Amelia’s Magazine | Yves Saint Laurent : Retrospective : Petit Palais, Paris


A couple of weeks ago, order I was sifting through work emails and idly wondering how my forthcoming weekend was going to shape up; it seemed to be taking on the familiar pleasures of the default setting – drinks, lazing around Shoreditch Park, catching a gig or two, having a coffee at Columbia Road flower market; the same old same old essentially, and then an email dropped into my inbox that quickly made me revise my plans. It was from Ben, an old friend of Amelia’s Magazine from French-Music Org, and Liz from Brittany Tourism who were both involved in the French music festival des Vieilles Charrues in Brittany, and wanted to know if Amelia’s Magazine was interested in coming along to check it out. Being a champion of all kinds of festivals, both in England and abroad, but at the same time staying true to the ethics of not flying wherever possible, I was pleased to see that the festival encourages all non-flight forms of travel, and had a good deal with Brittany Ferries worked into one of the ticket packages that also includes transfers to and from the festival. I had a quick look at the line-up, which included performances from Phoenix, Midlake, The Raveonettes, Fanfarlo and Julian Casablancas. Then I checked my ipod and saw that apart from a little Francoise Hardy and Charlotte Gainsbourg, it was woefully lacking in French music and decided that this Gallic version of Glastonbury could be my guide to France’s vibrant music scene, especially seeing that Chapelier Fou, Revolver, Indochine, Fefe and the brilliantly named Sexy Sushi were all headlining. So that was that. All I needed to do was grab my trusty pillow and I was off to France! A few hours later, after a bumpy ferry ride that unfortunately took place on the windiest day of the year, I found myself in the picturesque town of Carhaix, home of the festival, and about 45 minutes inland from the coast.


Sune and Sharin of The Raveonettes give us a shock and awe performance.


Watching The Raveonettes with my friends – wet and bedraggled but happy.

It was straight to the festival and to the front of the crowd to watch The Raveonettes do a typically kinetic set of howling, fuzzy guitar riffs, liberally sprinkled with lots and lots of noise. Just how the audience like it. The Danish duo, made up of Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo are a dark force to reckon with and played an incredibly tight set, featuring songs from their fourth album, In And Out Of Control. I hadn’t see them play before and I came away thinking that the bands waiting in the wings such as Pains of Being Pure At Heart, Crystal Castles and Vivienne Girls still have a long way to go before they steal the crowns off of these two. Later I managed to get in some talk time with Sune who refused the offer of dinner with his bandmates in favour of shooting the breeze over mugs of vodka cranberries for a whole hour. (Interview to come in the next few weeks)

The next day, when I was a little less exhausted from twelve straight hours of travelling, and no sleep, I was able to properly explore the festival and see it through renewed eyes. Truth be told, it was refreshing to find myself at an overseas festival. The crowd were relaxed, extremely friendly (stand next to any random group of strangers and within a few minutes you will be conversing away happily in a garbled mix of Franglais) and the FOOD (and drink)! It doesn’t matter how many boutique festivals are springing up over England, festival des Vieilles Charrues trumps us with champagne bars all over the site (to be sipped insouciantly while you watch French rock gods Indochine) and food tents which can provide you cheese plates and fruits de la mer to go with your choice of wine. It being slightly earlier in the day, I was trying out the regional cider which was so tasty it practically made me weep, and made my way over to watch the Fanfarlo set. Unexpectedly, this was probably my favourite performance of the festival. Having toured constantly for the past year (watch the mini documentary on their website which painfully documents their incessant and exhaustion-inducing schedule), the performances of the songs from their 2009 release Reservoir have taken on a whole new level. Each band member seamlessly flitted between a myriad of different musical instruments; no-one ever held onto a guitar, trumpet, violin, mandolin or musical saw for more than a few minutes before doing some musical-chairs. I’m not sure how well France was aware of Fanfarlo, but the full audience loved every song they played, and noisily demanded an encore – which unfortunately they didn’t get, but then, the band do only have about twelve songs in their back catalogue.


Fanfarlo talk about life on the road and divulge the little known fact of lead singer Simon’s childhood love of ham radios.


Traditional Breton music. Everyone knew the dance moves but me.

Night time gave me a chance to flit between the bands playing. I watched Midlake, the indie Texans who are fast gaining popularity over on this side of the pond, serenade the audience as the sun set, their hazy Americana sound drifting over the breeze and through the fields. Then it was a hop, skip and a jump to watch Sexy Sushi, the raw Parisian rap of Fefe and – I didn’t see this coming – some traditional Breton music involving some old men, a couple of accordions and a lively crowd who were all versed in the dance moves that accompany the traditional folk style. Then the midnight hour was upon us and the audience was heading in droves to watch Phoenix, who are clearly the prodigal sons of France. I’ve heard before that some of the French don’t appreciate the fact that Phoenix record all of their tracks in English, as opposed to their mother tongue, but there was no such bad feeling in the crowd that stood around me that night, sending waves of love and adulation towards the stage which prompted lead singer Thomas Mars to briefly lie on the stage in slightly dazed wonder at this epic night.

It was frustrating to have to leave on Sunday, as I missed performances by Pony Pony Run Run, Julian Casablancas and Etienne De Crecy, but work commitments dictated an early departure. Nonetheless, I had such a great time that I am already planning next years Festival des Vieilles Charrues (which will be the 20th anniversary of the festival). Brittany was the perfect setting for such a chilled festival, and a welcome addition to the festival calendar.


Yves Saint Laurent, buy information pills illustrated by Kayleigh Bluck

When in the fashion capital, sildenafil to miss a much talked about exhibition that focuses on the ‘prince of fashion’ would be a crime. Two years on from Yves Saint Laurent’s death in June 2008, information pills the Petit Palais Museum in Paris hosted a magnificent showcase of his work, his life and his history and I went to check it out.

A queuing time of one hour and a ticket price of 11 euros later, I arrived at the beginning of the exhibition which was a history of himself and through to ‘The Dior Years’; a fascinating look at how he was recognised for his beautiful fashion sketches and taken onboard by the famous couturier. Spending much of his time at Dior doing mundane tasks such as decorating, doing the paperwork and designing accessories, Yves Saint Laurent continued to submit his own sketches for new collections which, in time, lead to him being appointed to succeed as designer after Dior, who died suddenly at the age of 52 from a heart attack, promoting YSL sooner than expected and at only 21 years old.


Tribute to Piet Mondrian, 1965, illustrated by Lesley Barnes

The exhibition moved through to his first collections including the famous ‘Trapèze’, which were not approved of as he had hoped and slated by the press who didn’t think too highly of his beatnik designs.  A long line of mannequins, donated from the Foundation Pierre Berge-Yves Saint Laurent, modelled his wonderful safari jackets, skin tight trousers and the famous Le Smoking suit, which were so perfect and impeccably designed. As the first French couturier to produce a prêt -a-porter line, his rise in fame is recognised with yet another dozen or so mannequins showcasing his ‘silhouette’ designs and a room dedicated to the film Belle de Jour, starring Catherine Deneuve and many of his garments. Film clips of the beautiful actress wearing his suits and dresses lit up the room alongside his very desk where he worked on his fashion drawings and paperwork as he left it and of course, those famous glasses of his which added such a personal and almost emotional touch to the whole exhibition. An almost pitch black room beside it showing beautifully constructed evening gowns and video clips of his inspiration, ranging from old movies to photographs of Marilyn Monroe and pieces of art such as Van Gogh, Mondrian and Matisse. Leaving this, several areas full of his more exotic work which had taken inspiration from the far flung places Yves loved to visit such as Russia, India and Morocco to name but a few, showed a different, refreshing side to his talent. 


Le Smoking, illustrated by Abi Daker

As his prêt-a-porter line became more and more popular with the public, despite it’s initial reputation, YSL became considered one of the ‘Paris Jet Set’ which, although glamorous, created a worrying relationship with alcohol and drugs and a lack of interest in the production of his work. Despite this sad self destruction, his work was evidently still as fantastic as it was years before. A room decorated in red carpet and full of his best evening gowns, named as ‘The Last Ball’ shimmering underneath the spotlights and producing a lot of gasps and ‘wows’ from visitors, proved that his talent was ever-growing despite his sad personal life. Moving on to his final designs, ‘The Collision of Colours’ which were slightly different in that they were modern, classic and slightly more tamed than the extravagant previous collections, the exhibition came to a close with a few words about his last movements.  


Velvet and satin evening dress, 1983, illustrated by Emma Block

With the historical photographs, films and words alongside real life evidence of his blossoming talent from assistant to famous couturier, the exhibition was personal, thorough and highly favourable of this talented French designer whose contribution to the fashion industry is colossal. After a total of 307 of prêt-a-porter and haute couture designs and around two hours of wonderful education, I walked away feeling that I could definitely go back for another visit and would hope that any visitor to Paris would make time to go and be amazed too. He may be gone in person, but his talent lives on in memory and those who took over. If it is good enough for the fashion capital, who’s to say otherwise?

Categories ,Belle de Hour, ,Catherine Deneuve, ,Christian Dior, ,france, ,Hollywood, ,India, ,Le Smoking, ,Marilyn Monroe, ,matisse, ,Morocco, ,paris, ,Paris Jet Set, ,Petit Palais, ,Pierre Berge, ,Piet Mondrian, ,Pret-a-porter, ,Red carpet, ,Russia!, ,Silhouette, ,Trapeze, ,van gogh, ,YSL, ,Yves Saint Laurent

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Amelia’s Magazine | Yves Saint Laurent : Retrospective : Petit Palais, Paris


Yves Saint Laurent, illustrated by Kayleigh Bluck

When in the fashion capital, to miss a much talked about exhibition that focuses on the ‘prince of fashion’ would be a crime. Two years on from Yves Saint Laurent’s death in June 2008, the Petit Palais Museum in Paris hosted a magnificent showcase of his work, his life and his history and I went to check it out.

A queuing time of one hour and a ticket price of 11 euros later, I arrived at the beginning of the exhibition which was a history of himself and through to ‘The Dior Years’; a fascinating look at how he was recognised for his beautiful fashion sketches and taken onboard by the famous couturier. Spending much of his time at Dior doing mundane tasks such as decorating, doing the paperwork and designing accessories, Yves Saint Laurent continued to submit his own sketches for new collections which, in time, lead to him being appointed to succeed as designer after Dior, who died suddenly at the age of 52 from a heart attack, promoting YSL sooner than expected and at only 21 years old.


Tribute to Piet Mondrian, 1965, illustrated by Lesley Barnes

The exhibition moved through to his first collections including the famous ‘Trapèze’, which were not approved of as he had hoped and slated by the press who didn’t think too highly of his beatnik designs.  A long line of mannequins, donated from the Foundation Pierre Berge-Yves Saint Laurent, modelled his wonderful safari jackets, skin tight trousers and the famous Le Smoking suit, which were so perfect and impeccably designed. As the first French couturier to produce a prêt -a-porter line, his rise in fame is recognised with yet another dozen or so mannequins showcasing his ‘silhouette’ designs and a room dedicated to the film Belle de Jour, starring Catherine Deneuve and many of his garments. Film clips of the beautiful actress wearing his suits and dresses lit up the room alongside his very desk where he worked on his fashion drawings and paperwork as he left it and of course, those famous glasses of his which added such a personal and almost emotional touch to the whole exhibition. An almost pitch black room beside it showing beautifully constructed evening gowns and video clips of his inspiration, ranging from old movies to photographs of Marilyn Monroe and pieces of art such as Van Gogh, Mondrian and Matisse. Leaving this, several areas full of his more exotic work which had taken inspiration from the far flung places Yves loved to visit such as Russia, India and Morocco to name but a few, showed a different, refreshing side to his talent. 


Le Smoking, illustrated by Abi Daker

As his prêt-a-porter line became more and more popular with the public, despite it’s initial reputation, YSL became considered one of the ‘Paris Jet Set’ which, although glamorous, created a worrying relationship with alcohol and drugs and a lack of interest in the production of his work. Despite this sad self destruction, his work was evidently still as fantastic as it was years before. A room decorated in red carpet and full of his best evening gowns, named as ‘The Last Ball’ shimmering underneath the spotlights and producing a lot of gasps and ‘wows’ from visitors, proved that his talent was ever-growing despite his sad personal life. Moving on to his final designs, ‘The Collision of Colours’ which were slightly different in that they were modern, classic and slightly more tamed than the extravagant previous collections, the exhibition came to a close with a few words about his last movements.  


Velvet and satin evening dress, 1983, illustrated by Emma Block

With the historical photographs, films and words alongside real life evidence of his blossoming talent from assistant to famous couturier, the exhibition was personal, thorough and highly favourable of this talented French designer whose contribution to the fashion industry is colossal. After a total of 307 of prêt-a-porter and haute couture designs and around two hours of wonderful education, I walked away feeling that I could definitely go back for another visit and would hope that any visitor to Paris would make time to go and be amazed too. He may be gone in person, but his talent lives on in memory and those who took over. If it is good enough for the fashion capital, who’s to say otherwise?

Categories ,Belle de Hour, ,Catherine Deneuve, ,Christian Dior, ,france, ,Hollywood, ,India, ,Le Smoking, ,Marilyn Monroe, ,matisse, ,Morocco, ,paris, ,Paris Jet Set, ,Petit Palais, ,Pierre Berge, ,Piet Mondrian, ,Pret-a-porter, ,Red carpet, ,Russia!, ,Silhouette, ,Trapeze, ,van gogh, ,YSL, ,Yves Saint Laurent

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Amelia’s Magazine | Andrew Wightman: Illustrator Spotlight

Royal Institution lecture hall
Royal Institution lecture hall by Abi Daker

So, pharmacy discount we all know there’s been a bit of a hoo-hah following the disclosure of some important emails that reveal that the data featured as key facts in the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on climate change may not be 100% correct. You do know about this, search right? It’s been front page of the Guardian for a while… and perhaps more importantly it’s given all those climate change deniers out there a huge amount of grist for their petty little mill. And that really is bad news.

I haven’t been following the ins and outs of this fandango in massive detail but when my parents invited me along to this hastily convened Royal Institution lecture I leapt at the chance to perch on their infamous red velvet tiered seating amongst the great and the good (read: a mix of moneyed old fogeys with too much time on their hands and geeky young science types who would rather engage in debate than go to the pub on a Friday night).

James Randerson
Portraits by Amelia Gregory

We were introduced to the panel by James Randerson, prostate environment editor at the Guardian and wearer of silly striped tie. You’ve gotta love that look. It was mere moments, I tell you, before the heckling started… James put the slightly ambiguous question “Has global warming increased the toll of natural disasters?” to the panelists, which immediately prompted yelps for clarification from indignant men all around me. “Over what period of time, and what kind of cost?” asked one. (Certain men seem to get very difficult the older they get, have you noticed?) James looked sufficiently rattled – “Can we at least agree that there is man made global warming?” he asked, pleaded. “NO!” came the emphatic answer from a man with wild hair and an even wilder look in his eye, sitting just to my right. Uh oh, I was in the close company of a denialist – this should be fun! “Gosh, I didn’t think this would be so hard!” chuckled James nervously.

