Amelia’s Magazine | Royal College of Art Show One 2010: Photography and Printmaking

aniela-murphy_yeslab
Illustration by Aniela Murphy/NeltonMandelton.

The Yes Men began when founders Mike and Andy received an invitation intended for the director-general of the World Trade Organisation – via their fake WTO website – to attend a gala event. They emailed Michael Moore to take the invite up, unhealthy approved but when a reply was not forthcoming went themselves, and thus their legendary actions began. Now they’re looking to spread the joy of their ‘Yes-tivism’ with the creation of the Yes Lab project to train others in their headline-provoking methods. Though they deplore the media, drowning us in “fake information, spun by those who follow the profit motive in order to sell us on crazy ideas that we all sort of believe even though we know better,” they believe that HEADLINES MATTER when they’re used to tell the truth. Well. Not the truth. The version of reality so completely opposite to the truth that the truth is forced to come out of hiding and wave its pale head above the parapet. Ironically, they’ve recently been accused of “devaluing information, making it hard to tell what is real from what is fake.” Because the mainstream media is the bastion of truth and objective reporting. Yeah, right.

The Yes Men defend their devious behaviour by saying that it’s needed to achieve “a condition of honesty”. When they interrupt meetings and conferences to highlight the failed logic of the free market they push their actions to the most “sinister, corrupt and disgusting” lengths to force people to confront their own twisted morals. To then have audiences simply agree has taught them just how much needs to be done. So, after twelve years of faux-press releases, bumbling around in Survivaballs and campaigning continuously against Dow on behalf of Bhopal, the Yes Men want to get the rest of the population involved and for this they’ve instead created the Yes Lab to help activists all over the world bring our most crazed creations to life.

aniela-murphy-yesmen
Illustration by Aniela Murphy/NeltonMandelton.

The Yes Lab runs in part like the current Fix the World Challenge website, where most of Andy and Mikes’ tips and tricks are given away and you can find like-minded individuals around the world to work with, but this time the Yes Men plan to work directly with the groups and organizations who come to them, providing guidance and training, linking them up with other useful people and checking in with projects until they succeed. The aim is to provide resistance so that when Obama or Cleggeron find themselves cornered by industrial lobbyists they will be able to point out of the window, where we’ll all be camped, naturally, and say “Sorry, I can’t do what you’re asking me to do – those people won’t let me.” It’s no secret after all, that if we all get it together and push in the same direction, even under different names, the government has to listen, and change does get made. The main focus of the Yes Lab, and the Yes Men, is to pressure elected officials, companies and corporations until they make the changes we want to see happen.

With the $50,000 they hope to raise through generous donations the Yes Lab could run for an initial period of six months, with actual staff doing the leg work involved in organising the facilitation of these projects. The Yes Men aren’t just begging for money though, oh no. If you’re not already motivated to give a little after reading about the dangers of the “policies that place the rights of capital before the needs of people and the environment” and the Yes Men’s plans to “kill capitalism before it kills us… before the next generations inherit a world where hunger and violence are the norm in a rapidly fraying civilization” then perhaps a few Yes Men goodies might perk your interest. For a mere $10 you can have a sincere, if mother-scaring, thank you. $25-$100 helps clear out their office, if you fancy a heap of junk alongside copies of The Yes Men Save The World (read our review here) and the Good News edition of The New York Times. $400 is a date with Survivaball model Rocco Ferrer. $1000 for a brainstorming session. $5,000 gets you a Survivaball. $30,000, really, turns into a 2-3 day retreat in the secret catacombs of Paris, checking out underground murals, chilling out with heaps of bones if you’re into that sort of thing. (Guess I’d better start saving.)

If you can’t quite jingle that out of your sofa, then even if you only have a few minutes per day the Yes Men suggest you can make a difference. Taking the time to write to elected officials, joining protests, giving money to great organisations (ahem, cough, etc) and joining social networks to spread the word of these great organisations (cough, cough, ahem, etc) all help, so head over to the Yes Lab, sign up for the newsletter and start telling all your friends to turn over their couch cushions and drop some pennies into the Yes Men’s piggy bank. You never know, you might win a Survivaball. Then who’ll be laughing when England floods, huh? Oh wait. Yeah. No-one.

