appealed to an awful lot of people (including Erin O’Connor who was whooping in the crowd). Hannah was later nominated for the Gold Award, and despite missing out was given a special mention by the judges, and currently has her collection on display in River Island.

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A truly fantastic show and a great way to finish Amelia’s Magazine’s stint at Graduate Fashion Week – look out for our interviews with a few of the graduates over the next couple of weeks!

Photos: Catwalking.com

Way back in 2006, view Neil Boorman lit a bonfire in Finsbury Square and burnt all of his branded possessions. Of course, there was a back story to this, rather than it simply being a case of a pyromaniac getting one over on the City of London council. Neil made this bold statement for two reasons. To protest the all pervasive consumer culture and to address his own issues and addictions to branded and labelled goods. In one fell swoop, £20,000 worth of designer products were incinerated. Since then, Neil has been living his life brand-free, and documenting the results on his blog, and in his book, Bonfire Of The Brands.

While this bonfire took place three years ago, the argument about consumer culture, and the willingness of the general public to spend money that they don’t have on something simply because it ‘looks cool’ is as pertinent now as it was then. Few people in 2006 could have predicted the economic and environmental mess that we are now in. By raising concerns over the irresponsible actions of large corporations who would use every trick in the bag to entice us to buy their products, Neil was already drawing attention to the cracks in the system. As often happens, a prophet is never appreciated in his time, and Neil’s actions were met with a flood of negative responses, many from people who argued that his posessions should have been donated to charity rather than burnt. Exploring the reasons behind the criticism, he suggested that “this reaction has less to do with charity than the overall value that we have come to place on branded things; nowadays, to willingly destroy an expensive bag amounts to the same moral and cultural neglect as burning a book.”

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Having seen that Neil was going to be speaking recently at the Arcola Theatre’s Green Sundays event in Dalston, I was interested to hear an update on how his brand-free life is working out, and what he made of the new, paired down version of consumerism that is being peddled to us. While brands are wising up to the facts that a) we don’t have much money to spend on non-essential items and b) we are savvier about how these products are being produced, many labels are going out of their way to champion phrases in their marketing, such as ‘fair trade‘, ‘ethically produced’, ‘locally sourced’ etc, but is this all a white wash? And if we continue buying from the big brands – no matter what placatory words they might throw at us – are we still missing the point?

When you came up with the idea for the book in 2006, consumerism was still king. Now in 2009, the Bonfire of The Brands manifesto has become all the more apparent in the current economic climate and environmental chaos. Do you feel a element of schadenfreude seeing that you were one of the first to voice your concerns?

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It does feel like the country’s mood towards shopping has changed in the last few years. Recently someone confessed to me that they used to nip out to buy a new pair of sunglasses whenever they felt down, but now that money was tight, they felt stupid about it all. I get a lot of people confessing their consumer sins to me. I’m not sure how I feel about that – I didn’t write the book to make people feel embarrassed. If anything, I wanted people to feel angry that consumer culture is rammed down our throats so often. I definitely would have sold more copies of the book had it come out this year. But what would I spend the money on? There’s only so many non-branded plimsolls a person can buy.

Are people more responsive to your message now then when your book was first published?

People think I’m slightly less bonkers than before, but they’ve not stuck my poster on the wall in Selfridges just yet. We all got sidetracked by the boom a few years back, and most sensible people have snapped out of it for the time being. It’s the legions of people still flooding into Primark that I can’t work out. So many people buy gear on the never-never that the recession is meaningless to them. People laughed at me when I suggested that we are a nation hooked on shopping, but you can see it for your own eyes on the high street every day. The world might be on meltdown, but there’s still time to buy a pair of deck shoes.

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Do you think that the big brands have responded appropriately to the economic crisis and new wave of consumer awareness about where their products are coming from?

Recessions strike at the heart of big brands. Not just at the till, but at the value of the brand. Luxury is based on the principle that more is more – the more you spend, the more luxury you get. As soon as you start to discount your stock, that myth goes out of the window.  And all those uber-luxe ads you see in Sunday Supplements look ridiculous next to reports of mass unemployment. Luxury is a house of cards like that. The best they can hope for is that the economy picks up, and consumers forget about all this ‘ethical nonsense’.

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Are there any brands that you would consider buying from again?

I’m slightly less militant now than I was after the bonfire. I’d be happy to buy something from a brand that has it’s house in order – a brand that looks after it’s staff and doesn’t needlessly pollute. But there’s no way I’d wear their logo on my chest ever again. Looking back, I was like a human billboard. Back in the 1920′s, companies used to pay people to pin company slogans on their clothes. Now we do it for free – in fact we pay for the privilege. How on earth did we get here?

Amelia’s Magazine are always keen to support ethical designers and products. Do you find that a non-brand generally equals something ethical? I would think that on the one hand you can spot the holes in a large brand, and it is easier to find out information about them, but if you were to pick up, say, a plain t-shirt from a charity shop, you would have no way of knowing if it had potentially come from a sweat shop. What are your thoughts on this? 

You’ve found the gaping hole in my argument – brands do help us to identify which product does what, and how it was made. But then there’s so much greenwash about right now its difficult to decide which brand is telling the truth. I mean, American Apparel boasts that it only uses American labour. But as far as I know, they still pay a rock bottom minimum wage and only Mexican immigrants on skid row that can afford to work in their factories. Those kooky young things in the ads – they don’t stitch liquid tights for a living.

The easiest way to cut through all these dilemmas is to concentrate on wants and needs. Every time I’m tempted to buy something new, I ask myself if I really need it. If the answer is no, then I put it back on the shelf and walk out the store a richer man. Life goes on. 

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Going back a few years ago, you founded the infamous Shoreditch Twat; having experienced many Londoners in perhaps their least appealing and most pretentious forms, do you ever doubt the sincerity of those who are now jumping on the anti consumerism bandwagon?  And if so, is this necessarily a bad thing if the outcome of non brand buying is still a positive one? 

I don’t know about people in Shoreditch, but I do slightly worry about all the Sloaney fashion journalists that have started banging on about frugal chic. Alarm bells have got to start ringing when people at The Sunday Times call something ‘chic’. They’re terrified of committing to anything meaningful in case it goes out of style. And then where would they be? Trust me, they’ll be back down to Hermes when the economy picks up. But what the hell, I reckon its better to dip in and out of anti-consumerism than not at all.

What is news with your blog now? Will this remain an ongoing issue for you, and will you continue to write about your experiences with anti-consumerism?

I’m writing less but campaigning more. I’ve got a few stunts that I’m going to pull later in the year, and a big push in the run up to the election. Right now, I feel like less talk and more action. When shopping isn’t a Saturday afternoon leisure option, you have to find other things to do.
How important is the relationship between an artist and her aunt? For Miriam Zadik Gold, approved whose latest exhibition ‘Who is Mary Jane’ opens at Prick Your Finger on June 18, online it’s a pretty damn important relationship.

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Photo by Kirsty Hall

In fact, visit this it’s fair to say that the work in the show wouldn’t exist without Miriam’s Aunt Sue, a car-boot sale connoisseur who runs a stall selling buttons, badges and old Ladybird books every Saturday at Broadway Market. It was Aunt Sue who found six old ceramic dolls heads in a charity shop and bought them for her niece whom she thought would like them. Miriam did like them, but couldn’t think what to do with them and put them high on a shelf in her studio for a few years.

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It wasn’t until she was crocheting a pair of Mary Jane shoes for her own daughter that Miriam began to wonder about Mary Jane – why were the shoes named after her? Who was she? And why did so many musicians name-check her in their songs?

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Things began to take shape. Miriam spent hours on the internet, noting down every Mary Jane-related song lyric she could find, from Nick Drake through to John Lennon to Mary J. Blige. Taking the lyrics as her inspiration she created a different Mary Jane persona for each of the dolls’ heads, and began to craft bodies, clothes and backgrounds for each one. When she came across things she couldn’t make, such as a tiny denim jacket, she turned to dolls’ clothes makers on etsy.com and commissioned miniature pieces for her band of tiny muses.

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Miriam hopes that by giving these dolls a little more of an identity, she will bestow more of an inner life to the somewhat submissive Mary Janes described in the songs: ‘There was something quite passive about the way the dolls were waiting on the shelf for me to give them a story, to give them a life. For each one, I quickly had a clear sense of a little story of my own that sat behind the lyrics.’

Click here for more information about Prick Your Finger and their upcoming events.
It was Daniel Almeroth’s “The Birth of Feminism” series that formed an entry into Dazed & Confused’s Free Range competition that first caught my eye and drew me in. These sparsely yet beautifully constructed collages are not only visually pleasing but make a bold statement about the feminist movement too. He explains the work as “moments of metaphorical and symbolical events before and after this dramatic political movement. The point of the series is to highlight the tight control Men had over Women throughout our past; through religion, symptoms marriage and general social attitudes.”

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Delving deeper into Almeroth’s work, I notice a similar thread of stunning aesthetics teamed with clever insights running through his artistic repertoire. The Injured Body, for example, “tries to highlight the factor of deformities due to accidents and incidents. It comments on the relationship of a figure of heroism and the true reception they may receive.”

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The sign of a good artist in my opinion is one who can create work with meaning or a message, yet leave it up to the audience to form their own perspectives, drawing on individual personal references and experiences. Nothing is less attractive then artists who dictate your reactions and responses. Almeroth concurs, saying “I want to leave these images open to interpretation, to challenge the observer to reach a personal conclusion of the images intent.”
It was a pleasure to get to know him a bit better and find out what makes him tick.

When did you first realise you were creative?

I first got into illustration when I was a little’n, I use to draw landscapes of cities being destroyed by dinosaurs, covering it in glitter and dry macaroni. I like to think I’ve changed since then!

Tell me about your school days.

I completed my A’levels at Shenfield High School (where Richard from Richard and Judy, and Des from Diggit went to school!). I then studied my foundation at Thurrock & Basildon College, Essex. Then got into the Arts Institute at Bournemouth studying the Ba Hons Animation Production course, changing to Ba Hons Illustration at the Arts Institute at Bournemouth in my second year.

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Which artists or illustrators do you most admire?
Klaus Voorman is top notch, Tara Donovan is definitely my artist of the hour and the illustrator Meyoko is particularly phenomenal.

Who or what is Crabwolf and what is your involvement?

Recently I have joined a collective with four other illustrators/designers under the name of CRABWOLF. Crabwolf was born one night over dinner, beers, drawings, some roulette and a scorpion. All consisting of graduates from the illustration course at the Bournemouth Arts Institute. We commonly all collaborate on projects such as our recent Limehouse Magazine front covers, greeting cards, promotional posters/materials, possible exhibitions in London and Dublin are lined up, a zine or two in the pipeline and discussing ideas for t-shirt ranges and hand screen printed posters that are just so good for the environment. Today Bournemouth, tomorrow? …The world.

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Tell us something about Daniel Almeroth that we didn’t know already.

I’m an Essex boy, born and raised, at Eastgate shopping centre is where I spent most of my days.

If you could time travel back or forward to any era, where would you go?

I’d go back to the Victorian times, making a couple of stop offs along the way. Firstly the 90′s and don an under cut then the 70′s to acquire a taste for free love, then become the most insanely popular/rich/famous man that ever lived in the Victorian era.

If you weren’t an artist, what would you be doing?

Probably get started on making that time machine.

Which band past or present would provide the soundtrack to your life?

Mulatu Astatke. Brilliant.

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I say Modern Art is Rubbish, you say…?

“MODERN ART = I COULD DO THAT + YEAH BUT YOU DIDNT” Craig Damrauer.

What would your pub quiz specialist subject be?

Probably a mixture of Arts, Entertainment, Geography, History, Sports, Nature, Food and Miscellaneous. They call me the quiz meister, a necessity for every team!

Who or what is your nemesis?

Tomato Ketchup & Moths.

What piece of modern technology can you not live without?

My desktop iMac. Her name is Selina.

What is your guilty pleasure?

Having a pint, a rollie and drawing in the garden.

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What has been keeping you busy of late?

I’ve recently received briefs for editorial work in a few magazines, promotional posters and flyers for events, I also had my work exhibited in a local exhibition named Ishihara (which is possibly branching out to London in the near future). Me and fellow illustrator Selina Kerley also have produced a three edition Fanzine named Chien Schuanz that promoted ourselves and other local artists, selling them on the internet and local events in Bournemouth. I have also produced a limited stock of screen printed t-shirts and jumpers that are selling like hot cakes that’s keeping me warm from the recession!

What advice would you give up and coming artists?

Shameless self promotion, self initiated projects, collaborating, spending all day on the internet and with a pencil in your hand.

Who would your top five dream dinner guests be? Who would do the washing up?

I think it would have to be in a Come Dine With Me layout with Frieda Kahlo, Jean Claude Van Damme, Ghandi, Sir Alan Sugar and Picasso. I’d make Ghandi and Sir Alan Sugar wrestle, the loser would do the washing up.

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What’s next for you then?

At the beginning of July some friends and I are exhibiting and manning a stool at the next D&AD space in Earl’s Court, so pop along for a chat and some freebies! I also plan to help create and brand a Fashion magazine which is currently starting to emerge on the drawing boards.

All hail Daniel Almeroth and The Crabwolf Collective. You heard it here first.
All good superheroes have an alter ego; Peter Parker/ Spiderman, doctor Clark Kent/ Superman, Bruce Wayne/ Batman, and now Randolph J. Shabot/ Deastro. As super-hero names go it’s a pretty good one, and his new album ‘Moondagger’ plays like a soundtrack to an epic sky scraper top battle between ultimate super-powered nemesis, whist retaining a bashful sweetness of a superhero’s geeky quotidian alter-ego.
What’s more Deastro is exactly the same age as me, which on a personal level makes him all the more awesome, whilst I get finger cramps from trying to play my ukulele, he has created an epic synth-driven outer space soundscape; of course it’s not a competition but if it was he’d win.

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How did you get into music?
My Uncle bought me a guitar when I was 5 and taught me to play ’3 Little Indians’, and I’ve been singing in choirs since about then too, and so I guess I’ve always been into it.

If you had to pick someone as a main influence who would it be?
It’s really a tie between Brian Wilson and Steve Reich.

Ok, good choices! Who would provide the soundtrack to your life?
I would have to say Starflyer 59, they’re like this Christian shoegaze band and they have these lyrics that are about really simple things. It’s great, I love it.

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If you weren’t making music right now what do you think you’d be doing?
I’d be a teacher.

What piece of modern technology could you not live without?
Probably my laptop, it’s what I make music on so it’d be hard to live without it.

Who or what is your nemesis?
(laughs) My guitar player is my nemesis.

Really? Is he a secret nemesis or is it quite an open thing?
It’s pretty open, We love each other but we fight all the time.

What is your guilty pleasure?
Chocolate ice-cream, you can’t put me in front of a thing of chocolate ice-cream, I’ll eat the whole thing!

If you were making a mixtape for me which 5 songs would you put on it?
‘Come on, Let’s Go’ by Broadcast

Ahh I love Broadcast!
‘God Only Knows’ by the Beach Boys
‘I Drive A Lot’ by Starflyer 59
‘California Shake’ by Margo Guryan
‘Teenager’ by Department of Eagles
That would be a really fun mix.

If you had a time machine which era in the past or future would you travel to?
This is going to sound really lame, but I’d probably go back to the dinosaur era.

That’s not lame at all! Dinosaurs are ah-mazing…
Yeah, it would be really interesting to see another evolutionary path, just mind-blowing.

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What would be your quiz specialist subject?
Bible trivia, I went to school to be a pastor when I was 17, I’m not really a Chrisitan anymore but I was the 10th ranked Bible quizzer for a short minute there when I was a kid.

Wow! Do you have any good Bible trivia for me?
Who was the oldest man in the Bible?

Errm…God?
(laughs) God’s not technically a man…It’s Metheuselah who lived to 969 allegedly…

Which 5 people would you invite to your dream dinner party?
Socrates, Michael Jackson, Jesus…ermm this sounds ridiculous Michael Jackson and Jesus!, Chris Martin just because I’d like to see him in a room with those people and Mahatma Gandhi.

…and who would do the washing up?
Chris Martin (laughs) no, I’d probably end up doing it myself actually.

Tell us a secret…
A lot of mine are really disgusting, I’m trying to think of one that’s kosher…both my front teeth are fake, I fell of my bike and chipped them as a kid.

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After a week of technicolored, malady although not always technical, capsule undergraduate shows, ailment rife with misdirected or altogether unmanned piloting of a laser cutter, and occasionally some superior sparks of creative genius, we come to the much anticipated collections of MA graduates from the Royal College of Art. A troop of fine tailoring, sophisticated textiles and stellar styling, this year’s cadets are ready for the fray. Recurring in various forms were the bow tie a la 1920′s, pom poms which echoed the catwalks overseas, silicone, galaxy prints and leather in more variations than you can shake a needle at.

WOMENSWEAR

johanne%20andersonX.jpgJohanne Kappel Anderson

Johanne Kappel Anderson’s magpie inspired collection was full voluminous fabrics and illustrative prints, solar dust blasted leathers and super oversized graphic pastels on black. Digitally printed leotards flashed patterns comprised of jewelry, spoons, bolts and found objects just the kind of shiny thing a magpie might take home to his nest. A few prints and shapes seemed to conjure up another winged creature…moths.
Some earthy prints with contrasty ‘eyes’ fluttered down the catwalk… there was even a cocoon jacket!

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Heidi Wikar ‘s collection ‘Singing Silence’ was a series of diaphorous clouds said to be inspired by a Scandinavian landscape’s emptiness. Makes sense…if you were planning to experience it through a window, from the downy comfort of your bed. Puffy duvets appeared trapped in spiderwebs of muted greys, ochres, creams and white. All the shape and volume of modern silhouettes but without the overly structured and cresting shoulders prevalent in so many other collections this year. What resembled a bright orange parachute with clever gathers and seaming became a dress filled with pockets of air and completely weightless. Air itself acted as a material, giving shape and structure to the pieces. Apparently part of a design challenge the entire collection can be packed into one 20 kg rucksack. As if those rosey cheeked fraus needed anymore help looking amazing in the dead of winter.

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Up from the realm of textiles rose an innovative take on shibori by Siofra Murphy. What seems to have started as a super large muted floral print soon condensed into a rippled shell of body-con dresses with necklines that rose around from behind the shoulders like neck supports. Paired with stretchy basics the nuanced surface went from bold to muted but remained incredibly intriguing.

liamX.jpgLiam Evans

Liam Evans presented one the best examples of laser cutting in a year rife with its abuse. Transcending the weighty characteristics of leather, he exploited the laser cutter for the impossible precision it was made to do. With the aid of sturdy zips Evans jigsawed his garments into a collage of ultrafine leathers. Loose motorcycle jackets were studded with an organic arrangement of thorny spikes and paired with chiffon dresses a la 90′s.

rachaelX.jpgRachael Barrett

Inspired by photos in Corinne Day‘s Diary, Rachael Barrett’s collection was a modern assortment of soft feminine silhouettes constructed of a soft silicone rubber. Conservative hemlines and generous shaping gave the illusion of transparent shells revealing moments of black chiffon lace. Clever cutting allowed for ease of movement and portrayed the designers interest in the “trapped space between body and dress”.

MENSWEAR

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Based on a post-apocolyptic Mexican hi-tech tribal gang in LA (that explains the Hollywood flash) that has reverted to Aztec/Mayan rituals and beliefs (still with me?) Alex Mattson’s collection is like a well tailored Malibu super hero’s wardrobe. Full of comic book colors and supple leathers the foam helmets and neckpieces were a cartoony take on the tooth-n-claw talismans of ancient Incans. Only a matter of time before they make their way onto the set of an ‘Empire of the Sun’ video, yes?

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These delicately squiggly pinstriped suits made for one hot ice cream parlor attendant. Keith Gray presented a series of bright and fresh menswear in expertly tailored shirts and snug trousers with tromp l’oeil knits. Dropped crotches and retreating hems kept the whole look impossibly modern 20′s chic.