Robert Muir-Wood

And then we were racing straight into the presentations, starting with leading climate scientist Robert Muir-Wood, who talked two to the dozen as he raced through slides. Since 2001 there has been huge hype over “disaster costs” with the media being “whipped into a frenzy”, and predictions of up to 500% more floods, mudslides, hailstorms, droughts, ice storms and wildfires being reported as possibilities of the near future. It’s worth noting that Muir-Wood has close links with the insurance industry, who would clearly benefit from increased premiums if the cost of disasters were expected to increase. In 2003 the French experienced “la canicule” – a summer of such intense heat (the hottest in 500 years) that thousands died. But then there was a “death deficit” in the following year. Was this because the vulnerable were looked after better or they’d all died already? Muir-Wood used this as an example of how hard it is to read and understand data without looking at the bigger picture. Another example he used is the major investments made in infrastructures over recent years; for instance Japan has thrown “huge amounts of concrete at flood defences” since 1959, when Typhoon Vera, the strongest Japanese storm in recorded history, hit its shores. Consequently the storm would have had a dramatically lower cost if it had happened today. These outlying factors make it very hard to accurately predict or assess statistics. He concluded that there is only a trend for elevated costs (of disasters) if you look at graphs since the 1970s.

Bob Ward

Bob Ward, who works for LSE, then took centre stage to defend the IPCC. “As always there is a caveat,” he explained; “is any one event an effect of climate change? It’s so hard to match the attribution, which makes it difficult to map trends.” Behind him a slide detailed how climate change might decrease the chance of frost at night, which prompted some loud chuckles from the denialists in the audience, who as ever, seem confused by the difference between climate and weather. Bob clarified that we must look at the numbers of people affected and we can clearly see that insurance losses have risen since the 1950s which means many more people have been displaced or injured by natural events. A funny little graph proved the point that floods, droughts, storms and earthquakes have become the biggies in terms of human cost. However, there is as yet, insufficient evidence of a firm link with climate change. Naturally, the biggest losses have happened where the greatest number of people and properties have been involved.

A version of the "funny little graph" A.K.A. Extreme Weather Events & Natural Disasters, by Abi Daker (disclaimer: this may not be accurate)
A version of the “funny little graph” A.K.A. Extreme Weather Events & Natural Disasters, by Abi Daker (disclaimer: this may not be accurate)

Roger Pielke

And then it was time for the spanner in the works to take to the stand. Roger Pielke is a specialist in analysing how science intersects with decision making from the University of Colorado. “Uncertainty. Get used to it,” he announced. His conclusions came first and seemed to echo those of Ward’s. “Societal factors alone are responsible for increased losses,” he postulated, but emphasised that he advocates decarbonising the economy anyway because 1.5 billion people don’t have access to fossil fuels and need to find alternative energy supplies. “This could also deal with the thorny, messy climate change problem.” He then talked us clearly through his immaculate presentation, showing us that according to Excel there is no upward trend for disaster losses between 1900-2001. Yup, his graph appeared to be flatlining alright. And then we came to it: Pielke’s unequivocal evidence that despite the views of experts the IPCC saw fit to publish misleading data in its 2007 report, even alluding to his own agreement to use a problematic graph, which had not been given. “If the data doesn’t support the claim, don’t publish it!” This evinced yet more excited snorts from the denialist next to me, and when I glanced over at Bob Ward he was shifting uncomfortably in his seat. Oooooh, the graphs had been drawn and it was time for blood – sorry I mean questions – from the audience.

A lump appeared, bumping along the velvet curtains behind the stage, beating a hasty but unsubtle retreat out of the auditorium and momentarily distracting Randerson. “Are we in disagreement over the vulnerability of planet, or the process of science?” asked someone. Because actually the reason everyone had come to this lecture was to find out how the process of the IPCC could have fallen apart so dramatically. Apart from the denialists of course, and one in particular. “I am from Weather Action,” said the loudly snorting man next to me. “We are long range forecasters, and our evidence shows that CO2 does not drive climate, which has all been made up by carbon traders and fraudulent people.” In fact, according to Piers Corbyn, all extreme events are caused by the sun. All of them folks. Nothing to do with us spunking vast quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. You know, I just don’t get how some humans can be so entirely arrogant, to think that our activities will never affect our fragile planet. I wonder how history will look back on people like Corbyn, who wanted to know if the IPCC could now be scrapped so we can “prepare for ‘real’ disasters?” Pielke categorically declined to engage in a debate “that can be held elsewhere” – i.e. whether climate change is happening (yawn). Muir-Wood reminded Piers that he prophezised chaotic wind storms four years ago. “We’re 85% right!” heckled Corbyn. Ward went further still. “There’s no end to my disagreement with Piers,” he said. “I don’t know where to start.” I got the impression that he’s met Corbyn before. After the debate I took a rubbishy designed printout from Corbyn (Why are spurious campaigning bodies so good at bad graphic design? It’s endemic. Please debate.) My favourite box out reads: CRUSADE AGAINST THE SCIENCE DENIERS! Print out this newssheet and show it to a Global Warmer you know and ask them: “Is all this from solar flares, to the ionosphere, the stratosphere, Scotland, China & the Timor Sea caused by driving cars?” Yup, you’re winning me over with that argument alright. (If you know what he’s on about can you let me know please? Ta.)

Earthquake-Abi Daker
A disaster by Abi Daker. Which may or may not be attributable to climate change.

Muir-Wood then made a most pertinent point for a social media addict like myself, which was that the data for climate change is not static, and this is the major stumbling block of a one-off report such as that produced in 2007 by the IPCC. New data is being discovered or disproved all the time and the way in which such information is shared on a global level must become more fluid otherwise reports too quickly become outdated. Of course the internet provides the perfect forum for such an idea, and the organisation of a scientific advisory body such as the IPCC must reflect this.

Someone then raised a query about the amount of money the IPCC receives to do its work, which led to the clarification that the IPCC is run along similar lines to any academic body, with scientists contributing their time and knowledge because they think it’s worthwhile and not for financial gain. And herein lies one of the biggest problems. Whilst folks like IPCC chair Rajendra Pachauri must find work elsewhere (for Indian mining conglomerate TATA, which stands to make large sums from “climate doom scenarios”) there will by necessity be a conflict of interests. Our worthy panelists appeared to be in universal agreement that the IPCC needs to be reformed. “But it needs to cost more to do a good job,” said Muir-Wood. “The problem is that everything is done on the cheap,” agreed Pielke. Perhaps if some proper cash was spent on collecting and refining climate change data there would be less need to use “grey data” and there would be fewer mishaps of the kind that is now rocking the scientific community. It seems obvious that a lack of resources has led to corner cutting, and as Pielke pointed out there needs to be clear boundaries between producing data and giving political advice. If more money is spent on the IPCC then there will automatically be more accountability, and more trust.

By the end of this whirlwind journey into the minds of climate scientists Ward, Pielke and Muir-Wood, the protagonists seemed to be in agreement that since the 1970s there have definitely been increases in the cost of natural disasters. But a final show of hands from the audience showed that not many people (far less than at the start of the lecture) believed that global warming has increased the toll of natural disasters. I myself was part of the “don’t knows” because although I suspect it to be so, the correlation has clearly never been shown. This final moment highlighted just how much damage the revelations of the past few months have incurred; wherein people have looked at the brouhaha in the media and concluded that all scientists are liars who will happily bend the truth to suit their own means. And yes, it seems some have indeed cobbled together dodgy information, and in doing so have massively set back the most important movement of our lifetimes – 25% of the population now believes that climate change is not a serious issue, which is devastating news when we have so much work to do. If data cannot be proved then it clearly shouldn’t be used. What were those scientists thinking?

But, remember this – as Bob Ward surmised (and I’m paraphrasing here, obviously he didn’t say the t-word and all other poor language is entirely my own). “Are you willing to take the risk that climate change is all a load of old twaddle? No, we don’t know how much it will affect us or when, but affect us it will. If we do nothing we risk suffering the most serious consequences, and they ain’t pretty my friends.” Yes, human beings (even scientists) are fallible. The IPCC has made mistakes. Hopefully some important lessons have been learnt about how data is collected and presented, and what it might cost to do a good job. But we mustn’t let a tiny set-back stop us from striving for a different world, one where the battle against climate change encompasses so much more than just the environment. It’s about making the world a better place for all, and that means massive changes in how humans live.
1All photographs courtesy of Andrew Wightman

Andrew is a 32-year-old accomplished illustrator who currently lives in Bude in Cornwall. After having taken a year off to restore/rebuild a derelict house, erectile he is back in business. Andrew meets up with art editor Valerie Pezeron and reflects on his successful career and the state of the illustration industry.

Valerie Pezeron: Hi Andrew, how has it been getting back to the daily grind of illustration business?

Andrew Wightman: I’ve been sending emails and got interviews…but no money yet!

VP: There is a recession at the moment and many illustrators are struggling. How has it been for you?

AW: Well, I took a year off to build a house…not from stones from the ground. An old man had lived in there and it was really in a horrendous state. It was a full-on project. I was trying to make some money on the house but it’s probably not going to happen now so I’ll see! So this is I getting back into it now, I didn’t want to just have a hammer in my hand all day long.

5

VP: So you’ve moved to Bude? Did you do some illustrations while in Cornwall?

AW: I didn’t know any body there before I moved! It’s good in the summer but not so good in the winter. You pay a price. I have done some new work, took the commissions that came to me but did not look for new work until now. I do think I need to spend more time doing promotion even though I can almost get by not knocking on too many doors. I’ve always wanted an agent, I think it would be a good idea but they say “Not quite right for us at the moment, thank you”. I think if you don’t have an agent and you are making money, you feel good about it because you don’t have to give them money. I have horror stories of people who have agents who got them no work at all. But all they’ve got they have to put through the agent so they have lost money. Overall though I would say I am in favour of them as they can get you work from somewhere you’ve never heard of; I’ve got friends who do work for agencies and they’re designing for this littler known Scandinavian bathroom company.

VP: What do you think of online portfolios?

AW: It’s strange how people don’t seem to meet each other anymore. When I fist left college in 2002, you would very much make calls, knock on doors and physically show your portfolio. Some of the paid ones like The Book seem to me like a con: $700 or something and no guarantee of work…

3

VP: Did the work you created for Amelia lead to anything?

AW: Yes. I’ve done two things for Amelia’s magazine. I got jobs doing covers for the Guardian because of that and a spread for a book publisher. Sometimes doing work for free opens doors if done selectively at the beginning of one’s career. If you are too proud to do work for free at that stage, it won’t help you. If you have a genuine artistic temperament, you should do something anyway. Even when you reach a certain level of success, you might still want to do stuff for nothing, especially if the paid work is painting something not that fun. And then you might have some outlet for it.

VP: Where did you grow up?

AW: I grew up in Scotland, in Fife. I’ve lived in a few places. I came from the top and gradually made my way to the bottom. I‘ve gotten as far away from my parents as I can! (Laughter) Where next? California? I’m going west, more sunshine!

6

VP: So you graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2002. And before that?

AW: I went to Liverpool Art School.

VP: Why become an illustrator?

AW: When I was young, I liked drawing.

VP: Were you one of those cool kids at the back drawing on the textbooks?

AW: Yeah, pretty much. I finished my books quite soon because all the back pages were full. I drew war and punk rockers when I was seven but I was confused, I called them Mods; I drew them with big Mohicans. I now quite like drawing old men with loads of wrinkles on them. I drew airplanes and I still do.

VP: What do you like to draw most?

AW: I like to draw buildings from above, from aeroplane viewpoints. I like to draw people as well. Now that I am in the countryside, I am about to sit down on the field and draw some hills just to see what happens. I went to the Van Gogh show yesterday and some of the landscape drawings were inspiring. There are certain things I don’t draw at all. I used to be really into fine art, the masters,  but I have grown out of that.

7

VP: Did you always consider that you would go into art?

AW: Not really. I didn’t really know you could. Because I maybe thought you could do architecture. When I was 10, I said I’m going to be an architect. When you are at high school, you do work experience and I went to the architect office. I thought this is ok but I wasn’t that excited. I did a lot of science at school; I didn’t really do art at the end.

VP: Art education is important, isn’t it?

AW: I do think maybe you could afford to spend more time on it. When you do maths at A’ Levels, it’s so specialised! Surely we’ve done enough of adding the numbers! I’ve been worried about the arts budget being cut down in schools. I used to work for a company that did educational software; kind of like interactive computer games and we were really doing fun things for schools for all the different subjects. This is all being cut down apparently and it will be worse with the conservatives.

VP: Do you think you would have benefited from those games when at school?

AW: Not really. I don’t mind looking at really boring textbooks. My work is quite detailed and it is a reflection of the fact that I like science and facts and figures, numbers and details.

4

VP: Tell us about your drawing process.

AW: I just sit down and start drawing something and I’m off. I won’t think about too much and just draw a bus and then something will happen, the bus will be in context. It’s important to not sometimes think, “oh, I can’t think of anything to do, so I won’t do anything.” I use pencils, scan into Photoshop and colour digitally. I hate Illustrator.

VP: Your work would fit animation perfectly.

AW: I used to do animation. When I was at college in Liverpool, I did animation for all of my third year. I always like doing things that aren’t always stories so much but I could think of details of stuff. I would do interactive things so it was presenting a lot of information.

VP: Do you feel you fit in with a certain trend of quirky and humorous illustration/animation?

AW: I don’t, no. If I go to the degree show at the RCA, I am always a bit surprised by how many people don’t just do illustration? The animation department is quite traditional still. One of my school year mates, Rob Latimer was in that department. That department was full of little people doing great things and I kind of liked that. It always seems lately people presenting boring information in a graphical format. But that’s not interesting. Or people who have a good graphic design portfolio and then they go to the RCA and then they decide they want to become a film –maker. Of course things are not very accomplished; you graduate with a Masters Degree and you’ve done bad filmmaking. That’s a bit strange. There is not as much straight illustration coming out of there but…

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VP: So content is very important to you.

AW: Yes! I did not even realise that until I got to the RCA. I would concentrate on style and textures in my paintings and then the tutors would ask me what are these for? And then I realised I should do something with them. I used the paintings like backgrounds. I spent hours on them; I like having an intense amount of details that you see for just a few seconds as if it was an animation and it gives it a sense of weight. And it is something I remembered from doing animation. You can improve an image a lot by spending five more extra minutes on it. That’s been the case with my new website.

VP: So what else did you get from the RCA?

