MEMOBOTTLE: The water bottle you’ve always wanted
Posted by Rebecca Oram
Jonathan Burt and Jesse Leeworthy have created a chic, innovative new water bottle which not only curbs the inconvenience of fitting a round bottle in your bag but is a reusable environmentally friendly design.
From Melbourne, Leeworthy is a product design engineer who won the prize of 2011 Emerging-Product-Designer at the International Design Awards. Now the pair are campaigning on Kickstarter with their new product. It has already been backed by nearly 5000 people, who have pledged almost $200,000 towards the cause; over 13 times their original goal.
The product comes in three familiar paper sizes A4, A5 and Letter, with a transparent and fashionably slim line form resembling paper; something that has never been seen before. Only 30mm in width, it is ideal for slotting in between books and laptops in your bag when you are on the go.
Made from BPA-free Tritan, a long-lasting and dishwasher safe plastic, the project aims to reduce our consumption of bottled water.
This duo’s original alternative will not only save us money but contribute to saving the planet as well. Set to be on sale by December, there is no doubt that this product should be making its way on to everyone’s Christmas list.
OUR LEGACY AW14
By Abigail Yue Wang
When introducing Our Legacy as a label tailored by two Swedish minds, it goes often hand in hand to crown it with ‘the Scandinavian touch’ before we actually know what that entails. In its Autumn/Winter 14, what we see may as well establish such definition for the better. Taking inspirations from supermarket packaging, emulated industrial prints transmit the disposable impression into something of a decisive appeal.
It is a collection that concerns moment-to-moment wearability no less than the male chic. Occasional flowery imprints and muted gradient all become a statement that’s understated. Crinkled fabric looks for that delicious threshold between weary and unwinding. With high quality cotton, Italian wool, ornate silk and leather, the collection is a relaxed expression that will dress up one’s skin in long-lasting ease, playing for keeps for the tactile and incisive hearts.
Interview with RACHEL GOODYEAR
Sufficiently sticky from twenty-six degree heat, I was more than pleased to be invited into the cool and creative rooms of Salford-based independent arts organisation Islington Mill, by Rachel Goodyear. With her bohemian-like attire and relaxed demeanour, she seemed very much a part of the place. Her studio is her scrapbook; here you can find magical traces of her imagination such as odd clippings about fungus, her mascot ‘A Girl with Birds Inside Her’ mask and a collection of gothic figurines in a glass cabinet. In her darkly fairytale work you’ll find relentlessly dancing devils, humans wearing beastly masks, young doppelgangers, the trappings of vulnerable animalistic stances, and even a couple feeding each other like birds. Yet her world is her own; these are not archaic characters, but slightly skewed versions of her everyday experiences and observations. Her most recent exhibition work at London’s Pippy Houldsworth Gallery differs significantly from her previous work, and now she’s in collage-style experimental mode. It was a privilege to hear her talk so openly, especially about her collection of drawings ‘Unable To Stop Because They Were Too Close To The Line’ which were her diary while she was undergoing chemotherapy in 2006 for Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Where did you train as an artist?
I did my BA at Leeds Metropolitan University. It was quite a long time ago now! I was in a really productive year, so I think as a year group we all got along well. There was a lot of support and enthusiasm, which helped a lot.
What has made you stay in Manchester – what is it about the art scene that has made you stay?
Predominantly this place (Islington Mill) – I do sometimes wonder that, especially being in the same studio for so many years and watching everything change around me – even the view out of the window is changing. It does come back to this place. There are some really fantastic places in Manchester as well; it’s a brilliant support network. There’s the International Three Gallery, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester Art Gallery…It’s a good city to be in, but the Mill is definitely my creative home.
“It’s a kind of in-between, sleepwalking state, real but not real. that’s the kind of state i’m interested in.”
Much of your work is like a twisted folklore, a darker version of Alice in Wonderland which sucks all the cliché out of the Disney adaptations. Were you read fairy tales as a child?
Yeah I was read fairy tales, but also my Mum was really into Norse and Greek mythology, there was always these peculiar story books lying around – a lot of them were really old. Also, my great aunty was a mischievous old storyteller – she was quite a character – she would look after me quite a lot and just sit and tell me loads of stories. Some of them were true, others she just made up. I grew up with a lot of tall tales!
Are there any particular figures which feature in your work?
There tends to be more of a serendipitous meeting of characters. Whenever I make work I never actually think about fairy tales or folk tales. What I tend to do is look at the everyday and twist it slightly, perhaps using the objects as metaphors. Because a lot of folklore is built upon those lines as well, I think you get a crossover of old characters and beliefs. I start to notice little similarities there. A few years ago I started to look closely at the trickster character in mythology, mainly because I started reading about the trickster from various different mythologies and cultures and started to notice so many similarities between the characteristics of the trickster and those in my own work. There’s mischievousness, deception…
Explain your use of white space… It seems to correspond to your artwork titles which are simple and devoid of excessive allusion – it’s as if each one encloses a moral or a secret which can’t quite be pinned down the same way as conventional fairy stories…
Right from when I very first started bringing the drawings out of the sketchbook, I saw them as being fragments almost like if you extract something from its natural surroundings, or a sentence from its usual context. If you just strip everything else away it just heightens that ambiguity of who it is, where it has come from, what it’s doing. That white space becomes a charged space even though there’s nothing in it, making you question what could be there. When there’s a lot of space around something it can become quite bleak and maybe appear to be quite vulnerable. It can be like a sinister character in the mist.
Have you ever considered book illustration?
Not as such. I have had people come to me, and if there’s a particular drawing they like that already exists which they think will really suit the story then that’s fine, but it’s more a meeting of creative minds. Robert Shearman, who has written collections of dark short stories, has used some of my drawings in this way. I’ve also done album covers for close friends; when I really like their music and they like my art work, we put the two together and it just kind of works. But it doesn’t happen very often, I can’t illustrate other people’s ideas! I find it quite peculiar when I’m labelled as an illustrator, because I can’t!
There’s something addictively uncanny about your work, which is both familiar and distancing at the same time. Is this intentional?
In a way. Sometimes more so than others, I will have an idea before I put it on paper and it will be quite deliberate. The other way I work is more like a stream of consciousness. To be honest, I prefer the stream of consciousness, but it does tend to take a little longer for things to happen that way, it’s more of a process that’s ongoing over time. There are definitely things you can recognise in my work, because of the way it takes in what’s around, sometimes very ordinary things and twisting them – putting things together that might not necessarily go together. Kind of just screwing things up a little bit! It’s a kind of in-between, sleepwalking state, real but not real. That’s the kind of state I’m interested in.
“I love horror films that create a sense of anxiety from very little at all”
I loved seeing your animation ‘Girl with birds inside her’ – I felt she was inescapably trapped, in comparison to the characters in your drawings…
That’s pretty much what I want the animations to do. When I first started getting interested in animation it wasn’t to make a story. The girl with birds inside her is a long standing character for me, even my studio mascot is ‘the girl with birds inside her’. It’s a sketch which I’ve been doing for years and years. I always imagined she would have all these birds inside her; she would cough one up and another one would take its place so she could never get her breath or be given her voice. But then again I had this idea that she was guided by the fluttering, and the birds’ compass direction was working inside her.
The scenarios I draw on paper tend to show characters caught in a moment, so you could imagine anything could happen next. I had ideas for characters caught in a cycle, which I knew could only be achieved through movement and creating a loop. That’s when I got interested in animation. Most of my animations work as an inescapable cycle, but this was my most ambitious. I underestimated the amount of work which goes into them!
How did you make the animation?
Alex Hindle, an animator from the group Soup Collective, assisted me with all of the technical stuff. I told him what I wanted to do and he gave me quite a bit of guidance, but I also wanted to keep it really DIY. First I made hundreds and hundreds of drawings, then he helped put these into animation programme After Effects and played around with timing/loops. Sound artist, Matt Wand, did the sound for me – most of one day I spent coughing out tomatoes in front of a microphone!
Your artistic repertoire is one of abject substances, claws, teeth, whips, masks and cloaked identities. Art critic Cynthia Freeland notes that art in recent years has shown an obsession with horror; would you say that the contemporary Gothic realm is a spectacle, rather than a physical presence?