Amelia met the Yes Men last year when they came to London town. You can read all about it here. And remember to check in with the Yes Lab.

You can also follow the Yes Men on twitter. Of course.

aniela-murphy_yeslab
Illustration by Aniela Murphy/NeltonMandelton.

The Yes Men began when founders Mike and Andy received an invitation intended for the director-general of the World Trade Organisation – via their fake WTO website – to attend a gala event. They emailed Michael Moore to take the invite up, viagra but when a reply was not forthcoming went themselves, and thus their legendary actions began. Now they’re looking to spread the joy of their ‘Yes-tivism’ with the creation of the Yes Lab project to train others in their headline-provoking methods. Though they deplore the media, drowning us in “fake information, spun by those who follow the profit motive in order to sell us on crazy ideas that we all sort of believe even though we know better,” they believe that HEADLINES MATTER when they’re used to tell the truth. Well. Not the truth. The version of reality so completely opposite to the truth that the truth is forced to come out of hiding and wave its pale head above the parapet. Ironically, they’ve recently been accused of “devaluing information, making it hard to tell what is real from what is fake.” Because the mainstream media is the bastion of truth and objective reporting. Yeah, right.

The Yes Men defend their devious behaviour by saying that it’s needed to achieve “a condition of honesty”. When they interrupt meetings and conferences to highlight the failed logic of the free market they push their actions to the most “sinister, corrupt and disgusting” lengths to force people to confront their own twisted morals. To then have audiences simply agree has taught them just how much needs to be done. So, after twelve years of faux-press releases, bumbling around in Survivaballs and campaigning continuously against Dow on behalf of Bhopal, the Yes Men want to get the rest of the population involved and for this they’ve created the Yes Lab to help activists all over the world bring our most crazed creations to life.

aniela-murphy-yesmen
Illustration by Aniela Murphy/NeltonMandelton.

The Yes Lab runs in part like the current Fix the World Challenge website, where most of Andy and Mikes’ tips and tricks are given away and you can find like-minded individuals around the world to work with, but this time the Yes Men plan to work directly with the groups and organizations who come to them, providing guidance and training, linking them up with other useful people and checking in with projects until they succeed. The aim is to provide resistance so that when Obama or Cleggeron find themselves cornered by industrial lobbyists they will be able to point out of the window, where we’ll all be camped, naturally, and say “Sorry, I can’t do what you’re asking me to do – those people won’t let me.” It’s no secret after all, that if we all get it together and push in the same direction, even under different names, the government has to listen, and change does get made. The main focus of the Yes Lab, and the Yes Men, is to pressure elected officials, companies and corporations until they make the changes we want to see happen.

With the $50,000 they hope to raise through generous donations the Yes Lab could run for an initial period of six months, with actual staff doing the leg work involved in organising the facilitation of these projects. The Yes Men aren’t just begging for money though, oh no. If you’re not already motivated to give a little after reading about the dangers of the “policies that place the rights of capital before the needs of people and the environment” and the Yes Men’s plans to “kill capitalism before it kills us… before the next generations inherit a world where hunger and violence are the norm in a rapidly fraying civilization” then perhaps a few Yes Men goodies might perk your interest. For a mere $10 you can have a sincere, if mother-scaring, thank you. $25-$100 helps clear out their office, if you fancy a heap of junk alongside copies of The Yes Men Save The World (read our review here) and the Good News edition of The New York Times. $400 is a date with Survivaball model Rocco Ferrer. $1000 for a brainstorming session. $5,000 gets you a Survivaball. $30,000, really, turns into a 2-3 day retreat in the secret catacombs of Paris, checking out underground murals, chilling out with heaps of bones if you’re into that sort of thing. (Guess I’d better start saving.)

If you can’t quite jingle that out of your sofa, then even if you only have a few minutes per day the Yes Men suggest you can make a difference. Taking the time to write to elected officials, joining protests, giving money to great organisations (ahem, cough, etc) and joining social networks to spread the word of these great organisations (cough, cough, ahem, etc) all help, so head over to the Yes Lab, sign up for the newsletter and start telling all your friends to turn over their couch cushions and drop some pennies into the Yes Men’s piggy bank. You never know, you might win a Survivaball. Then who’ll be laughing when England floods, huh? Oh wait. Yeah. No-one.

