Posted: March 15th, 2013 | Author: Ansel | Filed under: Art, Culture, Music | Tags: ChantiMedia, LBB, NTS, Susan Supercharged, Warhol Superstars | No Comments.
“The first step – especially for young people with energy and drive and talent, but not money – the first step to controlling your world is to control your culture. To model and demonstrate the kind of world you demand to live in. To write the books. Make the music. Shoot the films. Paint the art.” Chuck Palahniuk
This month’s special guests are Susan Supercharged former model turned artist / filmmaker and recognised as the last ever Warhol Superstar and Chantal Miller from ChantiMedia, who recently produced her first documentary feature: ‘What the Times Cover Girl Did Next’.
We’ll be discussing life in front and behind the lens, defining ‘culture’, and of course, what Andy Warhol was really like.
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LBB on NTS | 1-2pm | Saturday 16th March 2013
Posted: February 1st, 2013 | Author: Steph | Filed under: Art, Community, Events, Illustration | Tags: Boxpark, Jester Jacques Gallery, Let's Be Brief, Sky Nash, twenty%extra | No Comments.
With our Let’s Be Brief hat on we’ve teamed up with street art specialist Jester Jacques Gallery and their Pop-Up at Boxpark this February for Carfumes: The After School Club for Creative Types workshop.
Working with LBB’s very own ‘The Keen Eye’ illustrator Sky Nash, you can give loved and not so loved brands a tongue-in-cheek makeover.
Through illustration and witty copywriting turn well-known brands and straplines upside down / inside out and help create a Zine made from the nights work – all in the name of silly.
Have a break, have a quick crap; make some wonderful Carfumes.
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FREE EVENT | 20th February 2013 | 6pm – 9pm | Boxpark Shoreditch, 2-4 Bethnal Green Rd, London E1 6G
Posted: December 19th, 2012 | Author: Ansel | Filed under: Art, Illustration | Tags: Eleanor Crow, London Cafe's | 1 Comment.
Eleanor Crow’s subtle watercolours exude the quaint, very non-corporate charm of London’s independent tea shops to snack bars. The individual character of each establishment shines through in these watercolours.
A range of these fine London Cafe’s were featured in It’s Nice That this week, featuring our very own Cafe Bliss. Erkan will be right chuffed with that.
Posted: August 25th, 2012 | Author: Steph | Filed under: Art, Photography | Tags: Juno Calypso, LCC | No Comments.
As you may or may not know, we also run: Let’s Be Brief (LBB), which features all kinds of clever and creative wonderfulness and today we have a little treat for you. Taken from one of LBB’s Q&A’s with creative talent, we feature Juno Calypso – a recent LCC graduate – who we feel is tipped for the top. Please see the interview below.
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A few weeks back I toddle off to the LCC Accelerator Originators graduate show 2012 to see the latest of crop of graduates. One of my stand-outs from the exhibition was Juno Calypso.
Juno’s framed photography graced the back wall of the gallery space with a party tray installation piece of an oversized slice of cake, jam tarts, Battenberg’s and a saveloy. Across from the installation there were two screens with images of a glamourous lady looking contemplative.
The first thing that struck me was the theatre of the whole installation. The artist had clearly thought about both the experience of the voyeur and the quality of the photography, which wouldn’t be out of place in a glossy editorial.
On further investigation, Juno Calypso is indeed theatrical, with her recent work featuring herself as the fictitious character Joyce;
“Joyce is character through which I perform critical studies into modern female rituals of seduction and beauty – her glazed appearance acting as a mirror to the exhaustion felt by whilst bearing the dead weight of constructed femininity.”
Juno’s work is a clever juxtaposition of glamourous editorial style photography that tells the very real, yet fake story behind the current western ideals of ‘femininity’.
We were very curious about Juno’s inspiration and motivations, and had to find out more…
Q) Tell us something about yourself and your work?
I’m a London born artist, working with analogue, large format photography, and also digital video. At the moment my work focuses on a self-portrayed character named Joyce.
Q) Your work is as strong visually as it is conceptually. What was the process of you deciding you wanted to be an conceptual artist?
My BA degree really fuelled that process. I came from a slightly commercial background so had good technical knowledge, but then they really pushed me in terms of research and critical thinking. You never felt like a student, you were taught to present and view yourself as an artist straight away.
Q) Your work explores ideas of ‘femininity’ and female representation: what initially drew you to the subject?