Horror has become such a broad term, as has Gothic, and I struggle with them as labels for genres and cultures with so many layers and subtle differences. I think that contemporary Gothic Horror offers both the spectacular and physical presence and I do tend to dip in and out of it. I am a huge horror film fan, particularly silent films such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Nosferatu, and really enjoy a good zombie or monster movie, but I love horror films that create a sense of anxiety from very little at all. I really enjoyed ‘Under the Skin’ for these very reasons – I still keep thinking about it.
“…it’s really unhealthy to just expect everything to happen in one room”
Looking at your portfolio, your style has changed. This is especially so in 2012, and in your work exhibited at Pippy Houldsworth, where your pages seem to have become fuller of activity, in comparison with earlier drawings. Do you ever feel like the world you’ve created is growing or simply changing?
It’s changing constantly. I’m now in another period of change. I’ve just finished my show at Pippy Houldsworth, so I’ve been thinking about some new techniques and directions. More recently I’ve been looking at a larger landscape and at what would happen if I put multiple characters together. I have noticed in the most recent larger drawings that there seems to be quite a lot of overlapping going on, so one character’s set of activity would create a platform for a parallel activity. Now I am looking at how I might be able to develop that and see where the drawings can go next. I’m allowing myself a little time in the studio to be playful.
Is your sculpture a tangible extension of your drawings? These are like nothing I’ve seen before, in their combination of pencil drawing with materials like porcelain.
Yeah. I wouldn’t ever call myself a sculptor, although I did do sculpture at college. These porcelain works came from a desire to play with what a drawing can be. With my works at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, in combining 3D objects with drawing, I saw the 3D elements as drawings which had fallen off the paper. I got the idea that if the drawing escaped it would be all floppy and unable to hold its weight. This mixed in with the figure of the trickster – kind of creeping out, then suddenly in uncomfortable territory. It wasn’t about making sculptures, but extending what a drawing might be.
Is there a place for drawing as a medium in the contemporary art world?
The contemporary art world certainly seems to recognise Drawing as a medium in its own right and there is a lot of discussion around the importance of drawing and what it can be. Some institutions focus predominantly on Drawing in its widest sense, notably The Drawing Room in London and The Drawing Center in New York. Drawing can be so extensive and this is something I am thinking a lot about at the moment. I mostly work with pencil on paper, but I am open to the possibilities of what it means to ‘draw’ – with different materials, maybe even the body…
If you had a twin what would they be like?
I think of myself as a double personality anyway. I can be gregarious one day and insular the next, depending on where I am and how I wake up that day. Dressing up can change how I feel too! I like how with a mask or a wig, you can completely change your personality. So my twin would probably be one of them! There have been times where I turn costume into performance, the mask ‘the girl with birds inside her’ was originally part of an art performance I used to do with my friends where I just used to skulk around and hide in corners – I made myself into a strange illusion.
Do most of your ideas come to you in your studio, or elsewhere? The countryside in this area is beautiful…
I’m always looking for ideas. It happens in different ways, sometimes a lot will come together in the studio but then I have to remind myself it’s really unhealthy to just expect everything to happen in one room. Recently, I went on holiday to Scotland. My boyfriend and I just got in my car and drove up to Scotland, all around the Highlands right to the very top. We went to some of the most remote, beautiful places. That definitely got under my skin; when I got back it got me thinking of a whole new body of work, maybe even a new way of working. It was a different jolt to what I would get in this room, or in the city.
I’m visiting Fairfield Hospital to see your series ‘Unable to Stop Because They Were Too Close to the Line’. Were these a kind of diary you kept whilst you were there?
When I was ill, I kept these really intense diaries. The stuff I was drawing in those tended to be really loose scribbles. About half way through the treatment I started to translate these images into more coherent drawings. Even though this is the most personal body of work I have ever made, the final drawings were more about unrest and a period of struggle, rather than about Hodgkin’s disease itself.
There’s a UK based charity called Paintings in Hospitals which uses visual art to create environments that improve health and wellbeing for service users, their families and staff…do you think that art be used as therapy?
Yes, definitely. Art can play a very important role in therapy.
What are you working on at the moment?
I’m giving myself a bit of time to put some new ideas together. I’m pulling back a little bit from the fantastical and looking a little more closely at the everyday and playing around with combinations of images and installations. So rather than try and get too bogged down in narrative, I’m taking more of a collage approach and exploring new techniques.
A night of OUT-SPOKEN entertainment
Walking in to The Forge, you might first think you’ve got the wrong place… Woah! Well, hold on there, just a second… Indeed, the venue is a large, open-spaced building with a quirky, kitsch, light scene, a lovely sky-light roof and foliage rampaging down one of the walls (Yes, truly!), but so what? When you take a few paces into a room and your initial sense of anxiety (Think: Do I belong here?) is consolidated, along with your querulous sense of identity or dress to the event, all rescinded by appeasing grooves, one’s mind soon starts to follow their heart and an air of openness dawns and drifts upon you.
The night goes by the name of Out-Spoken, and the location sure speaks for itself. Immediately, any sense that poetry must be for the super-refined, magisterial, or entirely self-aware groups to covet for themselves, is blown apart; here you might just expect to get a couple of drinks to kick off your night out (Recollections of the world cup being screened in the room overhead…), so why not just jam with a select of the finest local entertainment? After all, poetry is for everybody. This seems to be the keen mantra behind Out-Spoken’s thing; hand-picked by the group to diversify the show, the entertainment in store really is of such quality that it has tremendous appeal, even if you aren’t something of a scribbler, yourself. The night, hosted by resident MC The Ruby Kid, was kicked off with a dazzling piano performance by contemporary-classicist composer Karim Kamar, which, for it’s astounding elegance, would have given even the hardiest of misers a difficult time of not being roped in and succumbing to curiosity as to the remainder of the evening.
Run by a tight-knit crew of four friends and long-time contributors to the scene, and headed by acclaimed UK poet Anthony Anaxagorou, the vision of the night’s direction is one such as will cater to anyone’s mood and taste; a varied demographic with each their own unique voice, and the whole thing is never chagrined by unequal levels of talent but is kept in check and curated through inspection and appreciation, securing a night of returning talent as well as those who are new to the scene; each as wonderfully charismatic as the last, the smoothness and setting sees the whole operation glide across various styles and forms, always with something of a musical impetus to cling to and carry it across, there’s a seamless blend of jokes, (Thank you Chris Redmond) anecdotes and poetry; really, it becomes more of a variety act, without the embarrassing clown-school types (Big pants, red noses…) or dogs jumping through hoops. Not here! It’s all kept relatively much more cool and down to earth, whether through sarcasm, or the politically charged aspects of the diaspora. By this point you might think it’d all be too much to carry off, or to take home upon your shoulders, but the acts are broken up mid-way, and there’s always some light-heartedness to be had at the end of a dark day, with such evocative performances; judicial, profound, belligerent, and many things more, that the speakers come to represent something more than just their flesh and blood and become paradigms: sensational ideals incarnate; a ‘movement’, in motion that is sure to catch on.
“I WAS ALSO EVER-SO-LUCKY TO GET A CHANCE OF CATCHING UP WITH ROOMS’ VETERAN HOLLIE MCNISH”
and though I couldn’t hide my preliminary excitement to catch her in the flesh, figuratively speaking, I did soon espouse my professionalism again…
I see you’ve been rather busy on tour recently, so how does it feel to be here?
It’s good! It’s really good, yeah. It’s tiring, but it’s not normally in such a nice venue, to be honest, normally it’s just back rooms in pubs and that sort of thing.
Do you think that’ll have a positive repercussion in terms audience’s reaction to your work?
I don’t know, to be honest, maybe if it’s so much lighter, they might get a bit nervous with the sexual content of my work, but I’m not sure…
I guess if people start to look nervous, we could always dim the lights a little bit. Still, it must be nice to have a varied audience and not all people who are reinforcing a poetry elitism.
Yeah, I come from a little village and I think people are still intimidated by poetry a little, whereas in London, people seem to be more open to it, I think.
Have you noticed much of a difference in attitudes to poetry as you’ve travelled around?
Hmm, I don’t know. In some places I suppose people see it more, but there’s plenty of people who love poetry all over the country, not just in London, and likewise, there’s probably a lot of people in London who are a bit bored of spoken word poetry, while others love it because they get to go to so many things. I guess maybe it’s more special if you only get to see one thing a year, but generally, no, the audiences are always kind of similar.