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The only textiles MA graduate to send a collection down the runway did not disappoint. Louise Loubatieres juggled an exotic mix of bold ikat prints and roomy knits. A rich palette and roomy shapes complete with a 20′s beachsuit. Wonder if Walter Van Beirendonck will be knocking on this one’s door.

luis%20lopez-smithX.jpg Luis Lopez-Smith

As this was a show it’s safe to say that Luis Lopez-Smith was the circus leader. Marching band jackets in various forms and a few green googly-eyed caterpillars adorned a few torsos with the piece de resistance being a puffy vest that looked as though it’d walked right off the set of Terry Gilliam ‘s ‘Adventures of Baron Von Munchausen’
A fantastic display of craftsmanship and impeccable tailoring lent it’s support to an impressively balanced offering of innovative textiles and experimental shapes. All the intelligent risk taking one can continue to expect from such a world class school.
Have you got a favorite of your own?
Browsing old PhD theses, this as you do of the odd grey Sunday evening, you might come across the quiet mindbend that is Stephen Stirling’s ‘Whole Systems Thinking as a Basis for Paradigm Change in Education: Explorations in the Context of Sustainability’. Gosh. Well, you made it past quiet armchair moments (not quite The Foundry of a Friday night) and the obligatory don-speak of Stephen’s title – and somehow you’re still reading, and maybe you’re starting to get the problem I see before us in this article : that, shrouded in the ivory mist of academia, someone has written clearly and thoughtfully about changing the way we think, but a first glance all too easily sees a glut of Greek and runs away. Instead, try putting your head into a mindset quite different:

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Illustrations by Rui Sousa

Everyone tells themselves stories about the world. I’m a student, a writer, a brother. Don’t worry, you’ll not have my life story – not tonight, anyway – but there is one, or several, smoothly edited to my audience’s appetite for imaginary journeys around the world, or encounters with mad professors. But before you pin me down as some grand raconteur, check yourself out, last time you introduced yourself or got chatting to someone new.

Here’s the story-about-the-world jam. We look at the world, then we have a think about it, then we decide what to do.

Mostly, we look at the world bit by bit. Everything has a reason, and we try to find *the* reason. When something needs to be done, the straight way is best. Results delivered, satisfaction guaranteed. Kiss frog, find prince, all shiny.

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Thing is, this doesn’t quite do our complex world justice, and imagining the world inadequately means we’ll make wrong decisions. Instead, Stephen suggests we look at everything all together, relations and systems rather than objects and actions. Be much more sensitive to all of the causes and consequences – the stone scudded across a river sends ripples in all directions, cheers me up a moment, and sinks, tickling a snoozing whiskered fish. Turns up a hundred years later, tumbled bumped and rounded to perfection, and stubs a distant relative’s toe on Brighton beach.

This systems approach was pioneered in, amongst other works, Limits to Growth by Dana Meadows, Dennis Meadows and Jorgen Randers – an awesome book, classic of eco-lit, stuffed with graphs from the future that go shwoop-kerbang as people and pollution go up, food and farmland go down, and all the balance of the world’s systems are shown together. There’s a new edition out, a thirty-years-on update, which I haven’t read yet, but is high up on my list, just after ‘The Italian’s Defiant Mistress’.

Stephen Stirling is concerned with getting this kind of joined-up thinking a matter of course, throughout design education, but also throughout education in the more general, lifelong way. There’s a way to go, I can tell you from a wee bit of personal experience. Sat in the back of a GCSE Electronic Products class six or seven years ago, the three marks of my coursework dedicated to sustainability caught my attention for a long three minutes as I knocked off a paragraph to tack on to my project, jumping another hoop. This is about as far as sustainability in design education goes for now.

First off, says Stephen, is changing things we do without changing how we think. So, less waste makes more sense because I’ll save money, whether I care about where it goes or not. Similarly, not growing one single kind of crop year in year out won’t wear out the soil, and helps against pests and disease – good business plan.

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Next level is the change in the way of thinking that goes along with this. Understanding our relation with the world not in the straight ‘man conquer forest’ way but ‘man use a bit of forest but is careful before his greed comes back and kicks him in the teeth’. Stephen Stirling calls it the ‘postmodern ecological worldview’ and suggests it as the best way forward from mechanical modernism and text- and sign- obsessed postmodernism. The 2012 imperative Teach-in, which Amelia’s magazine blogged about back in January, puts sustainability right at the centre of design education in this way.

Finally there’s the kind of wondering that Stephen’s thesis looks to – thinking about thinking about thinking, if you’re that way inclined. Wondering about how we tell stories about the world, and how our ways of telling might change, how they might need to change if we are to learn to live many many moons longer under these skies.

‘Whole Systems Thinking’ and ecological literacy are no longer just things to know about. They should certainly not be mere buzzwords tacked on a Corporate Social Responsibility statement or curriculum check-box and forgotten about. They need to start informing our every action. Eventually, they’ll be as mundane as sitting in a quiet armchair of a grey Sunday evening, flicking through a history of the early twenty-first century green-shift. Here’s to that.

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For anybody out there who ever got given a jumper that was too big for them by doting aunt or grandparent – Hannah Taylor, order the Ravensbourne graduate whose praises I was singing on Tuesday, there is right there with you. Her collection is a paene to the nostalgia attached to the big old jumper, when things were less complicated, when the hemline fell below your knees and when somebody had to tie your shoelaces for you (velcro was always easier, no?). Sometimes, though, you wouldn’t be caught dead in said jumper. Spare a thought for the Weasley children. Mrs Weasley WISHES she could knit this good.

Tell me about making your collection.

Well, most of them I knitted using my domestic knitting machine, and the two with the ‘balaclava faces’ on them, including the balaclavas themselves are hand knitted. Everything is either oversized somehow or has shrunken sleeves, the collection is called “You’ll Grow Into It!”

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Why animals?

As in traditional knitwear which features ‘motifs’ of animals or objects, each animal is a motif to represent ‘Victor’ (my dad) and the North, and kind of tells its own little story. For example, there’s a pigeon because stereotypically everybody up North keeps pigeons in a shed next door to their outside toilet.. The 3 flying ducks are after Hilda Ogden’s living room wall in Coronation Street, and also at home where Victor lives, we had 3 pet ducks. The Fox is a symbol of English Heritage and the sad fact that Victor only now has two ducks because at Christmas one was eaten by, yep, a fox, and the guinea pig is there because i used to keep them when I was younger, and Victor would tell me off for never cleaning them out as much as I should have done. Oops.

What’s your favourite piece?

I love each one you know, they’ve all got their own little stories to tell! However I think it has to be Nigel the Guinea Pig jumper as he is the first one I knitted in the collection.

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It was probably one of the best received in the whole of Graduate Fashion Week – why do you think it appealed to people so much?

Aw thank you! I am really glad people enjoyed it, people were probably a bit surprised by it to be honest, and weren’t expecting that to come out on the catwalk! I had fun with my collection, in both the designing and the making, and hope the light-hearted element was was portrayed as I think everyone has an affinity with knitting in some way, shape or form, be it jumpers knitted for them by relatives or someone else they know. I think in the past few decades knitting has become percieved as ‘humorous’ too, so that tends to make people laugh whereas in the past knitters (and knitting) were taken much more seriously.

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What was it that drew you to knitwear initially?

I just love knitting! I was shown when I was younger by my mum but I was AWFUL – I lost my patience with it but picked it up again when I got a bit older and taught myself. Before I started at Ravensbourne I used to run knitting groups in my hometown of Warrington! I think there’s alot of potential in men’s knitwear, I like to think of a boy and ‘dress’ him in a certain way or feeling. I am looking forward to continuing with it.

There seemed to be a massive amount of knitwear at GFW – have you noticed an increase too and why do you think it’s becoming more popular?

Knitting is becoming more popular, especially the social aspect of it and I wonder if it’s going to die down again at some point. If more people are learning the techniques and processes then they will use this for constructing a garment. I also wonder if it is because people are wanting something hand-made or hand-finished, one offs.

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Apparently Giles Deacon was trying on your stuff afterwards – what did you make of that?

Surprising to say the least! It was quite a fast paced few days going from a bit of last-minute linking an hour before it was due to start(!) to then being put forward for the Gala Shows – I wonder if Giles is reading this? I’m taking orders soon if you want one!

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In the aftermath, would you have alterered anything at all?

No I don’t think so – if it’s not broken don’t fix it.

Where next from here? Where could you see yourself working?

I like Walter Van Beirendonck‘s work, I think he’d be great to work for, although there’s a couple of people i’d knit for as it’s the knitting I enjoy the most. I wouldn’t mind my own studio actually, and be able to do all the knitting there. I’ll be starting at the Royal College of Art in September to do my MA in Men’s Knitwear, a 2 year course in which I’m really looking forward to and eventually knitting up another collection!

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To keep up with Hannah, make sure to keep checking both her website and her blog.

Waking up at around half 11 the last thing that I expected I would be doing today was going to see a band that up until a few months ago I thought I had missed the boat with. But having checked the blur forums (something which has now become part of my flatmate’s and I morning routines during the last few months) I discover that Blur are playing a gig somewhere in London tonight. I should probably explain here that blur are without doubt my favourite band and have been for some time; 13 was the second album I ever bought. Details about are sketchy; all I know is that there are 170 tickets available, drugs that I have to go to Brixton to get one and that they have already been available for the past three quarters of an hour. Shit. I rush upstairs and begin shouting nonsensically to my two flatmates that we have to get to Brixton and fast, there there will be no time for showers (an unfortunate circumstance for fellow tube users given that I spent the previous day travelling and it is a warm day – apologies). Luckily they are on side so we sprint down to the station and navigate our way to towards Brixton, sprinting between tube changes only stopping when we arrive at Brixton to question someone as to where exactly the academy is from there. They give us directions and inform us that we will definitely get wristbands for tonight’s gig as they have just got some themselves. We continue sprinting never the less.
When we arrive we are given pieces of paper with numbers on them – 68, 69, 70. There is a short wait in line and as we are given our wristbands we are warned that when we are informed of the whereabouts of the gig (by email and text) that we should not reveal it to anyone as if too many people arrive it may jeopardise it taking place. Given that I have only been awake for an hour now this is all rather surreal. We reward our efforts with breakfast in a greasy spoon round the corner.
Five o’clock; showered and shaved now we get the email.
Blur will be playing a few songs for the lucky few that have passes at Rough Trade East, Dray Walk, 91 Brick Lane, E1 6QL, today, Monday 15th June.

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Please get to the venue no earlier than 6.30m otherwise you may jeopardise the gig. The band will be on stage at 7pm sharp.”
This time travelling is a much more relaxing experience, there is no panicking when the train pauses between stations and we arrive in plenty of time. Having queued up and taken our spot (front stage, to the left, in front of Coxon’s mike) I talk to someone who tells me that he has been following Blur live since 1995. He looks slightly taken aback when I tell him that this is my first gig. There is a tangible sense of anticipation in the audience, no doubt increased by the intimate setting – when the band do come on stage even though I am three deep in the crowd I rarely more than three feet away.

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The band come on stage Damon strutting, Graham looking slightly awkward, and Alex James once again taking the cool rock star mantle (as opposed to the cool cheese farmer). She’s So High is the first track and in my opinion at least the audience seems unsure of quite how to react, a little awed. Any lingering notions that this will be a quiet gig are soon dismissed though as the band launch into Girls and Boys followed by Advert, the air is thick with the sweat of not just the audience but also Damon as he jumps about the stage much in the same vein as in the mid 90′s and the audience react in kind. Following this we are treated to a version of Beetlebum with an extended muted intro. End of the Century is next, before Graham assumes lead vocals for Coffee and TV. Years of playing solo must have imbued him with an increase in confidence but he still has a tendency to sing into the microphone rather than towards the audience. I would argue that this was more endearing than an annoyance as was a moment later on in the set when Tender was played as neither Graham nor Damon appeared to be entirely sure of who should be singing but simply smiled off the mistake. Out Of time is next up, the only song which is played from Think Tank (the album Blur recorded mostly without Graham). Graham’s new guitar part for me is a welcomed edition personally, though my flatmate disagrees – perhaps it should have been a little lower in the mix. Tender’s sprawling ballad like nature is pushed out even further to include an acoustic only segment near the end before launching back into the full band version. For me this was the best song of the night for a number reasons, not because of the Freudian banter about Alex’s upturned bass functioning as a double bass “It’s anything you want it to be”, yes Damon.

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It is the final part of the gig that audience anticipation reaches its climax in though, Popscene turns the crowd into a manic, sweat filled, pulsating machine. The intensity only increases when this is followed immediately by Song 2 and Parklife. The latter of these two is almost certainly an a grade example of how to whip a crowd into a frenzy, threaten to come off the stage but don’t ever quite do it. Finally the band ends with This is a Low, a song which succeeds in leaving the audience wanting more, staying to shout for an encore which unfortunately is not forth coming.
Perhaps the best thing about last night’s gig was pointed out by my friend, Blur played with such intensive energy that it didn’t feel like you were watching a well established act. Rather a new band that was just starting up and had to make a name for themselves.
1 man. 8 weeks. 15 sites. 41 cities. 50 sofas, prostate beds and mattresses.

These are the numbers in the equation of Lithuanian Photographer Paul Paper’s latest project, unhealthy entitled Photodiaries, which took him around the continent in 2008 and make up the content of a travelling exhibition currently taking up residency at the Senko Studios in Viborg, Denmark.

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Paul explained to me that the only planning that went into the voyage consisted of printing out an A4 sized map of Europe, on which he made small dots with possible “places to stay”, though was only certain of his destinations one stop in advance. He tells me his spontaneous nature isn’t entirely to blame for this; a combination of offers from hosts coming last minute and the uncontrollable unexpected twists of fate, including rail strikes in France, all contributed to a more freeform journey.

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He took all the footage on film rather than by digital means, just how holiday snaps were done in childhood- only processed when back home and removed from the transient content in which they were taken, making one instantly nostalgic to be back on the road. When I asked Paul if travelling alone was a conscious decision he made, he explained “When you are alone you are the most vulnerable and absorbent of the environment. In my case it was really good as instead of chatting I had loads of time to write diary on the train or just reflect on the last couple of days.”

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A comfortable solitude is most definitely present in his work; even those images which contain figures still resonate a quiet contemplation of their surroundings. I find his work to so carefully and accurately capture a glimpse of a moment that may otherwise have slipped away out of memory; his photographs are not sensationalist or arrogant, but subtle and melancholic. You can smell, hear and taste them. They are at once personal and open to interpretation.

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They chiefly occupy themselves with capturing the miracle within everyday monotony. It may be a familiar practise for artists to hunt down and capitalise the rare and special from amidst the overlooked mundane, but Paper manages to use light and focus rather than say image cropping or careful composition to achieve this, which I find impossibly impressive.
Paul Paper is a man of simple pleasures. He daydreams, he sleeps, he walks and he eats. In winter he reads in bed about faraway places and long ago travellers. He finds company in animals and comfort in books. He also happens to take heartbreaking photographs, the ones of which he took around Europe late last year have been made into a zine by Cafe Royal. He cites his favourite subjects to photograph as people and awkward situations.

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Paul Paper already has invitations to stay in homes in South America and Asia if Photodiaries is to be repeated across another continent in the future. I ask him what his future plans are looking like, though I only get a vague response; “Exhibitions, exhibitions, exhibitions. And maybe a book.” This only cements my impression of Paper as someone who is fairly content with what he has; A man who is happy to be a photographic observer to life’s little miracles and common tragedies, there to enjoy the ride and document it the best he can.

And the way he can, and does, is certainly best.

A few weeks ago, stomach Amelia and I attended a conference presented by Resurgence Magazine, what is ed a publication which promotes ecological sustainability, social justice and spiritual values. It was held on a Saturday, and to be honest, it was such a glorious warm sunny day that I wondered how I was going to be able to spend seven hours indoors. I needn’t have worried, because the time flew by, and every moment was spent in the company of wise, witty and informed people. What I discovered on that day was invaluable, and I soon realised that lazying around outdoors could wait, I had some learning to do.

The talk was entitled “Economic and Environmental Recovery: From Downturn to Steady State: Creating A Better World To Recover From The Credit Crunch And The Nature Crunch”, and was chaired by the Editor of Resurgence Magazine, Satish Kumar; alongside was Fritjof Capra, the Director of the Centre for Ecoliteracy in California and Ann Pettifor, the Editor of the Real World Economic Outlook. What seems like a wordy title actually translated as a disarmingly simple message; in order for the worlds economic problems to be solved, we must all switch to a truly sustainable and ecological way of living. As I was soon to discover, far from being two separate entities, the issues of economics and ecology are more closely intertwined than I would ever imagined.

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Illustration by Joanna Cheung

Held in Cecil Sharpe House, Regents Park,home of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. The morning began with a talk from Ann Pettifor. While I have a few holes in my knowledge of how the economic system actually works, I could easily follow the discussion because Ann was extremely engaging and explained the complex system of economics and trade in a way which everyone could understand. Beginning by describing the relationship of commerce and environmentalism; “If we want to help the ecosystem we have to start with finance” and went onto highlight the direct correlation between easy money/consumption and emissions, adding “we have been convinced that the most important things is money, but what is important is our labour and how we exchange it. Money creates activity, it is not the result of it. Banks should not be at the center of the economy, labour and trade should be.”

After a short break, Fritjof Capra explained a few home truths to the audience. Not being familiar with his work, I was unsure of what to expect. It soon was obvious that this prolific author had his finger on the pulse of sustainability and the transdisciplinary world of ecology and economics. Capra was keen to promote the importance of what he deemed as ‘qualitative growth’, and viewed the current economic system as outdated and in dire need of an overhaul so that it can run harmoniously with a brighter ecological age.

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Illustration by Sachiko

Directing his thoughts towards the current economic crisis, he opined “At the basis is an economic system without ethics. To lift people out of poverty, you need redistribution of money, not economic growth. But equally, no growth is not the answer, growth is a characteristic of all life; in nature it is not unlimited. What we need to have is ‘qualitative growth’, not ‘quantitive’ growth. Since what we call growth is largely waste, actual growth is what enhances life. The planet is a living, self regulating system, and evolution is a co-operative dance. The over expansion of financial services is parasitic on the economy, economists only recognise cash flows, but no other form of wealth. Unlimited quantitive growth is unsustainable, whereas qualitative growth can be sustainable if it combines growth and decline. ”

“We need to distinguish between good and bad growth. Bad growth degrades ecosystems, while good growth involves zero emissions and renewables. The projects which would qualify as ‘good’ growth tend to be small scale projects, community orientated and create local jobs.”

After lunch; we listened to a dialogue between Satish and Fritjof . Speaking about how we can learn from nature, instead of taking from it, Satish explained “In nature, there is always decay, death and rebirth. Businesses are petrified by these concepts. In society we fear death, we equal it with failure. Our economic system isn’t resilient. ”

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Illustration by Sachiko

Capra added to this assertion. “The economy is in the hands of half educated people. Every lesson on economy has to be balanced with ecology. Right now, everything is about the economy. When you put this first you put human interest above the rest of the world. When you look at forests, seas, lands, it is as a resource for us. We have to change our world view, and see that natural resource is our friend, our community. But right now, we all suffer from ‘speciesism’. The holistic world view says that we are ‘nature’, in that we are as much nature as the trees, flowers and mountains. So by this definition, we need to think differently. Our world view needs to be more biocentric, and needs to be driven by hope and by love. The meaning of life is in the living. The things that give us most pleasure cost us very little money.”

Discussing the issues of how our food, clothes and general accruements of life are flown in from other countries, to a detrimental cost to our environment, Satish and Fritjof both advocated a radical change. “60% of our living should be local, 20% should be regional, and the rest should come from other countries. The problem is not consumerism, but waste”

Later on, we sat outside in the gardens of Cecil House. By chance, a group of banjo players were strumming not far from our patch, which made for an enchanting experience as Satish guided us though a conversation which took in life, love and the universe. Quoting Ghandi‘s words “Be the change”, he advocated that personal transformation needs to be first before we can transform the world. “The past, present and future exist simultaneously” he said, and our every thought should be beautiful, creative, warm and positive. Not exactly your stereotypical economics lecture, which is probably why I enjoyed it so much. Resurgence Magazine runs several workshops throughout the year at various locations, if they are half as insightful as this conference then I am signing myself up for many more, and urge you all to do the same.

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Illustration by Sachiko
The second Ravensbourne wunderkind I managed to have a few words with was another menswear designer Calum Harvey, help whose standout collection, cheapest constructed from mostly unwanted materials, search won him the Textiles Award and showed us innovation in recycled fashion at its most potent. It was futuristic fashion that was actually – steady yourself- forward-thinking.