Amelia met the Yes Men last year when they came to London town. You can read all about it here. And remember to check in with the Yes Lab.

You can also follow the Yes Men on twitter. Of course.

aniela-murphy_yeslab
Illustration by Aniela Murphy/NeltonMandelton.

The Yes Men began when founders Mike and Andy received an invitation intended for the director-general of the World Trade Organisation – via their fake WTO website – to attend a gala event. They emailed Michael Moore to take the invite up, there but when a reply was not forthcoming went themselves, healing and thus their legendary actions began. Now they’re looking to spread the joy of their ‘Yes-tivism’ with the creation of the Yes Lab project to train others in their headline-provoking methods. Though they deplore the media, drowning us in “fake information, spun by those who follow the profit motive in order to sell us on crazy ideas that we all sort of believe even though we know better,” they believe that HEADLINES MATTER when they’re used to tell the truth. Well. Not the truth. The version of reality so completely opposite to the truth that the truth is forced to come out of hiding and wave its pale head above the parapet. Ironically, they’ve recently been accused of “devaluing information, making it hard to tell what is real from what is fake.” Because the mainstream media is the bastion of truth and objective reporting. Yeah, right.

The Yes Men defend their devious behaviour by saying that it’s needed to achieve “a condition of honesty”. When they interrupt meetings and conferences to highlight the failed logic of the free market they push their actions to the most “sinister, corrupt and disgusting” lengths to force people to confront their own twisted morals. To then have audiences simply agree has taught them just how much needs to be done. So, after twelve years of faux-press releases, bumbling around in Survivaballs and campaigning continuously against Dow on behalf of Bhopal, the Yes Men want to get the rest of the population involved and for this they’ve created the Yes Lab to help activists all over the world bring our most crazed creations to life.

aniela-murphy-yesmen
Illustration by Aniela Murphy/NeltonMandelton.

The Yes Lab runs in part like the current Fix the World Challenge website, where most of Andy and Mikes’ tips and tricks are given away and you can find like-minded individuals around the world to work with, but this time the Yes Men plan to work directly with the groups and organizations who come to them, providing guidance and training, linking them up with other useful people and checking in with projects until they succeed. The aim is to provide resistance so that when Obama or Cleggeron find themselves cornered by industrial lobbyists they will be able to point out of the window, where we’ll all be camped, naturally, and say “Sorry, I can’t do what you’re asking me to do – those people won’t let me.” It’s no secret after all, that if we all get in together and push in the same direction, governments will eventually have to listen, and changes will happen. The main focus of the Yes Lab, and the Yes Men, is to pressure elected officials, companies and corporations until they make the changes we want to see happen.

With the $50,000 they hope to raise through generous donations the Yes Lab could run for an initial period of six months, with actual staff doing the leg work involved in organising the facilitation of these projects. The Yes Men aren’t just begging for money though, oh no. If you’re not already motivated to give a little after reading about the dangers of the “policies that place the rights of capital before the needs of people and the environment” and the Yes Men’s plans to “kill capitalism before it kills us… before the next generations inherit a world where hunger and violence are the norm in a rapidly fraying civilization” then perhaps a few Yes Men goodies might perk your interest. For a mere $10 you can have a sincere, if mother-scaring, thank you. $25-$100 helps clear out their office, if you fancy a heap of junk alongside copies of The Yes Men Save The World (read our review here) and the Good News edition of The New York Times. $400 is a date with Survivaball model Rocco Ferrer. $1000 for a brainstorming session. $5,000 gets you a Survivaball. $30,000, really, turns into a 2-3 day retreat in the secret catacombs of Paris, checking out underground murals, chilling out with heaps of bones if you’re into that sort of thing. (Guess I’d better start saving.)

If you can’t quite jingle that out of your sofa, then even if you only have a few minutes per day the Yes Men suggest you can make a difference. Taking the time to write to elected officials, joining protests, giving money to great organisations (ahem, cough, etc) and joining social networks to spread the word of these great organisations (cough, cough, ahem, etc) all help, so head over to the Yes Lab, sign up for the newsletter and start telling all your friends to turn over their couch cushions and drop some pennies into the Yes Men’s piggy bank. You never know, you might win a Survivaball. Then who’ll be laughing when England floods, huh? Oh wait. Yeah. No-one.