I THINK A LOT OF PEOPLE STILL ONLY HAVE THAT EXPERIENCE OF WHAT THEY LEARNT FROM SCHOOL. AND A LOT OF THAT IS ACTUALLY REALLY BLOODY GOOD POETRY…
Do you think people are adapting to poetry more, maybe it’s becoming more spoken of?
I think it’s slowly changing but there’s still that traditional attitude where people think ‘Oh, I don’t like poetry’, and they remember the poetry from school. Maybe not so much if you’re in the city centre, and maybe it’s changing more with YouTube, but I think a lot of people still only have that experience of what they learnt from school. And a lot of that is actually really bloody good poetry, it’s just maybe taught a bit crappy. It’s about getting it spoken and animated, I think, because if you read it, it’s a bit different. But a lot of kids love poetry for the rhyme and rhythm, and with my daughter, if I say ‘That’s poetry’, she says ‘No it’s not! It’s just a rhyme!’
Ha! Really? Why’s that?
Because she knows I do poetry and she doesn’t want it to be the same!
I’m sure she’ll come round to it, in time.
I hope so, but she’ll probably be embarrassed by it, to be honest. I can’t imagine what it’d be like if my mum wrote poems about sex or birth and they were all online…
Ah, it’s all very valid.
Haha, I’ll see what she thinks when I let her listen to it! One day.
She may well turn around and ask: ‘Who even is Flo Rida?’ One day, hopefully, he’ll be a thing of the past and it’ll be your poetry that keeps him alive.
Hopefully, yes! Haha… I think I’m going to read that poem tonight, but you can never tell if it’s the right audience. They’ve already dissed me back stage, saying they were going to snatch my book away from me, because I’m the only one that reads my poems, really, lots of other people recite them, and they know it by heart, but I just can’t.
It just means you do the most work, that’s what I’d say.
Well, I do an hour long set a lot of the time, and I know people can, but they’re usually used to drama or they’re used to acting, and I’m not used to that. They said they were going to hide my book, backstage, and I said ‘Don’t you dare do that!’
That sounds like bullying, really.
Haha, I know! I swear that’s what happens when I come to London.
You gotta hold your ground, y’know? Or, just get someone to keep a beat going for you and do it all freestlye.
I don’t know what I’d say if I tried to freestyle; the worst things would come out of my mouth… I’m really terrible.
Are you sure?
Yeah…
I bet you’d surprise yourself…
No, my partner’s really good at freestyling and he always does it on our journeys, like on our way to London, and I try to start it but I just say things like, ‘willy’, I don’t know, just the most stupid things come into my head.
I guess there’s a reason to start getting into writing silly kid’s poetry instead.
Yeah, definitely! I think that’s the thing I’d like to do next, start writing loads of kid’s poetry for my daughter, and just other kid’s stuff.
I think older generations kind of lose touch, maybe not with ‘creativity’, but with getting out of practice, perhaps people become intimidated to try, in case of fear of failure, by getting out of touch with expression, maybe you feel you can never express yourself properly.
Yeah, that could be true…
So, if you can always instil this love, to always be creative from a very young age…
Yeah, in whatever you do. Because I don’t know if I’ll be doing poetry for a very long time, I might want to be doing something different, for sure. But yeah, so long as they have an outlet in some way. I’m not too precious about my poems, I don’t think they’re great poems, in terms of not every word has been carefully thought out, they’ve just been written quickly and so if I feel dissatisfied with a line, I’m quite happy to scribble it out and write something else in.
That’s pretty good though, it becomes about instinct, in a way. No one ever goes out of their way to tell you ‘You’re really good, you’re really good!’ you know, everyone tries to make you second guess yourself- you’ve just got to be very confident!
Yeah, exactly. And I quite like my old job, anyway, so I don’t mind so much if I go back to it.
You’re just trying to further the good of humanity!
Oh, I don’t know, haha. It’s just, people write so much rubbish, and in newspapers, they’re full of so much bloody rubbish, it’s just good to do something that goes against that… I think the show’s about to start again, so I have to go!
And thus, we said farewell.
“I was also ever-so-lucky to get a chance of catching up with rooms’ veteran hollie mcnish,”
and though I couldn’t hide my preliminary excitement to catch her in the flesh, figuratively speaking, I did soon espouse my professionalism again…
I see you’ve been rather busy on tour recently, so how does it feel to be here?
It’s good! It’s really good, yeah. It’s tiring, but it’s not normally in such a nice venue, to be honest, normally it’s just back rooms in pubs and that sort of thing.
Do you think that’ll have a positive repercussion in terms audience’s reaction to your work?
I don’t know, to be honest, maybe if it’s so much lighter, they might get a bit nervous with the sexual content of my work, but I’m not sure…
I guess if people start to look nervous, we could always dim the lights a little bit. Still, it must be nice to have a varied audience and not all people who are reinforcing a poetry elitism.
Yeah, I come from a little village and I think people are still intimidated by poetry a little, whereas in London, people seem to be more open to it, I think.
Have you noticed much of a difference in attitudes to poetry as you’ve travelled around?
Hmm, I don’t know. In some places I suppose people see it more, but there’s plenty of people who love poetry all over the country, not just in London, and likewise, there’s probably a lot of people in London who are a bit bored of spoken word poetry, while others love it because they get to go to so many things. I guess maybe it’s more special if you only get to see one thing a year, but generally, no, the audiences are always kind of similar.
“I think a lot of people still only have that experience of what they learnt from school. and a lot of that is actually really bloody good poetry…”
Do you think people are adapting to poetry more, maybe it’s becoming more spoken of?
I think it’s slowly changing but there’s still that traditional attitude where people think ‘Oh, I don’t like poetry’, and they remember the poetry from school. Maybe not so much if you’re in the city centre, and maybe it’s changing more with YouTube, but I think a lot of people still only have that experience of what they learnt from school. And a lot of that is actually really bloody good poetry, it’s just maybe taught a bit crappy. It’s about getting it spoken and animated, I think, because if you read it, it’s a bit different. But a lot of kids love poetry for the rhyme and rhythm, and with my daughter, if I say ‘That’s poetry’, she says ‘No it’s not! It’s just a rhyme!’
*Ha! Really? Why’s that? *
Because she knows I do poetry and she doesn’t want it to be the same!
I’m sure she’ll come round to it, in time.
I hope so, but she’ll probably be embarrassed by it, to be honest. I can’t imagine what it’d be like if my mum wrote poems about sex or birth and they were all online…
Ah, it’s all very valid.
Haha, I’ll see what she thinks when I let her listen to it! One day.
She may well turn around and ask: ‘Who even is Flo Rida?’ One day, hopefully, he’ll be a thing of the past and it’ll be your poetry that keeps him alive.
Hopefully, yes! Haha… I think I’m going to read that poem tonight, but you can never tell if it’s the right audience. They’ve already dissed me back stage, saying they were going to snatch my book away from me, because I’m the only one that reads my poems, really, lots of other people recite them, and they know it by heart, but I just can’t.
It just means you do the most work, that’s what I’d say.
Well, I do an hour long set a lot of the time, and I know people can, but they’re usually used to drama or they’re used to acting, and I’m not used to that. They said they were going to hide my book, backstage, and I said ‘Don’t you dare do that!’
That sounds like bullying, really.
Haha, I know! I swear that’s what happens when I come to London.
You gotta hold your ground, y’know? Or, just get someone to keep a beat going for you and do it all freestlye.
I don’t know what I’d say if I tried to freestyle; the worst things would come out of my mouth… I’m really terrible.
Are you sure?
Yeah…
I bet you’d surprise yourself…
No, my partner’s really good at freestyling and he always does it on our journeys, like on our way to London, and I try to start it but I just say things like, ‘willy’, I don’t know, just the most stupid things come into my head.
I guess there’s a reason to start getting into writing silly kid’s poetry instead.
Yeah, definitely! I think that’s the thing I’d like to do next, start writing loads of kid’s poetry for my daughter, and just other kid’s stuff.
I think older generations kind of lose touch, maybe not with ‘creativity’, but with getting out of practice, perhaps people become intimidated to try, in case of fear of failure, by getting out of touch with expression, maybe you feel you can never express yourself properly.