At fashion shows designers are falling over themselves to give us visions of the future pulled forth from the realms of their imaginations: modern lines, silver shellsuits and sci-fi accessories. Stylistic interpretations that are otherwise meaningless and often completely disconnected from a more earthy reality. It would almost be too earth-shatteringly avant-garde to imply that sustainable fashion is the real future, and it’s a problem I wondered about when I covered TRAID a couple of weeks ago. Right on cue, Calum (with a little help from his mother) is really using his imagination and beating down that path.

First of congratulations on your win – how do you feel?

Thank you very much! Well I’m ecstatic. As a menswear designer, to be nominated alongside dedicated textile designers is overwhelming. It”s been really exciting.

Tell me about your collection – how did it come about?

Well the project first started when my Fiat Cinquecento was scrapped, and as a reminder of her I decided to keep the seat belts. I began to research the partnership of recycling and fashion for my dissertation, and it was the scrapping of my car that started the process. Usually scrapped cars get sent to Africa or Russia to create landfill, and I found out that 95% of a car can be recycled. Over the Christmas break I realised that, when de-constructed, seat belts completely change and look so different – really delicate and fragile. It’s amazing. They are all different, made in different ways, using different yarns, resulting in different colours. So it’s all unraveled (a-hem) to dictate this 9 outfit collection.

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Do you plan to continue working with recycled materials? Where do you think you could go from here?

From a young age working with unwanted materials always excited me, and this has stuck. I created a small clothing and accessories label, LONG LIFE, that dealt with ideas of recycling and re-using. These issues are both environmentally and economically important for everyone. I love the idea of altering purpose and function of materials, and I love making something new from something old. So yes, I will continue working with ideas of recycling!

How would you desribe your design signature?

I’m a bit of an OAP WANNABE. I love classic menswear with an element of risk/irony and humor.

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There was a strong showing of both craft and knitwear at GFW too, wasn’t there?

Yes, and I think there will be more of that to come. People are falling back in love with old craft techniques, perhaps as a reaction to fast/mass produced fashion. There is so much you can do with knit, and it can act as such a spring board for design. You are self sufficient as well, no more trips to Shepherds Bush!

What was your inspiration for the collection? Who are your influences?

I went to the library and got loads of books out on South Polynesia. I was amazed at their scarification techniques, raw and abstract wood carvings and ceremony costume. I think this reference was an easy relation to the material I was working with. And obviously working with shredded seatbelts was a major influence on how I wanted the collection to look.

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Which piece are you most proud of, and which caused you the most grief?

My favourite piece is the chunky knitted jumper that my mum flew over to knit. It’s a monster. It was a good chance to show Mum a week in a fashion student’s life! The most evil piece was the final fluffy coat. It took me and four friends three days to comb over three hundred shredded belt pieces. Because each belt is different some of them don’t go fluffy, and as a result I ran out and then I had to get more…it was tough!

How did you think the show went?

I was really overwhelmed when the show happened, hearing my music (Crawl by Kings of Leon) and seeing it all go out was amazing. I was running around hemming trousers and stitching on buttons minutes before they all went out and that was stressful, but it was the best moment of my life.

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What are you plans for the next 12 months?

Over this summer time I want to spend more time concentrating on the LONG LIFE brand and making a more diverse range of bags and other accessories. I’m going to start an MA in menswear at the Royal College of Art as of September, so lots of sleepless nights I’m guessing!

In the run up to UCA Epsom‘s show at Graduate Fashion Week, approved James E Tutton was burning the edges of a brushed silk shirt from his first collection – ‘Oil on Water’. When asked why he simply claims; “the material melts and finishes itself.”

James’s designs are dark, advice sharp and are a new age approach to tailored menswear. Biker jackets and trench coats with one regular sleeve, page and one raglan sleeve are just one of the quirky details found in his collection. He explains “When designing my graduate collection I had in mind what John Keats would have worn, when he penned his famous poem, ‘Ode on Melancholy’ – but in this day and age.”

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Mood reflective, the clothes are black with an emphasis on melancholy; reversible shirts demonstrate the highs and lows of a manic depressive’s state of mind. In an interview James says, “melancholy; a high or low mentality – it is the main plot. It seems to go hand in hand along the pathway of creativity.” Although interestingly, Keats’s preoccupation with “Beauty that must die” seems to be countered by James’s ability to recycle and remake beauty.

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A mac made of Burberry Prorsum is a key piece in his collection; the inside lining is traditional Burberry beige – representing a higher mood, whilst the outer colour remains black. It’s not an easy job to pair conventional tailoring with melancholy – but this collection is far from bleak.

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James’s design, pictured alongside Petra Taoujni’s

James focuses on androgyny in his designs; hard seams with no curves are combined with feminine fabrics – producing slim, angular silhouettes. “It’s about, how far can you push the conformity of menswear – without breaking all the rules?” He says. All of the seams have sharp edges and corners – to put forth the notion of harshness; at the same time the material is fluid and soft – the juxtaposition is edgy yet chic. James adds, “I tried to keep things simple while blurring the boundaries by having two things together that you wouldn’t necessarily expect.” I think his complex and contradictory mix of ideas have a dark yet beautiful outcome – that makes perfect sense aesthetically.

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In the midst of a recession, second hand or vintage are less of an option and more of a must. Many find the balance of old and new a difficult struggle, and stick to either or. It’s refreshing to see a designer whose collection includes a jacket made entirely from old seventies leather, while the burnt edges of the shirts and tops add to the deconstructive dimension.

The accessories are made from recycled film reels; James says this was inspired by the underground film maker Arthur Lipsett – whose work is regarded avant-garde and innovative. He describes each look in the collection, “as a combination of the previous looks, getting bigger and madder each time – like a Russian doll.” ‘Oil and Water’ is a reflection of James himself; contradictory in thought, yet smooth and cohesive – in its final form. He states, “Oil and water don’t mix – but look as if they do. It’s a dirty rainbow in a puddle.”

Photos: Catwalking.com

It’s Recycle Week! Look out for events near you.

Monday 22nd June

Voting begins for Climate Rush feminism poster.

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Carbon Trading Workshop

In association with Climate Camp, pill come join a Carbon Trading Workshop with Kevin Smith (Carbon Trade Watch) and watch a screening of The Carbon Connection documentary.

When world leaders negotiate a new climate agreement this December, they will promote one solution above all others: carbon trading. The EU already has its own carbon trading system; in the US, Obama is working hard to push a ‘cap-and-trade’ system through Congress. But what is carbon trading? What is the theory behind it? How does it work in practice? Kevin Smith will give a critical perspective on market-based solutions to climate change.

Please email london(at)climatecamp.org.uk to book a place.
19.00 – 21.00
(£3 suggested donation)
BASH studio
65-71 Scrutton Street
London EC2

Tuesday 23rd June

Out of the Wasteland: Hope for a greener world

A talk with Dr Richard Chartres, part of a series in association with the City of London Festival. Looking at what hope there is for London to turn itself into an environmentally friendly city. Gresham College is an independent institution, founded by Sir Thomas Gresham in 1597, of eight professors who give free public lectures.

6.15pm, St Paul’s Cathedral, OBE chabel.
Info: Gresham College lecture list.

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Crude

A screening of this new documentary with director Joe Berlinger present to discuss the making of the film. Crude has been shortlisted for the International Documentary Award at the upcoming One World Media Awards. It is the inside story of the infamous Amazon Chernobyl case, which pitted 30,000 indigenous and colonial rainforest dwellers against the U.S. oil giant Chevron.

At the Flea Pit, 49 Columbia Road, London E2 7RG
7.30pm (nearest Tubes – Old Street/Bethnal Green)
Space for this screening is limited – but we’d love you to come (and there are spaces left as this blog post is going to print)! Please email contact(at)oneworldmedia.org.uk if you would like to come.

Calais No Borders Camp

This Tuesday sees the beginning of the Calais No Borders Camp, planned to continue until the 29th June. Protesting an end to borders and freedom of movement for all, building links with migrant communities, challenge the authorities on the ground, and protest against increased repression of migrants and local activists alike.

The camp will take place in the park in rue Normandie-Niemen, East Calais, France.

Cape Farewell – Andes Expedition, Peru

Working with the Environmental Change Institute, Cape Farewell are setting off on an expedition with artists and scientists to visit shrinking glaciers, cloud forests, lower forests, areas of deforestation & the Amazon. Follow them online where the crew will be sending back live updates from the trek.

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Photo by scientist John Fisher, from a previous Cape Farewell expedition.

Wednesday 24th June

Seeing Myself See

The Royal Society of Arts joins Radical Nature to present neuroscientist R. Beau Lotto performing a series of experiments involving the sky, music and bumblebees. He will demonstrate how colour, vision and seeing-ourselves-see can contribute to a more empathetic view of the environment and each other.

Free. Tickets must be booked.

The Royal Society of Arts
6 John Adam Street
London WC2N

Thursday 25th June

Guerilla Gardening

Part of the Radical Nature season at the Barbican. Have you thought of the horticultural potential of neglected spaces? How can we resist urbanisation using nature? For well-rehearsed tactics, strategies and instructions join South London based guerrilla gardener Richard Reynolds, as he explores the colourful world of this illegal yet flourishing gardening movement.
Barbican Art Gallery, Redgrave Suite, Level 4
7.30pm, tickets £5, book here.

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Age of Stupid

Another chance to catch the Age of Stupid, directed by Franny Armstrong (McLibel, Drowned Out), with Pete Postlethwaite as the last guy alive in a climate-fried world.
At the Haringey Independent Cinema (map), 7pm

Friday 26th June

Eco-Design Summer Fair

Eco-Design Fair over the weekend presenting many contemporary designer-makers focussing on sustainable design processes.

Friday evening Recycling party special: multi-media event with design, fashion, music, DJ’s and more. Organic drinks and food, an eco street chic styling area, eco and vegan fashion and beauty.

Times: Friday 5pm – 9pm; Sat & Sun 10am – 6pm
Free entry with a donation of an old mobile phone
Dray Walk Gallery, Dray Walk, The Old Truman Brewery, off 91 Brick Lane, London
Contact – Louise Kamara – info(at)ecodesignfair.co.uk

After Darwin: Contemporary Expressions

Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller and Darwin’s great-great-granddaughter, the poet Ruth Padel, are two of four artists and writers who have created new works for the Natural History Museum’s summer arts exhibition After Darwin: Contemporary Expressions.

The exhibition will feature new film and installation commissions from Jeremy Deller and Matthew Killip in collaboration with Professor Richard Wiseman and Diana Thater, alongside existing video work by Bill Viola. New literature, commissioned from award winning authors Mark Haddon and Ruth Padel, will also form part of the exhibition, which explores Darwin’s book ‘The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals’.

Opens 26 June
Natural History Museum
Cromwell Road
London SW7 5BD

Saturday 27th June

Sheep and Wool Day at Vauxhall City Farm
Dyework is a workshop dedicated to traditional textiles. Come and see our sheep being shorn and then the fleece being spun into yarn. Lots of woolly craft activities and woolly items to buy. Fun for all ages. Relax with a cup of tea and a slice of cake
11.00 – 16.00
Vauxhall City Farm, 165 Tyers Street, London
Contact – Penny Walsh – 020 8692 2958 – pennywalsh(at)dyework.co.uk

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Sunday 28th June

Insider London’s Cutting-Edge Green Tour

Insider London tours take you round hidden corners of London’s flowering sustainable community. Browse through gorgeous shops, witness futuristic architecture and connect with inspiring communities.

A maximum of 8 spaces are available, letting the group get to know each other and to foster networking.

The green tour leaves from the Bishopsgate entrance of Liverpool Street station, finishing at the Oxo Tower around 3 hours later. Halfway through, there’s a fairtrade coffee break at one of London’s stunning green venues.

To book, email bookings@insider-london.co.uk, mentioning the London Sustainability Weeks special tour and stating the date you would like to attend, at least 48 hours in advance.

2pm (meet from 1.45pm)
£25 (Special rate for the Festival)
Meet at Bishopsgate entrance of Liverpool Street

Contact – Cate Trotter – 0844 504 8080 – catetrotter(at)gmail.com
Small Words
Novas Contemporary Urban Centre
73-81 Southwark Bridge Road
London SE1 0NQ

Until 3rd July
Mon – Sat 10:00am – 5.00pm
Free Entry

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A truly unique exhibition in that all exhibiting artists are under the age of 10. Galactica Hilton ( age of 9), cure Benjamin McGowan (age of 7) and Marguerite Fox (age of 8) present Small Worlds, this site a fascinating exploration into a child’s world “with the incredible sense of adventure and knowledge that only exists within the minds of children; wonder still intact, sildenafil with emotion etched on their faces.”

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Design High
Loiuse T Blouin Foundation
3 Olaf Street
London W11 4BE

25th June – 30th August
Tues-Friday 10am-6pm, Thursday 10am-9pm, Saturday midday-6pm
Closed Sunday & Monday
Free Entry

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Exploring the ties as well as the tensions between form and function, craft and fine art, the Louise T Blouin Foundation is featuring a series of educational events, discussions, lectures and workshops as well as an exhibition in collaboration with the Carpenters Workshop Gallery. Artists include Marc Quinn, Pablo Reinoso, Thierry Dreyfus, Vincent Dubourg and Sebastian Brajkovic.

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Craftaholics
The Old Queen’s Head
44 Essex Road
London N1 8LN

27th June
12:00 17:00
Free Entry

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A well loved spot on the London craft event circuit, The Old Queen’s Head is having an afternoon of handmade craft and ethical products from designer clothing to jewellery to dolls and everything in between. There promises to be homemade treats to gobble, booze to glug and music to tap your feet to. And the best part of it all? It’s completely free!

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Make Your Own Damn Festival!
The Sun & Doves
61 – 63 Coldharbour Lane
London SE5 9NS

25th June
7 – 10pm
FREE

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As part of Camberwell’s Art Festival this week the lovely folk at Stitch and Bitch London are taking over South London’s artsy pub The Sun & Doves and running a ‘Make Your Own Damn Festival!’ workshop with a knitted theme for all those interested, from beginners to old maestros. Wool and needles provided but feel free to bring your own.

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Situationisn’t: Works Inspired by a Society of Spectacles
The DegreeArt.com Gallery
30 Vyner Street
London, E2 9DQ

23rd June to 28th June
12:00 – 18:00

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“Joe Upton presents an eclectic range of works using 3D Film and Mixed-Media. In this week long exhibition Upton invites the audience to engage in ‘pseudo-activities’ which break the conventional roles of spectatorship through an immersive 3D Film installation and participatory Paint-By-Numbers.Inspired by the avant-garde movement of Situationism, Upton transposes the theory of The Society of the Spectacle to the modern day. He questions our role as producers and consumers of culture and explores themes of novelty value, pop culture and commodity fetishism.”

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Life Drawing Classes
12:00 14:00
Various Locations
Free Entry

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As a prologue to the upcoming Channel 4 broadcast this July in which the nation will be taught the skills and techniques of life drawing, a series of free classes are being held across the city and throughout the country, led by John Berger, Judy Purbeck, Maggi Hambling, Gary Hume and Humphrey Ocean. In a different location every lunch-time, the first-come first-served classes are free but there is no advance booking. For full details click here.

Mondays 22 & 29 June 2009
Shoreditch Town Hall
380 Old Street
London EC1V 9LT

Tuesdays 23 & 30 June 2009
The House of St Barnabas
1 Greek Street
London W1D

Wednesdays 24 June & 1 July 2009
The London Graphic Centre
16-18 Shelton Street
London WC2H

Thursdays 25 June & 2 July 2009
The Place
17 Dukes Road
London WC1H 9PY

Fridays 26 June & 3 July 2009
Channel 4 at Frances House
11 Frances Street
London SW1

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The Sustainabilitree Show
Artsdepot
Tally Ho Corner
5 Nether Street
London N12 0GA

26th June – 6th July
12:00 – 16:00
Free

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Curated by Melanie Warner, after whose own biodegradeable sculpture, standing 3 metres tall and made from corn and starch based bioplastic, the show is named; this diverse collection of media from emerging British Artists aims to inspire and provoke debate around issues of sustainability and the environment.

Under, viagra 40mg over, pharmacy under, website like this over… who would have thought a spot of weaving could help me feel better? These past few weeks have been some of the most stressful of my life as a designer living in London. Worries about my degree work, money and job hunting have caused huge amounts of stress and, as I’m sure many would agree, we all need a bit of escape once in while.

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Perhaps unusually, I’ve turned to crafting. I’m using a weaving loom brooch I made, to relieve my current feelings of anguish. I’ve always been a crafter and I’ve always turned to creative expression as an antedote to life’s pressures. I chose my graduating year as a design student at Goldsmiths to explore my relationship with craft further. After all, craft’s recent resurgence in popularity can be identified as a reaction to current circumstances. The craft trend highlights the importance of homemaking in people’s lives.

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During this time of recession it seems logical to ‘make’ more. If you’re strapped for cash but want a new outfit why not try and make one? For me, the perfect alternative to a days shopping with the girls is a crafty party. Offering situations for discussion, laughter, relaxation and production, the beauty of these parties is no one has to be an expert; everyone can learn off each other and inspire each other.

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The parties celebrate our natural instinct to make with our hands, and we gain a sense of achievement from the production of a handmade object. There’s something hugely satisfying in wearing something you made and you’re proud of. Hosting crafty parties led me to the realisation that craft could be powerful. Now I just needed to convince more people!

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I designed to encourage the crafter in everyone. I made a series of ‘craft in transit’ garments allowing the wearer to be creative whenever and wherever the mood takes them. The crafty dress holds a variety of tools, and when worn and used forms a space and opportunity for creation. These portable tools for creative expression allow the wearer to make use of times of unproductivity. Using a portable weaving loom whilst the bus you’re sitting on is stuck in traffic is a rewarding experience. Although there might be a few strange looks, the ability to be creative avoids the feelings of frustration usually given when using public transport. Equally, wearing your crafty ring to the pub to meet your mates makes crafting both recreational and fashionably different.

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By reclaiming craft we leave behind its traditional past and we celebrate its contemporary relevance. Craft offers a cheap and creative alternative to our over-consumption, and I believe by turning to craft during these stressful times we can celebrate ourselves as creative individuals, as makers, as designers. So why not host a crafty party this weekend, go ahead, make stuff – I’ll soon be doing a how-to guide right here at Amelia’s Magazine if you need some ideas!

Check out my website for more information and to buy my crafty jewellery, www.esterkneen.com.

Categories ,Craft, ,DIY Culture, ,Goldsmith’s, ,Home-Made, ,London, ,Weaving

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Amelia’s Magazine | An interview with fashion film maker Marnie Hollande


Marnie Holland, recipe illustrated by Lana Hughes

Fashion and film have long been bedfellows, here but with the roaring success of Nick Knight’s SHOWstudio video blog, find and luxury brands like Chanel making their own mini movies, the ‘Fashion Film’ is finally stepping into the spotlight.

When she’s not working as an illustrator or playing in her band, Fables, Marnie Holland makes fashion films, teaming up with avant-garde designer Ziad Ghanem on film short, JME.

JME from Marnie Hollande on Vimeo.

Specializing in performance pieces involving sculptural costume during her BA at Goldsmiths, it seems inevitable that Marnie would make the move into fashion films, and Ghanem’s theatrical, otherwordly clothing make the perfect muse.

Your collaboration with Ziad Ghanem is fantastic – is this your first film?
Thanks! I made films from all my performance pieces but it’s my first film with a vague narrative, yes.

How did you meet him, and end up collaborating on the project?
I contacted to him originally to work in his studio, which I did for a while, which lead to working more exclusively with the performance and choreographic side of his last show. But film is one of the main inspirations in Ziad’s work, so making a film was always something he’s wanted to do. After I showed him my work I was just in the right place at the right time.

What were your (and the designer’s) aims – to showcase the clothes?
No not as such, it was more to reiterate the brand. A lot of how it was constructed was taken from what’s already present in Ziad’s work – such as the Baroque, symbolism, melodrama, Romanticism and London as a character.

But also to focus primarily on the subject, which is part of the basic design process for Ziad’s clothes – tailoring the piece to the individual. Jme (the model in the film) has modelled many of the Ghanem collections and has a very alluring natural melancholy and stillness about his look; it was pretty much written about him!

