Open Screenings at The Whitechapel Gallery
Meet five emerging and established artist filmmakers as they present their short film work and discuss it with peers and Adjunct Film Curator Gareth Evans.
Zilkha Auditorium
Inferno: Alexander McQuee
unseen photographs by Kent Baker to go on show in The Gallery at Foyles
An intimate photographic portrait of McQueen’s seminal show ‘Dante’, Autumn/Winter 1996/97 Curated by Olly Walker & Futurecity
©Kent Baker
A collection of previously unseen, backstage photographs from Alexander McQueen’s seminal show ‘Dante’, are to be displayed for the first time at the Gallery at Foyles from 20 March – 3 May 2015. The striking images are taken from Kent Baker’s new book, ‘Inferno: Alexander McQueen’, published on 30 March 2015 by Laurence King Publishing.
Iconic British fashion designer Alexander McQueen was a recent Central St Martin’s graduate when in 1996 he showcased an early collection ‘Dante’ at Nicholas Hawksmoor’s architectural masterpiece Christchurch in Spitalfields. The audience was treated to an evening of theatrical spectacle. Photographer Kent Baker, a member of McQueen’s intimate circle of friends, was in a unique position to capture a singular moment: the emergence of a radical and visionary force in contemporary fashion.
Shot entirely on film, Baker’s on-the-fly backstage photographs echo reportage photography whilst perfectly capturing the excitement and baroque theatre of the evening. At the centre is Alexander McQueen, directing proceedings, at his side Kent Baker quietly recording a portrait of the surprisingly intimate friendships and interdependent creative relationships, which together shaped a sublimely unforgettable moment in British fashion history.
Material Cryptographies | Two-day Seminar in collaboration with Goldsmiths College
Material Cryptographies is a two-day seminar considering the implications of encryption practices for contemporary art. We aim to examine how cryptography, the art of writing or solving codes, can expose and utilise the hidden material substrates in an array of objects.
The physical embodiment of code is often overlooked: treated as invisible or incomprehensible, while in fact, it may hold significant clues to further our ability to accurately ‘read’ an object or event. DNA for instance, is both code and material, where information is literally material and it’s function is incomprehensible by us without proper tools of translation.
In our realm, the word “encryption” implies secrecy, confidentiality, and the drive to hide information from a public ‘adversary’. Yet more broadly, any art object might be understood as something withdrawn from a viewer’s comprehension; hiding information, witnessing unknown pasts or simulating as-yet unforeseen futures. In this context, how do artists use encryption as a methodology for approaching materials and how does this relationship trouble preconceptions of artistic authorship? How might cryptography, notably in regard to newly emerging information politics, relate and update older notions of hermeneutics or semiotic acts of decoding? What are the implications of these information politics for artists, as encryptors of material?
When objects become witnesses, encrypting temporal data into the fabric of their physical structure, they naturally invite decryption. From here we may decode and reconstruct past events, but just as importantly, build models for simulating future occurrences. What are the implications of understanding such acts of reconstruction as ‘truth’? Are materials that bear the weight of encryptions unbiased and are our decryptions able to be impartial?
Screening Programme
with Tom Duggan, Saemundur Thor Helgason, Patrick Hough, Alia Pathan and Sam Smith
18 March, 8 to 9pm
Material Cryptographies is formulated by:
Nick Bailey, Else Bonneviot, Sung Eun Chin, Carl Gent, Julia Gorostidi, Saemundur Thor Helgason, Karen Mc Lean, Sikarnt Skoolisariyaporn, Sam Smith, Andrew Sunderland, Katja Verheul
WE HOST: Creative Symposium - What does creativity mean to you?
On March 4 2015, a panel of ‘Creative Jedis’ from a variety of different backgrounds will meet to argue this point, and what they believe it really means to create something in our modern society.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term ‘creativity’ is defined as: ‘the use of imagination or original ideas to create something; inventiveness’. But, is that really the best answer you can think of? Surely, with that definition, there is little room for the more philosophical and psychological implications of the term or the more subjective dimensions that ‘being creative’ gives access to.
The Creative Jedis
Artist Alex Chinneck takes sculpturally complex routes to arrive at playful visual moments. Exploring the space between art, theatre and architecture he is inspired by the landscapes of London’s industrial peripheries. (Check out our interview with Alex Chinneck in our current issue ROOMS 16)
A professional stylist and untrained but passionate artist, Jess De Wahls follows her need for creating through several disciplines, mostly involving portraiture.
Artist Philip Levine started using his head as a canvas for creativity back in 2006 when he began to go bald. Using it as a form of artistic expression, Philip’s art aims to give out a social message.
Sasha C. Damjanovski is a writer, producer and director. His credits include feature film, broadcast drama, theatre, dance and drama shorts as well as commercial work.
London based agency Spritz Creative is situated in the capital's most creative and ethnically diverse area, Whitechapel. Its employees have made the journey to Spritz from all around the world to work in this international lifestyle branding agency.
Andrzej Klimowski is a graphic artist and a designer of theatre, opera and film posters. He is an international illustrator of book covers and press and magazine illustrations and an author of graphic novels. (Read our interview with Andrzej Klimowski in our current issue ROOMS 16)
Daniel Regan is a photographer, whose work often focuses on themes of recovery, health and psychology. Daniel studied at the University of Brighton and graduated with a Photography BA in 2006, using this period to explore his own mental health difficulties.
Join the discussion
As well as these guests, there will be input from philosophers and psychologists looking at creativity in their own field of work. They will support the flow of discussion and aim to provide ideas from which the debate can thrive.
The audience at the event will be formed of art students and key stakeholders in the creative industries. These ‘grasshoppers’ will be a key part of the debate, engaging with the discussion and providing questions that seek to spark further thought.
Please register by email: ralph.barker@roomsmagazine.com
Places are limited!
Creative Symposium is hosted by ROOMS Magazine in association with University of the Arts London and Lazy Gramophone Collective
Massive thanks to Graphic Designer Victoria Keown and sponsors Aesop, University of the Arts London, MA Applied Imagination in the Creative Industries at Central St. and Lazy Gramophone Collective
TALK SERIES : ARTISTS, WHAT IS YOUR VALUE?
First Happenings: Adrian Henri in the ‘60s and '70s, offers a focussed look at Adrian Henri’s pioneering role in the ‘happenings movement’ in Britain, setting up the first ‘Event’ in 1962, through to enabling various collaborative events into the 1970s.
Talk Series: Artists, what is your value?
£7/£5 ICA Members/Free to student ICA members