AW: Oh, I really liked the RCA. It’s very hard to separate it from the fact that I had just moved to London to go there. It was really a honeymoon period. Everybody in your class was really into it and the standard is pretty high. With hindsight, I think one would benefit from going there after having worked a little bit so you wouldn’t take it for granted so much. I did some times: I would sit down and go “this is fantastic”. There were a lot of opportunities from outside companies to do something for free. It was a good way to do real work, to have some practice. Art school business in general is a great way to make a living; I’d love to do some teaching. I’m going to Liverpool in a couple of weeks to do a lecture with a friend of mine on our careers.

8

Andrew likes:

Favourite movie: Ghostbusters

Favourite TV: Nothing too intelligent

Music: Rolling Stones. I like to work in my shed in silence.

Radio: Radio 4 or clever people’s conversations. I don’t like plays on the radio.

Categories ,Amelia’s Magazine, ,Andrew Wightman, ,animation, ,Cornwall, ,editorial, ,Fine Art, ,Ghostbusters, ,illustration, ,illustrator, ,interview, ,painting, ,publishing, ,Radio 4, ,rca, ,Rolling Stones, ,Royal College of Art, ,The Guardian, ,van gogh

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Amelia’s Magazine | Andrew Wightman: Illustrator Spotlight

Royal Institution lecture hall
Royal Institution lecture hall by Abi Daker

So, pharmacy discount we all know there’s been a bit of a hoo-hah following the disclosure of some important emails that reveal that the data featured as key facts in the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on climate change may not be 100% correct. You do know about this, search right? It’s been front page of the Guardian for a while… and perhaps more importantly it’s given all those climate change deniers out there a huge amount of grist for their petty little mill. And that really is bad news.

I haven’t been following the ins and outs of this fandango in massive detail but when my parents invited me along to this hastily convened Royal Institution lecture I leapt at the chance to perch on their infamous red velvet tiered seating amongst the great and the good (read: a mix of moneyed old fogeys with too much time on their hands and geeky young science types who would rather engage in debate than go to the pub on a Friday night).

James Randerson
Portraits by Amelia Gregory

We were introduced to the panel by James Randerson, prostate environment editor at the Guardian and wearer of silly striped tie. You’ve gotta love that look. It was mere moments, I tell you, before the heckling started… James put the slightly ambiguous question “Has global warming increased the toll of natural disasters?” to the panelists, which immediately prompted yelps for clarification from indignant men all around me. “Over what period of time, and what kind of cost?” asked one. (Certain men seem to get very difficult the older they get, have you noticed?) James looked sufficiently rattled – “Can we at least agree that there is man made global warming?” he asked, pleaded. “NO!” came the emphatic answer from a man with wild hair and an even wilder look in his eye, sitting just to my right. Uh oh, I was in the close company of a denialist – this should be fun! “Gosh, I didn’t think this would be so hard!” chuckled James nervously.

Robert Muir-Wood

And then we were racing straight into the presentations, starting with leading climate scientist Robert Muir-Wood, who talked two to the dozen as he raced through slides. Since 2001 there has been huge hype over “disaster costs” with the media being “whipped into a frenzy”, and predictions of up to 500% more floods, mudslides, hailstorms, droughts, ice storms and wildfires being reported as possibilities of the near future. It’s worth noting that Muir-Wood has close links with the insurance industry, who would clearly benefit from increased premiums if the cost of disasters were expected to increase. In 2003 the French experienced “la canicule” – a summer of such intense heat (the hottest in 500 years) that thousands died. But then there was a “death deficit” in the following year. Was this because the vulnerable were looked after better or they’d all died already? Muir-Wood used this as an example of how hard it is to read and understand data without looking at the bigger picture. Another example he used is the major investments made in infrastructures over recent years; for instance Japan has thrown “huge amounts of concrete at flood defences” since 1959, when Typhoon Vera, the strongest Japanese storm in recorded history, hit its shores. Consequently the storm would have had a dramatically lower cost if it had happened today. These outlying factors make it very hard to accurately predict or assess statistics. He concluded that there is only a trend for elevated costs (of disasters) if you look at graphs since the 1970s.

Bob Ward

Bob Ward, who works for LSE, then took centre stage to defend the IPCC. “As always there is a caveat,” he explained; “is any one event an effect of climate change? It’s so hard to match the attribution, which makes it difficult to map trends.” Behind him a slide detailed how climate change might decrease the chance of frost at night, which prompted some loud chuckles from the denialists in the audience, who as ever, seem confused by the difference between climate and weather. Bob clarified that we must look at the numbers of people affected and we can clearly see that insurance losses have risen since the 1950s which means many more people have been displaced or injured by natural events. A funny little graph proved the point that floods, droughts, storms and earthquakes have become the biggies in terms of human cost. However, there is as yet, insufficient evidence of a firm link with climate change. Naturally, the biggest losses have happened where the greatest number of people and properties have been involved.

A version of the "funny little graph" A.K.A. Extreme Weather Events & Natural Disasters, by Abi Daker (disclaimer: this may not be accurate)
A version of the “funny little graph” A.K.A. Extreme Weather Events & Natural Disasters, by Abi Daker (disclaimer: this may not be accurate)

Roger Pielke

And then it was time for the spanner in the works to take to the stand. Roger Pielke is a specialist in analysing how science intersects with decision making from the University of Colorado. “Uncertainty. Get used to it,” he announced. His conclusions came first and seemed to echo those of Ward’s. “Societal factors alone are responsible for increased losses,” he postulated, but emphasised that he advocates decarbonising the economy anyway because 1.5 billion people don’t have access to fossil fuels and need to find alternative energy supplies. “This could also deal with the thorny, messy climate change problem.” He then talked us clearly through his immaculate presentation, showing us that according to Excel there is no upward trend for disaster losses between 1900-2001. Yup, his graph appeared to be flatlining alright. And then we came to it: Pielke’s unequivocal evidence that despite the views of experts the IPCC saw fit to publish misleading data in its 2007 report, even alluding to his own agreement to use a problematic graph, which had not been given. “If the data doesn’t support the claim, don’t publish it!” This evinced yet more excited snorts from the denialist next to me, and when I glanced over at Bob Ward he was shifting uncomfortably in his seat. Oooooh, the graphs had been drawn and it was time for blood – sorry I mean questions – from the audience.

A lump appeared, bumping along the velvet curtains behind the stage, beating a hasty but unsubtle retreat out of the auditorium and momentarily distracting Randerson. “Are we in disagreement over the vulnerability of planet, or the process of science?” asked someone. Because actually the reason everyone had come to this lecture was to find out how the process of the IPCC could have fallen apart so dramatically. Apart from the denialists of course, and one in particular. “I am from Weather Action,” said the loudly snorting man next to me. “We are long range forecasters, and our evidence shows that CO2 does not drive climate, which has all been made up by carbon traders and fraudulent people.” In fact, according to Piers Corbyn, all extreme events are caused by the sun. All of them folks. Nothing to do with us spunking vast quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. You know, I just don’t get how some humans can be so entirely arrogant, to think that our activities will never affect our fragile planet. I wonder how history will look back on people like Corbyn, who wanted to know if the IPCC could now be scrapped so we can “prepare for ‘real’ disasters?” Pielke categorically declined to engage in a debate “that can be held elsewhere” – i.e. whether climate change is happening (yawn). Muir-Wood reminded Piers that he prophezised chaotic wind storms four years ago. “We’re 85% right!” heckled Corbyn. Ward went further still. “There’s no end to my disagreement with Piers,” he said. “I don’t know where to start.” I got the impression that he’s met Corbyn before. After the debate I took a rubbishy designed printout from Corbyn (Why are spurious campaigning bodies so good at bad graphic design? It’s endemic. Please debate.) My favourite box out reads: CRUSADE AGAINST THE SCIENCE DENIERS! Print out this newssheet and show it to a Global Warmer you know and ask them: “Is all this from solar flares, to the ionosphere, the stratosphere, Scotland, China & the Timor Sea caused by driving cars?” Yup, you’re winning me over with that argument alright. (If you know what he’s on about can you let me know please? Ta.)

Earthquake-Abi Daker
A disaster by Abi Daker. Which may or may not be attributable to climate change.

Muir-Wood then made a most pertinent point for a social media addict like myself, which was that the data for climate change is not static, and this is the major stumbling block of a one-off report such as that produced in 2007 by the IPCC. New data is being discovered or disproved all the time and the way in which such information is shared on a global level must become more fluid otherwise reports too quickly become outdated. Of course the internet provides the perfect forum for such an idea, and the organisation of a scientific advisory body such as the IPCC must reflect this.

Someone then raised a query about the amount of money the IPCC receives to do its work, which led to the clarification that the IPCC is run along similar lines to any academic body, with scientists contributing their time and knowledge because they think it’s worthwhile and not for financial gain. And herein lies one of the biggest problems. Whilst folks like IPCC chair Rajendra Pachauri must find work elsewhere (for Indian mining conglomerate TATA, which stands to make large sums from “climate doom scenarios”) there will by necessity be a conflict of interests. Our worthy panelists appeared to be in universal agreement that the IPCC needs to be reformed. “But it needs to cost more to do a good job,” said Muir-Wood. “The problem is that everything is done on the cheap,” agreed Pielke. Perhaps if some proper cash was spent on collecting and refining climate change data there would be less need to use “grey data” and there would be fewer mishaps of the kind that is now rocking the scientific community. It seems obvious that a lack of resources has led to corner cutting, and as Pielke pointed out there needs to be clear boundaries between producing data and giving political advice. If more money is spent on the IPCC then there will automatically be more accountability, and more trust.

By the end of this whirlwind journey into the minds of climate scientists Ward, Pielke and Muir-Wood, the protagonists seemed to be in agreement that since the 1970s there have definitely been increases in the cost of natural disasters. But a final show of hands from the audience showed that not many people (far less than at the start of the lecture) believed that global warming has increased the toll of natural disasters. I myself was part of the “don’t knows” because although I suspect it to be so, the correlation has clearly never been shown. This final moment highlighted just how much damage the revelations of the past few months have incurred; wherein people have looked at the brouhaha in the media and concluded that all scientists are liars who will happily bend the truth to suit their own means. And yes, it seems some have indeed cobbled together dodgy information, and in doing so have massively set back the most important movement of our lifetimes – 25% of the population now believes that climate change is not a serious issue, which is devastating news when we have so much work to do. If data cannot be proved then it clearly shouldn’t be used. What were those scientists thinking?

But, remember this – as Bob Ward surmised (and I’m paraphrasing here, obviously he didn’t say the t-word and all other poor language is entirely my own). “Are you willing to take the risk that climate change is all a load of old twaddle? No, we don’t know how much it will affect us or when, but affect us it will. If we do nothing we risk suffering the most serious consequences, and they ain’t pretty my friends.” Yes, human beings (even scientists) are fallible. The IPCC has made mistakes. Hopefully some important lessons have been learnt about how data is collected and presented, and what it might cost to do a good job. But we mustn’t let a tiny set-back stop us from striving for a different world, one where the battle against climate change encompasses so much more than just the environment. It’s about making the world a better place for all, and that means massive changes in how humans live.
1All photographs courtesy of Andrew Wightman

Andrew is a 32-year-old accomplished illustrator who currently lives in Bude in Cornwall. After having taken a year off to restore/rebuild a derelict house, erectile he is back in business. Andrew meets up with art editor Valerie Pezeron and reflects on his successful career and the state of the illustration industry.

Valerie Pezeron: Hi Andrew, how has it been getting back to the daily grind of illustration business?

Andrew Wightman: I’ve been sending emails and got interviews…but no money yet!

VP: There is a recession at the moment and many illustrators are struggling. How has it been for you?

AW: Well, I took a year off to build a house…not from stones from the ground. An old man had lived in there and it was really in a horrendous state. It was a full-on project. I was trying to make some money on the house but it’s probably not going to happen now so I’ll see! So this is I getting back into it now, I didn’t want to just have a hammer in my hand all day long.

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VP: So you’ve moved to Bude? Did you do some illustrations while in Cornwall?

AW: I didn’t know any body there before I moved! It’s good in the summer but not so good in the winter. You pay a price. I have done some new work, took the commissions that came to me but did not look for new work until now. I do think I need to spend more time doing promotion even though I can almost get by not knocking on too many doors. I’ve always wanted an agent, I think it would be a good idea but they say “Not quite right for us at the moment, thank you”. I think if you don’t have an agent and you are making money, you feel good about it because you don’t have to give them money. I have horror stories of people who have agents who got them no work at all. But all they’ve got they have to put through the agent so they have lost money. Overall though I would say I am in favour of them as they can get you work from somewhere you’ve never heard of; I’ve got friends who do work for agencies and they’re designing for this littler known Scandinavian bathroom company.

VP: What do you think of online portfolios?

AW: It’s strange how people don’t seem to meet each other anymore. When I fist left college in 2002, you would very much make calls, knock on doors and physically show your portfolio. Some of the paid ones like The Book seem to me like a con: $700 or something and no guarantee of work…

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VP: Did the work you created for Amelia lead to anything?

AW: Yes. I’ve done two things for Amelia’s magazine. I got jobs doing covers for the Guardian because of that and a spread for a book publisher. Sometimes doing work for free opens doors if done selectively at the beginning of one’s career. If you are too proud to do work for free at that stage, it won’t help you. If you have a genuine artistic temperament, you should do something anyway. Even when you reach a certain level of success, you might still want to do stuff for nothing, especially if the paid work is painting something not that fun. And then you might have some outlet for it.

VP: Where did you grow up?

AW: I grew up in Scotland, in Fife. I’ve lived in a few places. I came from the top and gradually made my way to the bottom. I‘ve gotten as far away from my parents as I can! (Laughter) Where next? California? I’m going west, more sunshine!

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VP: So you graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2002. And before that?

AW: I went to Liverpool Art School.

VP: Why become an illustrator?

AW: When I was young, I liked drawing.

VP: Were you one of those cool kids at the back drawing on the textbooks?

AW: Yeah, pretty much. I finished my books quite soon because all the back pages were full. I drew war and punk rockers when I was seven but I was confused, I called them Mods; I drew them with big Mohicans. I now quite like drawing old men with loads of wrinkles on them. I drew airplanes and I still do.

VP: What do you like to draw most?

AW: I like to draw buildings from above, from aeroplane viewpoints. I like to draw people as well. Now that I am in the countryside, I am about to sit down on the field and draw some hills just to see what happens. I went to the Van Gogh show yesterday and some of the landscape drawings were inspiring. There are certain things I don’t draw at all. I used to be really into fine art, the masters,  but I have grown out of that.

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VP: Did you always consider that you would go into art?

AW: Not really. I didn’t really know you could. Because I maybe thought you could do architecture. When I was 10, I said I’m going to be an architect. When you are at high school, you do work experience and I went to the architect office. I thought this is ok but I wasn’t that excited. I did a lot of science at school; I didn’t really do art at the end.