Ziad Ghanem is known as the ‘cult couturier’ and for mixing street wear and couture –was that an element of his work you wanted to convey in the film?
Not consciously, or at least not specifically to reflect that nametag. I suppose the shifts between a couture silk cape, a PVC printed tracksuit and eventually desecrating the garment adhere to Ziad’s mixing of high and low cultural influences.

But it was the more that the ceremony of the transitions would lead the film narrative and the pieces would frame them. I like that the clothes characterize the changes and change Jme’s role.

Anyway in terms of mixing, Ziad is inspired by everything. Whatever you pick from his pieces or from his ideas will clash harmoniously; that’s his gift.

DUAL from Marnie Hollande on Vimeo.

Could you describe some of the difficulties/limitations in translating fashion onto the big screen?
I suppose sticking to the point could be challenge. It’s a fashion film after all, not a Sundance entry. There’s a brand to look after. But it shouldn’t be difficult if the clothes inspire you.

Do you do everything yourself – e.g. planning, filming, editing, or is your work more collaborative?
Yes, with the help of camera/lighting extraordinaire Roman Rappak, who is, luckily for me, already an amazing filmmaker. Also Maeve Keeley and Athena Kleanthous who made everything run like clockwork.

Have you got any more projects with Ghanem in the pipeline?
Yes indeed. We’ll be making a short-film involving the whole collection in time for this year’s London Fashion Week.

Why do you think the fashion industry has started to wake up to the potential of fashion films, and what do you think their ‘role’ is, if any?
Because it’s there! It’s big swimming pool of promotional space to occupy. That’s not to say it doesn’t have a place in film, it certainly does. I’d say it’s a link that’s been brewing for a long time, SHOWStudio have obviously played the biggest role in that bridging. People also like to invest in a story. But mainly it gives people like me and Karl Lagerfeld something to do.

En Pointe from Marnie Hollande on Vimeo.

What (from fashion designers to film makers) inspires you, or is one of your key influences?
It changes daily unfortunately and I blame the blogging industry. In terms of film I had an amazing piano teacher who stressed the importance of rhythm like nobody’s business, to the point whereby everything you see and make has to be broken down and calculated in terms of its pace and rhythmic weight. I like directors and films that look like they’ve thought about that a bit. As for fashion, I’m not consistent; I just like clothes that talk about something bigger than clothes. I think Ziad, McQueen and Leigh Bowery have/had that covered.

What advice would you have for budding fashion film makers?
Make them; it’s very simple. Although I stole that from a very clever friend!

To see more of Marnie’s videos, visit her Vimeo page.
In the run up to London Fashion Week, we’ll be catching up with Ziad Ghanem. Keep an eye out!

Categories ,Alexander McQueen, ,baroque, ,chanel, ,couture, ,fashion, ,film, ,goldsmiths, ,Jme, ,Karl Lagerfeld, ,Lana Hughes, ,Leigh Bowery, ,london, ,Marnie Hollande, ,Nick Knight, ,PVC, ,Romanticism, ,Showstudio, ,Vimeo, ,Ziad Ghanem

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Amelia’s Magazine | An Interview with Jewellery Designer Kate Sibley, talking about her ‘Future Jewellery’ Collection

Kate Sibley Jewellery by Laura Griffin
Kate Sibley Jewellery by Laura Griffin

When I first looked at images of Kate Sibley’s stone ‘paper’ Future Jewellery I was reminded of a gorgeous book I fell in love with a few years ago called ‘The Paper Jewelry Collection: Easy to wear and ready to make pop out artwear’. It features beautiful patterns printed on variously shaped paper which you can remove from the book and fold in different ways to create eye catching jewellery pieces. I still have this book and, like Kate Sibley’s jewellery, find it hugely inspiring. Both push boundaries in terms of what form jewellery pieces can have and what materials they are made of – the latter being especially crucial at the moment in terms of sustainability. The limited edition pieces by Kate Sibley are transitory and deliberately have a short lifespan, agreeing with the fast fashion trend. Yet the jewellery, made from non-toxic stone ‘paper’, can be infinitely recycled or safely composted at the end of its life, leaving no negative imprint on the environment. Here Kate Sibley shares with us a little about the context, inspirations and processes behind her origami-like jewellery collection.

Kate Sibley Jewellery Necklaces group

You started out as a graphic designer, how did you become interested in jewellery design specifically and decide to do an MA at Central Saint Martins?
My undergraduate degree was in eco design and design studies at Goldsmiths College where my final piece was in fact a jewellery collection. The graphics route was purely by chance and a result of the experience I gained on work placements while still at university. It became a logical career path upon graduation as it gave me the opportunity to make money as a practicing designer. After several years of full time employment I took the step to become a freelance graphic designer which enabled me to focus more on other creative interests including my jewellery. I then applied to continue my studies at Central St Martins as it would provide me with a network of mentors and place me in a stimulating environment to further develop my ideas.

Kate Sibley Necklace
Kate Sibley Necklace
How does your graphic design background influence your jewellery collections?
My decision to work with paper for my latest collection was born out of my desire to question the fast fashion industry and explore sustainable materials and systems. After a year of intensive materials research the logical path took me to the stone paper I use today. Having a deep knowledge of graphics and print enabled me to really explore a unique approach to my jewellery where I had very few restrictions. I could explore, colour, tone, pattern and form in a way that you can’t with traditional jewellery making processes. It also had its problems as it makes it incredibly hard to make decisions when your options are endless so you need to be confident in your ideas and follow them through with conviction.

Kate Sibley Jewellery by Isher Dhiman
Kate Sibley Jewellery by Isher Dhiman

Could you tell us a bit more about the ‘Cradle to Cradle’ theory and closed loop systems and the influence they’ve had on your work?
The term Cradle to Cradle refers to a designed system where commercial productivity and sustainability can co-exist and benefit one another. This is achieved by ensuring that products and materials are designed to fit onto a biological and/or a technical system – closed loop. A biological system refers to materials that can harmlessly decompose and return to the earth providing nourishment rather than toxic landfill, whereas a technical system is one based on materials being reprocessed repeatedly without degradation or any loss in quality. Cradle to Cradle has influenced my work greatly. What I like is that it provides a rational and practical solution to a sustainable future whilst celebrating abundance and creativity. Rather than the consumer being half-heartedly encouraged to change their consumer behavior, the ball is firmly in the court of designers and manufacturers to design better products. It is a challenge, but designers like myself thrive on creative challenges.
My current collection is designed with materials that fit within both a biological and a technical cycle.

Kate Sibley Pin
Where do you source the paper from which your current collection is made?
I source the paper from a supplier in Europe as it is not available in the UK.

v
Kate Sibley Jewellery by Polly Stopforth

Where did you learn to fold so beautifully and by what process do you apply the eye catching patterns and colours on the pieces?
Strangely I’ve always had a fascination with folding paper. I think it’s something to do with pushing a material to its limits and really exploring it’s potential. The techniques and folds I’ve used to produce this collection have all been developed by myself as a way to overcome design issues and to form the shapes and structures I wanted. The colour and patterns are screen printed by myself.

Kate Sibley Necklace
You are the co-director of the design studio Sibley Grove with your husband Jeremy Grove. How do the other design disciplines the studio is involved in impact your jewellery work? Is working with diverse worlds helping your creative juices?
Running the design studio alongside developing my jewellery collections is hard work, but I enjoy it as I thrive on being busy and productive. We work across several disciplines, interior design, architecture, graphics and product, and I find all of these areas inspire my jewellery because they expose me to materials and processes I might not otherwise come across. The jewellery also positively influences the rest of the work our studio does, because it is a platform to be more experimental and try new things, but on a smaller scale.

Kate Sibley Future Jewellery Necklace by Shy Illustrations
Kate Sibley Future Jewellery Necklace by Shy Illustrations

In terms of fashion and jewellery design what are your inspirations?
My inspirations for this collection have mainly come from the art deco architecture of downtown Manhattan, where I am particularly attracted to the repeat patterns that are made with tiling, patterns cast into building facades and the forms made by railings and ironwork. In general though, my inspirations can come from anywhere, from the detailing on a train seat, to the beauty of an insects wing.

Kate Sibley Earrings
Kate Sibley Earrings
Kate Sibley Earrings
For your near future collections do you plan to explore more folding techniques and continue the use of ‘paper’ or can you reveal some more sustainable materials you have in mind using?
This collection of earrings will evolve into other shapes and colours, which will be released each fashion season, but all future pieces will fit into the universal earring clasp. I am interested in exploring other ways of printing on and texturing the surface of the paper material, and feel there is great potential to explore this further. I intend for the collection to grow and to release necklaces, bangles and brooches in the future. I am always researching new and interesting materials and have a growing collection which I will certainly experiment with in the future.

Kate Sibley Jewellery by Katie Allen
Kate Sibley Jewellery by Katie Allen

How could one become the owner of one of your beautiful pieces?
At the moment I am accepting commissions to produce bespoke pieces of any scale. This specific collection will be launched for sale in the new year and you will be able to buy pieces through a number of galleries and shops. You can contact us through our website www.sibleygrove.com, or at studio@sibleygrove.com to be added to our mailing list for further updates, or to talk about commissioning possibilities.

Categories ,Central Saint Martins, ,colour, ,Cradle to Cradle, ,Designer’s Block, ,Earrings, ,Eco-Design, ,fashion, ,Fast Fashion, ,Folding, ,geometric, ,Gold Leaf, ,goldsmiths, ,Graphic Design, ,Isher Dhiman, ,jewellery, ,Jewellery Collection, ,Kate Sibley, ,Katie Allen, ,Laura Griffin, ,Maria Papadimitriou, ,Necklaces, ,origami, ,paper, ,pattern, ,Polly Stopforth, ,Printing, ,screenprinting, ,Shy Illustrations, ,Sibley Grove, ,Stone Paper, ,Sustainable Fashion, ,Sustainable Materilas

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Amelia’s Magazine | An interview with Think Act Vote

Most bands have a shelf life, purchase especially the ones who are hyped. Although a review like “The first band in a decade to lay serious claim to the Stone Roses throne” (The Guardian) can put you in good stead when you’re starting out, it can also set you en route to Destination Doomsville, burdening you with a reputation you simply can’t live up to.

British indie rock band Delays have so far managed to fend themselves of this curse. They have gone from strength to strength following the release of their debut album ‘Faded Seaside Glamour’ in 2004 to critical acclaim. Six years on, the four-piece are set to release their forth album, ‘Star Tiger, Star Ariel’ produced by Duncan Lewis who worked on their first album.

In a tiny room in the basement of music venue Water Rats in King’s Cross – decorated with blue and white fairy lights, a few old shelves and an enormous abstract painting – I join spiritual front man Greg Gilbert (GG) and down-to-earth drummer Rowley (R) before they take the stage at their sold out London gig to talk about their latest album, town criers and livin’ it up at Glastonbury over lime-flavoured Doritos

How would you describe your new album in three words?
GG: Rustic, organic and psychedelic
R: I don’t like organic, it sounds a bit vegetably
GG: OK then; rustic, psychedelic and melancholic
R: Yeah, that sounds better – I second that emotion
GG: Or we could say “Our. Best. Album” – three words – succinct and to the point

What has inspired your latest album?
GG: Our last album had a lot of orchestral arrangements and there was a real urge between the four of us to strip the sound back and become a four-piece band again. With that in mind we started to go for long drives at night along the New Forest, making music to soundtrack the journey. We built the record from the ground up and it was just a case of being inspired by the environment opposed to any concerns about writing a single. We banned the words ‘single’ and ‘commercial’ from the studio.
R: We used to do it all the time; we would say: “I think this one’s a single”, which makes you approach making music differently. We spent a lot of time in Southampton, reacquainting ourselves with the city and each other again, which does come through on the record. The result is a much more personal and honest sound.

How have you found the audience’s response to the new material so far?
GG: We’ve found that people who wouldn’t have liked our previous stuff have been positive about the new album. They’re responding to the fact that it’s a more personal record – they’re getting from it more from us as individuals then a commodity. So far, the people who have heard our record think it’s the best one.
R: The new tracks are going down just as well as our old stuff. It’s a great feeling when the roar for a new song is as enthusiastic as for an old song, like ‘Long Time Coming’.

How do you think your sound has changed over the years?

GG: The first album sounds like a beach, the second album sounds like a club, the third album sounds like a festival and this album sounds like the forest, with the roots growing underneath the city at night making the buildings shake whilst you’re asleep. The first album is quite delicate because we recorded that before we toured so there was a certain amount of discovery. For the second album we worked with Graham Sutton who is genius producer; he brought a real club edge to the record which had a raw but beautiful precision about it.
R: We wrote the third album with the approach that it would be amazing at a festival; it’s big and bombastic and sounds like you’re playing it to 100,000 people rather then making a record for headphones.
GG: This album’s much more abstract; you can hear this on a beach in Scandinavia at two in the morning with mist flowing in the morning. We were trying to create a record which maintained a mood and an atmosphere which carries you into different surroundings. I think the best records take you to different worlds and that’s what we tried to emulate.
R: It’s not necessarily one genre of music. There’s a certain atmosphere which you can’t quite put your finger on, but it works for late night drives with aerial views over the city.

What’s your proudest achievement to date?
GG: To me it’s the fact that we’re about to release our fourth album and our songs are still playing on the radio. Very few bands get to make four albums so that makes me feel very proud. We’ve been around since 2004 and we’ve managed to sustain and grow our fan base in a way that has been pure because there is no hype now around what we do.

What’s the best gig you’ve ever played?
R: I’ve been going to Glastonbury for years so to play there was amazing. I was really ill on the day and I came so close to calling the others to say I couldn’t do it, but by the time it came to going on stage I’d never felt so healthy in all my life – Glastonbury has that effect, it wakes you up. There was another time when we played in Mexico City; we were headlining on one of the nights at a festival called ‘Manifest’ and we had no idea how big it was going to be. There were 6,000 people crammed into a wrestling/bullfighting arena all chanting ‘Delays, Delays!”. We were slightly in shock for the first couple of numbers.

Did you have any ridiculous demands on your rider in the early days that you don’t feel embarrassed about fessing up to now?
R: I don’t think our rider has changed much since the start; just the same stuff: vodka, beer, water bottles. In the beginning we did have one thing that we thought would be great to collect, which was to have a picture of the local mayor from every town where we played. The only one we got in the end was from Gloucester where they gave us a picture of the town crier which they also got signed – that was ace!

Now that you have played with your long-term idols the Manic Street Preachers, who would you most like to support?
GG: I always come back to Prince. I’m also pretty obsessed with Scott Walker at the moment – he’s the musician I most admire. I’m not sure how we’d go down with his audience but he’s awesome.
R: It’s still The (Rolling) Stones for me. Apparently we did get an offer to support them in Vienna about three years ago but we were already booked in for a festival in Wales on the same day.
GG: Keith Richards is pretty much top of the tree when it comes to rock and roll. Hopefully the opportunity will come up again…

The Delays release their fourth album ‘Star Tiger, Star Ariel on 21st June 2010 on Lookout Mountain Records, preceded by the debut track ‘Unsung’ on 14th June.


Most bands have a shelf life, web especially the ones who are hyped. Although a review like “The first band in a decade to lay serious claim to the Stone Roses throne” (The Guardian) can put you in good stead when you’re starting out, it can also set you en route to Destination Doomsville, burdening you with a reputation you simply can’t live up to.

British indie rock band Delays have so far managed to fend themselves of this curse. They have gone from strength to strength following the release of their debut album ‘Faded Seaside Glamour’ in 2004 to critical acclaim. Six years on, the four-piece are set to release their forth album, ‘Star Tiger, Star Ariel’ produced by Duncan Lewis who worked on their first album.

In a tiny room in the basement of music venue Water Rats in King’s Cross – decorated with blue and white fairy lights, a few old shelves and an enormous abstract painting – I join spiritual front man Greg Gilbert (GG) and down-to-earth drummer Rowley (R) before they take the stage at their sold out London gig to talk about their latest album, town criers and livin’ it up at Glastonbury over lime-flavoured Doritos

How would you describe your new album in three words?
GG: Rustic, organic and psychedelic
R: I don’t like organic, it sounds a bit vegetably
GG: OK then; rustic, psychedelic and melancholic
R: Yeah, that sounds better – I second that emotion
GG: Or we could say “Our. Best. Album” – three words – succinct and to the point

What has inspired your latest album?
GG: Our last album had a lot of orchestral arrangements and there was a real urge between the four of us to strip the sound back and become a four-piece band again. With that in mind we started to go for long drives at night along the New Forest, making music to soundtrack the journey. We built the record from the ground up and it was just a case of being inspired by the environment opposed to any concerns about writing a single. We banned the words ‘single’ and ‘commercial’ from the studio.
R: We used to do it all the time; we would say: “I think this one’s a single”, which makes you approach making music differently. We spent a lot of time in Southampton, reacquainting ourselves with the city and each other again, which does come through on the record. The result is a much more personal and honest sound.

How have you found the audience’s response to the new material so far?
GG: We’ve found that people who wouldn’t have liked our previous stuff have been positive about the new album. They’re responding to the fact that it’s a more personal record – they’re getting from it more from us as individuals then a commodity. So far, the people who have heard our record think it’s the best one.
R: The new tracks are going down just as well as our old stuff. It’s a great feeling when the roar for a new song is as enthusiastic as for an old song, like ‘Long Time Coming’.

How do you think your sound has changed over the years?

GG: The first album sounds like a beach, the second album sounds like a club, the third album sounds like a festival and this album sounds like the forest, with the roots growing underneath the city at night making the buildings shake whilst you’re asleep. The first album is quite delicate because we recorded that before we toured so there was a certain amount of discovery. For the second album we worked with Graham Sutton who is genius producer; he brought a real club edge to the record which had a raw but beautiful precision about it.
R: We wrote the third album with the approach that it would be amazing at a festival; it’s big and bombastic and sounds like you’re playing it to 100,000 people rather then making a record for headphones.
GG: This album’s much more abstract; you can hear this on a beach in Scandinavia at two in the morning with mist flowing in the morning. We were trying to create a record which maintained a mood and an atmosphere which carries you into different surroundings. I think the best records take you to different worlds and that’s what we tried to emulate.
R: It’s not necessarily one genre of music. There’s a certain atmosphere which you can’t quite put your finger on, but it works for late night drives with aerial views over the city.

What’s your proudest achievement to date?
GG: To me it’s the fact that we’re about to release our fourth album and our songs are still playing on the radio. Very few bands get to make four albums so that makes me feel very proud. We’ve been around since 2004 and we’ve managed to sustain and grow our fan base in a way that has been pure because there is no hype now around what we do.

What’s the best gig you’ve ever played?
R: I’ve been going to Glastonbury for years so to play there was amazing. I was really ill on the day and I came so close to calling the others to say I couldn’t do it, but by the time it came to going on stage I’d never felt so healthy in all my life – Glastonbury has that effect, it wakes you up. There was another time when we played in Mexico City; we were headlining on one of the nights at a festival called ‘Manifest’ and we had no idea how big it was going to be. There were 6,000 people crammed into a wrestling/bullfighting arena all chanting ‘Delays, Delays!”. We were slightly in shock for the first couple of numbers.

Did you have any ridiculous demands on your rider in the early days that you don’t feel embarrassed about fessing up to now?
R: I don’t think our rider has changed much since the start; just the same stuff: vodka, beer, water bottles. In the beginning we did have one thing that we thought would be great to collect, which was to have a picture of the local mayor from every town where we played. The only one we got in the end was from Gloucester where they gave us a picture of the town crier which they also got signed – that was ace!

Now that you have played with your long-term idols the Manic Street Preachers, who would you most like to support?
GG: I always come back to Prince. I’m also pretty obsessed with Scott Walker at the moment – he’s the musician I most admire. I’m not sure how we’d go down with his audience but he’s awesome.
R: It’s still The (Rolling) Stones for me. Apparently we did get an offer to support them in Vienna about three years ago but we were already booked in for a festival in Wales on the same day.
GG: Keith Richards is pretty much top of the tree when it comes to rock and roll. Hopefully the opportunity will come up again…

Delays release their fourth album ‘Star Tiger, Star Ariel on 21st June 2010 on Lookout Mountain Records, preceded by the debut track ‘Unsung’ on 14th June.