Yeah, that could be true…
So, if you can always instil this love, to always be creative from a very young age…
Yeah, in whatever you do. Because I don’t know if I’ll be doing poetry for a very long time, I might want to be doing something different, for sure. But yeah, so long as they have an outlet in some way. I’m not too precious about my poems, I don’t think they’re great poems, in terms of not every word has been carefully thought out, they’ve just been written quickly and so if I feel dissatisfied with a line, I’m quite happy to scribble it out and write something else in.
That’s pretty good though, it becomes about instinct, in a way. No one ever goes out of their way to tell you ‘You’re really good, you’re really good!’ you know, everyone tries to make you second guess yourself- you’ve just got to be very confident! Yeah, exactly. And I quite like my old job, anyway, so I don’t mind so much if I go back to it.
You’re just trying to further the good of humanity!
Oh, I don’t know, haha. It’s just, people write so much rubbish, and in newspapers, they’re full of so much bloody rubbish, it’s just good to do something that goes against that… I think the show’s about to start again, so I have to go!
And thus, we said farewell.
MATTER is taking your photos to new dimensions
App company Pixite is transforming ordinary photos into images that look like stills from Star Wars, or some sort of “sea punk-esque” internet illustration. Pixite’s new app Matter allows users to add 3D geometric shapes and architectural structures to their photos. With over 64 pieces to choose from, there is a multitude of ways to get creative with your photos. Each object can further be altered with 11 visual styles, which range from reflective to translucent. Users can also colorize objects with entirely separate photos. If you’re bored of regular landscape shots, Matter will take your pictures to new dimensions.
IN BODY SYNC JEWELLERY
By Alice Hughes
It is said that diamonds are a girl’s best friend. This narrow cliché is as droning as the traditional conventions of jewellery design overwrought by stability, fixedness, and permanence.
Young Polish jewellery designer Ewa Śliwińska’s new project, The Living Points Structure, opens space for new liberating sashays of expression in sync with the uniqueness of our bodies. Her collection includes pieces made from dozens of steel cylinders placed on nylon thread. These are secured with an elastic polyethylene strand onto the body, and then swim elegantly in tune with its many movements like mirror-tilted, opalescent fish.
These pieces may look like accessories for Sci-Fi killer queens, yet such eloquent wearable art which interacts with the messiness and fluidity of the body has the potential to comment upon and alter the social reality confining it. Theorists Deleuze and Guattari speak of a rhizome-like non-linear alternative to subjectivity as coherent/individualised, thus opening space for bodies free of categories such as gender, and spaces for desire beyond phallic order or female lack. Perhaps, if followed, The Living Points Structure opens space the permanent contemporaneity of rhizomatic human relations and productive desires always already outside of binaries. You can wear a revolution, turning heads and renewing minds in the process towards a palpable visual kingdom.
OUTER SCALE: EYES & SINS LAUNCH NEW T LINE
“Beauty itself is merely abstraction and nothingness while zooming in on the details.”
Futuristic and punk label, Eyes & Sins, have recently created a militarism t-shirt line entitled ‘Outer Scale’, a project formulated from the conception of overcoming human capacity via visual media.
The ‘Outer Scale’ concept was encouraged by Yukio Mishima, a 60s Japanese writer who quoted: “The beauty is something that attacks, overpowers, robs, and finally destroys.”
‘Outer Scale’ takes various graphics and analyses them through different platforms, a structure to illustrate the impacts and revolutions of 80′s and 90′s modern technology on humans. The result has captured dark yet simplistic designs with deep and concise imagery, a staple to what Eyes & Sins represents.
The brand, part of the multi-disciplinary group GFIRMG, based in the US and Taiwan, implemented both its true purpose and Mishima’s poignant outlook on material substance which resulted in an array of editorial photography and concept videos.
Speaking of the project, Creative Director, BEEFTHANG, said: “The death-causing/distorted pursuit of beauty from Yukio Mishima could be seen as a trigger of this “Outer Scale” project. We caught ourselves often marvelling at the disequilibrium brought by against and destroying those ideal images of secular beauty. If we dare to raze the universal agreement about beauty by our swords, then we shall be able to protect our belief without interference.”
He continued: ” Oddly enough, this is actually quite like Samurai moral values which had influenced later half of Mishima’s life since this brand is formed by a group of reckless people sharing the same faith. We do hope to have more customers joining letting us know if they also agree and appreciate of the message we’ve tried to deliver.”
HACKNEY WICKED AND THEY SAY
Film by by Abigail Yue Wang | Interviews by Alice Hughes
Hackney WickED Festival 2014. We interview
Presented by ROOMS
HIN
John Atherton
Festival Directors Anna Maloney and Laura May Lewis
Swan Wharf
The Peanut Factory Studios
HACKNEY WICKED and they say
Film by by Abigail Yue Wang
Interviews by Alice Hughes
Hackney WickED Festival 2014. We interview
Presented by ROOMS
FEATURING:
HIN
John Atherton
Festival Directors Anna Maloney and Laura May Lewis
Swan Wharf
The Peanut Factory Studios
More at hackneywicked
GOOD VIBES WITH ADI GOODRICH
By Abigail Yue Wang
In Los Angeles, production designer Adi Goodrich makes real great endeavours to channel real good vibes. Regardless of commercial or independent, her studio sets are always dashingly adorned in blissful energy, the kind that takes a lot of laugh and a lot of sweat.
What was the first project that empowered your decision to become a production designer?
My first project was a movie called Red Moon. My friends and I started a film collective and made movies at night after a day of our full time jobs. I was doing window displays at the time for Barneys New York and Anthropologie, so it was a mix of the two projects that made me think I could manage the freelance life. But the push really came when I asked my friends, Kelly Moore and Jimmy Marble, “Hey, should I quit my job and design full time?” Without a beat, both of them said, “Duh”. We laughed, and I told my shitty boss I was out.
A lot of projects you worked on have made great use of paper or flat materials. The cutout dimension gives a very charming, downplayed tone to the visuals. Is cutting and building them as fun as it looks?
There’s more paint and wood than paper in my sets, but I’m happy you notice the paper-like quality because it’s there from the beginning of design. Often I cut my designs out of coloured paper to get that cut out feel. You can’t make something look cutout, you have to cut it out! From there, we cut out the large size from wood. And, is it fun? Oof! I’d like to say that. We do have a lot of fun in the studio. I work with really awesome people but I can’t call it fun, it’s work. Work is work, fun is fun.
Geometric shapes and patterns are a playful eye catcher in your design, they transmit real “good vibes” as you would describe. Where do you think the influence for that came from?
I think it came from the comic/zine scene in Chicago. I was always looking at works in Lumpen (a monthly paper I worked on) and geeking out at Quimby’s (a bookstore filled to the gills with weird shit). With artists like Chad Kouri and Cody Hudson in Chicago making super flat and graphic stuff, it seemed to be the only way my mind worked too. It might be because growing up on a farm, there was nothing but rows and rows of corn in every direction. The horizon line split the corn and the sky perfectly in half out there. It’s basically sheets of paper laid on one another.
“THE HUSTLE IS OFTEN HARD, YOU GET STRESSED OUT, YOU’RE BROKE WHEN YOU START OUT AND YOU LOSE LOVE AND FRIENDSHIPS SOMETIMES.”
Your video project PSA’s by JIMMYnADI is heart-warmingly delightful, the graphics are literal and metaphorical the same time, yet implicit to articulate. How did this project take shape?
Jimmy Marble and I thought, “Hey, we’ve got to make some work about all these anxieties we have being young and creative.” I feel like the creative world is portrayed on Instagram and social media as a free and breezy life. People show the happy times, which is not completely true. We wanted to show that it’s scary, and that should be expected, and it’s okay to be scared. The hustle is often hard, you get stressed out, you’re broke when you start out and you lose love and friendships sometimes. We aimed to make those videos to bro-down with this imaginary college student who lived in Indiana, someone we totally made up. (We always refer to this boy/girl who’s feeling helpless in Indiana, I DON’T KNOW WHY!) With the vast and wonderful WORLD WIDE WEB and Vimeo, these messages could be given to anyone, anywhere and that’s cool. The root of the project is, being honest and trying to do your best as hard as it may be. And, lastly, me and Jimmy making things together; it’s always beautiful, so that was the easy part.