VP: Art education is important, isn’t it?

AW: I do think maybe you could afford to spend more time on it. When you do maths at A’ Levels, it’s so specialised! Surely we’ve done enough of adding the numbers! I’ve been worried about the arts budget being cut down in schools. I used to work for a company that did educational software; kind of like interactive computer games and we were really doing fun things for schools for all the different subjects. This is all being cut down apparently and it will be worse with the conservatives.

VP: Do you think you would have benefited from those games when at school?

AW: Not really. I don’t mind looking at really boring textbooks. My work is quite detailed and it is a reflection of the fact that I like science and facts and figures, numbers and details.

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VP: Tell us about your drawing process.

AW: I just sit down and start drawing something and I’m off. I won’t think about too much and just draw a bus and then something will happen, the bus will be in context. It’s important to not sometimes think, “oh, I can’t think of anything to do, so I won’t do anything.” I use pencils, scan into Photoshop and colour digitally. I hate Illustrator.

VP: Your work would fit animation perfectly.

AW: I used to do animation. When I was at college in Liverpool, I did animation for all of my third year. I always like doing things that aren’t always stories so much but I could think of details of stuff. I would do interactive things so it was presenting a lot of information.

VP: Do you feel you fit in with a certain trend of quirky and humorous illustration/animation?

AW: I don’t, no. If I go to the degree show at the RCA, I am always a bit surprised by how many people don’t just do illustration? The animation department is quite traditional still. One of my school year mates, Rob Latimer was in that department. That department was full of little people doing great things and I kind of liked that. It always seems lately people presenting boring information in a graphical format. But that’s not interesting. Or people who have a good graphic design portfolio and then they go to the RCA and then they decide they want to become a film –maker. Of course things are not very accomplished; you graduate with a Masters Degree and you’ve done bad filmmaking. That’s a bit strange. There is not as much straight illustration coming out of there but…

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VP: So content is very important to you.

AW: Yes! I did not even realise that until I got to the RCA. I would concentrate on style and textures in my paintings and then the tutors would ask me what are these for? And then I realised I should do something with them. I used the paintings like backgrounds. I spent hours on them; I like having an intense amount of details that you see for just a few seconds as if it was an animation and it gives it a sense of weight. And it is something I remembered from doing animation. You can improve an image a lot by spending five more extra minutes on it. That’s been the case with my new website.

VP: So what else did you get from the RCA?

AW: Oh, I really liked the RCA. It’s very hard to separate it from the fact that I had just moved to London to go there. It was really a honeymoon period. Everybody in your class was really into it and the standard is pretty high. With hindsight, I think one would benefit from going there after having worked a little bit so you wouldn’t take it for granted so much. I did some times: I would sit down and go “this is fantastic”. There were a lot of opportunities from outside companies to do something for free. It was a good way to do real work, to have some practice. Art school business in general is a great way to make a living; I’d love to do some teaching. I’m going to Liverpool in a couple of weeks to do a lecture with a friend of mine on our careers.

8

Andrew likes:

Favourite movie: Ghostbusters

Favourite TV: Nothing too intelligent

Music: Rolling Stones. I like to work in my shed in silence.

Radio: Radio 4 or clever people’s conversations. I don’t like plays on the radio.

Categories ,Amelia’s Magazine, ,Andrew Wightman, ,animation, ,Cornwall, ,editorial, ,Fine Art, ,Ghostbusters, ,illustration, ,illustrator, ,interview, ,painting, ,publishing, ,Radio 4, ,rca, ,Rolling Stones, ,Royal College of Art, ,The Guardian, ,van gogh

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Amelia’s Magazine | Art Listings October 26 – November 1

Femke De Jong’s illustrations are multi-layered and intensively reworked collages, viagra 60mg doctor they often explore the seemingly oppositional subjects of man and machine. She kindly agreed to answer a few of our questions and send us some lovely images to eyeball.

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Can you tell me a bit about yourself?
I am originally from the Netherlands and I lived in Amsterdam for about 10 years before I moved to Bristol 6 years ago. I come from a family of ‘makers’, pill especially my gran and my mum. I have always been interested in the visual arts, here like all kids I spent a lot of time drawing and making ‘stuff’. I used to sit in the attic, reading old books, and especially loved the pictures in my dad’s science encyclopedias.
Also, I was kept back for a year in Kindergarten, the teachers there thought it would be good for me to play for another year.

How would you describe your work?
Surrealist collage, textural, playful, eclectic mishmash, a whiff of antiquety, whimsical.

What mediums do you use to create your illustrations?
A composition of drawings, collage (digital and hand-rendered) of elements and textures, layered up in the computer. I often scan hand-rendered drawings or textures in and work from thumbnails and ideas I make first. When inside the computer, I sometimes print out things again and then work into these prints. I try to keep that ‘organic’, hand-rendered feel in my work.

Femkeresized2

Collage is a strong element to your illustrations. What is it about using this technique that interests you?
Working with collage gives me a lot of freedom, to mix different elements and ideas, to get to a ‘concoction’. When I was little I wanted to be an inventor, and in a way I still ‘invent’ illustrations.

Would you say you have certain themes which you visit in your illustrations?
I have always been interested in science, and often include mechanical bits in my illustrations.
I sometimes use it as an metaphore to emphasize the ‘clunky’ relationship between man and machine, or eg. the human doesn’t take responsibility for his/her actions, and acts as if he/she is programmed to do so. Themes like science, and environmental issues interest me.

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Do you think that the fact that you were raised in the Netherlands has affected your work in anyway?
I think my view is from a more ‘Dutch’ angle. I moved here about six years ago and even though I dream in English, Dutch normality is still present in the back of my head. Dutch sayings and expressions often pop up, and I find them visually stimulating. I think they drive a lot of the ideas in my work.
I really appreciate the British sense of humour for it’s absurd and macabre satire, like Monty Python and League of Gentlemen.

Is there a Dutch and an English illustration style?
The Dutch love their very bright colour palette, which is a little too bright for my liking. My colour palette seems to go towards more muted colours.
A lot of illustration in the Netherlands seems to me to be direct, conceptual and design led, and more minimalist whilst British illustration seems to be more romantic and eccentric.
In England, there is a big affection and tolerance of the eccentric, whilst in the Netherlands there is a saying: ‘Act normal, you’re mad enough as you are.’

Femkeresized5

How do you like living in Bristol? Have you ever considered living in london like many creatives do?
I live with my boyfriend in a fairly central bit of Bristol. Bristol is a lively student city, there are always plenty of things to do here, as well I know a lot of fellow-illustrators here, like the collective ‘Hot Soup’. I’m actually thinking about living more in the countryside than we do now, so London would be a step in the other direction. Eventhough London is a very good place to be for creatives, and I have concidered moving there in the past, I now use the internet to plug myself, and visit London once every month/two months.

What are you working on at the moment?
This week I am working on a book cover, an editorial and an image that will appear in the book Lucidity.

Femkeresized3

What inspires you?
Many things. I’ve been called too eclectic before, but when a friend went to Amsterdam with me, she said: “I understand now where you come from, this place is like one of your collages”. Amsterdam is a melting pot of many cultures, colourful, lively and noisy. There’s lots of nooks and crannies, like an old curiosity shop.
In Amsterdam there is an independence in attitude, and the freedom to be expressive. I love walking around antique shops and flea markets, to get a feel of the old times.

Who are your favourite artists?
The Russian Avant-Garde constructivists like El Lissitzky and Rodchenko for their composition. Henrik Drescher, for his independent style and Paul Slater, because of his absurd and surrealist humour. Also Svankmajer, for his nightmarishly unsettling surrealities. I love Eastern European animation the grimness and absurdity they find in everyday topics. The world around us is sometimes unsettling and by depicting the world in a surreal way and making fun of it, helps.

Femkeresized9

How long do you usually work on one image?
It depends. For an editorial I usually work on the ideas and the roughs for a couple of hours, and then a bit longer on the finished piece.
When there’s a deadline, things always get done. When I don’t have the deadline, I revisit work more and things can take longer.

Have you done any commissioned work?
I have done are a book cover for the Bristol short story prize, which they used for the front cover of their quarterly mag. A CD cover for Furthernoise and some editorials for Management Today and Resource.

Femkeresized6

What would your dream project be?
In this order: A cover for New Scientist, to design a range of book covers, a series of books for older children.
Any project where I get a lot of freedom, eg. by working with an art editor who isn’t afraid to take risks.

To see more of Femke’s work you’re just one click away from her website. You can also buy a few of her things here.

TYPOGRAPHICA2

Not too far away from Amelia HQ is the current exhibition now on at the Kemistry Gallery in Shoreditch. I would introduce this event with some kind of drum roll if I could. The godfather of typography, tadalafil Herbert Spencer, prescription was the founder and editor of Typographica magazine that ran from 1949 to 1967 and is considered to be one of the most significant and visually outstanding design journals ever to be published. Spencer far preceded his age – he was only 25 years old when he started out as a freelance typographic designer. The magazine saw 32 issues printed and with the help of his team they campaigned to transform the face of British typography. The second series (1960-67) shapes the centre of this exhibition where photography is noticeably more revalent, price used as a visual means of making a more fluid and involving way of creating the magazine.

TYPOGRAPHICA3

The gallery itself is contained to one small room. Strange, as you feel a grander space would be more befitting to something so iconic and influential. One wall is dedicated to more photographic examples from the journal. They are all taken in the outside world, in the streets among us. Many of the components that make up our surroundings, in the built up areas we inhabit, can often go unnoticed. Many of us are too busy looking down instead of around and these photographs show us what we’re missing. There are beautiful examples of shop signs, ‘Corseteria’, ‘Sanchez Guaza’ and ‘Camiseria’ in “Spanish Street Lettering” by Alan Bartram (New Series no.15 June 1967). These photos show an early instance of a category of documentary that is now quite common in today’s photography and graphic design. It is only when you see them arranged together in this way that you can start to build up an idea of how much symbols play a part in our daily lives.

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Other pieces are comprised of different road signs, a patchwork of various symbols, that when put together, begin to form a pattern. One is specifically built up of arrows, laid on the road, painted on the walls of buildings and pinned to tree trunks. All the photographs are black and white, which strips them down to their basic forms. I think that it is clearer to see the symbols themselves in this instance and the way in which they integrate into the world around us.

TYPOGRAPHICA4

The opposing wall is dedicated to the printed letter. The pages are predominantly made up of primary colours on a background of black and white. “Piet Zwart” (New Series no.7 May 1963) by Herbert Spencer is a spread from an 8-page article. Spencer would fully engross himself when presenting the work of others in his magazine. In this article about the Dutch modernist Piet Zwart, he bleeds copies of his work off the page without any suggestion of what the dimensions or parameters may be. Spencer chose to use a wide variety of different paper stocks adjacent to each other on the spreads, offering each featured designer a unique look. It also gives a sense of urgency and makes for impressive visual impact.

TYPOGRAPHICA6

The centre of the exhibition is focused on the adjoining second wall. Three issues of original Typographica magazines are displayed in a large glass case, like sacred artefacts in a museum. The Kemistry Gallery have specially created three prints from the original journals. They have chosen what they consider to be the most “iconic and arresting” images from the series, which is available to buy exclusively from the gallery. Pleasantly enough, no one came into the gallery for the two hours that I was there, having the luxury of immersing myself in the work without contending with hoards of other people. This is probably down to the fairly secluded location of the gallery and an optimum time slot of 11 o’clock in the morning. Sedate music (the dulcet tones of Yellow Submarine no less) is played in the background – an agreeable companion to a two-hour stroll around the gallery.

spencer_pioneers

The exhibition is curated by Rick Poynor, prolific author of the book Typographica and founder of Eye magazine and is also part of the London Design Festival and the Icon Design Trail. This exhibition is an exceptional opportunity for any typography or graphic design aficionado to be in the presence of the legendary Typographica magazine. You might already be a die-hard Herbert Spencer fan, in which case you may be the proud owner of ‘Pioneers of Modern Typography’. I would strongly vouch for the Lund Humphries/Hastings House first edition, this wonderful book is best read in its original form. If not, this typography tome is definitely worth some of your time and pocket money.

TYPOGRAPHICA2

Not too far away from Amelia HQ is the current exhibition now on at the Kemistry Gallery in Shoreditch. I would introduce this event with some kind of drum roll if I could. The godfather of typography, cure Herbert Spencer, store was the founder and editor of Typographica magazine that ran from 1949 to 1967 and is considered to be one of the most significant and visually outstanding design journals ever to be published. Spencer far preceded his age – he was only 25 years old when he starteProxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cache-Control: max-age=0

out as a freelance typographic designer. The magazine saw 32 issues printed and with the help of his team they campaigned to transform the face of British typography. The second series (1960-67) shapes the centre of this exhibition where photography is noticeably more prevalent, site used as a visual means of making a more flexible and involving way of creating the magazine.

TYPOGRAPHICA3

The gallery itself is contained to one small room. Strange, as you feel a grander space would be more befitting to something so iconic and influential. One wall is dedicated to more photographic examples from the journal. They are all taken in the outside world, in the streets among us. Many of the components that make up our surroundings, in the built up areas we inhabit, can often go unnoticed. Many of us are too busy looking down instead of around and these photographs show us what we’re missing. There are beautiful examples of shop signs, ‘Corseteria’, ‘Sanchez Guaza’ and ‘Camiseria’ in “Spanish Street Lettering” by Alan Bartram (New Series no.15 June 1967). These photos show an early instance of a category of documentary that is now quite common in today’s photography and graphic design. It is only when you see them arranged together in this way that you can start to build up an idea of how much symbols play a part in our daily lives.

TYPOGRAPHICA5

Other pieces are comprised of different road signs, a patchwork of various symbols, that when put together, begin to form a pattern. One is specifically built up of arrows, laid on the road, painted on the walls of buildings and pinned to tree trunks. All the photographs are black and white, which strips them down to their basic forms. I think that it is clearer to see the symbols themselves in this instance and the way in which they integrate into the world around us.

TYPOGRAPHICA4

The opposing wall is dedicated to the printed letter. The pages are predominantly made up of primary colours on a background of black and white. “Piet Zwart” (New Series no.7 May 1963) by Herbert Spencer is a spread from an 8-page article. Spencer would fully engross himself when presenting the work of others in his magazine. In this article about the Dutch modernist Piet Zwart, he bleeds copies of his work off the page without any suggestion of what the dimensions or parameters may be. Spencer chose to use a wide variety of different paper stocks adjacent to each other on the spreads, offering each featured designer a unique look. It also gives a sense of urgency and makes for impressive visual impact.