Most bands have a shelf life, healing especially the ones who are hyped. Although a review like: “The first band in a decade to lay serious claim to the Stone Roses throne” (The Guardian) can put you in good stead while you’re starting out, drugs it can also set you en route Destination Doomsville, burdening you with a reputation you simply can’t live up to.

British indie rock band Delays have so far managed to fend themselves of this curse. They have gone from strength to strength following the release of their debut album ‘Faded Seaside Glamour’ in 2004 to critical acclaim. Six years on, the four-piece are set to release their forth album, ‘Star Tiger, Star Ariel’ produced by Duncan Lewis who worked on their first album.

In a tiny room in the basement of music venue Water Rats in King’s Cross – decorated with blue and white fairy lights, a few old shelves and an enormous abstract painting – I join spiritual front man Greg Gilbert (GG) and down-to-earth drummer Rowley (R) before they take the stage at their sold out London gig to talk about their latest album, town criers and livin’ it up at Glastonbury over lime-flavoured Doritos

How would you describe your new album in three words?
GG: Rustic, organic and psychedelic
R: I don’t like organic, it sounds a bit vegetably
GG: OK then; rustic, psychedelic and melancholic
R: Yeah, that sounds better – I second that emotion
GG: Or we could say “Our. Best. Album” – three words – succinct and to the point

What has inspired your latest album?
GG: Our last album had a lot of orchestral arrangements and there was a real urge between the four of us to strip the sound back and become a four-piece band again. With that in mind we started to go for long drives at night along the New Forest, making music to soundtrack the journey. We built the record from the ground up and it was just a case of being inspired by the environment opposed to any concerns about writing a single. We banned the words ‘single’ and ‘commercial’ from the studio.
R: We used to do it all the time; we would say: “I think this one’s a single”, which makes you approach making music differently. We spent a lot of time in Southampton, reacquainting ourselves with the city and each other again, which does come through on the record. The result is a much more personal and honest sound.

How have you found the audience’s response to the new material so far?
GG: We’ve found that people who wouldn’t have liked our previous stuff have been positive about the new album. They’re responding to the fact that it’s a more personal record – they’re getting from it more from us as individuals then a commodity. So far, the people who have heard our record think it’s the best one.
R: The new tracks are going down just as well as our old stuff. It’s a great feeling when the roar for a new song is as enthusiastic as for an old song, like ‘Long Time Coming’.

How do you think your sound has changed over the years?

GG: The first album sounds like a beach, the second album sounds like a club, the third album sounds like a festival and this album sounds like the forest, with the roots growing underneath the city at night making the buildings shake whilst you’re asleep. The first album is quite delicate because we recorded that before we toured so there was a certain amount of discovery. For the second album we worked with Graham Sutton who is genius producer; he brought a real club edge to the record which had a raw but beautiful precision about it.
R: We wrote the third album with the approach that it would be amazing at a festival; it’s big and bombastic and sounds like you’re playing it to 100,000 people rather then making a record for headphones.
GG: This album’s much more abstract; you can hear this on a beach in Scandinavia at two in the morning with mist flowing in the morning. We were trying to create a record which maintained a mood and an atmosphere which carries you into different surroundings. I think the best records take you to different worlds and that’s what we tried to emulate.
R: It’s not necessarily one genre of music. There’s a certain atmosphere which you can’t quite put your finger on, but it works for late night drives with aerial views over the city.

What’s your proudest achievement to date?
GG: To me it’s the fact that we’re about to release our fourth album and our songs are still playing on the radio. Very few bands get to make four albums so that makes me feel very proud. We’ve been around since 2004 and we’ve managed to sustain and grow our fan base in a way that has been pure because there is no hype now around what we do.

What’s the best gig you’ve ever played?
R: I’ve been going to Glastonbury for years so to play there was amazing. I was really ill on the day and I came so close to calling the others to say I couldn’t do it, but by the time it came to going on stage I’d never felt so healthy in all my life – Glastonbury has that effect, it wakes you up. There was another time when we played in Mexico City; we were headlining on one of the nights at a festival called ‘Manifest’ and we had no idea how big it was going to be. There were 6,000 people crammed into a wrestling/bullfighting arena all chanting ‘Delays, Delays!”. We were slightly in shock for the first couple of numbers.

Did you have any ridiculous demands on your rider in the early days that you don’t feel embarrassed about fessing up to now?
R: I don’t think our rider has changed much since the start; just the same stuff: vodka, beer, water bottles. In the beginning we did have one thing that we thought would be great to collect, which was to have a picture of the local mayor from every town where we played. The only one we got in the end was from Gloucester where they gave us a picture of the town crier which they also got signed – that was ace!

Now that you have played with your long-term idols the Manic Street Preachers, who would you most like to support?
GG: I always come back to Prince. I’m also pretty obsessed with Scott Walker at the moment – he’s the musician I most admire. I’m not sure how we’d go down with his audience but he’s awesome.
R: It’s still The (Rolling) Stones for me. Apparently we did get an offer to support them in Vienna about three years ago but we were already booked in for a festival in Wales on the same day.
GG: Keith Richards is pretty much top of the tree when it comes to rock and roll. Hopefully the opportunity will come up again…

Delays release their fourth album ‘Star Tiger, Star Ariel on 21st June 2010 on Lookout Mountain Records, preceded by the debut track ‘Unsung’ on 14th June.


Most bands have a shelf life, medical especially the ones who are hyped. Although a review like: “The first band in a decade to lay serious claim to the Stone Roses throne” (The Guardian) can put you in good stead while you’re starting out, cialis 40mg it can also set you en route Destination Doomsville, sildenafil burdening you with a reputation you simply can’t live up to.

British indie rock band Delays have so far managed to fend themselves of this curse. They have gone from strength to strength following the release of their debut album ‘Faded Seaside Glamour’ in 2004 to critical acclaim. Six years on, the four-piece are set to release their forth album, ‘Star Tiger, Star Ariel’ produced by Duncan Lewis who worked on their first album.

In a tiny room in the basement of music venue Water Rats in King’s Cross – decorated with blue and white fairy lights, a few old shelves and an enormous abstract painting – I join spiritual front man Greg Gilbert (GG) and down-to-earth drummer Rowley (R) before they take the stage at their sold out London gig to talk about their latest album, town criers and livin’ it up at Glastonbury over lime-flavoured Doritos

How would you describe your new album in three words?
GG: Rustic, organic and psychedelic
R: I don’t like organic, it sounds a bit vegetably
GG: OK then; rustic, psychedelic and melancholic
R: Yeah, that sounds better – I second that emotion
GG: Or we could say “Our. Best. Album” – three words – succinct and to the point

What has inspired your latest album?
GG: Our last album had a lot of orchestral arrangements and there was a real urge between the four of us to strip the sound back and become a four-piece band again. With that in mind we started to go for long drives at night along the New Forest, making music to soundtrack the journey. We built the record from the ground up and it was just a case of being inspired by the environment opposed to any concerns about writing a single. We banned the words ‘single’ and ‘commercial’ from the studio.
R: We used to do it all the time; we would say: “I think this one’s a single”, which makes you approach making music differently. We spent a lot of time in Southampton, reacquainting ourselves with the city and each other again, which does come through on the record. The result is a much more personal and honest sound.

How have you found the audience’s response to the new material so far?
GG: We’ve found that people who wouldn’t have liked our previous stuff have been positive about the new album. They’re responding to the fact that it’s a more personal record – they’re getting from it more from us as individuals then a commodity. So far, the people who have heard our record think it’s the best one.
R: The new tracks are going down just as well as our old stuff. It’s a great feeling when the roar for a new song is as enthusiastic as for an old song, like ‘Long Time Coming’.

How do you think your sound has changed over the years?

GG: The first album sounds like a beach, the second album sounds like a club, the third album sounds like a festival and this album sounds like the forest, with the roots growing underneath the city at night making the buildings shake whilst you’re asleep. The first album is quite delicate because we recorded that before we toured so there was a certain amount of discovery. For the second album we worked with Graham Sutton who is genius producer; he brought a real club edge to the record which had a raw but beautiful precision about it.
R: We wrote the third album with the approach that it would be amazing at a festival; it’s big and bombastic and sounds like you’re playing it to 100,000 people rather then making a record for headphones.
GG: This album’s much more abstract; you can hear this on a beach in Scandinavia at two in the morning with mist flowing in the morning. We were trying to create a record which maintained a mood and an atmosphere which carries you into different surroundings. I think the best records take you to different worlds and that’s what we tried to emulate.
R: It’s not necessarily one genre of music. There’s a certain atmosphere which you can’t quite put your finger on, but it works for late night drives with aerial views over the city.

What’s your proudest achievement to date?
GG: To me it’s the fact that we’re about to release our fourth album and our songs are still playing on the radio. Very few bands get to make four albums so that makes me feel very proud. We’ve been around since 2004 and we’ve managed to sustain and grow our fan base in a way that has been pure because there is no hype now around what we do.

What’s the best gig you’ve ever played?
R: I’ve been going to Glastonbury for years so to play there was amazing. I was really ill on the day and I came so close to calling the others to say I couldn’t do it, but by the time it came to going on stage I’d never felt so healthy in all my life – Glastonbury has that effect, it wakes you up. There was another time when we played in Mexico City; we were headlining on one of the nights at a festival called ‘Manifest’ and we had no idea how big it was going to be. There were 6,000 people crammed into a wrestling/bullfighting arena all chanting ‘Delays, Delays!”. We were slightly in shock for the first couple of numbers.

Did you have any ridiculous demands on your rider in the early days that you don’t feel embarrassed about fessing up to now?
R: I don’t think our rider has changed much since the start; just the same stuff: vodka, beer, water bottles. In the beginning we did have one thing that we thought would be great to collect, which was to have a picture of the local mayor from every town where we played. The only one we got in the end was from Gloucester where they gave us a picture of the town crier which they also got signed – that was ace!

Now that you have played with your long-term idols the Manic Street Preachers, who would you most like to support?
GG: I always come back to Prince. I’m also pretty obsessed with Scott Walker at the moment – he’s the musician I most admire. I’m not sure how we’d go down with his audience but he’s awesome.
R: It’s still The (Rolling) Stones for me. Apparently we did get an offer to support them in Vienna about three years ago but we were already booked in for a festival in Wales on the same day.
GG: Keith Richards is pretty much top of the tree when it comes to rock and roll. Hopefully the opportunity will come up again…

Delays release their fourth album ‘Star Tiger, Star Ariel on 21st June 2010 on Lookout Mountain Records, preceded by the debut track ‘Unsung’ on 14th June.


Most bands have a shelf life, doctor especially the ones who are hyped. Although a review like: “The first band in a decade to lay serious claim to the Stone Roses throne” (The Guardian) can put you in good stead while you’re starting out, it can also set you en route Destination Doomsville, burdening you with a reputation you simply can’t live up to.

British indie rock band Delays have so far managed to fend themselves of this curse. They have gone from strength to strength following the release of their debut album ‘Faded Seaside Glamour’ in 2004 to critical acclaim. Six years on, the four-piece are set to release their forth album, ‘Star Tiger, Star Ariel’ produced by Duncan Lewis who worked on their first album.

In a tiny room in the basement of music venue Water Rats in King’s Cross – decorated with blue and white fairy lights, a few old shelves and an enormous abstract painting – I join spiritual front man Greg Gilbert (GG) and down-to-earth drummer Rowley (R) before they take the stage at their sold out London gig to talk about their latest album, town criers and livin’ it up at Glastonbury over lime-flavoured Doritos

How would you describe your new album in three words?
GG: Rustic, organic and psychedelic
R: I don’t like organic, it sounds a bit vegetably
GG: OK then; rustic, psychedelic and melancholic
R: Yeah, that sounds better – I second that emotion
GG: Or we could say “Our. Best. Album” – three words – succinct and to the point

What has inspired your latest album?
GG: Our last album had a lot of orchestral arrangements and there was a real urge between the four of us to strip the sound back and become a four-piece band again. With that in mind we started to go for long drives at night along the New Forest, making music to soundtrack the journey. We built the record from the ground up and it was just a case of being inspired by the environment opposed to any concerns about writing a single. We banned the words ‘single’ and ‘commercial’ from the studio.
R: We used to do it all the time; we would say: “I think this one’s a single”, which makes you approach making music differently. We spent a lot of time in Southampton, reacquainting ourselves with the city and each other again, which does come through on the record. The result is a much more personal and honest sound.

How have you found the audience’s response to the new material so far?
GG: We’ve found that people who wouldn’t have liked our previous stuff have been positive about the new album. They’re responding to the fact that it’s a more personal record – they’re getting from it more from us as individuals then a commodity. So far, the people who have heard our record think it’s the best one.
R: The new tracks are going down just as well as our old stuff. It’s a great feeling when the roar for a new song is as enthusiastic as for an old song, like ‘Long Time Coming’.

How do you think your sound has changed over the years?

GG: The first album sounds like a beach, the second album sounds like a club, the third album sounds like a festival and this album sounds like the forest, with the roots growing underneath the city at night making the buildings shake whilst you’re asleep. The first album is quite delicate because we recorded that before we toured so there was a certain amount of discovery. For the second album we worked with Graham Sutton who is genius producer; he brought a real club edge to the record which had a raw but beautiful precision about it.
R: We wrote the third album with the approach that it would be amazing at a festival; it’s big and bombastic and sounds like you’re playing it to 100,000 people rather then making a record for headphones.
GG: This album’s much more abstract; you can hear this on a beach in Scandinavia at two in the morning with mist flowing in the morning. We were trying to create a record which maintained a mood and an atmosphere which carries you into different surroundings. I think the best records take you to different worlds and that’s what we tried to emulate.
R: It’s not necessarily one genre of music. There’s a certain atmosphere which you can’t quite put your finger on, but it works for late night drives with aerial views over the city.

What’s your proudest achievement to date?
GG: To me it’s the fact that we’re about to release our fourth album and our songs are still playing on the radio. Very few bands get to make four albums so that makes me feel very proud. We’ve been around since 2004 and we’ve managed to sustain and grow our fan base in a way that has been pure because there is no hype now around what we do.

What’s the best gig you’ve ever played?
R: I’ve been going to Glastonbury for years so to play there was amazing. I was really ill on the day and I came so close to calling the others to say I couldn’t do it, but by the time it came to going on stage I’d never felt so healthy in all my life – Glastonbury has that effect, it wakes you up. There was another time when we played in Mexico City; we were headlining on one of the nights at a festival called ‘Manifest’ and we had no idea how big it was going to be. There were 6,000 people crammed into a wrestling/bullfighting arena all chanting ‘Delays, Delays!”. We were slightly in shock for the first couple of numbers.

Did you have any ridiculous demands on your rider in the early days that you don’t feel embarrassed about fessing up to now?
R: I don’t think our rider has changed much since the start; just the same stuff: vodka, beer, water bottles. In the beginning we did have one thing that we thought would be great to collect, which was to have a picture of the local mayor from every town where we played. The only one we got in the end was from Gloucester where they gave us a picture of the town crier which they also got signed – that was ace!

Now that you have played with your long-term idols the Manic Street Preachers, who would you most like to support?
GG: I always come back to Prince. I’m also pretty obsessed with Scott Walker at the moment – he’s the musician I most admire. I’m not sure how we’d go down with his audience but he’s awesome.
R: It’s still The (Rolling) Stones for me. Apparently we did get an offer to support them in Vienna about three years ago but we were already booked in for a festival in Wales on the same day.
GG: Keith Richards is pretty much top of the tree when it comes to rock and roll. Hopefully the opportunity will come up again…

Delays release their fourth album ‘Star Tiger, Star Ariel on 21st June 2010 on Lookout Mountain Records, preceded by the debut track ‘Unsung’ on 14th June.


Most bands have a shelf life, sildenafil especially the ones who are hyped. Although a review like: “The first band in a decade to lay serious claim to the Stone Roses throne” (The Guardian) can put you in good stead while you’re starting out, this site it can also set you en route Destination Doomsville, burdening you with a reputation you simply can’t live up to.

British indie rock band Delays have so far managed to fend themselves of this curse. They have gone from strength to strength following the release of their debut album ‘Faded Seaside Glamour’ in 2004 to critical acclaim. Six years on, the four-piece are set to release their forth album, ‘Star Tiger, Star Ariel’ produced by Duncan Lewis who worked on their first album.

In a tiny room in the basement of music venue Water Rats in King’s Cross – decorated with blue and white fairy lights, a few old shelves and an enormous abstract painting – I join spiritual front man Greg Gilbert (GG) and down-to-earth drummer Rowley (R) before they take the stage at their sold out London gig to talk about their latest album, town criers and livin’ it up at Glastonbury over lime-flavoured Doritos

How would you describe your new album in three words?
GG: Rustic, organic and psychedelic
R: I don’t like organic, it sounds a bit vegetably
GG: OK then; rustic, psychedelic and melancholic
R: Yeah, that sounds better – I second that emotion
GG: Or we could say “Our. Best. Album” – three words – succinct and to the point

What has inspired your latest album?
GG: Our last album had a lot of orchestral arrangements and there was a real urge between the four of us to strip the sound back and become a four-piece band again. With that in mind we started to go for long drives at night along the New Forest, making music to soundtrack the journey. We built the record from the ground up and it was just a case of being inspired by the environment opposed to any concerns about writing a single. We banned the words ‘single’ and ‘commercial’ from the studio.
R: We used to do it all the time; we would say: “I think this one’s a single”, which makes you approach making music differently. We spent a lot of time in Southampton, reacquainting ourselves with the city and each other again, which does come through on the record. The result is a much more personal and honest sound.

How have you found the audience’s response to the new material so far?
GG: We’ve found that people who wouldn’t have liked our previous stuff have been positive about the new album. They’re responding to the fact that it’s a more personal record – they’re getting from it more from us as individuals then a commodity. So far, the people who have heard our record think it’s the best one.
R: The new tracks are going down just as well as our old stuff. It’s a great feeling when the roar for a new song is as enthusiastic as for an old song, like ‘Long Time Coming’.

How do you think your sound has changed over the years?

GG: The first album sounds like a beach, the second album sounds like a club, the third album sounds like a festival and this album sounds like the forest, with the roots growing underneath the city at night making the buildings shake whilst you’re asleep. The first album is quite delicate because we recorded that before we toured so there was a certain amount of discovery. For the second album we worked with Graham Sutton who is genius producer; he brought a real club edge to the record which had a raw but beautiful precision about it.
R: We wrote the third album with the approach that it would be amazing at a festival; it’s big and bombastic and sounds like you’re playing it to 100,000 people rather then making a record for headphones.
GG: This album’s much more abstract; you can hear this on a beach in Scandinavia at two in the morning with mist flowing in the morning. We were trying to create a record which maintained a mood and an atmosphere which carries you into different surroundings. I think the best records take you to different worlds and that’s what we tried to emulate.
R: It’s not necessarily one genre of music. There’s a certain atmosphere which you can’t quite put your finger on, but it works for late night drives with aerial views over the city.

What’s your proudest achievement to date?
GG: To me it’s the fact that we’re about to release our fourth album and our songs are still playing on the radio. Very few bands get to make four albums so that makes me feel very proud. We’ve been around since 2004 and we’ve managed to sustain and grow our fan base in a way that has been pure because there is no hype now around what we do.

What’s the best gig you’ve ever played?
R: I’ve been going to Glastonbury for years so to play there was amazing. I was really ill on the day and I came so close to calling the others to say I couldn’t do it, but by the time it came to going on stage I’d never felt so healthy in all my life – Glastonbury has that effect, it wakes you up. There was another time when we played in Mexico City; we were headlining on one of the nights at a festival called ‘Manifest’ and we had no idea how big it was going to be. There were 6,000 people crammed into a wrestling/bullfighting arena all chanting ‘Delays, Delays!”. We were slightly in shock for the first couple of numbers.

Did you have any ridiculous demands on your rider in the early days that you don’t feel embarrassed about fessing up to now?
R: I don’t think our rider has changed much since the start; just the same stuff: vodka, beer, water bottles. In the beginning we did have one thing that we thought would be great to collect, which was to have a picture of the local mayor from every town where we played. The only one we got in the end was from Gloucester where they gave us a picture of the town crier which they also got signed – that was ace!