Do most set designs turn out as on your sketchbook or do you also experiment on set?
Yes. They generally do. I’m not going to deny that there are 75 sketches to get to the final design, but most of it is figured out before we build and it’s always pretty cool to see it come to life from a flat drawing.
Would you say this is also a physically demanding job to tackle?
It is! I have scratches, bruises and cuts on me forever. I’m pretty self-conscious about my hands, they’re always dirty, cut and bleeding.
Regardless of budget or scale, does everyone always turn up cosy and friendly on set?
Ha! I wish. It’s tough, everyone works hard and cares a lot. Sometimes you look back and say “God, we got so mad about the placement of those plants!” or “Why did we get so stressed about finding that white rope?!” When you work on set, you get into a zone, your whole life is about the project at hand and nothing else matters sometimes. It’s like being in a tornado, you can’t see out but only see all the shit spinning around you. Sometimes it’s a total bummer, but other times we dance and laugh and come up with the funniest games and jokes. I guess it’s a real manic situation, one second you’re all laughing together and the next you’re pissed about something being cut out funny.
How does a designer usually collaborate with the rest of the team?
We rely on trusting each other and doing the best we can. I’m not a boss who yells, ever, and I try to not make people feel bad. There is money and a brand’s identity at hand, so it’s important for me to keep it light hearted and hard working at the same time. My team and I are pretty tight. I guess if there were a couple rules I keep to myself, they would be:
1. Everyone who works for you has another personal project in his or her life that is more important. This is just their day job.
2. All your team is smart, lean on them for suggestions.
3. Pay attention when people are stressed, overworked or bumming out.
4. Play some hip-hop during workday and booty dance on your friend’s hip while he cuts something.
5. Ask for the team’s opinion when you’re stuck on a design, they probably know you more than you know you.
Does your workflow differ between still photography and video?
Not really. It all starts with a conversation, either with the director or the photographer, after that I like to take as much time as I’m afforded to write and draw. You need time to think about the obvious stuff to get it out of the way so you can dig deeper into your head and get to the non-obvious. After initial drawings are finished, more and more drawings will be made and I’ll hand over the sketches to my team and we build everything in my studio.
What would be a satisfactory day of work for you?
I don’t know. They’re all varied. And, I’m always pretty pleased with the day. I guess I feel best when I’m tackling multiple jobs at a time and my crew has everything on lock down, I can take a break to eat and listen to some music very loudly while doing it all. If I can end the day with a phone call to my sister or a hug from my brother, that’ll do it!
A Public Service Announcement Series by JIMMYnADI:
TRACEY EMIN FOR SYDNEY: THE DISTANCE OF YOUR HEART
By Abigail Yue Wang
British artist Tracey Emin, among Japanese architect Junya Ishigami and Australian artist Hany Armanious, is selected as one of the first three to install her new sculptures in Sydney, as part of the city’s highly invested City Centre Public Art Plan.
Emin once said, “There’s picture maker, and there’s artist.” She has spent the majority of her artistic path voicing a personal past with openness and daring, all the while frequently falling into arguments with taxi drivers about whether My Bed is art still to this day. Despite how viewers often see her artistic mettle as humorous, fearless and leaving no room for sentimentality, this concern was proven wrong in the past at least once, by the heart-felt illumination of You Forgot to Kiss My Soul (2001). Her new sculpture for Sydney continues the tenderness in her expression; simple and accessible to everyone in the city.
The Distance of Your Heart is the poetics of homesickness. Emin’s handmade bronze birds are to address the geographic interspace between Australia and the rest of the world. The birds will become the urban emblems, “perching on poles and above existing doorways along Bridge Street, Grosvenor Street and the Kent Street underpass”. The site was historically marked to “record the distance to various locations in New South Wales along the earliest roads developed in the colony”, and for Emin, “the perfect site to measure the distance of my heart.”
A bird is Emin’s answer to loneliness without words. They have been seen in Emin’s past pieces, unthreatening and non-overpowering, such as Self-Portrait (2001), where a small bird quietly rests on the verge of a weighty helter-skelter. It’s the minute at odds with the monumental. By 2017, 60 bronze birds will be fully installed, hiding in the plain sight of Sydney’s architecture, waiting to be discerned by “the young, the old, the backpackers, the tourists and the businessmen and women”. They become the anchored emotions wishing to take flight. Like a treasure hunt, it will give those who detect them “somewhere else they can have their image taken to send back to the loved ones that they miss, that conveys the feelings of distance and homesickness.”
WINDOW LICKER: A chaotic sensory sculpture
Founder of LeftHouse Films, Brian Mcguire is the writer, director and star of his latest film WiNdOw LiCkEr, which has its premiere at Raindance Film Festival this week.
A dizzying cacophony of visuals and sound, Brian Mcguire’s WiNdOw LiCkEr is often difficult to watch. In some ways, it is not proper to call this a film at all, as what has actually been crafted here is more of a sensory sculpture. The constant focus on a character’s features, as well as the discordant clash of visuals and sound, are enhanced by Mcguire’s stylistic choice to film the work primarily on an Android smart phone, in part due to lack of budget. The plot of the film follows Ben Wild (played by the director) as he rapidly descends into a madness brought about by his manic depressive lifestyle of addiction to live camera girls, video games and self prescribed medication.
A number of techniques are employed throughout the film, from slow motion to stop motion animation, the latter used to form disturbed dream sequences where bottles of pills perform a wild danse macabre that spills over into the waking world of Ben. There is also an impressive use of symbolism present throughout the film, as Mcguire chooses to call upon external imagery to present to the audience Ben’s own internal struggle. One can’t help but notice the employment of Freud’s structural model of the psyche within the film; the ‘JoePop’ reality television programme representing the protagonist’s ego, the camera girls suggesting a drive towards the pleasure principle of the id, and the religious guidance teacher bringing the superego into play. When Ben’s sister arrives, we are immediately presented with a nonstop farcical dialogue reminiscent of the mouth in Beckett’s play, Not I. She, like the other supporting players, seems only to exist for Ben’s own mental anguish to be justified and expounded. Perhaps this all stretches the metaphor too far, but it’s all to play for in this wild journey through the mind of a man crashing toward his own bitter fate.
About an hour in, the biggest challenge is presented to the audience, who must endure Ben’s sickness in full, gut churning, room spinning climax. After this ordeal, he attempts to redeem himself with a confessional that drastically changes the pace of the film. The atmosphere becomes more serene as he conducts himself with a sanity thus far hidden from view, but one that is perhaps a little misleading as the film takes another dark turn.
When Christo moves in, the audience is inclined to see this as Ben’s redemption, a literal Christ-like figure stepping in to provide salvation, but we begin to suspect that this is in fact a manifestation of his own mind cradling itself, a soothing action that in turn begins to strangle him. Mcguire has created a rich tapestry here that pulls a lot together for the viewer to examine and discuss, with a dénouement that generates an audience experience of sympathy and understanding toward the protagonist. The film is showing at Raindance Film Festival this October so make sure you get your tickets before they’re gone!
Screenings at Raindance Film Festival
Friday 03 October 01:10 PM | Saturday 04 October 08:20 PM
THE BACKYARD CINEMA STORY
By Abigail Yue Wang
Some people are what they do. Dominic is his Backyard Cinema – cheerful, relaxed, generous, uninhibited. After setting up plenty of bean bags and chairs right after busy market hours, Dominic got to talk to me about the inception of Backyard Cinema, its wishes and future. After which, he would stand in the back of the alley that was turned into an outdoor gathering of good spirit, and observe the crowd. It indeed was something of a scene. Spoiled by beanbags, blankets, drinks, market food and a big screen, no matter how many times you’ve seen it, Pulp Fiction in such a breezy summer night becomes somehow afresh. I got to appreciate its humour all again, and I don’t blame the cocktails.
So the first Backyard Cinema was held in a North London garden. How many people turned up for the first time? When was it?
It was in my own back garden actually, about two years ago. There were about 30 people, I built a screen out of recycled wood and bed sheets, put the project and the sofas out in the garden, a BBQ, some drinks with a retro popcorn style. I was trying to do a themed cinema event. Afterwards I wondered if it could be taken to market, so I pushed forward and now here we are.