TYPOGRAPHICA6

The centre of the exhibition is focused on the adjoining second wall. Three issues of original Typographica magazines are displayed in a large glass case, like sacred artefacts in a museum. The Kemistry Gallery have specially created three prints from the original journals. They have chosen what they consider to be the most “iconic and arresting” images from the series, which is available to buy exclusively from the gallery. Pleasantly enough, no one came into the gallery for the two hours that I was there, having the luxury of immersing myself in the work without contending with hoards of other people. This is probably down to the fairly secluded location of the gallery and an optimum time slot of 11 o’clock in the morning. Sedate music (the dulcet tones of Yellow Submarine no less) is played in the background – an agreeable companion to a two-hour stroll around the gallery.

spencer_pioneers

The exhibition is curated by Rick Poynor, prolific author of the book Typographica and founder of Eye magazine and is also part of the London Design Festival and the Icon Design Trail. This exhibition is an exceptional opportunity for any typography or graphic design aficionado to be in the presence of the legendary Typographica magazine. You might already be a die-hard Herbert Spencer fan, in which case you may be the proud owner of ‘Pioneers of Modern Typography’. I would strongly vouch for the Lund Humphries/Hastings House first edition, this wonderful book is best read in its original form. If not, this typography tome is definitely worth some of your time and pocket money.

TYPOGRAPHICA2

Not too far away from Amelia HQ is the current exhibition now on at the Kemistry Gallery in Shoreditch. I would introduce this event with some kind of drum roll if I could. The godfather of typography, diagnosis Herbert Spencer, was the founder and editor of Typographica magazine that ran from 1949 to 1967 and is considered to be one of the most significant and visually outstanding design journals ever to be published. Spencer far preceded his age – he was only 25 years old when he started out as a freelance typographic desigProxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cache-Control: max-age=0

r. The magazine saw 32 issues printed and with the help of his team they campaigned to transform the face of British typography. The second series (1960-67) shapes the centre of this exhibition where photography is noticeably more prevalent, used as a visual means of making a more flexible and involving way of creating the magazine.

TYPOGRAPHICA3

The gallery itself is contained to one small room. Strange, as you feel a grander space would be more befitting to something so iconic and influential. One wall is dedicated to more photographic examples from the journal. They are all taken in the outside world, in the streets among us. Many of the components that make up our surroundings, in the built up areas we inhabit, can often go unnoticed. Many of us are too busy looking down instead of around and these photographs show us what we’re missing. There are beautiful examples of shop signs, ‘Corseteria’, ‘Sanchez Guaza’ and ‘Camiseria’ in “Spanish Street Lettering” by Alan Bartram (New Series no.15 June 1967). These photos show an early instance of a category of documentary that is now quite common in today’s photography and graphic design. It is only when you see them arranged together in this way that you can start to build up an idea of how much symbols play a part in our daily lives.

TYPOGRAPHICA5

Other pieces are comprised of different road signs, a patchwork of various symbols, that when put together, begin to form a pattern. One is specifically built up of arrows, laid on the road, painted on the walls of buildings and pinned to tree trunks. All the photographs are black and white, which strips them down to their basic forms. I think that it is clearer to see the symbols themselves in this instance and the way in which they integrate into the world around us.

TYPOGRAPHICA4

The opposing wall is dedicated to the printed letter. The pages are predominantly made up of primary colours on a background of black and white. “Piet Zwart” (New Series no.7 May 1963) by Herbert Spencer is a spread from an 8-page article. Spencer would fully engross himself when presenting the work of others in his magazine. In this article about the Dutch modernist Piet Zwart, he bleeds copies of his work off the page without any suggestion of what the dimensions or parameters may be. Spencer chose to use a wide variety of different paper stocks adjacent to each other on the spreads, offering each featured designer a unique look. It also gives a sense of urgency and makes for impressive visual impact.

TYPOGRAPHICA6

The centre of the exhibition is focused on the adjoining second wall. Three issues of original Typographica magazines are displayed in a large glass case, like sacred artefacts in a museum. The Kemistry Gallery have specially created three prints from the original journals. They have chosen what they consider to be the most “iconic and arresting” images from the series, which is available to buy exclusively from the gallery. Pleasantly enough, no one came into the gallery for the two hours that I was there, having the luxury of immersing myself in the work without contending with hoards of other people. This is probably down to the fairly secluded location of the gallery and an optimum time slot of 11 o’clock in the morning. Sedate music (the dulcet tones of Yellow Submarine no less) is played in the background – an agreeable companion to a two-hour stroll around the gallery.

spencer_pioneers

The exhibition is curated by Rick Poynor, prolific author of the book Typographica and founder of Eye magazine and is also part of the London Design Festival and the Icon Design Trail. This exhibition is an exceptional opportunity for any typography or graphic design aficionado to be in the presence of the legendary Typographica magazine. You might already be a die-hard Herbert Spencer fan, in which case you may be the proud owner of ‘Pioneers of Modern Typography’. I would strongly vouch for the Lund Humphries/Hastings House first edition, this wonderful book is best read in its original form. If not, this typography tome is definitely worth some of your time and pocket money.

TYPOGRAPHICA2

Not too far away from Amelia HQ is the current exhibition now on at the Kemistry Gallery in Shoreditch. I would introduce this event with some kind of drum roll if I could. The godfather of typography, link Herbert Spencer, physician was the founder and editor of Typographica magazine that ran from 1949 to 1967 and is considered to be one of the most significant and visually outstanding design journals ever to be published. Spencer far preceded hisProxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cache-Control: max-age=0

ge – he was only 25 years old when he started out as a freelance typographic desiger. The magazine saw 32 issues printed and with the help of his team they campaigned to transform the face of British typography. The second series (1960-67) shapes the centre of this exhibition where photography is noticeably more prevalent, used as a visual means of making a more flexible and involving way of creating the magazine.

TYPOGRAPHICA3

The gallery itself is contained to one small room. Strange, as you feel a grander space would be more befitting to something so iconic and influential. One wall is dedicated to more photographic examples from the journal. They are all taken in the outside world, in the streets among us. Many of the components that make up our surroundings, in the built up areas we inhabit, can often go unnoticed. Many of us are too busy looking down instead of around and these photographs show us what we’re missing. There are beautiful examples of shop signs, ‘Corseteria’, ‘Sanchez Guaza’ and ‘Camiseria’ in “Spanish Street Lettering” by Alan Bartram (New Series no.15 June 1967). These photos show an early instance of a category of documentary that is now quite common in today’s photography and graphic design. It is only when you see them arranged together in this way that you can start to build up an idea of how much symbols play a part in our daily lives.

TYPOGRAPHICA5

Other pieces are comprised of different road signs, a patchwork of various symbols, that when put together, begin to form a pattern. One is specifically built up of arrows, laid on the road, painted on the walls of buildings and pinned to tree trunks. All the photographs are black and white, which strips them down to their basic forms. I think that it is clearer to see the symbols themselves in this instance and the way in which they integrate into the world around us.

TYPOGRAPHICA4

The opposing wall is dedicated to the printed letter. The pages are predominantly made up of primary colours on a background of black and white. “Piet Zwart” (New Series no.7 May 1963) by Herbert Spencer is a spread from an 8-page article. Spencer would fully engross himself when presenting the work of others in his magazine. In this article about the Dutch modernist Piet Zwart, he bleeds copies of his work off the page without any suggestion of what the dimensions or parameters may be. Spencer chose to use a wide variety of different paper stocks adjacent to each other on the spreads, offering each featured designer a unique look. It also gives a sense of urgency and makes for impressive visual impact.

TYPOGRAPHICA6

The centre of the exhibition is focused on the adjoining second wall. Three issues of original Typographica magazines are displayed in a large glass case, like sacred artefacts in a museum. The Kemistry Gallery have specially created three prints from the original journals. They have chosen what they consider to be the most “iconic and arresting” images from the series, which is available to buy exclusively from the gallery. Pleasantly enough, no one came into the gallery for the two hours that I was there, having the luxury of immersing myself in the work without contending with hoards of other people. This is probably down to the fairly secluded location of the gallery and an optimum time slot of 11 o’clock in the morning. Sedate music (the dulcet tones of Yellow Submarine no less) is played in the background – an agreeable companion to a two-hour stroll around the gallery.

spencer_pioneers

The exhibition is curated by Rick Poynor, prolific author of the book Typographica and founder of Eye magazine and is also part of the London Design Festival and the Icon Design Trail. This exhibition is an exceptional opportunity for any typography or graphic design aficionado to be in the presence of the legendary Typographica magazine. You might already be a die-hard Herbert Spencer fan, in which case you may be the proud owner of ‘Pioneers of Modern Typography’. I would strongly vouch for the Lund Humphries/Hastings House first edition, this wonderful book is best read in its original form. If not, this typography tome is definitely worth some of your time and pocket money.

TYPOGRAPHICA2

Not too far away from Amelia HQ is the current exhibition now on at the Kemistry Gallery in Shoreditch. I would introduce this event with some kind of drum roll if I could. The godfather of typography, drug Herbert Spencer, stomach was the founder and editor of Typographica magazine that ran from 1949 to 1967 and is considered to be one of the most significant and visually outstanding design journals ever to be published. He far preceded his age – he was only 25 years old when he started out as a freelance typographic desProxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cache-Control: max-age=0

er. The magazine saw 32 issues printed and with the help of his team they campaigned to transform the face of British typography. The second series (1960-67) shapes the centre of this exhibition where photography is noticeably more prevalent, used as a visual means of making a more flexible and involving way of creating the magazine.

TYPOGRAPHICA3

The gallery itself is contained to one small room. Strange, as you feel a grander space would be more befitting to something so iconic and influential. One wall is dedicated to more photographic examples from the journal. They are all taken in the outside world, in the streets among us. Many of the components that make up our surroundings, in the built up areas we inhabit, can often go unnoticed. Many of us are too busy looking down instead of around and these photographs show us what we’re missing. There are beautiful examples of shop signs, ‘Corseteria’, ‘Sanchez Guaza’ and ‘Camiseria’ in “Spanish Street Lettering” by Alan Bartram (New Series no.15 June 1967). These photos show an early instance of a category of documentary that is now quite common in today’s photography and graphic design. It is only when you see them arranged together in this way that you can start to build up an idea of how much symbols play a part in our daily lives.

TYPOGRAPHICA5

Other pieces are comprised of different road signs, a patchwork of various symbols, that when put together, begin to form a pattern. One is specifically built up of arrows, laid on the road, painted on the walls of buildings and pinned to tree trunks. All the photographs are black and white, which strips them down to their basic forms. I think that it is clearer to see the symbols themselves in this instance and the way in which they integrate into the world around us.

TYPOGRAPHICA4

The opposing wall is dedicated to the printed letter. The pages are predominantly made up of primary colours on a background of black and white. “Piet Zwart” (New Series no.7 May 1963) by Herbert Spencer is a spread from an 8-page article. Spencer would fully engross himself when presenting the work of others in his magazine. In this article about the Dutch modernist Piet Zwart, he bleeds copies of his work off the page without any suggestion of what the dimensions or parameters may be. Spencer chose to use a wide variety of different paper stocks adjacent to each other on the spreads, offering each featured designer a unique look. It also gives a sense of urgency and makes for impressive visual impact.

TYPOGRAPHICA6

The centre of the exhibition is focused on the adjoining second wall. Three issues of original Typographica magazines are displayed in a large glass case, like sacred artefacts in a museum. The Kemistry Gallery have specially created three prints from the original journals. They have chosen what they consider to be the most “iconic and arresting” images from the series, which is available to buy exclusively from the gallery. Pleasantly enough, no one came into the gallery for the two hours that I was there, having the luxury of immersing myself in the work without contending with hoards of other people. This is probably down to the fairly secluded location of the gallery and an optimum time slot of 11 o’clock in the morning. Sedate music (the dulcet tones of Yellow Submarine no less) is played in the background – an agreeable companion to a two-hour stroll around the gallery.

spencer_pioneers

The exhibition is curated by Rick Poynor, prolific author of the book Typographica and founder of Eye magazine and is also part of the London Design Festival and the Icon Design Trail. This exhibition is an exceptional opportunity for any typography or graphic design aficionado to be in the presence of the legendary Typographica magazine. You might already be a die-hard Herbert Spencer fan, in which case you may be the proud owner of ‘Pioneers of Modern Typography’. I would strongly vouch for the Lund Humphries/Hastings House first edition, this wonderful book is best read in its original form. If not, this typography tome is definitely worth some of your time and pocket money.

TYPOGRAPHICA2

Not too far away from Amelia HQ is the current exhibition now on at the Kemistry Gallery in Shoreditch. I would introduce this event with some kind of drum roll if I could. The godfather of typography, purchase Herbert Spencer, try was the founder and editor of Typographica magazine that ran from 1949 to 1967 and is considered to be one of the most significant and visually outstanding design journals ever to be published. SpenceProxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cache-Control: max-age=0

3C/a> far preceded his age – he was only 25 years old when he started out as a freelance typographic desiger. The magazine saw 32 issues printed and with the help of his team they campaigned to transform the face of British typography. The second series (1960-67) shapes the centre of this exhibition where photography is noticeably more prevalent, and used as a visual means of making a more flexible and involving way of creating the magazine.

TYPOGRAPHICA3

The gallery itself is contained to one small room. Strange, as you feel a grander space would be more befitting to something so iconic and influential. One wall is dedicated to more photographic examples from the journal. They are all taken in the outside world, in the streets among us. Many of the components that make up our surroundings, in the built up areas we inhabit, can often go unnoticed. Many of us are too busy looking down instead of around and these photographs show us what we’re missing. There are beautiful examples of shop signs, ‘Corseteria’, ‘Sanchez Guaza’ and ‘Camiseria’ in “Spanish Street Lettering” by Alan Bartram (New Series no.15 June 1967). These photos show an early instance of a category of documentary that is now quite common in today’s photography and graphic design. It is only when you see them arranged together in this way that you can start to build up an idea of how much symbols play a part in our daily lives.

TYPOGRAPHICA5

Other pieces are comprised of different road signs, a patchwork of various symbols, that when put together, begin to form a pattern. One is specifically built up of arrows, laid on the road, painted on the walls of buildings and pinned to tree trunks. All the photographs are black and white, which strips them down to their basic forms. I think that it is clearer to see the symbols themselves in this instance and the way in which they integrate into the world around us.

TYPOGRAPHICA4

The opposing wall is dedicated to the printed letter. The pages are predominantly made up of primary colours on a background of black and white. “Piet Zwart” (New Series no.7 May 1963) by Herbert Spencer is a spread from an 8-page article. Spencer would fully engross himself when presenting the work of others in his magazine. In this article about the Dutch modernist Piet Zwart, he bleeds copies of his work off the page without any suggestion of what the dimensions or parameters may be. Spencer chose to use a wide variety of different paper stocks adjacent to each other on the spreads, offering each featured designer a unique look. It also gives a sense of urgency and makes for impressive visual impact.