Now that you have played with your long-term idols the Manic Street Preachers, who would you most like to support?
GG: I always come back to Prince. I’m also pretty obsessed with Scott Walker at the moment – he’s the musician I most admire. I’m not sure how we’d go down with his audience but he’s awesome.
R: It’s still The (Rolling) Stones for me. Apparently we did get an offer to support them in Vienna about three years ago but we were already booked in for a festival in Wales on the same day.
GG: Keith Richards is pretty much top of the tree when it comes to rock and roll. Hopefully the opportunity will come up again…

Delays release their fourth album ‘Star Tiger, Star Ariel on 21st June 2010 on Lookout Mountain Records, preceded by the debut track ‘Unsung’ on 14th June.


Most bands have a shelf life, link especially the ones who are hyped. Although a review like: “The first band in a decade to lay serious claim to the Stone Roses throne” (The Guardian) can put you in good stead while you’re starting out, it can also set you en route Destination Doomsville, burdening you with a reputation you simply can’t live up to.

British indie rock band Delays have so far managed to beat the curse. They have gone from strength to strength following the release of their debut album ‘Faded Seaside Glamour’ in 2004. Six years on, the four-piece are set to release their forth album, ‘Star Tiger, Star Ariel’ produced by Duncan Lewis who worked on their first album.

In a tiny room in the basement of music venue Water Rats in King’s Cross – decorated with blue and white fairy lights, a few old shelves and an enormous abstract painting – I join spiritual front man Greg Gilbert (GG) and down-to-earth drummer Rowley (R) before they take the stage at their sold out London gig to talk about their latest album, town criers and livin’ it up at Glastonbury over lime-flavoured Doritos

How would you describe your new album in three words?
GG: Rustic, organic and psychedelic
R: I don’t like organic, it sounds a bit vegetably
GG: OK then; rustic, psychedelic and melancholic
R: Yeah, that sounds better – I second that emotion
GG: Or we could say “Our. Best. Album” – three words – succinct and to the point

What has inspired your latest album?
GG: Our last album had a lot of orchestral arrangements and there was a real urge between the four of us to strip the sound back and become a four-piece band again. With that in mind we started to go for long drives at night along the New Forest, making music to soundtrack the journey. We built the record from the ground up and it was just a case of being inspired by the environment opposed to any concerns about writing a single. We banned the words ‘single’ and ‘commercial’ from the studio.
R: We used to do it all the time; we would say: “I think this one’s a single”, which makes you approach making music differently. We spent a lot of time in Southampton, reacquainting ourselves with the city and each other again, which does come through on the record. The result is a much more personal and honest sound.

How have you found the audience’s response to your new material so far?
GG: We’ve found that people who wouldn’t have liked our previous stuff have been positive about the new album. They’re responding to the fact that it’s a more personal record – they’re getting from it more from us as individuals then a commodity. So far, the people who have heard our record think it’s the best one.
R: The new tracks are going down just as well as our old stuff. It’s a great feeling when the roar for a new song is as enthusiastic as for an old song, like ‘Long Time Coming’.

How do you think your sound has changed over the years?

GG: The first album sounds like a beach, the second album sounds like a club, the third album sounds like a festival and this album sounds like the forest, with the roots growing underneath the city at night making the buildings shake whilst you’re asleep. The first album is quite delicate because we recorded that before we toured so there was a certain amount of discovery. For the second album we worked with Graham Sutton who is genius producer; he brought a real club edge to the record which had a raw but beautiful precision about it.
R: We wrote the third album with the approach that it would be amazing at a festival; it’s big and bombastic and sounds like you’re playing it to 100,000 people rather then making a record for headphones.
GG: This album’s much more abstract; you can hear this on a beach in Scandinavia at two in the morning with mist flowing in the morning. We were trying to create a record which maintained a mood and an atmosphere which carries you into different surroundings. I think the best records take you to different worlds and that’s what we tried to emulate.
R: It’s not necessarily one genre of music. There’s a certain atmosphere which you can’t quite put your finger on, but it works for late night drives with aerial views over the city.

What’s your proudest achievement to date?
GG: To me it’s the fact that we’re about to release our fourth album and our songs are still playing on the radio. Very few bands get to make four albums so that makes me feel very proud. We’ve been around since 2004 and we’ve managed to sustain and grow our fan base in a way that has been pure because there is no hype now around what we do.

What’s the best gig you’ve ever played?
R: I’ve been going to Glastonbury for years so to play there was amazing. I was really ill on the day and I came so close to calling the others to say I couldn’t do it, but by the time it came to going on stage I’d never felt so healthy in all my life – Glastonbury has that effect, it wakes you up. There was another time when we played in Mexico City; we were headlining on one of the nights at a festival called ‘Manifest’ and we had no idea how big it was going to be. There were 6,000 people crammed into a wrestling/bullfighting arena all chanting ‘Delays, Delays!”. We were slightly in shock for the first couple of numbers.

Did you have any ridiculous demands on your rider in the early days that you don’t feel embarrassed about fessing up to now?
R: I don’t think our rider has changed much since the start; just the same stuff: vodka, beer, water bottles. In the beginning we did have one thing that we thought would be great to collect, which was to have a picture of the local mayor from every town where we played. The only one we got in the end was from Gloucester where they gave us a picture of the town crier which they also got signed – that was ace!

Now that you have played with your long-term idols the Manic Street Preachers, who would you most like to support?
GG: I always come back to Prince. I’m also pretty obsessed with Scott Walker at the moment – he’s the musician I most admire. I’m not sure how we’d go down with his audience but he’s awesome.
R: It’s still The (Rolling) Stones for me. Apparently we did get an offer to support them in Vienna about three years ago but we were already booked in for a festival in Wales on the same day.
GG: Keith Richards is pretty much top of the tree when it comes to rock and roll. Hopefully the opportunity will come up again…

Delays release their fourth album ‘Star Tiger, Star Ariel on 21st June 2010 on Lookout Mountain Records, preceded by the debut track ‘Unsung’ on 14th June.


Sweden is a small country but it has produced some big exports. Whether it’s infectious pop, ailment affordable furniture or fashionable, well-priced clothes (take a stab at guessing the brands!), the Swedes know what it takes to satisfy their consumers. Now if we extend these categories to ‘hip young musicians’, you’ll find that they have their bases covered here too.

We first featured Lykke Li back in February 2008 when she was just an emerging artist, relatively fresh to the gig circuit. Since then, she has well and truly established a name for herself amongst the underground and commercial elite of the music scene, building up a set of credentials to leave most of her peers looking on with green-eyed envy.

She released her debut album ‘Youth Novels‘ to critical acclaim in 2008 and has since performed with The Roots and hip hop legend Q-Tip, collaborated with Kayne West and MIA, and currently features on a track called ‘Miss It So Much’ on Roysopp’s latest album. As if that weren’t enough, she also penned the track ‘Possibility’ for the second installment of lovey-dovey vampire Twilight saga ‘New Moon’, gaining herself a healthy teen following in the process.

On the award front, Lykke’s musical talent and fashion sense have not gone unnoticed; she has received nominations for “Best Video” and “Best Female Artist” at the Swedish Grammy Awards and was voted “Best Dressed Woman” at the Swedish Elle Magazine Awards in 2009. Is there an end to this list of fabulousness?? (And she’s only 24!)

Dressed in an oversized black tassled jacket, a short black mini-skirt, bulky black boots and lashings of thick black eye make-up (and with few words), on meeting Lykke, I couldn’t help but feel that she exuded the demeanor of a slightly irked teenager.

I caught up with the Swedish starlet briefly, prior to her set at the Volvo Subject 60 launch party in London last week, for a rather intriguing interview in a drafty stairwell to talk about her international background, performing in front of big crowds and desert island necessities…

So how are you feeling about your set tonight?
Yeah, I’m looking forward to it. I’m going to do some new songs tonight which I haven’t done before. The sets are also going to be more acoustic so it will be different and quite interesting.

You’ve had a very international upbringing – have you found that this has influenced your music?

I don’t know because I’ve never known any different. I don’t know how I would write music if I only lived in one place. I feel that my music comes more from within – not so much from the outside.

Who are your biggest musical influences to date?
There are just so many. I don’t really listen to a lot of new music. I get really inspired by weird chanting, like Voodoo music. I recently found these field recordings from the 1920s which I’ve been listening to a lot.

What bands currently excite you?
I really enjoy Beach House – the singer has a great voice and their songs are very well written. I am also listening to The Big Pink and a lot too who have an interesting sound. Of course, there’s always Leonard Cohen.

How have you found the transition of playing in big venues compared to small venues?
It’s been fine although I still enjoy playing small venues the most because there’s more of an intimacy you share with your audience.

How do you find playing in front of a UK audience in comparison to a Swedish audience?
It’s kind of crazy because I almost never play in Sweden; it’s so rare. I guess every audience is different but I find that in big cities, people tend to be slightly more reserved – there’s more of an effort that people make to be cool.

What has been your most memorable gig to date?
Last summer there was a festival on an island just outside Holland so we had to take the smallest boat to get there, but it was during severe storms and the water was really rough. Everyone on the boat thought that we were going to die. And then there was the coming back part when we were super drunk in the middle of the night. It was crazy but we had a great time.

Who would you most like to work with?
Leonard Cohen as always.

What’s the best piece of advice you can offer someone starting out?
It’s hard to maintain yourself in this industry. I think the main thing I would say is to be honest and always stay true to yourself. It’s clichéd but it’s true.

What are you most looking forward to this summer?
I’m looking forward to going for a swim in the lakes in Sweden when it’s finished. It’s going to be a long summer for me as I’ll going to be in the studio for most of it. It’s exciting but I can’t sleep anymore because I’m thinking so much – my brain is working all the time.

What three items would you bring with you if you on a desert island?
A hot man, a Swiss army knife and some erotic novels by Anaïs Nin.

I always look forward to the Northumbria University BA fashion degree show for two reasons. One, shop because it’s always effing good – the innovation, pills technique and creativity on display is second to pretty much nobody at Graduate Fashion Week. Secondly, viagra dosage I studied at the university, so this review might seem like a big fat plate of bias – I assure you, though, that it isn’t.

Nestled on the front row in between Style Savage Steve and the ever wonderful Hilary Alexander (who bopped, sketched and scribbled her way through the show) I was a little concerned that my big lens (said the actress to the bishop) might block the view of either of these fashion journalists. Neither said anything though, so I think I got away with it.

Opening the show with an explosion of glam-rock-meets-Elvis-meets-Lady-Gaga, Naomi New presented a very polished micro-collection featuring exaggerated shoulders of leather, spikes and studs, and horse-hair tails. Models strutted back and forth with real sex appeal and the quality of Naomi’s craftsmanship looked, from what I could see, incredible.

The key theme in this year’s show was digital prints, and it’s a testament to the late, great Alexander McQueen’s legacy that this is such a mainstay on graduate catwalks. Faye Chamberlain’s was the most striking of collections, owing to its wild neon prints reminiscent of MIA’s Kala album cover, and blingy embellishment. Short, short dresses with spikey hips challenged the traditional constraints of the female form.

Further print patrons included the work of Sophie Dee and Ludmila Maida. Sophie Dee presented a feminine, playful collection of vibrant prints, micro shorts and bubble skirts, accessorised with childlike objects such as candy floss and helium balloons, harping back to the glory days of the seaside. Ludmila Maida’s collection was a slightly more mature one, with elegant maxi dresses in neon, gathered into sections to create flattering asymmetrical shapes.

Gemma Williamson also hopped on the print train, with her slightly eery collection making use of religious iconography.


Illustration by Gemma Williamson from her graduate work

Menswear was, as always, well represented; one of the few menswear graduates to win the prestigious Gold Award in recent years was a Northumbria student. Sara Wilson set the standard with a mixture of soft tailoring and Japanese influence – loose fitting blazers were teamed with skinny trousers and shorts, while snood-like pieces of material attempted to cover the face, giving each outfit a martial-art feel.

Louise Dickinson’s inspired outfits seemed to draw influence from historical Britain and tradition in general. An oversized Barbour-style jacket here and a triangular-shaped cape printed with a vintage map there made for a intriguing and genuinely unique collection.

But it was Caroline Rowland’s eccentric tailoring that captured my imagination the most. A bit Sebastian Flyte, a bit Dries Van Noten, it was the perfect mix of traditional tailoring and quirky design flair. Ill-fitting gingham shirts (I presume on purpose) were teamed with tucked-in waistcoats and patterned bow ties, while cropped blazers looked great with high-waisted tailored trousers. You can never go wrong with a sock suspender either.

And now for a quick round of some of my favourite womesnwear collections. It’ll have to be a whistle-stop tour because I have 3 other shows to write up and I’m having my hair cut in an hour.

One of my absolute faves was Julie Perry, who combined body-concious all-in-ones with Meccano-style leather creations. These outfits had real sex appeal – not one for the supermarket but definitely for the fierce fashionista who isn’t afraid to show off. Julie’s pieces were architectural in shape and hinted at a little bit of kink.


Illustration by Julie Perry from her graduate work

Holly Farrar’s super sleek collection toyed with masculine tailoring and models had structured shoulders with outfits tapering downwards. Defined v-necklines gave the outfits an overall geometric look and were very sophisticated indeed.


Illustration by Holly Farrar from her graduate work

These gemoetric-slash-linear-slash-structured themes ran through many a collection, executed most effectively by Stephanie Price. Her futuristic collection married materials with aesthetic appeal with flattering shapes – mesh covered body-concious shift dresses had a dazzling effect, as did this dynamic jacket…


Illustrations by Stephanie Price, from her graduate work

Closing the show was Victoria Kirby, who had clearly been selected for her fresh innovation and coutourier-like craftsmanship. Elegant floor sweepers made from silk and velour had the appearance of two dresses in one, cut and merged down the middle. Exaggerating the shoulders and synching in at the waist created beautiful feminine shapes that flattered.


Illustration by Victoria Kirby, from her graduate work

All photography by Matt Bramford

Photograph by Vanya Sacha

Prior to the General Election, about it Amelia’s Magazine interviewed Amisha Ghadiali about her new project Think Act Vote. As the dust settles on the birth of the coalition, this site Amelia’s Magazine caught up with Amisha to find out about the Think Act Vote Poetry competition, how to be involved with the The Future I Choose Anthology (deadline the end of September, what are you waiting for?) and to find out where Think Act Vote will be for the remaining days of summer. (Hint! 13th – 15th August finds Think Act Vote at Vintage at Goodwood, for more details read the interview!)

How did Think Act Vote spend the election night?

The night before we had our amazing Think Act Vote party at The City and Arts Music Project, where we revealed the winner of our poetry competition, with live music from the Delirium Tremens and did a Think Act Vote Photobooth.

On election day, I cast my vote and then had to pack and head to the airport. My brother was graduating from film school at NYU Tisch Asia on the Friday in Singapore so I had to choose between watching the results live or being at the graduation.

I really wanted to go to the election party at the Hub Kings Cross hosted by NEF and Future Gov, and also the Billbored party. They looked really fun. There was no live coverage on the plane!

Showpiece by Beautiful Soul for Think Act Vote: Photograph by Dominic Clarke

What was your desired General Election outcome?

I can’t say I had one that was possible. I was hoping there would be a more inspirational leader in the race. But under the circumstances, I was hoping for a coalition.

Why were you hoping “under the circumstances’ for a coalition?

I don’t know; there wasn’t an ideal choice there for me. I just want a progressive government. I think the real issue is our system. We need parliamentary reform, this should have happened before this election, but hopefully it has shown Westminster that the current system doesn’t work.

I would like to see a system that allows more independent candidates to get into parliament. There is an argument that this will allow too many people from the far right to get into power, but actually we proved in this election that good old fashioned campaigning can keep the far right at bay.

I think it would be exciting for our country if we had more independents, as I think there are a lot of interesting individuals out there that would be interested in standing for parliament but don’t want to join a particular party.

Campaigns Group at Time for Tea. Photograph by Vanya Sacha

As the hung parliament reality dawned, whilst you were in America. Were you able to follow the developments in the Lib-Lab and Lib-Con talks?

It was strange. I wasn’t watching the TV news, so was seeing it all from the internet. I would have liked to experience it here and to have taken in the atmosphere.

From far away it seemed like utter madness, in any project, you plan for different circumstances. So I did find it strange that the Lib Dems hadn’t already decided what they wanted to do if this situation occurred.

What did you think to the press coverage during the General Election Aftermath (I found the ‘squatting’ headlines referring to Gordon Brown particularly unhelpful)?

Again from a distance, it did seem like a country in chaos. That nobody had a clue what to do. But yes I agree referring the Prime Minister as squatting is never going to be helpful!

Photograph by Deepti V. Patel

What were your initial thoughts on the Con-Lib Government?

Surprise, that the Lib Dems had chosen for the country to have a Tory Prime Minister. I would have thought that this would be the last thing they would ever want to happen. But I thought it was interesting that things would have to be passed through such differing views.

As the reality of the cuts loom, have your opinions changed towards the effectiveness of the Coalition Relationship?

I think it is a bit confusing, I don’t feel like Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems have shone through in any way. It does feel more like a Conservative government. I know that we are going through a hard time at the moment with the national deficit and the recession, but they have made some cuts to things that could be really important. For example totally cutting the Sustainable Development Commission and The UK Film Council.

Photograph by Vanya Sacha

Earlier this summer, you attended a Compass Conference – could you describe to Amelia’s Magazine readers the nature of these political events?

There are various political conferences that take place, I have been involved with Compass for the past four years. I used to be on the Compass youth management committee.

Compass was set up by Neal Lawson and is an umbrella organisation for progressive politics, bringing together politicians of all parties, pressure groups, trade unions, think tanks, NGOs, academics, activists, campaigners and individuals. They hold an annual conference every summer to discuss ideas.

There is an opening address in the main hall which this year had Caroline Lucas MP on the panel, and a closing address which had Pam Giddy, POWER 2010, Jon Cruddas MP & Chuka Umunna MP. There was also a Labour Leaders Debate which was quite interesting to see live.

The rest of the day is filled with smaller seminars, covering over 30 topics including Climate Change“>Climate Change, Parliamentary Reform, Tax Justice, The NHS, Feminist Issues and Poverty.

It is an opportunity to think through alternatives to the ways problems are currently being tackled, have open discussions, ask questions and be inspired.

Photograph by Maciej Groman

What are Think Act Vote’s recommendations for making your vote count everday?

It is just about thinking about what is important to you, and finding ways to take action and get your voice heard. Whether that is through supporting campaigns, or thinking twice about what you spend your money on.

If you haven’t yet, a good place to start is by contributing to our book. Ask yourself the question – What is The Future You Choose?
You might just give yourself the answer of what to do next..

You can read some examples and contribute online.

What are Think Act Vote plans for the rest of the summer?

More, more, more. We have been doing Think Act Vote Photobooths, and running around music festivals taking photos and getting people to take part. So we are going to carry this on until the end of September.

Ethical Fashion Green Sunday. Photograph by LUDOVIC DES COGNETS.

Where can you find out about the Photobooth events?

We do these events often, keep your eyes on our facebook page and the events page on the Think Act Vote website. Apart from the festivals, we are planning various other venues around London over the next seven weeks.

We are trying to find interesting venues, like the Union Street Orchard for example.

The release date for the The Future I Choose anthology has been delayed, what were the reasons behind this decision?

We had such a great response and more than enough content to publish the book straight after the election, but thought it made sense to get more people to take part over the summer.

Also we didn’t want to send out the message that you only get a choice in The Future You Choose in the run up to an election, because the whole point of our campaign is that you get that choice every day.


Playsuit by Tara Starlet for Think Act Vote: photograph by Dominic Clarke

Have you been working with new fashion designers since Amelia’s Magazine interviewed you? I see the blog mentions: Nancy Dee and Miksani?

We have been sharing on our site the full stories of the Think Act Vote Refashioned pieces, and in some cases instructions on how to make them.

The designers that took part were Ciel, Ada Zandition, Nancy Dee, Miksani, Junky Styling, TRAIDremade, Beautiful Soul and Tara Starlet. Other designers really wanted to take part but couldn’t at the time as they were out of the country, we might get them to do a little something.

The MA students on the Fashion & The Environment project at London College of Fashion are working on something for us now, which we can’t wait to see!

Photograph by Deepti V. Patel

What does the Think Act Vote campaign mean after the election?