What was the film you showed in your garden?
Jurassic Park.
You have really expanded it ever since. How many people are there for tonight’s screening?
Here in Camden, we have over 100 beanbags every night, around 20 screenings across 8 weeks. It’s definitely a lot bigger now, from my own garden to having about 20 volunteers helping out.
Backyard Cinema has shifted its venues many times, from The Victoria Vaults, to Beach Blanket Babylon, London Fields Brewery to Town Hall Hotel in Bethnal Green. This time it takes place in Camden Lock, have you always seen it as a travelling event?
Yes, it’s a roaming event and is always planned as a popup cinema, otherwise it would only be a regular cinema. Each time we would choose a location where you wouldn’t normally find a cinema and we build one there. There are all kinds of cinemas in London, but Backyard Cinema is designed to bring friends and mates together. They could be loud and drunk, it doesn’t matter. I would love to see people cheering and clapping in Backyard Cinema.
We are now doing recent releases like Dallas Buyers Club, The Grand Budapest Hotel for those who don’t want to go to a standard cinema, as well as classics like The Goonies, Ghostbusters, From Dust Till Dawn and so on for people to cheer, joke and enjoy all again.
Do you form friendship out of these events?
Yes. Camden is a fantastic asset. People have been helping me out from the beginning when I was quite a novice. When we first did it in Camden Lock Place, it was all hands on deck, to the point where the director of Camden was helping me pack beanbags at the end of the night, and everyone else in the market got involved too. I’ve also got emails asking if they could join and help. It has become an element of a community.
“IF YOU WANT TO CHEER AND LAUGH, DON’T BE AFRAID TO DO SO. THE LOUDER THE BETTER.”
Even with changing venues and staging, it has its continuous spirit. Why do you think that made Backyard Cinema special?
In my intro of the night I would always say, “If you want to cheer and laugh, don’t be afraid to do so. The louder the better.” Because it’s not opera, it’s cinema. Oliver Stone used to say, “One of the joys of going to the movies was that it was trashy, and we should never lose that.” That’s why people still get popcorn – what a ridiculous snack to have in the cinema – but it’s satisfying and it belongs there.
That reminds me, the popcorn cupcake we were given tonight was rather lovely, is it a new invention?
Yes, that’s invented by Cupcakes and Shhht who makes amazing cakes. It is much about getting local traders involved. For example, this year we have Honest Burgers, BrewDog, sound and AV help from Amy Winehouse Foundation for over 100 people tonight.
One of the events is themed Apocalypse. Do you think you will explore more themed occasions for Backyard Cinema?
That was our first themed event ever. I love zombies and immersive themes, London is a great place for that. We are doing a themed event at Halloween this year, where you’ll have to fight your through zombie car parks, courtyards to reach the cinema. Even inside there will be interactive activities and special surprises. But nonetheless, that will be two weeks of good food, drink and good movies, only with more dressing up and it will be cosily indoor. As there are a lot of outdoor cinemas in London already, Camden is the only outdoor event we have at Backyard Cinema for the reason of Camden’s iconic urban scene.
Do you feel the audience is always engaged in different locations?
Yes, it continues the backyard ethos wherever we go. We are at a very high rate of growth; the screening is now 10 metres high with a huge sign, plenty of beanbags and chairs, which we didn’t have last year. But even in a bigger scale, we are trying to not lose the intimacy of it. We want to show enjoyable fun films that people love to watch as a group, and I think that’s what our cinema is about.
The evening starts with a series of short films before the feature, which is a very valuable platform for emerging filmmakers. How do you negotiate with the selections?
We have good relationship with BFI, Roundhouse and online resources. Of course it’s a great way to promote filmmakers. We are showing short films to encourage audience to arrive on time, as well as to set them into the mood. We would love all filmmakers of quality and talent to get involved.
What’s your favourite food to go with a movie?
I can’t help eating burgers. I’d say market and street food are great with this type of occasion.
Lastly, what should we expect from Backyard Cinema next season?
We will have a Halloween season this year, after a break we will be back in April with a great surprise themed event. And hopefully afterwards in Camden again to support its local development.
Backyard Cinema at Camden Lock Market until Sep 4.
FKA TWIGS: LP1
By Abigail Yue Wang
FKA twigs emerged from an online record release in winter 2012; recent enough in a world endangered by one hit wonders. But the two years, instead, laid the impressive groundwork of proving twigs as a musician and artist of her own kind.
After the eccentricity of two EPs, her first full-length studio record LP1 is anticipated in line with her growing status in new music. Anticipated but tantalizing. From the new album, Two Weeks is showered in metallic divinity. It once again represents some of her musical identities: disquietingly expressing sexual psychology and allure.
But the world gets to know twigs from more than just that set of desolate, ethereal voice. While having largely collaborated with sonic producer Arca, twigs’ visual presence is a shared effort with visual artists like Jess Kanda, Tom Beard and recently Nabil. Only sound and visual altogether can summon the alienating daze of her music, which often steps outside the electronic prototype. Usually in control of her own videos and sound, how we became acquainted with everything about twigs is quintessential for the artist/musician in the wish to set herself apart from manufactured pop sensations. So far, we are in no doubt about that.
THE KALEIDOSCOPE OF JEN STARK: INTERVIEW
By Abigail Yue Wang
Born in Miami and based in Los Angeles, it might be that the American costal heat has something to do with Jen Stark’s audacity in colour. Although many artists have their ways with colours, Jen’s work is the kind that can hardly be mistaken. As all gazes are drawn to the mesmerizing sensation of her spirals and wormholes, paper of Jen’s is no longer frail surface but heartfelt sculptures. Already exhibiting frequently around the US and overseas, soon enough, it may be the exuberance and perplexity of her blossoming paper that in return, cast a spell on America’s contemporary spectrum.
If I haven’t mistaken, you’ve been active as a young artist for nearly a decade, nevertheless you managed to maintain the vibrant quality throughout your work. But have the process and approach changed during these years?
The actual process is similar to how I began. I’ve perfected things like, what tools I use and try to keep getting better quality materials that will last for hundreds of years. I also have interns help me from time to time, which is a great help.
Despite the fact that people expect your work to be created by laser cutting or digitalized methods, they are actually very much meticulously handmade, with demanding precision. Do you usually work with coloured paper or paint the layers as needed?
I usually work with pre-made colored paper. My favorites right now are sheets of drawing paper called Canson Mi-Tientes and Canson Colorline. They are both acid free, fade-resistant and meant to last a very long time.
For the ever-extending wormhole-like sculptures like Cosmic Complex or Vortextural, do you start from bottom up or the other way? Does this direction of working with paper affect the way you perceive a piece?
With these pieces I usually begin cutting the largest shapes first. I free hand it all and don’t have any templates to guide me along the way. Working this way definitely affects how the final shape turns out. I usually have a loose idea of what it will look like in the beginning, but there is always that element of change and surprise since it is all handmade and cut layer by layer.
As you said, you work with acid-free paper to sustain colors for long period of time, the colorful loops in your paper sculptures also spiral into an impression of infinity. There’s an interesting contrast between the everlasting effect in your artwork and the fragility of paper as source material. What do you think?
Yes, I love this contrast and am happy it comes across in my work. I’m interested in time and infinity, and chose to juxtapose this with a very common and seemingly fragile material: paper. Although the material seems very fragile, with the proper care, it can actually hold up quite well and is projected to last hundreds of years.
Most of your work is inspired by nature’s patterns, algorithm, and nonetheless Fibonacci sequence. I believe you must have built some fans in the mathematical world?
Every once in a while I’ll get an email from a mathematician saying “This piece you just created has the same mathematical equation as this figure…” or something like that. I know very little about the world of math but at the same time I’m in awe of it. I believe everything in nature and the universe obeys certain laws, and I believe my work taps into this simple mathematical equation and visually relates to it. I welcome all fans of my work and am so happy that many different kinds of people from all walks of life seem to enjoy it. I’d love to inspire as many people as possible. I think that’s the most an artist can ask for.
They are certainly inspiring to say the least. In fact moreover, it’s very rewarding to see the animations of yours, in which tantalizing patterns come to life as one could only imagine from the more static sculptures of yours. Especially the animation Believer, which is still very puzzling and magical. Without revealing your secret ingredients, could you walk us through the arc of process?