Amelia met the Yes Men last year when they came to London town. You can read all about it here. And remember to check in with the Yes Lab.

You can also follow the Yes Men on twitter. Of course.

RCA show 2010 entrance
Wowser! the entrance to the 2010 RCA graduate show.

The Royal College of Art has really gone to town for the graduate shows this year: there’s a huge SHOW sculpture around the entrance to the college in the same neon orange as their invite that ensures you’re not gonna miss the location if you’ve never been before.

The MA graduation shows are always a very mixed bag – the RCA lays claim to the pick of the creative crop, symptoms but despite much lauded links with the creative industries I find that many of its students still very much have their head in the clouds when it comes to producing something that will appeal to more than a few people. This morning I only had time to get around the printmaking and photography exhibitions so will leave the rest to another time, if I find it. Within the photography section I was only really moved by the work of Noemie Goudal – who had pole position right next to the free teas for press in the entrance hall stage right. Her strongest piece is Les Amants (Cascade), which shows a waterfall in a woodland artfully recreated with some draped plastic. I won’t try to paraphrase the abysmal entry in the RCA catalogue describing her work but it’s obviously a commentary on the presence of humans in nature, and I always like that kind of thing.

Noemie Goudal Les Amants (Cascade)
Les Amants (Cascade) by Noemie Goudal.

In printmaking I walked straight past the work of Cordelia Cembrowicz, though I should have seen her giant Climate Rush inspired print straight away – it’s an event I remember well. The last big Climate Rush action to inspire the masses took place in June 2009 when we organised a huge bike rush which ended with a blockade of Westminster Bridge right outside Parliament (read about it here), and the print depicts Cordelia astride the famous statue of Boudicca. It makes me sad to see work inspired by Climate Rush and these artworks feel a bit like a memorial to a certain place and time that has now passed. Still, they serve as a reminder of how much we achieved before the group (as it was then) imploded under Tamsin Omond’s drive to reach her next goal – becoming MP for the constituency of Hampstead and Kilburn as head of her own political party, To The Commons. She failed, but I’m sure she has a new plan in the pipeline.

boudicca Cordelia Cembrowicz
Boudicca (Deeds Not Words) by Cordelia Cembrowicz.

Still, our clothes and actions were always going to be ripe for artistic plundering and Cordelia (who joined us for a couple of actions) has done an admirable job of producing some wonderful lithographs inspired by photographs of various associated members of Climate Rush. I particularly love the one of Tracey – who will be well known to those who have campaigned against Heathrow in Sipson – grasping at a clutch of planes.

tracey Cordelia Cembrowicz
Tracey by Cordelia Cembrowicz.

And the print showing a crouched Brenda, fist to the sky in front of a decorative Shell rondel, is simply stunning. Just look at the detail on Brenda’s proudly displayed armpit hairs! Around her dead yellow canaries are sploshed against some psychedelic swirls; presumably inspired by our No New Coal Awards back in February 2009, *sigh* those were the days. And there’s Cadi, smoke stacks billowing out of her multiple heads on a stained glass window designed for a new look Westminster.

brenda Cordelia Cembrowicz
Brenda by Cordelia Cembrowicz.

RCA show 2010 Cadi
Detail from a stained glass window showing Cadi’s mulitple heads, by Cordelia Cembrowicz.

What a shame it all went tits up.
Moving swiftly on….

I was most intrigued by a group of tables set up with various kitchen implements and paint, but had to have the concept explained to me. In a flight of fancy the like of which you can get away with at the RCA, Helen Murgatroyd has set up her own homespun cottage printing industry utilising kitchen implements and other familiar domestic objects to create a traditional looking screenprint of a plate on a checked table cloth, rendered special by the process that produced it. She must be doing something right because she has just had her entire graduate collection bought up by Terence Conran.

RCA show 2010 Helen Murgatroyd
Part of the installation by Helen Murgatroyd.

Another printmaking graduate that caught my eye was David Orme, whose work so reminded me of Luke Best that I asked if he’d had him as a tutor. He hasn’t, but has heard the comparison before. I particularly liked his decorative use of metallic foils in a group of voyeuristic illustrations inspired by tourism, but was unable to take a decent photo. The work on his site showcases an altogether different style.