Although inspired by the election, the campaign was never about voting in the election. It is about understanding that everyday we all express the future we choose by how we spend our time, money and energy. It’s about inspiring ourselves and others to live a life that reflects what we actually want from our future when we stop to think about it.

The ‘Vote’ is ours, it is about taking that word away from politicians as something we give to them every four years. About us not being afraid to use political language in our every day lives in a positive way.

I know that having Vote in the campaign name has put many people off it, and even a lot of my friends have thought it was about voting in elections until I explained that.

But I think it is important to be aware that everything we do is political and that every day we make choices that shape our world.

Photograph by Deepti V.Patel

Olivia Sprinkel, Winner of the poetry competition was announced on the night of the Think Act Vote Party, How was this decision made?

The poetry competition was judged by John Bird and Shane Solanki. The shortlist was read out at the party and went down really well.

Even though the competition is over, everyone is still welcome to answer our question – What’s The Future You Choose with a poem. It might end up in our book!

What’s next for Think Act Vote?

We are really excited about Vintage at Goodwood this weekend! We are doing Think Act Vote Refashioned workshops in the sustainability area where you can make your very own Think Act Vote Refashioned Dress. We will also be doing photoshoots, meet us outside our tent after our workshops.

I am also doing a talk in the talk tent on ethical fashion and creative activism.

This weekend (13th – 14th August 2010) finds Think Act Vote participating in Vintage at Goodwood’s, Sustainable Design Workshops. Find the the Think Act Vote team at 11-1 and 3-6 on Friday and between 1-4 adn 4-7 on Saturday and Sunday.
NB: sadly we can’t attend to report on this workshop: read more about why here.

From the Think Act Vote Team:

“It is an invitation for you to take part in Think Act Vote Refashioned. You can make your very own Think Act Vote one off piece and then have it photographed to be in our book, as well as a post online about how you went about your customisation.

You will be in very capable hands as the workshops will be led by Laura Metcalf and Alison Lewis who met on set of a channel 4 television pilot, they have been working together most recently on alterations and repairing vintage clothes at Clerkenwell Vintage Fair in London.”

Amisha Ghadiali will be interviewed by Leonora Oppenheim about Ethical Fashion and Creative Activism at 5pm on Saturday in the Talk Tent. This is an event not to be missed!

What’s the Future You Choose?

Categories ,Ada Zandition, ,Billbored, ,Compass, ,Future Gov, ,Junky Styling, ,Kings Cross, ,Not Just a Label, ,Photobooth, ,poetry, ,talks, ,Tara Starlet, ,Tara Starlett, ,The Future I Choose, ,The Hub, ,The New Economics, ,Think Act Vote, ,Vintage at Goodwood, ,What’s the Future You Choose?

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Amelia’s Magazine | An Interview with Yang Du, Surrealist Fashion Designer.

No rest for the wicked or the socially and politically minded, seek this week ends with another action packed weekend with the anarchist bookfair and the 350: International Day of Climate Action as well as plenty to keep you occupied during the week.

October Wind Farm copy
All Illustrations by Hannah Lewis

Positive Change
Tuesday 20th October 2009 ?

Positive Change is a careers seminar for people interested in environmental, order conservation and sustainable development careers. You’ll also learn about the fair trade movement and just where the opportunities lie.

Venue: SOAS, erectile University of London
Time: 5:30pm
Website: http://www.forum3.co.uk/positivechange/

Wild Law in Action at Gaia Foundation
Wednesday 21st October 2009

A talk held at the Gaia Foundation by Polly Higgins about a journey to the United Nations to deliver the ‘hard law’ – the Universal Declaration of Planetary Rights. The rolling out of the ‘soft law’ – the Universal Declaration of All Beings, more commonly referred to as the Peoples’ Declaration will also be highlighted.
?
Venue: Gaia Foundation, 6 Heathgate Place, Agincourt Road, London NW3 2NU?
Time: 6.30pm?
Tickets: £10
Website: http://www.gaiafoundation.org/

Climate Change Academy
Wednesday 21st October 2009

A one day workshop for all the family to help encourage families to learn more about living low carbon lives as well as give them handy advice on how to save energy in their own home. The workshop is free and includes lunch.

Venue: The Window 13 Windsor Street
Time: 10am until 3.30pm
Website: www.energysavingtrust.org.uk

October Cycling copy

Get involved in Guerilla Gardening
Thursday 22nd October and Saturday 24th October

Help to enhance a community nature garden, create a nature trail and plant a monster hedge in Markfield Park, N15. The group meets fortnightly Thursdays and monthly Saturdays. Wear appropriate clothing for outdoor work and weather conditions.

Venue: Markfield Park cafe, N15?Located on River Lee, between Tottenham Hale station and Springfield Park, just off Seven Sisters High Road.
Date: Thursday -?Starts 1-4pm, & fourtnightly Saturdays -?2-4pm

A workshop on Pedal-powered generators
Saturday 24th October

Want to make your own emissions-free electricity, independent of fossil fuels and expensive solar arrays and wind turbines? Discover how to use your own bike as part of a small power station, capable of powering computers, stereos, TVs and other small household appliances. This method makes a great use of your bike when you’re not riding it around town. In just one day find out all you need to know to assemble a bike-powered generator. The classroom will be bike-powered throughout the day.

Venue: Hackney City Farm, London
Address: http://www.lowimpact.org/

Recycling October copy copy

Anarchist Bookfair 2009
Saturday 24th October 2009 ?

For all your anarchist requirements: books, pamphlets, t-shirts, videos, badges, posters and the rest. Veggies will be doing vegan food from outside the venue; a huge selection of groups and individuals will be holding talks, sure to be a very informative day.

Venue: Queen Mary & Westfield College, Mile End Rd. E1 4NS
Time: 10-7pm
Website: http://www.anarchistbookfair.org/

March Against the War in Afghanistan
Saturday 24th October 2009

?The march is called by Stop the War Coalition, CND and BMI?.The march will be lead by anti-war military families & soldiers and will include speakers Peter Brierley, who recently refused to shake Tony Blair’s hand because it had his sons blood on it; Lance Cpl Joe Glenton, serving soldier facing court martial for refusing to return to Afghanistan and George Galloway MP; musician and poet

Assemble 12 noon Hyde Park: March to Trafalgar Square
Website: http://www.stopwar.org.uk/

The Bigger Picture: Festival of Interdependence
Saturday 24th October 2009

Festival of Interdependence is a free interactive, living exhibition staged in the dramatic post-industrial setting of the Bargehouse on London’s South Bank. There is 3 floors of talks, workshops and exhibitions as well as a talk on Copenhagen from 2pm and a report from the swoop at 5pm.
The main exhibition will be opened for one day only. The event coincides with 350: an International Day of Climate Action which aims to highlight the importance of getting back to 350 ppm carbon dioxide he safe limit for humanity.

Time: 10.30 – 19.30
?Venue: Bargehouse, South Bank
Website: http://thebiggerpicture2009.org/

No rest for the wicked or the socially and politically minded, medical this week ends with another action packed weekend with the anarchist bookfair and the 350: International Day of Climate Action as well as plenty to keep you occupied during the week.

October Wind Farm copy
All Illustrations by Hannah Lewis

Positive Change
Tuesday 20th October 2009 ?

Positive Change is a careers seminar for people interested in environmental, visit conservation and sustainable development careers. You’ll also learn about the fair trade movement and just where the opportunities lie.

Venue: SOAS, University of London
Time: 5:30pm
Website: http://www.forum3.co.uk/positivechange/

Wild Law in Action at Gaia Foundation
Wednesday 21st October 2009

A talk held at the Gaia Foundation by Polly Higgins about a journey to the United Nations to deliver the ‘hard law’ – the Universal Declaration of Planetary Rights. The rolling out of the ‘soft law’ – the Universal Declaration of All Beings, more commonly referred to as the Peoples’ Declaration will also be highlighted.
?
Venue: Gaia Foundation, 6 Heathgate Place, Agincourt Road, London NW3 2NU?
Time: 6.30pm?
Tickets: £10
Website: http://www.gaiafoundation.org/

Climate Change Academy
Wednesday 21st October 2009

A one day workshop for all the family to help encourage families to learn more about living low carbon lives as well as give them handy advice on how to save energy in their own home. The workshop is free and includes lunch.

Venue: The Window 13 Windsor Street
Time: 10am until 3.30pm
Website: www.energysavingtrust.org.uk

October Cycling copy

Get involved in Guerilla Gardening
Thursday 22nd October and Saturday 24th October

Help to enhance a community nature garden, create a nature trail and plant a monster hedge in Markfield Park, N15. The group meets fortnightly Thursdays and monthly Saturdays. Wear appropriate clothing for outdoor work and weather conditions.

Venue: Markfield Park cafe, N15?Located on River Lee, between Tottenham Hale station and Springfield Park, just off Seven Sisters High Road.
Date: Thursday -?Starts 1-4pm, & fourtnightly Saturdays -?2-4pm

A workshop on Pedal-powered generators
Saturday 24th October

Want to make your own emissions-free electricity, independent of fossil fuels and expensive solar arrays and wind turbines? Discover how to use your own bike as part of a small power station, capable of powering computers, stereos, TVs and other small household appliances. This method makes a great use of your bike when you’re not riding it around town. In just one day find out all you need to know to assemble a bike-powered generator. The classroom will be bike-powered throughout the day.

Venue: Hackney City Farm, London
Address: http://www.lowimpact.org/

Recycling October copy copy

Anarchist Bookfair 2009
Saturday 24th October 2009 ?

For all your anarchist requirements: books, pamphlets, t-shirts, videos, badges, posters and the rest. Veggies will be doing vegan food from outside the venue; a huge selection of groups and individuals will be holding talks, sure to be a very informative day.

Venue: Queen Mary & Westfield College, Mile End Rd. E1 4NS
Time: 10-7pm
Website: http://www.anarchistbookfair.org/

March Against the War in Afghanistan
Saturday 24th October 2009

?The march is called by Stop the War Coalition, CND and BMI?.The march will be lead by anti-war military families & soldiers and will include speakers Peter Brierley, who recently refused to shake Tony Blair’s hand because it had his sons blood on it; Lance Cpl Joe Glenton, serving soldier facing court martial for refusing to return to Afghanistan and George Galloway MP; musician and poet

Assemble 12 noon Hyde Park: March to Trafalgar Square
Website: http://www.stopwar.org.uk/

The Bigger Picture: Festival of Interdependence
Saturday 24th October 2009

Festival of Interdependence is a free interactive, living exhibition staged in the dramatic post-industrial setting of the Bargehouse on London’s South Bank. There is 3 floors of talks, workshops and exhibitions as well as a talk on Copenhagen from 2pm and a report from the swoop at 5pm.
The main exhibition will be opened for one day only. The event coincides with 350: an International Day of Climate Action which aims to highlight the importance of getting back to 350 ppm carbon dioxide he safe limit for humanity.

Time: 10.30 – 19.30
?Venue: Bargehouse, South Bank
Website: http://thebiggerpicture2009.org/

yangdu4

Amelia’s Magazine interviews CSM MA Womenswear Graduate Yang Du about the research and process behind producing a runway collection. Unsurprisingly for one who has studied with Vivienne Westwood, ailment Giles Deacon and John Galliano and whose inspirations are Victor & Rolf and Castelbajac, cialis 40mg Yang Du’s collections are the epitome of surrealist fashion design.

Yang Du presented her SS10 collection as part of On|Off (see previous Amelia’s Magazine coverage at London Fashion Week). The collection of bold coloured oversized dresses are an eclectic interpretation of everyday clothes, this whilst representing the possibility of fun to be had when adorned in the following garmets.

yangdu2

The press release mentions that her “previous two collections are like my travel diaries…” Subsequently this interview started with the following question:

What was the inspiration behind the new collection and did it involve an aspect of your recent travels?

In April I visited Ecuador for three weeks; I spent a few days in the rainforest and hung out with the local children. We sang, danced and drew together, it was wonderfully peaceful. Those kids live in very basic condition; they all were these over-sized T-shirts which were left by previous visitors. These discarded and re-used t-shirts were the starting point of my collection. They are fun designs that I see people wearing.

How was London Fashion Week as part of On|Off?

It was a great experience to work with OnlOff and they have been incredibly supportive through the whole process of Fashion Week, I was able to go to Paris as of the On|Off showroom. There has been great encouragement to work with someone who are special and inspirational to you.

How was Paris?

The high light for me would be going to the JCDC Show, and meeting Castelbajac back stage.

yangdu5

Can you expand on the influence of Franco Moschino for me?

I love the idea of fashion sending a message into life, the possibility of it it making a statement.

How did the exhibition Soho happen?

A friend of mine Tian Tian Zhu, a sound artist who runs the organisation TIEN, who I had met a few times accidently as we both went to the same gigs, the last being Yoko Ono. We started to talk about working together at the some point in the future and now she is curating my solo exhibition at Assembly Room, it is a very sweet place.

yangdu

You were previously a Painter, studying at Central Saint Martins, how was the transition to Fashion Design?

Like many designers I trained at art school first, but I have always been interested in fashion. My mum studied pattern cutting, and made all my clothes when I was young.

Where did the ideas of the hats in the SS10 Collection spring from?

I was in the flower market, taking photos of everyday people and there was suddenly a moment where carton images appeared in my head. Everyone became a different kind of plant according to their look and what they wearing. It is from this place of imagination, that the cacti hats came from.

yangdu7

May I ask about your design ideology?

My ideology… I am very open-minded to new things, and mostly, look at things from a very different angle. I often go on trips, where I take lots of photos and meet lots of people. When I come back to London, I always have so much in my mind, some of them like stories which I really want to share through the clothes I design.

yangdu6

How did you decide to produce your designs through knitwear?

It was the right material to work with at the time according to the concept. The use of wool produced the right mood for that collection. I want to find a media that translates my painting without literally knowing what it is that is being translated.

yangdu3

Yang Du currently has an exhibition titled “Falling in Love is a Risk” at the Assembly Rooms in Soho, I thoughly recommend a trip that provides the opportunity to view her sketchbooks and most recent designs. The exhibition runs until November 27 2009.

yangdu8

All photographs (except the last image) are from the SS10 collection: Mr Right Town. Look book by Bella Howard and styled by Grace Woodward, make-up, Andrew Gallimore, hair, Bianca Tuovi and was produced by Platform

Categories ,Central Saint Martins, ,Falling in Love is a Risk, ,Giles, ,JCDC, ,John Galliano, ,knitwear, ,London Fashion Week, ,onoff, ,painting, ,surrealism, ,surrealist, ,The Assembly Rooms, ,TIEN, ,Victor & Rolf, ,Vivienne Westwood, ,Yang Du

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Amelia’s Magazine | Tent London 2011 Review: Best Furniture Design

Tent London 2012 review -anthony hartley
Furniture by Anthony Hartley.

This year I once again visited Tent London hot on the heels of London Fashion Week. At the end of September the creme de la creme of the product design world held court at the Truman Brewery, look and I’m here to bring you the best of the bunch. First up my favourite bits of furniture design.

Tent London 2012 review -anthony hartley
Beautiful and very unique furniture from Anthony Hartley; waves of colour splashed across drawers and curved around walls in long shelving units.

Tent London 2012 review -jan plechac
Czech designer Jan Plechac showcased versions of his favourite chair designs in wire.

Tent London 2012 review -senufo
The A & Z Design furniture stand was attracting people with a very cute dog. I liked their senUFO side table the most. It would be very cool in a kid’s bedroom.

Tent London 2012 review -squint
Furniture makers Squint were showcasing a collaboration with the London Transport Museum – using classic hardwearing Moquette fabrics (familiar from the tube) within their trademark patchwork upholstery designs.

Tent London 2012 review -nobody and co
What a brilliant idea for a chair cum bookcase from Italian company Nobody&Co. Obviously inspired by the same problems I have: an overwhelming number of books with no home.

Tent London 2012 review -ercol
What a hit: bold 50s influenced textile designs on simple modernist furniture from the well established brand Ercol.

Tent London 2012 review -nobody and co
Tent London 2012 review alex garnett
Oversized household objects become kitsch furniture thanks to Goldsmiths trained Alex Garnett.

Tent London 2012 review -shell thomas
Tetronimoes by Shell Thomas were created by invitation from JJAM Curators’ Collective – what an ace idea for a kids’ playroom. Visitors were encouraged to use the velcro strips to rearrange the cushions and create new shapes of furniture.

Tent London 2012 review -rex chair
My new favourite new chair comes from the Rex range, straight out of Slovenia. So comfortable, I want this rocker now.

Tent London 2012 review -spellner milner
Alison of Speller Milner design is a RCA graduate who makes elegant furniture topped with pretty graphic decoration.

Categories ,2011, ,50s, ,A & Z Design, ,Alex Garnett, ,Alison, ,Anthony Hartley, ,Chair, ,Czech, ,design, ,designer, ,Ercol, ,Furniture, ,goldsmiths, ,Jan Plechac, ,JJAM Curators Collective, ,London Design Festival, ,London Transport Museum, ,Moquette, ,Nobody&Co, ,Oversized, ,Pillhead, ,review, ,Rex, ,Rocking Chair, ,senUFO, ,Shell Thomas, ,Slovenia, ,Speller Milner, ,squint, ,Tent London, ,Tetronimoes, ,textiles, ,Truman Brewery, ,Upholstery

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Amelia’s Magazine | Twinkle and Tinsel – Traffic Wardens

realpeople1

(Photograph by Natasha Caruana)

Last night I was delighted to be invited to the ICA for an emphatic catwalk show with a difference. The event was organised by former designer Elaine Foster-Gandey; director of Designer Sales UK.

Elaine developed Real People do the Catwalk after hosting a fashion show which included both dancers and models on stage. “I asked my customers about it and they said they related to the dancers and not the models”.

Spurred by this Elaine set about putting together a pioneering show to further the arguement that replacing super-thin models with people who reflect society could lead to increased sales for the fashion industry.

icacatwalk13

The show opened in silence with the models resembling extras from Scream in their attire of long black robes and white masks. Each model first vocalised how they felt the fashion industry related to them, seek followed by revealing their beautifully styled outfits and their real identities.

therealfaceofbritain

(Photograph by Natasha Caruana)

The driving force behind the model casting to show the fashion industry that different body shapes can be celebrated in fashion shows and advertising campaigns.

“It is about not creating an elite world where no one else can join in, physician ” Explained Elaine. “So many people want a chance, viagra order but know that because they are five foot tall, or a size 14-16, they never will have.” The models featured within the show ranged from a 6’1” Drag Artiste to a 5’4” male; dress sizes 8 to 20 and ages between 25 to 60+.

What I enjoyed most about the show was the diversity and celebration of the models differences. It was fresh and modern with all the models having poise, confidence and importantly a great sense of humour. Their
good spirits and sense of fun gave the show an electric atmosphere.

icacatwalk8

The models’ charismatic personalities brought out something unique in the clothes that might not have been projected if worn by a ‘normal’ model. Whether this is because they were real people displaying how the clothes would fit on our own bodies or down to their insurmountable energy and passion for highlighting an issue intricately linked to the size zero debate.

Afterwards there was a riveting post-show debate featuring: Elaine Foster-Gandey; Real People do the Catwalk organiser, writer Dariush Alavi; Eleni Renton, founder of Leni’s Model Management; Hilary Alexander, esteemed fashion director at The Daily Telegraph and was chaired by writer and broadcaster Bidisha.

icacatwalk12

The debate began by Dariush Alavi somewhat controversially enquiring as to why Real People do the Catwalk
was produced to “enact a traditional fashion show.” Suggesting that by keeping the traditional format, could anything change by replacing the models with real people as it is not the models who are at fault but the stage on which they stand. Alavi suggested doing away with the catwalk altogether.

This prompted both Hilary Alexander and a member of the audience to defend the catwalk as “fashion’s world stage” and looked back to a John Galliano show where the entire collection was presented on an overhead track of basic clothes hangers. Dariush’s response suggested making models obsolete and displaying clothes on a fashion conveyer belt went down like a lead balloon. The audience and the rest of the panel remained sceptical of high fashion designers considering a presentation that in a format is more commonly associated with The Generation Game.

realpeople3

(Photograph by Natasha Caruana)

Questions were raised about the morality of the fashion industry and the spotlight on the size zero debate intensified. Hilary spoke about the Telegraph not facing the same constraints from advertisers as glossy fashion titles and said that the newspaper’s “aim to strike a balance between real people and models and actively try to include both types of woman in spreads… the oldest woman we’ve ever featured was 94.”