TYPOGRAPHICA6

The centre of the exhibition is focused on the adjoining second wall. Three issues of original Typographica magazines are displayed in a large glass case, like sacred artefacts in a museum. The Kemistry Gallery have specially created three prints from the original journals. They have chosen what they consider to be the most “iconic and arresting” images from the series, which is available to buy exclusively from the gallery. Pleasantly enough, no one came into the gallery for the two hours that I was there, having the luxury of immersing myself in the work without contending with hoards of other people. This is probably down to the fairly secluded location of the gallery and an optimum time slot of 11 o’clock in the morning. Sedate music (the dulcet tones of Yellow Submarine no less) is played in the background – an agreeable companion to a two-hour stroll around the gallery.

spencer_pioneers

The exhibition is curated by Rick Poynor, prolific author of the book Typographica and founder of Eye magazine and is also part of the London Design Festival and the Icon Design Trail. This exhibition is an exceptional opportunity for any typography or graphic design aficionado to be in the presence of the legendary Typographica magazine. You might already be a die-hard Herbert Spencer fan, in which case you may be the proud owner of ‘Pioneers of Modern Typography’. I would strongly vouch for the Lund Humphries/Hastings House first edition, this wonderful book is best read in its original form. If not, this typography tome is definitely worth some of your time and pocket money.

TYPOGRAPHICA2

Not too far away from Amelia HQ is the current exhibition now on at the Kemistry Gallery in Shoreditch. I would introduce this event with some kind of drum roll if I could. The godfather of typography, nurse Herbert Spencer, was the founder and editor of Typographica magazine that ran from 1949 to 1967 and is considered to be one of the most significant and visually outstanding design journals ever to be published. He far preceded his age – he was only 25 years old when he started out as a freelance typographic desProxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cache-Control: max-age=0

ner. The magazine saw 32 issues printed and with the help of his team they campaigned to transform the face of British typography. The second series (1960-67) shapes the centre of this exhibition where photography is noticeably more prevalent, used as a visual means of making a more flexible and involving way of creating the magazine.

TYPOGRAPHICA3

The gallery itself is contained to one small room. Strange, as you feel a grander space would be more befitting to something so iconic and influential. One wall is dedicated to more photographic examples from the journal. They are all taken in the outside world, in the streets among us. Many of the components that make up our surroundings, in the built up areas we inhabit, can often go unnoticed. Many of us are too busy looking down instead of around and these photographs show us what we’re missing. There are beautiful examples of shop signs, ‘Corseteria’, ‘Sanchez Guaza’ and ‘Camiseria’ in “Spanish Street Lettering” by Alan Bartram (New Series no.15 June 1967). These photos show an early instance of a category of documentary that is now quite common in today’s photography and graphic design. It is only when you see them arranged together in this way that you can start to build up an idea of how much symbols play a part in our daily lives.

TYPOGRAPHICA5

Other pieces are comprised of different road signs, a patchwork of various symbols, that when put together, begin to form a pattern. One is specifically built up of arrows, laid on the road, painted on the walls of buildings and pinned to tree trunks. All the photographs are black and white, which strips them down to their basic forms. I think that it is clearer to see the symbols themselves in this instance and the way in which they integrate into the world around us.

TYPOGRAPHICA4

The opposing wall is dedicated to the printed letter. The pages are predominantly made up of primary colours on a background of black and white. “Piet Zwart” (New Series no.7 May 1963) by Herbert Spencer is a spread from an 8-page article. Spencer would fully engross himself when presenting the work of others in his magazine. In this article about the Dutch modernist Piet Zwart, he bleeds copies of his work off the page without any suggestion of what the dimensions or parameters may be. Spencer chose to use a wide variety of different paper stocks adjacent to each other on the spreads, offering each featured designer a unique look. It also gives a sense of urgency and makes for impressive visual impact.

TYPOGRAPHICA6

The centre of the exhibition is focused on the adjoining second wall. Three issues of original Typographica magazines are displayed in a large glass case, like sacred artefacts in a museum. The Kemistry Gallery have specially created three prints from the original journals. They have chosen what they consider to be the most “iconic and arresting” images from the series, which is available to buy exclusively from the gallery. Pleasantly enough, no one came into the gallery for the two hours that I was there, having the luxury of immersing myself in the work without contending with hoards of other people. This is probably down to the fairly secluded location of the gallery and an optimum time slot of 11 o’clock in the morning. Sedate music (the dulcet tones of Yellow Submarine no less) is played in the background – an agreeable companion to a two-hour stroll around the gallery.

spencer_pioneers

The exhibition is curated by Rick Poynor, prolific author of the book Typographica and founder of Eye magazine and is also part of the London Design Festival and the Icon Design Trail. This exhibition is an exceptional opportunity for any typography or graphic design aficionado to be in the presence of the legendary Typographica magazine. You might already be a die-hard Herbert Spencer fan, in which case you may be the proud owner of ‘Pioneers of Modern Typography’. I would strongly vouch for the Lund Humphries/Hastings House first edition, this wonderful book is best read in its original form. If not, this typography tome is definitely worth some of your time and pocket money.

TYPOGRAPHICA2

Not too far away from Amelia HQ is the current exhibition now on at the Kemistry Gallery in Shoreditch. I would introduce this event with some kind of drum roll if I could. The godfather of typography, more about Herbert Spencer, was the founder and editor of Typographica magazine that ran from 1949 to 1967 and is considered to be one of the most significant and visually outstanding design journals ever to be published. He far preceded his age – he was only 25 years old when he started out as a freelance typographic designer. The magazine saw 32 issues printed and with the help of his team they campaigned to transform the face ofProxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cache-Control: max-age=0

ritish typography. The second series (1960-67) shapes the centre of this exhibition where photography is noticeably more prevalent, used as a visual means of making a more flexible and involving way of creating the magazine.

TYPOGRAPHICA3

The gallery itself is contained to one small room. Strange, as you feel a grander space would be more befitting to something so iconic and influential. One wall is dedicated to more photographic examples from the journal. They are all taken in the outside world, in the streets among us. Many of the components that make up our surroundings, in the built up areas we inhabit, can often go unnoticed. Many of us are too busy looking down instead of around and these photographs show us what we’re missing. There are beautiful examples of shop signs, ‘Corseteria’, ‘Sanchez Guaza’ and ‘Camiseria’ in “Spanish Street Lettering” by Alan Bartram (New Series no.15 June 1967). These photos show an early instance of a category of documentary that is now quite common in today’s photography and graphic design. It is only when you see them arranged together in this way that you can start to build up an idea of how much symbols play a part in our daily lives.

TYPOGRAPHICA5

Other pieces are comprised of different road signs, a patchwork of various symbols, that when put together, begin to form a pattern. One is specifically built up of arrows, laid on the road, painted on the walls of buildings and pinned to tree trunks. All the photographs are black and white, which strips them down to their basic forms. I think that it is clearer to see the symbols themselves in this instance and the way in which they integrate into the world around us.

TYPOGRAPHICA4

The opposing wall is dedicated to the printed letter. The pages are predominantly made up of primary colours on a background of black and white. “Piet Zwart” (New Series no.7 May 1963) by Herbert Spencer is a spread from an 8-page article. Spencer would fully engross himself when presenting the work of others in his magazine. In this article about the Dutch modernist Piet Zwart, he bleeds copies of his work off the page without any suggestion of what the dimensions or parameters may be. Spencer chose to use a wide variety of different paper stocks adjacent to each other on the spreads, offering each featured designer a unique look. It also gives a sense of urgency and makes for impressive visual impact.

TYPOGRAPHICA6

The centre of the exhibition is focused on the adjoining second wall. Three issues of original Typographica magazines are displayed in a large glass case, like sacred artefacts in a museum. The Kemistry Gallery have specially created three prints from the original journals. They have chosen what they consider to be the most “iconic and arresting” images from the series, which is available to buy exclusively from the gallery. Pleasantly enough, no one came into the gallery for the two hours that I was there, having the luxury of immersing myself in the work without contending with hoards of other people. This is probably down to the fairly secluded location of the gallery and an optimum time slot of 11 o’clock in the morning. Sedate music (the dulcet tones of Yellow Submarine no less) is played in the background – an agreeable companion to a two-hour stroll around the gallery.

spencer_pioneers

The exhibition is curated by Rick Poynor, prolific author of the book Typographica and founder of Eye magazine and is also part of the London Design Festival and the Icon Design Trail. This exhibition is an exceptional opportunity for any typography or graphic design aficionado to be in the presence of the legendary Typographica magazine. You might already be a die-hard Herbert Spencer fan, in which case you may be the proud owner of ‘Pioneers of Modern Typography’. I would strongly vouch for the Lund Humphries/Hastings House first edition, this wonderful book is best read in its original form. If not, this typography tome is definitely worth some of your time and pocket money.

TYPOGRAPHICA2

Not too far away from Amelia HQ is the current exhibition now on at the Kemistry Gallery in Shoreditch. I would introduce this event with some kind of drum roll if I could. The godfather of typography, viagra Herbert Spencer, was the founder and editor of Typographica magazine that ran from 1949 to 1967 and is considered to be one of the most significant and visually outstanding design journals ever to be published. He far preceded his age – he was only 25 years old when he started out as a freelance typographic designer. The magazine saw 32 iProxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cache-Control: max-age=0

ues printed and with the help of his team they campaigned to transform the face of British typography. The second series (1960-67) shapes the centre of this exhibition where photography is noticeably more prevalent, used as a visual means of making a more flexible and involving way of creating the magazine.

TYPOGRAPHICA3

The gallery itself is contained to one small room. Strange, as you feel a grander space would be more befitting to something so iconic and influential. One wall is dedicated to more photographic examples from the journal. They are all taken in the outside world, in the streets among us. Many of the components that make up our surroundings, in the built up areas we inhabit, can often go unnoticed. Many of us are too busy looking down instead of around and these photographs show us what we’re missing. There are beautiful examples of shop signs, ‘Corseteria’, ‘Sanchez Guaza’ and ‘Camiseria’ in “Spanish Street Lettering” by Alan Bartram (New Series no.15 June 1967). These photos show an early instance of a category of documentary that is now quite common in today’s photography and graphic design. It is only when you see them arranged together in this way that you can start to build up an idea of how much symbols play a part in our daily lives.

TYPOGRAPHICA5

Other pieces are comprised of different road signs, a patchwork of various symbols, that when put together, begin to form a pattern. One is specifically built up of arrows, laid on the road, painted on the walls of buildings and pinned to tree trunks. All the photographs are black and white, which strips them down to their basic forms. I think that it is clearer to see the symbols themselves in this instance and the way in which they integrate into the world around us.

TYPOGRAPHICA4

The opposing wall is dedicated to the printed letter. The pages are predominantly made up of primary colours on a background of black and white. “Piet Zwart” (New Series no.7 May 1963) by Herbert Spencer is a spread from an 8-page article. Spencer would fully engross himself when presenting the work of others in his magazine. In this article about the Dutch modernist Piet Zwart, he bleeds copies of his work off the page without any suggestion of what the dimensions or parameters may be. Spencer chose to use a wide variety of different paper stocks adjacent to each other on the spreads, offering each featured designer a unique look. It also gives a sense of urgency and makes for impressive visual impact.

TYPOGRAPHICA6

The centre of the exhibition is focused on the adjoining second wall. Three issues of original Typographica magazines are displayed in a large glass case, like sacred artefacts in a museum. The Kemistry Gallery have specially created three prints from the original journals. They have chosen what they consider to be the most “iconic and arresting” images from the series, which is available to buy exclusively from the gallery. Pleasantly enough, no one came into the gallery for the two hours that I was there, having the luxury of immersing myself in the work without contending with hoards of other people. This is probably down to the fairly secluded location of the gallery and an optimum time slot of 11 o’clock in the morning. Sedate music (the dulcet tones of Yellow Submarine no less) is played in the background – an agreeable companion to a two-hour stroll around the gallery.

spencer_pioneers

The exhibition is curated by Rick Poynor, prolific author of the book Typographica and founder of Eye magazine and is also part of the London Design Festival and the Icon Design Trail. This exhibition is an exceptional opportunity for any typography or graphic design aficionado to be in the presence of the legendary Typographica magazine. You might already be a die-hard Herbert Spencer fan, in which case you may be the proud owner of ‘Pioneers of Modern Typography’. I would strongly vouch for the Lund Humphries/Hastings House first edition, this wonderful book is best read in its original form. If not, this typography tome is definitely worth some of your time and pocket money.

TYPOGRAPHICA2

Not too far away from Amelia HQ is the current exhibition now on at the Kemistry Gallery in Shoreditch. I would introduce this event with some kind of drum roll if I could. The godfather of typography, nurse Herbert Spencer, was the founder and editor of Typographica magazine that ran from 1949 to 1967 and is considered to be one of the most significant and visually outstanding design journals ever to be published. He far preceded his age – he was only 25 years old when he started out as a freelance typographic Proxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cache-Control: max-age=0

signer. The magazine saw 32 issues printed and with the help of his team they campaigned to transform the face of British typography. The second series (1960-67) shapes the centre of this exhibition where photography is noticeably more prevalent, used as a visual means of making a more flexible and involving way of creating the magazine.

TYPOGRAPHICA3

The gallery itself is contained to one small room. Strange, as you feel a grander space would be more befitting to something so iconic and influential. One wall is dedicated to more photographic examples from the journal. They are all taken in the outside world, in the streets among us. Many of the components that make up our surroundings, in the built up areas we inhabit, can often go unnoticed. Many of us are too busy looking down instead of around and these photographs show us what we’re missing. There are beautiful examples of shop signs, ‘Corseteria’, ‘Sanchez Guaza’ and ‘Camiseria’ in “Spanish Street Lettering” by Alan Bartram (New Series no.15 June 1967). These photos show an early instance of a category of documentary that is now quite common in today’s photography and graphic design. It is only when you see them arranged together in this way that you can start to build up an idea of how much symbols play a part in our daily lives.

TYPOGRAPHICA5

Other pieces are comprised of different road signs, a patchwork of various symbols, that when put together, begin to form a pattern. One is specifically built up of arrows, laid on the road, painted on the walls of buildings and pinned to tree trunks. All the photographs are black and white, which strips them down to their basic forms. I think that it is clearer to see the symbols themselves in this instance and the way in which they integrate into the world around us.

TYPOGRAPHICA4

The opposing wall is dedicated to the printed letter. The pages are predominantly made up of primary colours on a background of black and white. “Piet Zwart” (New Series no.7 May 1963) by Herbert Spencer is a spread from an 8-page article. Spencer would fully engross himself when presenting the work of others in his magazine. In this article about the Dutch modernist Piet Zwart, he bleeds copies of his work off the page without any suggestion of what the dimensions or parameters may be. Spencer chose to use a wide variety of different paper stocks adjacent to each other on the spreads, offering each featured designer a unique look. It also gives a sense of urgency and makes for impressive visual impact.