RCA show 2010 David Orme
Detail of a work by David Orme.

Next to him Olenna Mokliak showed large lithographs etchings and aquatints of weird monsters with extendable fingernails and ballet shoes. Very weird, I like a lot, but she has made the unforgivable error of not creating a website before her graduate show. Who tutors these people?! Fail!

I AM AFRAID I’VE HAD TO REMOVE THIS WORK – SEE COMMENT BELOW.
Detail of a work by RCA show 2010 Olenna Mokliak.

Downstairs my trip was curtailed still further when I bumped into a friend that I haven’t seen in over a decade. I studied fashion textiles with Philippa Wagner at the University of Brighton and she is now a top trends forecaster, living with her young family in sunny London Fields. She too was enjoying the Hackney Parks for Life festival with her kids last Saturday when a gang shot a passer by who was innocently enjoying a picnic just like us. More like Parks for Death me thinks. It was nice to catch up, albeit briefly, and I just had time to take in the work of Sun Ju Lee – stunning shadow-like prints made with great delicacy on fishing wire, almost lenticular in appearance. Unfortunately not translated well into 2D.

Sun Ju Lee RCA
A Practiced Place by Sun Ju Lee.

Part one of the RCA show continues until 6th June 2010. It’s open from 11-8 daily at the Royal College of Art, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2EU. Admission is free.

Categories ,Bike Rush, ,Climate Rush, ,Cordelia Cembrowicz, ,hackney, ,heathrow, ,Lithograph, ,London Fields, ,MA Graduate Show, ,Noemie Goudal, ,Olenna Mokliak, ,Parks for Life, ,Philippa Wagner, ,photography, ,printmaking, ,Royal College of Art, ,screenprint, ,Show One, ,sipson, ,Sun Ju Lee, ,Tamsin Omond, ,Trends forecasting, ,University of Brighton, ,Westminster Bridge

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Amelia’s Magazine | An interview with Justin Hammond, Curator of the The Catlin Guide and Catlin Art Prize

A highly collectible work of art in itself, The Catlin Guide for 2012 is the premiere place to discover the best new graduate artists from across the UK. We decided to quiz curator Justin Hammond on the history of The Catlin Guide. Read on to find out more!

You are about to launch the 2012 edition of The Catlin Guide at the London Art Fair, between the 18th – 22nd of January at the Business Design Centre in Islington. What can people expect?
Due to the financial implications of most art fairs, galleries tend to pack out their stands with large and expensive statement pieces. So I’m going to do the opposite and curate a show of small scale drawings, photography and works on paper. I’ve asked artists like Gabriella BoydTom Howse to make very small paintings. I’m showing eleven artists from the Guide – a real mixture – and for most of them it’s the first time they’ve shown in that kind of environment. We’ll also be giving away copies of The Catlin Guide, of course.

Dark Green Fritillery on Wildlife Attracting Mix, installation by Alison Stolwood
.

You’ve picked 40 graduates for inclusion in the guide: what criteria determines who you pick, and what are you looking for?
Potential is the key criteria. I’m looking for artists with the ability and desire to progress and really make their mark in the art world over a prolonged period. Ultimately, I choose the final 40 artists but a big part of the initial long-list is made up of recommendations from course tutors, curators, collectors, gallerists, artists, critics and bloggers.

Rowena Hughes, twofold interleaf
Twofold Interleaf by Rowena Hughes.

What is your background?
I studied Art History in Manchester in the early 90′s, but didn’t open my first space in Hackney until 2005. Along with my brother, I ran MLIA in Broadway Market for a couple of years showing new grads and generally making it up as we went along. That was when I decided to start the prize and Catlin came on board as the sponsors almost immediately. The first year was held at the now defunct Ada Street Gallery with a first prize of £1000.


Portrait of the artist on vacation and the door opening for a Byronic Hero by Hannah Harkes.