Panellist Eleni Renton mentioned that the Editor of UK Vogue Alexandra Shulman spoke out against size zero in June accusing designers of making magazines hire models with “jutting bones and no breasts or hips” by supplying them with “minuscule” garments for their photo shoots. She claimed that Vogue frequently “retouched” photographs to make models look larger. In response Hilary questioned whether things had begun to change at UK Vogue as they still fail to represent body diversity within their pages, suggesting it would become apparent what their real stance on size zero is over the coming months.

therealfaceofbritain

(photograph by Natasha Caruana)

Elaine added that whilst magazine images are not healthy for women, they have a considerable impact on impressionable teenagers who start to believe they need to emulate perfect bodies in order to be considered beautiful and successful.

“Look around, everything we see is airbrushed… these aren’t real images.”

To emphasise her point Elaine spoke of teenagers being more body conscious than any generation before citing her own children as an example: “I have a six-year-old daughter and 11 and 15-year-old stepdaughters who are constantly looking in the mirror. My stepdaughters are so skinny and so conscious about what they eat and what they see in the media. They are constantly aware of body image issues. It is a big issue for adolescent girls and boys.”

icacatwalk14

The panel and audience agreed that the media are responsible for putting different demographics into the mainstream and popularising diversity, and that they have a moral responsibility to society to not glamorise super skinny body shapes. Elaine believes that there has “been a spike in our body consciousness” in recent years and we have turned into a society “afraid of flesh, hair and wrinkles”.

Eleni, director of Leni’s Model Management only works with girls “who are sizes 8 to 12… They are the type of girls you see in the street and think, ‘I would like a body like hers.”

As the debate drew to a close the supermodel era was discussed, with Hilary citing that the greats in the industry: Linda, Kate and Naomi all had personality, and that was what made them famous, rather than their figures. On the flip side other great supermodels such as Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington and Sophie Dahl were celebrated for having curves.

Through the conversations it became apparent that the only modern day equivalent of a curvaceous celebrity pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable in mainstream is Beth Ditto, who won LOVE magazine a prestigious industry award for her iconic nude cover

love-magazine

The overall outcome was for women to take responsibility for themselves and their bodies and actively promote positive body attitudes to their daughters, friends and grandchildren. Everyone agreed that while it is easy to blame the media for the size zero trend, consumers need to use our buying power to actively challenge the fashion industry into reconsidering their design practices and elitism.

I left the ICA feeling very empowered, wanting to help revolutionise the fashion industry from the outside in.

TINSEL&TWINKLE_TRAFFIC_WARDENS
Photograph by Kris Myhre

The London based duo Tinsel Edwards and Twinkle Troughton will be staging an event all day tomorrow (Thursday 29th) around London as part of their ‘ It Was The Best Of Times, viagra 40mg It Was The Worst Of Times’ tour. Keep your eye out for a parking ticket on your car – you never know, some lucky chosen few will contain a free signed mini screen print! Be sure to check out their work:http://www.tinseledwards.org/ and http://www.twinkletroughton.co.uk/.

WOOLIES

You’ve known each other since you were 9 years old – how long have you worked together creatively?

Tinsel: We’ve worked together on lots of different creative projects over the years, we ran a little fanzine when we were about 10! There’s also the band we used to be in until recently and the record label we have set up.  When we were at college our art work was completely collaborative, we work separately now but often join forces for specific projects and to put on exhibitions.

Twinkle: Tinsel has kind of said it all there. I think we are very much on the same wavelength work-wise and have been since we were 9. So ideas bounce off each other quite easily and i think it works really well to help us move things forward.

TINSEL1

Have you had formal training? How has this shaped how you work?

Tinsel: We both went to art college in London, at the time it was really good to get regular feedback from tutors and students and that will have shaped the way we work in lots of ways. However we graduated in 2001 so it seems a while a go now! Now the way we work is shaped more so by our everyday lives and observations of our surroundings.

Twinkle: It was quite funny because we went to separate art colleges, I went to Kingston which Tinsel was rejected from and Tinsel went to Goldsmiths which I was rejected from yet we ended up collaborating anyway and holding identical degree shows in each college. We had to go to each others crits and tutorials sometimes and so our work had quite a cheeky nature to it as it was a bit of an ‘up yours’ really, I think we still like to be playful in what we create together.

TWINKLE1

How would you each describe your work individually and collaboratively?

Tinsel: My work is a wide ranging commentary on all sorts of observations that I make in everyday life, I am interested in challenging and protesting about different things to promote and inspiring positive change.  I love the idea of Do-It-Yourself, and continually promote the idea of personal responsibility in my work.  I see my work as politically active, not because it references particular political events or current affairs, but because through my observations, questions, statements and slogans, I aim to instigate positive action and change on both an individual and wider level. The themes in my work vary widely, it can be an honest personal narrative, it can reference the everyday, or highlight social and cultural issues.  I often use humour to deal with these themes.

Twinkle: I make work which is heavily influenced by Britain both now and as it was 2 to 300 hundred years ago. Up until recently my work was predominantly describing British quirks, questioning what we as Brits were modern day slaves to and using humour as a main tool to depict my ideas. While these elements are still running through my work it’s now got more political in many ways, I’m also questioning a lot of our cultural habits which actually stem back from a long time ago. I guess I’m looking at how on the surface everything changes yet underneath many things don’t change at all. 

Collaboratively: Both of our work stems from observation, and although in very different ways, the work is a response to life in Britain today.  The content and theme of each artist’s work is very different, but it stems from similar observations and concern. The approach is also similar, in that we both paint in bold colours and often use humour.

TINSEL2

Where does your inspiration come from? Childhood/training/location?

Tinsel: Inspiration comes from all sorts of things, life in London is a massive influence, music and art, people’s attitudes and social observation. Style and technique wise I love text and all things typographic, I love Pop art, big expressionist style painterly work, vintage graphic design.

Twinkle: Inspiration comes from the media, newspapers mainly. I look at both snippets in the papers and the stories that dominate. Currently I am finding so much inspiration from more historical reading, both fiction and non-fiction. I’ve been reading Dickens and factual books about the Victorians and am basing a lot of research on historical reading combined with the scouring of newspapers each day. I also am inspired just by basic observation of day to day life. As an avid people watcher there is plenty of inspiration on the streets of London alone! Visually, I don’t have a list of artists who inspire me, that can pop up at any moment when visiting exhibitions. Just a small example: I got masses of inspiration recently from the historical collections at National Portrait Gallery but was also very inspired by the HUGE Maggie Thatcher painting by Marcus Harvey (although I had already done my Maggie painting I do need to point out haha!) so I think I take artistic inspiration from all over the place.

TWINKLE2

Who are the artists that you most admire?

Tinsel:There are soooo many artists I like for lots of different reasons! But if I had to name a couple I would say that I love Bob and Roberta Smith, because he is honest, challenging, funny, political and very frank and open.  And I really like Tracey Emin, also because I really admire her honesty and fearlessness.  I’ve always found her work very compelling.

Twinkle: I guess my answer above answers some of this. Artists I really like though… I also love Tracey Emin‘s work for very similar reasons to Tinsel. I love Jeff Koons‘ work, especially his paintings which I personally just thought were out of this world, it’s always good to see work which leaves you feeling like you’ve got so much to aspire to! It makes you want to change and move things on and think bigger.

TINSEL3

How important is it to have a presence on the internet these days? Do you use Twitter and other social networking sites?

Tinsel: I’m a bit reluctant to get sucked in to Twitter, and it took me a while to join Facebook! But it is really important to have online presence, its a brilliant way to showcase your work and promote exhibitions, and to find out about other artists too.

Twinkle: Urgh I am not too good at things like Twitter…I’m not sure people would want to follow my daily thoughts and actions like that. I don’t mind using those things as a platform to show artwork and to let people know about events, and I also don’t mind them for keeping in touch with friends old and new…but that’s about it…

TWINKLE3

What would your dream commission be?

Tinsel: Erm!!! It would be really funny to be asked to do something for the Queen, or perhaps a bonkers old millionaire rock star, or a politician…. I would love to work on album covers for bands. On a more serious note it would be absolutely amazing to be commissioned to do something like the fourth plinth, a big public commission which could be used as a platform to voice something really important and relevant to people’s lives.

Twinkle: Dream commission?? Haha, yeah something for the Queen would be excellent. At the moment I think I would love to be commissioned to make a very large scale painting for a pubic space which was going to be used as a future insight to modern British life and our social issues. Something which freezes time to show future generations what life in Britain was like in the 2000s-2010s, showing both good and bad elements. 

tinsel and twinkle2
Photograph by Kris Myhre

How did you come up with the idea for your event this Thursday?

Tinsel: The screenprint in the parking ticket bags is an image of a Woolworths empty shop-front, across the posters in the windows is written ‘It was the Best of Times It was the Worst of Times’.  The work is talking about how although recession can be very difficult it can also be a time for positive change and growth.  We thought that producing a mini print as a very large edition would help to promote that message.  Disguising each one as a parking ticket tied in quite well, when people find them although they might be initially a bit disappointed, what’s inside is actually a nice thing – some free art!
Our previous gallerist Stella Dore actually helped us to come up with a very initial version of the idea about two years ago. Because of the nature of our work, it is often confined to the gallery space, we wanted to do something which would take our work out of the gallery and to a wider audience.

Twinkle: The Traffic Warden part of the idea did come from Steph at Stella Dore. We just didn’t know what to do with it back then. Then along the way little flashes of inspiration came to us, such as from reading Dickens. ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times’ is an opening line to one of his novels’ and both me and Tinsel felt that opening line was incredibly descriptive of modern life and was also a direct response to our own feelings about the recession. 

Thanks guys!

Photographs of Twinkle and Tinsel by Kris Myhre

Categories ,goldsmiths, ,it was the best of times, ,it was the worst of times, ,Tinsel and twinkle, ,tinsel edwards, ,Traffic wardens, ,twinkle troughton

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Amelia’s Magazine | Film Preview: Mauerpark, the documentary.

Emily Whitebread interviews Francesca Weber-Newth and Sally Mumby-Croft about their recently completed short documentary film: Mauerpark.

Mauerpark [‘Wall Park’] lies on the former ‘no man’s land’, visit this site which separated Berlin for 27 years. After reunification in 1989 and the fall of The Wall, information pills the area was designated as a public space – hence ‘Wall Park’. Now a private developer intends to build housing on the fallow land, treat which lies at the periphery of the park. The plans are hotly debated, with citizen action groups arguing that building development would damage the unique atmosphere of the park. The film documents the current politics of this “people’s park” and asks individuals why the park is such an important ‘free’ urban space.

There are similarities between Mauerpark and the development of green spaces for the 2012 Olympics in London. Mauerpark, as a short documentary, allows the architect, politicians and concerned groups, to voice their opinions. The park’s architect, Professor Gustav Lange, explains his original concept and his views on its present use.

In March Mauerpark was screened in Berlin, with most of the interviewees present. The short documentary was also screened as part of a regeneration symposium at Goldsmiths College, London and as part of the exhibition Silent City.

What was the response to your depiction of the park by those viewing the documentary?

Fran: In Berlin the interviewees enjoyed seeing the park from mine and Sally’s perspective. The film gave those with different visions for the future of Mauerpark, a chance to see the common ground which they all share – to see themselves as part of a larger group. At the Goldsmiths screening, those debating the Olympics, and its effects on Hackney, were thrilled that citizen groups in Berlin are so active. They drew comparisons between London and Berlin in terms of urban development and the potential for citizen activism to affect the look and use of city space.

Fran was interning in Berlin while researching for her undergraduate dissertation when a friend recommended her to buy a bicycle from the flea market in Mauerpark. “After that first visit, I was obsessed.” Seven months visiting the park culminated in this collaboration.

Sally, as a non-Berliner, what was your immediate feeling when entering the park?

Sally: Straight away I felt a sense of the place’s importance – not only in terms of historical memory but in the day to day activities of the local communities. There are two sections of the park though which are strikingly different – the side designed by Prof. Lange, and the fenced-off side in private ownership which prevents easy access for the residents into the park on their doorstep.

Many Berliners strongly feel that The Wall is still a presence even though it has physically been removed, when crossing from East to West they still feel The Wall is there.

Did you experience this during filming?

Sally: The feeling is inescapable. Mauerpark is one of the final spaces where The Wall stood that has not been built on or turned into a tourist trap. Using Bernd Krüger’s collection of before, and after, the fall of The Wall photographs in the documentary intensified this.


Photo by Sally Mumby-Croft

Did you think that Professor Lange’s vision for the park is in tune today with those who use the space?

Fran: How a park should look is strongly felt in Germany where there is tradition that ‘a park’, as constructed by landscape architects, generally has rigorous structure and regulation. Prof. Lange broke with this cliché. He saw the space as a burst balloon; a pressure zone that was now open. People were excited by the park but his deliberately planned sparseness scared them a little. However, it is precisely this openness, and lack of formal structure, that has become not just accepted, but also cherished by many users.

Not everyone is happy with the park as it. People come to the space with very different notions of what ‘recreation’ is. Stereotypically the elderly want comfort, families want peace and quiet, and youngsters want to socialize. To create a park that meets the needs of all these different user groups and that references the historical importance of the space, is a difficult task!

What was your reaction to the view that there are no historical reference points to the Berlin Wall in the park?

Fran: The issue of history, politics and memory is contentious. People’s experiences of divided Berlin will shape their ideas as to whether it should be remembered, and how this remembrance might look. ‘Historical reference’ can sometimes be taken too literally. The tourist looking for the site of The Wall can find it at the Bernauer Strasse memorial site/museum. Mauerpark’s shape – a thin strip with a central, cobbled path, provides the clues to its history. Many appreciate Prof. Lange’s subtle historical references whilst valuing the park’s potential to provide a social arena for people to make new connections that override the divided history.

If you could influence the fate of the Mauerpark what would you like to see?

Sally: I would love to see Mauerpark completed with open access on all sides.
Fran: My ideal would be for the developers to donate the fallow land to the City and fund the creation of a clean and safe public area.

Mauerpark documents a place that is capable of healing wounds and bringing together people who were once separated. The fate of the park is currently undecided, with debates continuing as to the shape and scale of building development on the fallow land. With government officials, developers and local people in deep discussion for indefinite periods, this rings familiar alarm bells.

Mauerpark will be shown at the Free Range festival in Leicestershire on 30th May and also in London at Goldsmiths on the 27th May 5pm to 8pm

Photographs by Francesca Weber-Newth

Categories ,Francesca Weber-Newth, ,goldsmiths, ,Mauerpark, ,Sally Mumby-Croft, ,Silent City

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Amelia’s Magazine | Free Range Art & Design Shows 2015: Middlesex University and More

Artanile middlesex
The Free Range Art & Design Shows kicked off the main graduate show season last weekend: here’s my pick of creatives showing with various courses at Middlesex University and a couple of finds from other universities.

Artanile middlesex 2
Elina Strelita-Strele of Middlesex University uses carefully placed marks to convey emotion: I think her beautiful portrait style would lend itself well to fashion illustration.

Gabriela Giroletti Middlesex
I’m always a sucker for a beautifully produced bit of abstract art. This is by Gabriela Giroletti.

Holywood by Michael Anderson Hering
Holywood by Michael Anderson Hering: these enigmatic model houses are part of a project about this isolated Scottish town.

Service station photography by Thomas Henninger
Service station photography by Thomas Henninger, who is fascinated by ‘the ordinary, the overlooked and the forgotten.’ Me too, and I find the intrinsic ennui of service stations particularly appealing.

This is sadly the second to last year that the iconic jewellery degree will run at Middlesex Uni. As always the show featured some intriguing sculptural installations produced by the remaining designers training on this remarkable course, one which has produced so many interesting jewellers over the years.

Zoe Parry Evans
Zoe Parry Evans makes jewellery using foam and other industrial oddments. Her Brute collection was inspired by a background in architecture.

Sophie Satchwell
These opal pendants by Sophie Satchwell combine the delicacy of precious gemstones with a tactile grid pattern.

Emma Tratt
This evocative wall installation is by Emma Tratt.

April Dace
I was most taken by this bold lasercut installation by April Dace, who explores that which is left behind in the act of jewellery making.

Nichakan jewellery
Nichakan was inspired by the design of pistachio nut shells to create these bold necklaces made out of stacked shapes in a variety of materials.

Fraser Pearston Parking Bay Museum
Finally a few finds at other universities: The lifecycle of stuff, from the Fraser Pearston Parking Bay Museum. This Goldsmiths graduate explodes the concept of ‘Eat More. Buy More. Need More. Want More.’ Illustrations, pamphlets, photos and more comprise his trailer based Parking Bay Museum.

Chelsea Meadow fox
Chelsea Meadow describes herself as a spiritual enthusiast and sustainable designer. Her eye-catching patchwork fox took pride of place in the window of the Coventry University fashion display. He is a character inspired by British Folk Art, made entirely of scraps.

Categories ,April Dace, ,Brute, ,Chelsea Meadow, ,Coventry University, ,Elina Strelita-Strele, ,Emma Tratt, ,Fraser Pearston, ,Gabriela Giroletti, ,goldsmiths, ,Holywood, ,Michael Anderson Hering, ,middlesex university, ,Nichakan, ,Parking Bay Museum, ,Sophie Satchwell, ,Thomas Henninger, ,Zoe Parry Evans

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Amelia’s Magazine | Free Range Art & Design Show 2013: Week One Review

Free Range show 2013
The graduate shows are upon us and that can only mean one thing… I’ll be heading down to the Truman Brewery on a weekly basis to discover the most inspiring new designers graduating in 2013. Due to the fact that I was off camping in rural Sussex last week (bliss) I only just made it along in time to view the first week’s showing at Free Range Graduate Shows. Sadly Somerset College was already packing up, but here’s the best of what I found elsewhere.

Suzanne Kugler at Coventry Uni
Fashion students from Coventry University had created an innovative display out of cardboard boxes, with exciting over-sized ceramic jewellery by Suzanne Kugler taking pole position in the window.

Perverted Penguins at Greenwich Uni
Next door University of Greenwich was showcasing the best of it’s new designers in multiple disciplines – I liked huge creative typography by Ben of Perverted Penguins.

African beads by King's Edogiawerie
In a dark corner an intriguing laser cut description of African beads had been made by the brilliantly named King’s Edogiawerie.

Stunning beaded accessories by Sophia Denny
Goldsmiths had taken over the largest area in the basement to display a plethora of different design ideas under the This is War moniker. I was attracted to stunning beaded accessories inspired by history by Sophia Denny Design.

Tools to build emotional intelligence by Fanny Bissa
With children and friends aplenty frolicking around her stand Fanny Bissa‘s clever and colourful tools to build emotional intelligence warranted a closer look: I can imagine small people in particular would love to play around with her chalkboard shapes, but their usage could also be adapted to adult situations – find out more on her elegantly designed blog, Learn to Solve, here.

Emily Sutcliffe at Southampton Solent
Finally, I was drawn to Emily Sutcliffe‘s 80s tastic fashion alphabet at Southampton Solent University, which runs a course specialising in Fashion Graphics.

amelias-award-with-secret-emporium
If you have just graduated and are wondering what to do with the rest of your life, why not check out our inaugural Amelia’s Award, the winner of which will receive a sponsored place to sell creative goods with the Secret Emporium at the Wilderness Festival this summer.

I look forward to discovering much more talent in the weeks to come – don’t forget to follow me on instagram (where all the above images appeared first) if you want to discover it in real time with me. My listing for Free Range can be found here.

Categories ,2013, ,Amelia’s Award, ,Emily Sutcliffe, ,Fanny Bissa, ,Fashion Graphics, ,Free Range, ,goldsmiths, ,Graduate Shows, ,instagram, ,King’s Edogiawerie, ,Learn to Solve, ,Perverted Penguins, ,review, ,Secret Emporium, ,Somerset College, ,Sophia Denny Design, ,Southampton Solent University, ,Suzanne Kugler, ,The Secret Emporium, ,This is War, ,Truman Brewery, ,University of Greenwich, ,Wilderness Festival

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