TYPOGRAPHICA6

The centre of the exhibition is focused on the adjoining second wall. Three issues of original Typographica magazines are displayed in a large glass case, like sacred artefacts in a museum. The Kemistry Gallery have specially created three prints from the original journals. They have chosen what they consider to be the most “iconic and arresting” images from the series, which is available to buy exclusively from the gallery. Pleasantly enough, no one came into the gallery for the two hours that I was there, having the luxury of immersing myself in the work without contending with hoards of other people. This is probably down to the fairly secluded location of the gallery and an optimum time slot of 11 o’clock in the morning. Sedate music (the dulcet tones of Yellow Submarine no less) is played in the background – an agreeable companion to a two-hour stroll around the gallery.

spencer_pioneers

The exhibition is curated by Rick Poynor, prolific author of the book Typographica and founder of Eye magazine and is also part of the London Design Festival and the Icon Design Trail. This exhibition is an exceptional opportunity for any typography or graphic design aficionado to be in the presence of the legendary Typographica magazine. You might already be a die-hard Herbert Spencer fan, in which case you may be the proud owner of ‘Pioneers of Modern Typography’. I would strongly vouch for the Lund Humphries/Hastings House first edition, this wonderful book is best read in its original form. If not, this typography tome is definitely worth some of your time and pocket money.
TYPOGRAPHICA2

Not too far away from Amelia HQ is the current exhibition now on at the Kemistry Gallery in Shoreditch. I would introduce this event with some kind of drum roll if I could. The godfather of typography, symptoms Herbert Spencer, order was the founder and editor of Typographica magazine that ran from 1949 to 1967 and is considered to be one of the most significant and visually outstanding design journals ever to be published. He far preceded his age – he was only 25 years old when he started out as a freelance typographicProxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cache-Control: max-age=0

esigner. The magazine saw 32 issues printed and with the help of his team they campaigned to transform the face of British typography. The second series (1960-67) shapes the centre of this exhibition where photography is noticeably more prevalent, used as a visual means of making a more flexible and involving way of creating the magazine.

TYPOGRAPHICA3

The gallery itself is contained to one small room. Strange, as you feel a grander space would be more befitting to something so iconic and influential. One wall is dedicated to more photographic examples from the journal. They are all taken in the outside world, in the streets among us. Many of the components that make up our surroundings, in the built up areas we inhabit, can often go unnoticed. Many of us are too busy looking down instead of around and these photographs show us what we’re missing. There are beautiful examples of shop signs, ‘Corseteria’, ‘Sanchez Guaza’ and ‘Camiseria’ in “Spanish Street Lettering” by Alan Bartram (New Series no.15 June 1967). These photos show an early instance of a category of documentary that is now quite common in today’s photography and graphic design. It is only when you see them arranged together in this way that you can start to build up an idea of how much symbols play a part in our daily lives.

TYPOGRAPHICA5

Other pieces are comprised of different road signs, a patchwork of various symbols, that when put together, begin to form a pattern. One is specifically built up of arrows, laid on the road, painted on the walls of buildings and pinned to tree trunks. All the photographs are black and white, which strips them down to their basic forms. I think that it is clearer to see the symbols themselves in this instance and the way in which they integrate into the world around us.

TYPOGRAPHICA4

The opposing wall is dedicated to the printed letter. The pages are predominantly made up of primary colours on a background of black and white. “Piet Zwart” (New Series no.7 May 1963) by Herbert Spencer is a spread from an 8-page article. Spencer would fully engross himself when presenting the work of others in his magazine. In this article about the Dutch modernist Piet Zwart, he bleeds copies of his work off the page without any suggestion of what the dimensions or parameters may be. Spencer chose to use a wide variety of different paper stocks adjacent to each other on the spreads, offering each featured designer a unique look. It also gives a sense of urgency and makes for impressive visual impact.

TYPOGRAPHICA6

The centre of the exhibition is focused on the adjoining second wall. Three issues of original Typographica magazines are displayed in a large glass case, like sacred artefacts in a museum. The Kemistry Gallery have specially created three prints from the original journals. They have chosen what they consider to be the most “iconic and arresting” images from the series, which is available to buy exclusively from the gallery. Pleasantly enough, no one came into the gallery for the two hours that I was there, having the luxury of immersing myself in the work without contending with hoards of other people. This is probably down to the fairly secluded location of the gallery and an optimum time slot of 11 o’clock in the morning. Sedate music (the dulcet tones of Yellow Submarine no less) is played in the background – an agreeable companion to a two-hour stroll around the gallery.

spencer_pioneers

The exhibition is curated by Rick Poynor, prolific author of the book Typographica and founder of Eye magazine and is also part of the London Design Festival and the Icon Design Trail. This exhibition is an exceptional opportunity for any typography or graphic design aficionado to be in the presence of the legendary Typographica magazine. You might already be a die-hard Herbert Spencer fan, in which case you may be the proud owner of ‘Pioneers of Modern Typography’. I would strongly vouch for the Lund Humphries/Hastings House first edition, this wonderful book is best read in its original form. If not, this typography tome is definitely worth some of your time and pocket money.
DRAWING ATTENTION

Drawing Attention

The Dulwich Picture Gallery has been graced with a showcase of 100 master drawings from the Art Gallery of Ontario. The great masters from Picasso and Matisse, sildenafil to Rembrandt and Van Gogh are here and movements including Renaissance Italy and German Expressionism. An unmissable opportunity to witness arguably the greatest collection of master drawings in one space, viagra order this exhibition will be undoubtedly compelling and astounding. The gallery have already received a record amount of bookings so join the crowds to see one of this year’s must see exhibitions.

Dulwich Picture Gallery
October 21st 2009 – January 27th 2010

WILDLIFE

Veolia Wildlife Photographer Of The Year

Perhaps a tad too excited about this exhibition, prostate The Veolia Wildlife Photographer Of The Year is at the top of my to-do list this week. Held in the wonderous Natural History Museum, the competition handpicks a selection of the finest wildlife photographs from professional and amateur photographers and have received an astounding 43,000 entries. The candidates aim to produce work that is original, creative and inspired and many of this year’s entries will prove to exceed these expectations. None more so in fact than the winner, Jose Luis Rodriguez’ piece ‘The Storybook Wolf’ alone, makes this exhibition worth going to.

Natural History Museum
October 23 2009 – April 11 2010

PHAIDON

Phaidon Pop-Up Shop

The world renowned publisher Phaidon have just opened their first UK pop up book shop in Piccadilly. Famous for superior quality books on visual arts, culture and creativity, you will be able to buy from categories such as design, photography, architecture, fashion, travel and now new editions, cookery and children’s books. Be sure to make a visit soon to get your mits on any of the beautifully crafted publications as it won’t be around forever. The store will be gone again in the January of next year.

Phaidon Store 173 Piccadilly London W1

POP LIFE

Pop Life:Art In A Material World

Based on Andy Warhol’s notorious quote ‘good business is the best art’ the exhibition considers the legacy Pop Art left behind and the influence it has had since. ‘Pop Life‘ will focus on how artists have inflitrated and been invloved in the mass media since the 1980′s including Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Tracey Emin, Richard Prince and Keith Haring. We are also asked to be aware that some works in this exhibition are of a challenging and sexual nature and admission to three of the rooms is restricted to over-18s only. You have been warned!

Tate Modern
October 1 2009 – January 17 2010

GREEN DAY

Green Day Presents: ‘The Art of Rock’

A celebration of art and music has come to Brick Lane this week. To coincide with the release of their new album Green Day have commissioned a selection of artists to produce work for a travelling exhibition that will also accompany them on their world tour. The artists, who include curator Logan Hicks, Ron English, Sixten, Will Barras and The London Police were asked to make work in reaction to their latest album, 21st Century Breakdown.

StolenSpace Gallery Brick Lane
October 23 – November 11

Categories ,Andy Warhol, ,art gallery of ontario, ,art in a material world, ,Art Listings, ,Damien Hirst, ,Drawing attention, ,dulwich picture gallery, ,green day, ,Jeff Koons, ,jose luis rodriguez, ,keith haring, ,logan hicks, ,matisse, ,natural history museum, ,phaidon, ,phaidon pop up store, ,picasso, ,pop life, ,rembrandt, ,richard prince, ,ron english, ,sixten, ,stolenspace gallery, ,Tate Modern, ,the london police, ,the old truman brewery, ,Tracey Emin, ,van gogh, ,veolia wildlife photographer of the year, ,will barras

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Amelia’s Magazine | An interview with American artist Matthew Rose


My situation (image courtesy of Matthew Rose)

Matthew Rose is an American artist living in Paris known for his 1, look 000 piece wall-to-wall collages. On viewing his work, purchase you can’t help but feel as if you are peering into the wrong end of a telescope; the objects look familiar yet distorted, eerie yet beautiful.

His abstract, artistic style presents a surreal and parallel world infused with vibrant colours where he often plays with an unusual fusion of subjects (and by this I mean a man with carrots for his head or a woman who is part-human, part-camera – pretty crazy stuff but in the most fantastic sense!).

For almost three decades, Matthew has been producing installations, which reinforce the connection between imagery and literature in art. His works – many of which are a composite of beautiful colours, visuals and text melting into one another – evoke the genres of 20th century surrealist artists, and several critics have cited his work as demonstrating a ‘dadaist exploration of sense and non-sense’.

Matthew’s installations have featured in galleries and museums across Europe, Asia and the United States, and his work has appeared in numerous books and magazines, including MASTERS: COLLAGE (Sterling Publishing/Lark Books, 2010) published recently.

His most notable art project to date, A Book About Death, showcased in New York’s Emily Harvey Foundation Gallery in September 2009. The show was a logistical feat involving thousands of artists from across the globe sending 500 artworks in the form of postcards to construct the exhibition. The beauty of the exhibition was that the end result was offered to one lucky visitor in the form of a book… for free. More than 18 exhibitions of A Book About Death have been staged worldwide, including The Queens Museum in New York, MuBE in São Paulo and MoMA Wales.


Private view invite (image courtesy of Matthew Rose and Orange Dot Gallery)

Matthew’s most recent project, Scared But Fresh, is a dislocated love story exploring the sense and non-sense, which I was lucky enough to catch at Orange Dot Gallery, a lovely new exhibition space in the heart of Bloomsbury. By his own admission, Matthew is interested in ‘creating works to see them for himself’ but as a by-product of his imagination, his mesmerising creations prompt the viewer to garner thoughts of their own.

After gate-crashing a Brown University reunion held at the gallery, where Matthew studied Semiotics in 1981, I managed to grab a quiet moment with the calm and composed artist before his alumni chums arrived, gaining a glimpse into the annals of the mind of a truly fascinating individual…

How old were you when you realised you wanted to be an artist?
I couldn’t have been more than six years old when my mother and aunt dragged me to The Brooklyn Museum to see Van Gogh. The lines went around the block and I couldn’t understand what the fuss was about; I was hungry, my feet hurt and being small, I was suffocating in this cloud of wool coats. Once inside the galleries, however, I caught my first glimpse of what has proven to be a very nourishing world… I stayed close to my mother and aunt for about 10 minutes but soon enough got lost (purposely) and quietly pushed my way through the crowds to get up close to Van Gogh’s brilliant colors, these vibrating landscapes – in particular, the painting he produced in the Arlesian sun, Almond Branches in Bloom (1890). It turned out to be one of the pieces he produced the year he died of a self-inflicted gun shot wound. I never forgot the color and intelligence behind this painting, and I slowly began to look for this “art experience” in my own.


Anglais (image courtesy of Matthew Rose)

What artists did you look up to when you were developing your artistic style?
Most artists I know were influenced by the early 20th century modernists – Picasso, Matisse, Malevich…then Duchamp and the Dadaists, the Surrealists, Pollock, de Kooning and then those who flavored the world we arrived in: Warhol, Johns, Rauschenberg. For me, probably folks like Hopper for his era and compositions and silence; and Cornell for his expansive internal universe, and mostly Ray Johnson, because he was a friend and teacher (as he was to thousands) and the way he worked. Since I mostly work in collage, I’m more prone to think in disparate images and texts, an old-fashioned multi-media stream of consciousness. I don’t have problems with dislocated images and lexical puzzles. Of course I don’t pretend that these artists are producing works of philosophy, but rather reflecting the cataclysm that stems from consciousness.

Your work often involves the use of collage – what led to this fascination and why do you like working in this particular abstract context?
Collage is just one of several mediums I work in. Over the years I’ve produced works/object in wax or wood, painting and drawing, and text pieces either as rubber stamp works (printing) or drawing the words. One of my interests is word as image, and collage permits me to combine words and images in a fairly rapid fashion. I tend to work super fast and produce series in a matter of days or weeks. I’m pretty obsessed once I get going and very little interferes with my process. I did a show some years ago called ‘Spelling With Scissors’, and this is my approach – combining literature (texts) with images. I have always discussed my aesthetic view as a form of reading.

What does working in collage allow you to express in ways that other forms of artistic expression cannot?
Speed. Strangeness. The wide array of material allows me to cover many ideas and compositional concepts in a short period of time. Painting plays a part in what I do, as does drawing and often these mediums come into play in a work. But collage is an approach to consciousness, and that, I think is the flux endpoint in my work. Most of the elements I use are found, and that, too, is an important part of my process. Seeing what the world washes up at my feet, the skidmarks of my time and place.


Scared But Fresh at Orange Dot Gallery (photography courtesy of Orange Dot Gallery)

What was the inspiration behind Scared But Fresh?
Scared But Fresh
is a love story. The works in the exhibition come together (in my mind, at least) to lay out a dislocated love story, a song about love with its insistent cacophony. I think if you look at the pieces in this exhibition, including the 12-piece collage on paper series, America, you’ll see sex, love and death (the staples of art making), you’ll discover heartache, lust, dread and all those angst-laden things that produce so much of the content of our lives. Or at least that’s the way I see it. Again, I produce these works to see them myself, to see what these odd elements produce in combination, and to perhaps understand what sort of stuff is moving around inside of me; that said, it’s not therapy, but rather an inquiry.

Why is the exhibition called Scared But Fresh?
Scared But Fresh was a phrase sent to me in 2002 by a friend; she signed an e mail that way. I immediately seized upon it, made a tonne of text works with it, cutting stencils and painting them, or adding it to other works, but also meditating upon its possible meanings. The “but” is critical. My thinking in using it for the title of this exhibition at Orange Dot Gallery in London was that it was so aggressive, sure but still loaded with innocence and dread. Like love.