The stop motion animations are simply still images I take of a moving paper sculpture. I use sheets of paper, stack them in a structure, take a photo, move, replace, or cut the paper, then take another photo. I repeat this process for a couple hundred more times. I then play all the images together on a computer and it creates a moving image.
We have been eagerly anticipating new animations from you, any plans for that recently?
Thanks! I don’t have a new animation in the works at the moment, but definitely plan to create another one in the next year or so. Happy you enjoy them!
You first started experimenting with construction paper during study overseas in Aix-en-Provence because it was cheap but full of possibilities. Since then you’ve also worked with wood, kaleidoscopes and architectural space. Will you be exploring new materials and media?
Yes I’m always experimenting with different materials. I want to be able to work with whatever medium I want, and not be restricted to only paper. Recently I’ve created large-scale mural paintings as well as PCV hanging sculptures and am always searching for new materials to help my ideas come to life.
Apart from Tom Friedman, whom you consider very highly in adopting everyday materials, are there any other artists today who have a distinctive take on paper materials in your opinion?
I’m specifically interested in all different kinds of art mediums, not only paper artists. Right now I’m inspired by many artists like: Ara Peterson, Maya Hayuk, Ben Jones, Tara Donovan, Alvaro Ilizarbe, Takeshi Murata and FriendsWithYou to name a few.
All images courtesy of the artist.
STANDARD COLLECTION BY KNAUF AND BROWN
By Abigail Yue Wang
Forget about the mindless automation, Knauf and Brown’s latest design Standard Collection will be a manual love for you and your room.
The young Vancouver-based duo has touched on industrial design, graphic, film and photography, but perhaps to say “touched” is an understatement. Their fondness of materials and everyday space permeates this long-term friendship/collaboration. Winning Core77 Awards 2013, their Profile Chair which folds on one axis is one of their best efforts to foster a supple disposition into functional design. Their latest Standard Collection is another statement to suggest that our connection with objects goes beyond the immovable custody, where items in life surround us side by side, fixated and untouched – we see them so much till we see them no more.
“Standard” is admittedly “manual”, in which touching and moving constitutes the heart of the collection. All in reticent palette on top of black, the standard floor coater desires to be moved around in the living room, the vanity mirror asks to be rotated between self-reflection and photograph collection, and the table lamp can be played with angels and positions. Knauf and Brown bears in mind the utilitarian freedom; but more, functionality doesn’t dictate, objects are companions, not invisible upholstery. Knauf and Brown’s design keeps the touchable out of insulation, they address the ease of use, but eventually, to appreciate, one is expected to make an effort.
VANISHING POINTS AT GUEST PROJECTS
By Abigail Yue Wang
A group exhibition concerning Colombian contemporary art at Shonibare Studio until July 30, 2014.
This month’s new guest at Shonibare Studio is a group exhibition concerning Colombian contemporary art curated by John Angel Rodriguez. Wearing an elliptical title Vanishing Points, the exhibition itself is in search of the current identity of new Colombian art. The curator Rodriguez ponders on the engagement between Colombia’s artistic environment and the world at large. Derived as a term in drawing, vanishing point is a geometrical phenomenon where two apparent parallel lines would at last converge in the infinite distance. And this is how Rodriguez considers Colombian art today: growing, expanding, running so close to its surrounding world that it naturally intersects with the parallel environment. “The fluxus between those lines is what generates a constant set of indeterminate possibilities”. Rodriguez noted a quote from Gilles Deleuze. As it is already happening, new Colombian art has sprouted from its local political context, with its dynamic strains of talents, new artists are showing prominent possibilities to be part of the international dialogue.
The exhibition spans across disciplines – paintings, drawings, installations, multimedia and participatory projects – conceived by some of the most prosperous minds of Colombia today. Exhibiting artists include Rodrigo Echeverri, Alberto Lezaca, Carlos Franklin, Nicolás Paris, Esteban Sánchez, Miler Lagos, María Fernanda Plata and Widy Ortiz. The perspectives compiled by the chosen assembly are sincere and dynamic concerns of the microscopic, as well as the universal. Coming back to very idea of vanishing points, it is new Colombian artists meet the world, as much as that the world arrives at them. Such rich sphere created by our intersections is perhaps the intention of Vanishing Points – an artist pinpoints art from the encompassing world, but a generation can yield a world out of its encompassing art.
Guest Projects is an initiative conceived by Shonibare Studio to offer the opportunity for artistic practitioners, of any artistic discipline, to have access to a free project space for one month. As a laboratory of ideas, it is a testing ground for new thoughts and actions and it provides an alternative universe and playground for artists.
Vanishing Points is on until July 30, 2014
Guest Projects, 1 Andrews Road, London E8 4QL
HOUSE OF VANS LONDON: THE NEW HOME OF CREATIVITY
By Abigail Yue Wang
House of Vans London brings back the tunnels of art, cinema, music and street culture on August 9th, 2014.
After establishing its Brooklyn site, House of Vans has now found its new European home in London. In adjacency to London’s graffiti hub Leake Street, House of Vans is taking over the Old Vic Tunnels next door and turning it into a permanent cultural venue that harbours exuberant creativity of the city. In the radius of this significant neighbourhood, House of Vans’ new address could be a statement to freshen the Waterloo cultural imprints. Waterloo was not only just an address, but a cultural reference that London and the whole of Britain would feel attached to. Just like how it started, it is all going to be underground. And how we’ve missed that. House of Vans’ deep and slim structure will host five tunnels, providing designated purposes for each. You could be strolling down the art gallery in Tunnel One and slip into Tunnel Two for a glance of film screenings, then join the music crowd and a pint in Tunnel Three. Don’t forget there is also plenty of space dedicated to bowl riders and skateboarding craze. In the ‘creative expression’ of House of Vans, art and street culture will always be open for all and free.
AN ANTHOLOGY IN PROGRESS: CLIFFORD OWENS
By Abigail Yue Wang
Sharing a good sunny day outside the windows of New York and London, my skype conversation with Clifford Owens was one that seemed effortlessly acute. Performance art is a subject that requires, and is still in demand of, substantial research. And yet, its complexity often manifests in a candid manner, reminding us that being is in fact intuitive and vast, so is the body, so is human connection.
Cornerhouse in Manchester is now hosting the artist’s European debut Clifford Owens: Better the Rebel You Know.
This is your first solo exhibition in Europe and you have described Manchester as a city of similar attributes with your hometown Baltimore, Maryland: down-to-earth, unpretentious, working class; and yet “rebel” is the chosen word to sum up this exhibition in this particular location. Some may take this contrast as a parallel to the nature of performance art – prompting a situation out of the everyday commonplace. Do you yourself see such intention in forming this exhibition?
“Rebel” is an interesting title that the curator Daniella Rose King came up with. To me, the notion of a rebel is suggestive how performance art is historically an oppositional practice against the establishment. If we think about how it formed and how important it was to feminist practices in the 60s and 70s, in a sense, it is a radical practice. In terms of choosing Manchester, yes, it is an unpretentious city like Baltimore, but it doesn’t mean that Mancunians are in any way unsophisticated. It is because of the historical and political past of Manchester, the Mancunian audience is in fact, quite intriguing and complex. thought
Coming from photography, you are particularly interested in presenting performance art through photos, where photos of a past performance are often arranged not only as a documentation but reinstituted storytelling in your exhibitions. In fact you call it “photo installation”. From which point in your career did you start inspecting the archiving of performance art?
It’s an interesting question. I started to consider photographs of the performances as discreet works of art, probably around 2004. I started to think critically how I would present photographs among other media. Because of my training in photography, I have certain reverence for the photographic image. I think there’s a distinction to be made between documentation and discreet works as the outcome of performance art. The signification of photography is very important in my work. When I perform, I would make performances both for the camera and the audience. When I think about performances, I often think about the image first, not necessarily what the live experience is about. But it doesn’t mean I’m not invested in the live performances, I very much am. I have started a piece for Danspace in New York with artist Legacy Russell, in which the audience will photograph the performance using their cell phones. Similarly, in my other project for Brooklyn Academy of Music in October, I will use Instagram and social media as a means to disseminate and document a live performance. I’m interested in the subjectivity where audience members take photographs with their phones; therefore my performances are usually very controlled and literally framed by the photographic referent.