How do you support the up and coming artists that you choose, so that their career gets off to the best start it can?
The Catlin Guide functions as an index; a bang-up-to-date ‘who’s who’ of the new wave in contemporary art, and that’s a great platform. If the Guide can help to facilitate exhibition opportunities or encourage interest from galleries and collectors, then I see it as a success. Last year, the winner of the Catlin Art Prize was awarded £5,000, whileCatlin bought work by participating artists and commissioned two new pieces for their collection, so there’s financial support too.


Catlin Art Prize 2008 at LSO St. Luke’s

How is The Catlin Guide related to the Catlin Art Prize, and how do they work alongside each other?
In a way, they’re quite separate. The Catlin Art Prize came first and The Catlin Guidewas initially a supplement to that and a way of documenting the shortlisting process. Now, I think The Catlin Guide has taken on its own identity and individual worth. All artists for the Prize are selected from the book, but there’s a gap of four months between publication and exhibition, so The Guide has its own lifespan.


Victoria Matkin‘s ‘Ladies in Waiting’ – Catlin Art Prize 2010 at Village Underground Victoria Matkin’s © Justin Green Photography.

What are your particular hot tips from the current batch of featured artists in the guide?
All 40 artists are in with a shout, but some are already streets ahead in terms of attention and publicity. The press will always focus on new grads from the Royal College of Art or other major schools, so I’m going to pick out Mandy Barker from De Montfort University and Hannah Harkes from Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen. I like the way that both artists are forging their own paths. Neither is primarily concerned with producing commercial work, but what they make is very desirable. Hannah is on a residency in Tallinn and has just sent me through a fantastic new piece called Desert Picnic Imposter. I’ll be showing it at the launch.


David Malone.

What has happened with previous artists that were featured? Have they gone onto great things, if so what?
The Catlin Guide is only three years old, but lots of artists have gone on to feature in high-profile exhibitions in the UK and abroad. Leah Capaldi and Joshua Bilton from the 2011 Guide have just finished showing as part of Bloomberg New Contemporariesand Noemie Goudal has been selected for Out of Focus: Photography, at the Saatchi Gallery in May. But I’m taking a long-term view; it’s all about what happens over the next decade or more.


Untitled byAli Kazim.

How is the guide itself produced and how do you ensure that it is a desirable object destined for collectibility?
The slipcase makes The Catlin Guide very expensive to produce but we’re not looking to make a profit or even recoup the production costs. We print a limited number so that all adds to its collectibility. The first edition has sold out and there are just a few of the 2011 edition remaining. OK, here’s the technical stuff: For the slipcase we’ve used Lockwood Green 135gsm from the GF Smith Colorplan range. The Guide itself is printed onto 170gsm Munken Polar. All the paper products are FSC certified. There are 128 pages.

TOM HOWSE - MOSSY LICHENS  (CATLIN GUIDE)
Mossy Lichens by Tom Howse.

Why did you decide to print your guide with Principal Colour? Was it important to use a printer based in the UK and if so why?
Catlin came across Principal Colour and we were impressed with their green credentials. Printing abroad was not an option due to the tight deadlines. It’s imperative that the information in the Guide is as relevant as possible, so we sign off in the week leading up to Christmas and publish in mid January. Principal Colour were prepared to go in and work on The Catlin Guide over the Christmas break.


Tom Howse at work.

For information on the design of the guide and tips for how future graduates can best make an impression on curator Justin Hammond make sure you visit the rest of this blog at the Principal Colour Tumblr feed. You can check out The Catlin Guide for 2012 at the London Art Fair between the 18th – 22nd of January at the Business Design Centre.

Categories ,Ada Street Gallery, ,Alex Ball, ,Ali Kazim, ,Alison Stolwood, ,Bloomberg New Contemporaries, ,Broadway Market, ,Business Design Centre, ,Catlin Art Prize, ,David Malone, ,De Montfort University, ,Desert Picnic Imposter, ,FSC certified, ,Gabriella Boyd, ,GF Smith Colorplan, ,Gray’s School of Art, ,Hannah Harkes, ,Joshua Bilton, ,Justin Hammond, ,Leah Capaldi, ,Lockwood Green, ,London Art Fair, ,Mandy Barker, ,MLIA, ,Moje Sabz, ,Mossy Lichens, ,Munken Polar, ,Noemie Goudal, ,Out of Focus: Photography, ,Peter Saville, ,principal colour

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