Critics have previously cited your work as a dadaist exploration of sense and non-sense. What would your response be to this?
I would agree with them. Dada is many things, and has been the point of departure for nearly 100 years of art production. The combination of sense and non-sense, broken grammar, chopped up meaning, and the flux of everyday life is, in my view, what my consciousness is like. What is the sense of finding a dollar bill stuck in a pile of dog shit? Or posters torn and weathered revealing a history of pasting and perhaps, a history of beauty (the models featured in years of posters, bits of their faces and clothing revealed)? I grab onto these things and consider them. Other people think about interest rates and widget production, and so do I, but I do something quite different with the information, the images and the meaning of these things. A large piece I produced, Les Affaires (prints are on Keep Calm Gallery’s site), surveys all sorts of exchanges; it is about commerce in many ways. Another work, Immaculate Perception (also available as a print on Keep Calm Gallery), is a very simple surreal piece showing a girl blossoming from a lemon tree. It’s not very interesting to be logical all day long, plus logic is overrated.


Cornell Bottle (photography courtesy of Orange Dot Gallery)

How would you describe your own style of work?
I’m a cut and paste artist. But I try to be clear in my chaos. The style can be dada, neo-pop, surreal, but I think after all these years, it’s simply mine.

When you create art, do you do it in the frame of mind that it will be viewed by others or it is created as a visual form of a personal diary?
I create these things to see them for myself, to discover what this 1/2 face would look like with this 1/2 refrigerator. Or what would happen if this nice girl in her party dress would be like if she were wearing a steak for a head, or a pair of mechanical gears for breasts? I produce these works the way I play chess, carefully, but totally willing to take risks, totally willing to exchange queens, sacrifice pawns…not afraid to lose. As for a diary, I’m not sure about that, but I do work in books very often. Some of my series come in the form of 110-page visual novels like A Perfect Friend and Days Like These, People (drawings), Machines (drawings) and a dozen others. I feel not so much as if I’m making things for other people – again – but more for myself, and not to cure myself of anything other than the nightmare that is our world.

You are now based in France. Do you find that where you live has any influence on the themes that run through your work?
Living in France probably hasn’t altered in any significant way the themes that run through my work. Love, sex, death, anxiety, money will find you out no matter where you live. The material though is different. As I’m extremely interested in language, the plethora of printed materials in French, German, Spanish, Italian, English and other languages abounds here. I often find old beat up books tossed out on the street, or objects on the sidewalk. I can also play with a tonne of languages and I very much enjoy that. It’s the world. My studio is small and quiet and as I also live in the space I’m always up at 3 am working. Or I sleep then wake and work… something is always going on here, and should I need to go out, a walk proves a real fascination for me after a period of intense activity. “Holy smokes,” I’ll say to myself. “I live in France.” I sometimes forget that I actually live in this country.

What thoughts/feelings would you like viewers to go away with after they have been to your exhibition?
Well they tell me that they enjoy the work, they like that craziness of the work, but that it all makes sense. During the exhibition the head of a large international advertising company spent quite a while looking at my work. His focus is message communication, and in particularly creating iPhone apps, so he’s very attuned to visuals and text, and he said to me: “This is brilliant.” At the moment he was looking at a work from the America series of a girl on a swing with the word “HOME” pasted on top of her. She was pasted, in turn, on top of a photograph of a ship in a raging storm. That to me was very rewarding. Because something that was interesting to me was interesting to someone else, it was strong enough to click somewhere else.

How would you best like to be remembered?
You mean when I die? I launched an enormous project about this (in a way), A Book About Death. So I’ve thought long and hard about what its like to not have consciousness, to be left alone, to struggle with the impermanence of life, and the often sad and painful lives we lead when the folks we love are no longer with us. I’ve tried not to turn away from death and acknowledge it. Maybe as someone who wasn’t afraid to confront his demons, loved his friends and collaborated with the world in a way that made a little bit more sense out of the nonsense.

Categories ,A Book About Death, ,Brown University, ,Cornell, ,Dadaists, ,de Kooning, ,Duchamp, ,Emily Harvey Foundation Gallery, ,Hopper, ,Johns, ,Kat Phan, ,Keep Calm Gallery, ,Malevich, ,matisse, ,Matthew Rose, ,MoMA Wales, ,MuBE, ,Orange Dot Gallery, ,picasso, ,Pollock, ,Rauschenberg, ,Ray Johnson, ,Scared But Fresh, ,Surrealists, ,The Brooklyn Museum, ,The Queens Museum, ,van gogh, ,Warhol

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Amelia’s Magazine | An interview with American artist Matthew Rose


My situation (image courtesy of Matthew Rose)

Matthew Rose is an American artist living in Paris known for his 1, look 000 piece wall-to-wall collages. On viewing his work, purchase you can’t help but feel as if you are peering into the wrong end of a telescope; the objects look familiar yet distorted, eerie yet beautiful.

His abstract, artistic style presents a surreal and parallel world infused with vibrant colours where he often plays with an unusual fusion of subjects (and by this I mean a man with carrots for his head or a woman who is part-human, part-camera – pretty crazy stuff but in the most fantastic sense!).

For almost three decades, Matthew has been producing installations, which reinforce the connection between imagery and literature in art. His works – many of which are a composite of beautiful colours, visuals and text melting into one another – evoke the genres of 20th century surrealist artists, and several critics have cited his work as demonstrating a ‘dadaist exploration of sense and non-sense’.

Matthew’s installations have featured in galleries and museums across Europe, Asia and the United States, and his work has appeared in numerous books and magazines, including MASTERS: COLLAGE (Sterling Publishing/Lark Books, 2010) published recently.

His most notable art project to date, A Book About Death, showcased in New York’s Emily Harvey Foundation Gallery in September 2009. The show was a logistical feat involving thousands of artists from across the globe sending 500 artworks in the form of postcards to construct the exhibition. The beauty of the exhibition was that the end result was offered to one lucky visitor in the form of a book… for free. More than 18 exhibitions of A Book About Death have been staged worldwide, including The Queens Museum in New York, MuBE in São Paulo and MoMA Wales.


Private view invite (image courtesy of Matthew Rose and Orange Dot Gallery)

Matthew’s most recent project, Scared But Fresh, is a dislocated love story exploring the sense and non-sense, which I was lucky enough to catch at Orange Dot Gallery, a lovely new exhibition space in the heart of Bloomsbury. By his own admission, Matthew is interested in ‘creating works to see them for himself’ but as a by-product of his imagination, his mesmerising creations prompt the viewer to garner thoughts of their own.

After gate-crashing a Brown University reunion held at the gallery, where Matthew studied Semiotics in 1981, I managed to grab a quiet moment with the calm and composed artist before his alumni chums arrived, gaining a glimpse into the annals of the mind of a truly fascinating individual…

How old were you when you realised you wanted to be an artist?
I couldn’t have been more than six years old when my mother and aunt dragged me to The Brooklyn Museum to see Van Gogh. The lines went around the block and I couldn’t understand what the fuss was about; I was hungry, my feet hurt and being small, I was suffocating in this cloud of wool coats. Once inside the galleries, however, I caught my first glimpse of what has proven to be a very nourishing world… I stayed close to my mother and aunt for about 10 minutes but soon enough got lost (purposely) and quietly pushed my way through the crowds to get up close to Van Gogh’s brilliant colors, these vibrating landscapes – in particular, the painting he produced in the Arlesian sun, Almond Branches in Bloom (1890). It turned out to be one of the pieces he produced the year he died of a self-inflicted gun shot wound. I never forgot the color and intelligence behind this painting, and I slowly began to look for this “art experience” in my own.


Anglais (image courtesy of Matthew Rose)

What artists did you look up to when you were developing your artistic style?
Most artists I know were influenced by the early 20th century modernists – Picasso, Matisse, Malevich…then Duchamp and the Dadaists, the Surrealists, Pollock, de Kooning and then those who flavored the world we arrived in: Warhol, Johns, Rauschenberg. For me, probably folks like Hopper for his era and compositions and silence; and Cornell for his expansive internal universe, and mostly Ray Johnson, because he was a friend and teacher (as he was to thousands) and the way he worked. Since I mostly work in collage, I’m more prone to think in disparate images and texts, an old-fashioned multi-media stream of consciousness. I don’t have problems with dislocated images and lexical puzzles. Of course I don’t pretend that these artists are producing works of philosophy, but rather reflecting the cataclysm that stems from consciousness.

Your work often involves the use of collage – what led to this fascination and why do you like working in this particular abstract context?
Collage is just one of several mediums I work in. Over the years I’ve produced works/object in wax or wood, painting and drawing, and text pieces either as rubber stamp works (printing) or drawing the words. One of my interests is word as image, and collage permits me to combine words and images in a fairly rapid fashion. I tend to work super fast and produce series in a matter of days or weeks. I’m pretty obsessed once I get going and very little interferes with my process. I did a show some years ago called ‘Spelling With Scissors’, and this is my approach – combining literature (texts) with images. I have always discussed my aesthetic view as a form of reading.

What does working in collage allow you to express in ways that other forms of artistic expression cannot?
Speed. Strangeness. The wide array of material allows me to cover many ideas and compositional concepts in a short period of time. Painting plays a part in what I do, as does drawing and often these mediums come into play in a work. But collage is an approach to consciousness, and that, I think is the flux endpoint in my work. Most of the elements I use are found, and that, too, is an important part of my process. Seeing what the world washes up at my feet, the skidmarks of my time and place.


Scared But Fresh at Orange Dot Gallery (photography courtesy of Orange Dot Gallery)

What was the inspiration behind Scared But Fresh?
Scared But Fresh
is a love story. The works in the exhibition come together (in my mind, at least) to lay out a dislocated love story, a song about love with its insistent cacophony. I think if you look at the pieces in this exhibition, including the 12-piece collage on paper series, America, you’ll see sex, love and death (the staples of art making), you’ll discover heartache, lust, dread and all those angst-laden things that produce so much of the content of our lives. Or at least that’s the way I see it. Again, I produce these works to see them myself, to see what these odd elements produce in combination, and to perhaps understand what sort of stuff is moving around inside of me; that said, it’s not therapy, but rather an inquiry.

Why is the exhibition called Scared But Fresh?
Scared But Fresh was a phrase sent to me in 2002 by a friend; she signed an e mail that way. I immediately seized upon it, made a tonne of text works with it, cutting stencils and painting them, or adding it to other works, but also meditating upon its possible meanings. The “but” is critical. My thinking in using it for the title of this exhibition at Orange Dot Gallery in London was that it was so aggressive, sure but still loaded with innocence and dread. Like love.

Critics have previously cited your work as a dadaist exploration of sense and non-sense. What would your response be to this?
I would agree with them. Dada is many things, and has been the point of departure for nearly 100 years of art production. The combination of sense and non-sense, broken grammar, chopped up meaning, and the flux of everyday life is, in my view, what my consciousness is like. What is the sense of finding a dollar bill stuck in a pile of dog shit? Or posters torn and weathered revealing a history of pasting and perhaps, a history of beauty (the models featured in years of posters, bits of their faces and clothing revealed)? I grab onto these things and consider them. Other people think about interest rates and widget production, and so do I, but I do something quite different with the information, the images and the meaning of these things. A large piece I produced, Les Affaires (prints are on Keep Calm Gallery’s site), surveys all sorts of exchanges; it is about commerce in many ways. Another work, Immaculate Perception (also available as a print on Keep Calm Gallery), is a very simple surreal piece showing a girl blossoming from a lemon tree. It’s not very interesting to be logical all day long, plus logic is overrated.


Cornell Bottle (photography courtesy of Orange Dot Gallery)

How would you describe your own style of work?
I’m a cut and paste artist. But I try to be clear in my chaos. The style can be dada, neo-pop, surreal, but I think after all these years, it’s simply mine.

When you create art, do you do it in the frame of mind that it will be viewed by others or it is created as a visual form of a personal diary?
I create these things to see them for myself, to discover what this 1/2 face would look like with this 1/2 refrigerator. Or what would happen if this nice girl in her party dress would be like if she were wearing a steak for a head, or a pair of mechanical gears for breasts? I produce these works the way I play chess, carefully, but totally willing to take risks, totally willing to exchange queens, sacrifice pawns…not afraid to lose. As for a diary, I’m not sure about that, but I do work in books very often. Some of my series come in the form of 110-page visual novels like A Perfect Friend and Days Like These, People (drawings), Machines (drawings) and a dozen others. I feel not so much as if I’m making things for other people – again – but more for myself, and not to cure myself of anything other than the nightmare that is our world.

You are now based in France. Do you find that where you live has any influence on the themes that run through your work?
Living in France probably hasn’t altered in any significant way the themes that run through my work. Love, sex, death, anxiety, money will find you out no matter where you live. The material though is different. As I’m extremely interested in language, the plethora of printed materials in French, German, Spanish, Italian, English and other languages abounds here. I often find old beat up books tossed out on the street, or objects on the sidewalk. I can also play with a tonne of languages and I very much enjoy that. It’s the world. My studio is small and quiet and as I also live in the space I’m always up at 3 am working. Or I sleep then wake and work… something is always going on here, and should I need to go out, a walk proves a real fascination for me after a period of intense activity. “Holy smokes,” I’ll say to myself. “I live in France.” I sometimes forget that I actually live in this country.

What thoughts/feelings would you like viewers to go away with after they have been to your exhibition?
Well they tell me that they enjoy the work, they like that craziness of the work, but that it all makes sense. During the exhibition the head of a large international advertising company spent quite a while looking at my work. His focus is message communication, and in particularly creating iPhone apps, so he’s very attuned to visuals and text, and he said to me: “This is brilliant.” At the moment he was looking at a work from the America series of a girl on a swing with the word “HOME” pasted on top of her. She was pasted, in turn, on top of a photograph of a ship in a raging storm. That to me was very rewarding. Because something that was interesting to me was interesting to someone else, it was strong enough to click somewhere else.

How would you best like to be remembered?
You mean when I die? I launched an enormous project about this (in a way), A Book About Death. So I’ve thought long and hard about what its like to not have consciousness, to be left alone, to struggle with the impermanence of life, and the often sad and painful lives we lead when the folks we love are no longer with us. I’ve tried not to turn away from death and acknowledge it. Maybe as someone who wasn’t afraid to confront his demons, loved his friends and collaborated with the world in a way that made a little bit more sense out of the nonsense.

Categories ,A Book About Death, ,Brown University, ,Cornell, ,Dadaists, ,de Kooning, ,Duchamp, ,Emily Harvey Foundation Gallery, ,Hopper, ,Johns, ,Kat Phan, ,Keep Calm Gallery, ,Malevich, ,matisse, ,Matthew Rose, ,MoMA Wales, ,MuBE, ,Orange Dot Gallery, ,picasso, ,Pollock, ,Rauschenberg, ,Ray Johnson, ,Scared But Fresh, ,Surrealists, ,The Brooklyn Museum, ,The Queens Museum, ,van gogh, ,Warhol

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