“I AM A VERY SOCIAL PERSON MYSELF, IT’S EASY FOR ME TO ENGAGE WITH STRANGERS AND BE COMFORTABLE WITH THAT.”
Interesting, because for me in a larger sense, your photo installations signify that the way we perceive the past via photography could be extremely static and yet viscerally attachable, especially when audience is an integral part in your practice. Beyond still photographs, a live piece could be re-performed with new audience at new locations over time; some performance artists try to maintain the many possible lives of their works in refreshed contexts. Besides your current project Anthology, is there any previous piece of which you can see this longevity?
Yes, the best example of that is Photographs with An Audience, which started in 2008 and I have done it seven times in seven cities ever since. It’s an on-going performance-photography-based project. I don’t know exactly what “re-perform” means, but if you think about the Fluxus scores, a lot of them are to be performed again and again by anybody. I think performance art really lends itself to be restaged and every performance I made is absolutely different, it’s never the same and I don’t want it to be. So when I did Anthology in New York, some scores were done a dozen times and every time was different. I liked that very much. I think in some ways, it’s the indeterminacy of performance art that interests me.
So your on-going project Photographs with an Audience as you mentioned, is more like footprints of cultural engagement in each city, from Houston, Philadelphia to Miami and so forth. This time afar from home, what’s the distinctive quality of the Mancunian audience by comparison?
I adore Mancunians and I adore that city. When I went into the project, I thought that the Brits have a reputation of being reserved, but I found it quite the opposite in Manchester. In fact performing in London was less pleasant than Manchester, as least in my experience. There’s a certain pretence that doesn’t exist in Manchester. Mancunians were so open, so brave; they made themselves so vulnerable and incredible engaging. They challenged me, actively in the performance. And I loved it. It was very different from any previous Photographs with An Audience. I experienced certain cool, disinterested engagement with art when I did Photographs with An Audience in big cities. But in Manchester, guards down. People in Manchester came in both nights and to the preview at Cornerhouse too. It was the way that a small community was built out of this project and how people become friends afterwards. I saw it happen, and it was really quite marvellous. I think it’s so far the best iteration of Photographs with An Audience.
That is brilliant. Also in Photographs with an Audience, you have composed some particular mise en scènes with the participants, very photographic, if I may say. The sheer engagement and camaraderie between you and the crowd have led to my next question: are you a people person in real life? Do you see it as an inherent quality for an audience-based artist?
Yes, but not necessarily inherent. I know performance artists who are very guarded from strangers, so it does depend on the individuals. But I am a very social person myself, it’s easy for me to engage with strangers and be comfortable with that. Almost 20 years ago, someone wrote about me as an audience-sensitive artist, at the time I didn’t know what that meant, now I think what they observed was my interest in people and audience. Although how I present myself in performances are not always sustainable as in real life. During performances I feel the responsibility to be very present for my audience, because they are very present for me. But sometimes when I finish a performance, get on the plane, come back to New York, I would suddenly get messages from audiences that could seem quite intense; or times when I made myself too available in a piece, it could get overwhelming, but also deeply intimate. For me to see audience make connections with each other is also a beautiful thing. How often do you witness a work of art bring people together and see that union grow into something else, a real social relationship?
That’s very true. Putting yourself in the hands of the audience, some of your pieces are performed on completely open grounds. For example, in Tell Me What To Do with Myself (2004) you performed instructions by visitors including running headfirst into a wall. This year Better the Rebel You Know exhibition also showed you performing Maren Hassinger’s score* Repose, where you lied nude in a space allowing audience to place your body around. Rendering a performer or audience vulnerable in certain condition has always been prominent in your works, so ten years apart between these two pieces, has this power shift between two parties evolved in your work? Do audiences become more active and do you still experience the same vulnerability over the years?
[* a score is a set of instructions to perform given by various artists, some are articulate, some open for interpretation]
That’s a really nice observation. I really appreciate the question about Tell Me What To Do with Myself,because for me it was such a massive project but no one really asked about it. In that performance, I literally built a wall that separated me from the audience. Our only means of communication was through a hole at the bottom of the wall, a live video feed and microphones to speak. I think I did that in part because I was terrified. Tell Me What To Do with Myself was a very hard piece to do. I think I was more object than the new work (Photographs with An Audience) in which I am subject. The intimacy is different between the two pieces.
”I’M ASKING THE AUDIENCE TO BECOME VULNERABLE WITH ME, SO WE ARE IN IT TOGETHER.”
This exhibition at Cornerhouse coincides with another one that you are part of – Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art - the first exhibition to survey black performance art, which had toured in New York, Harlem in particular and soon in Minneapolis. You mentioned when you came into performance art in the US, artists of African descent were nearly “invisible”. Adrian Piper, William Pope. L and Benjamin Patterson were some from the early generation to open up this dialogue for black artists. It’s been 36 years since Ulysses Jenkins attempted to crash the TVs of black stereotypes in his Mass of Images (1978), in your practice today do you still feel, how shall I put it, a sense of expectation to self-identify as a black artist in the art world at large?
Interesting question, although I would say Anthology precedes Radical Presence as the first to survey black performance art. Anthology is also a group exhibition in a way, as it’s comprised of scores from 28 African-American artists. In fact the curator Valerie Cassel Oliver and I were planning a book project on US black performance art, but then I got the opportunity to do Anthology and she started working on Radical Presence. In 2001, I was in the groundbreaking, watershed exhibition Freestyle at The Studio Museum in Harlem, where the term “post-black” was coined. That was where young artists made works on not just being black, but dealing with black subjectivity in a particular way as the predecessors. Now because of Freestyle and politics in this country, some artists still feel compelled to deal with stereotypes in their work. They are generative and important, but I’m not personally interested in that. I think lots of work has been done to deconstruct stereotypes of black representation, we need more complex ways to express this subjectivity. Ulysses’ piece happened in a historical moment, but it may not make the same impact as now. So yes, things have definitely shifted for the better.
Nonetheless here in Britain, some artists work in poetic forms of portraying the diaspora and African heritage as well. For example, John Akomfrah, who also gave you a score for AnthologyUK. Do you see it as a responsibility to not forget your roots but still represent it in a more nuanced perspective?
Yes absolutely. I won’t pretend that there’s no problem, racial issues still persist in this country, but I think you’re right, we need new models, new paradigms to approach black subjectivity. Interestingly in Britain, “black artist” entails not only African diaspora, but also South Asian, East Asian or Middle Eastern artists and so forth. “Black” is not as it’s understood in the US, the conversation in Britain could be more complex, dynamic and richer.
There’s a 58-photos lineup on the wall in Better the Rebel You Know, which depicts you using white paint to perform Sherman Fleming’s score, installed specifically to the architecture of Cornerhouse. You also utilised space in MoMA PS1 during Anthology US, especially interesting are the boiler room for sweeping sand and staircases for white tapes (interpretation of William Pope. L’s score: “be African-American, be very African-American”). But there’s seldom outdoor performance of yours, is this an artistic decision? How important is the spatial confinement, or rather, the theatrical effect of interiors for your work?
Another interesting observation. I don’t like to do outdoor performances; I like them in museums and galleries. I’m a little bit of a snob when it comes to that. [Laughs] Sometimes outdoor performances just look like spectacle to me. I like to work in museums and galleries because I’m interested in integrating performance art into all other arts. There should always be performance pieces happening in MoMA and all these institutions. I want it to thrive in gallery spaces where people are willing to pay attention. Wouldn’t it be quite a treat to go and see a painting and sculpture, then look at a work of performance art?
It would be indeed. My last question, is Anthology an on-going piece? If so, in what scope or direction will it continue?
Yeah I think it’s going to go with me to the grave. In the sense, that I haven’t actually completed all the scores, both the US and UK iterations. There are many more scores I didn’t finish because of resources and time. I may never complete all of them, but that is the goal. It will go on and on for years.
Will it travel with you?
Yes hopefully. I would like to travel with it to other places. In the meantime, I’ll be working on my new project A Forum for Performance Art. Between these and Photographs with An Audience, I have works for decades.
Clifford Owens: Better the Rebel You Know
Sat 10 May – Sun 17 Aug 2014
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