It’s always been at the centre of my work, but I suppose this project is the first time I began to critique the construct of femininity. Previously, my only desire as a photographer was to create images of women looking hyper-alluring and flawlessly beautiful. But it came to the point where I had to face criticism and question the stereotypes I was perpetuating.
Q) You are carrying on the tradition of the likes as Cindy Sherman – by becoming the subject – when did you first start this process and why was it important to do so?
It started in two stages. I was a teenager during the dawn of camera phones and social media, and so like many others I spent a lot of time just photographing myself. Not necessarily out of vanity, but as a form of self-exploration – just seeing what you look like to other people.
Then halfway through my degree I used myself as a stand-in for a model I was supposed to photograph the next day – and that’s where the process began, where Joyce was born. When people responded more to the images of me clowning around, I realised this was an important step in my work.
Q) We’re living in interesting times concerning representation of the female image through popular culture from Beyoncé to TOWIE. What do you think will be the impact on young women growing up is such an image conscious culture?
I think you can already see the impact. When I was a kid everyone was worried about what effect Barbie would have. Now look at us. But I don’t think fake tan or silicone is the problem – adornment is a human ritual that exists in every culture. The problem is that women now have little choice – consumer culture is teaching women to be repulsed by their natural body, and that spending money is the only solution to low self-esteem.
Q) As an artist what impact would you like your work to make?
To make people laugh at themselves and the absurdities of modern life.
Q) You’ve recently graduated, what’s next?
My work is being exhibited at a group show right now at the Simon Oldfield gallery in London which is up till the end of July. Then later this summer I’ve been thinking about taking Joyce abroad somewhere – maybe go in character to a holiday resort or cruise ship and see what images I can create there.
Q) Lastly, what’s the best thing about being a woman?
Women’s humour.
Posted: June 27th, 2012 | Author: Steph | Filed under: Art, Events, Exhibitions | Tags: Boxpark, Earnest Endeavours, Let's Be Brief, The Insomniax | No Comments.
Everybody likes to be a winner. We’re particularly reminded of that now the 2012 London Olympics is around the corner.
The perception of what ‘winning’ means different things to different people. In May Let’s Be Brief (LBB) & Boxpark put out an open brief inviting designers to visualise that winning formula in poster form.
Join us on July 5th at Boxpark Shoreditch to see the winning entries for ‘The Art of Winning’ exhibition, with music from art label Earnest Endeavours and a PA from The Insomniax.
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The Art of Winning Exhibition Preview: 6 – 9pm
2 -4 Bethnal Green Road | Shoreditch | London | E1 6GY
Please RSVP here.
Artwork by competition winner Erica Donovan.
Posted: May 29th, 2012 | Author: Ansel | Filed under: Art, Photography | Tags: Benoit Paillé, Self-portrait tourist stranger | No Comments.
Snap. You’re on candid camera. Benoit Paillé skilfully initiates the holiday photo to treasure during his brief encounters with strangers in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.
Each subject was given control of the shutter release in order to give him / her the opportunity to choose their ideal holiday pose. Holiday photos never looked so good.
Posted: May 9th, 2012 | Author: Steph | Filed under: Art, Typography | Tags: Farhad Moshiri, Life is Beautiful | No Comments.
Without any pun intended, Farhad Moshiri’s Life is Beautiful message gets straight to the point; a typographic installation created with kitchen knives.
Posted: April 22nd, 2012 | Author: Steph | Filed under: Art | Tags: Joeri Horstink, Mark van Wijk, Robin Stam, Rotganzen | No Comments.
Melted disco balls is by a Rotterdam based artist collective formed by Robin Stam, Joeri Horstink and Mark van Wijk.
Disco is dead. No wait, long live disco.
Posted: April 5th, 2012 | Author: Ansel | Filed under: Art, Marketing, Photography, Uncategorized | Tags: Andy Ryan, Edward Hopper, Mad Men | No Comments.
Were I to have received a penny for every programme that has been compared to The Wire, I’d have enough money tucked away to have executive produced Mad Men: one of the few shows worthy of such comparison, and one that has made its return on the Outer Hebredies of British television – Sky Atlantic.
Rather than dwell on my lack of free-viewing opportunities, allow me to delve into the impressive promotional photography’s ode to painter Edward Hopper. Subtlety of this nature is something one can come to expect from a show that is as true to life as it is a supreme work of fiction.
The angst, unrequited emotions and unspoken words present in Hopper’s work flow through Andy Ryan’s images, creating a suggestive, intriguing narrative. I couldn’t state with any certainty what Donald Draper’s take would be on this work, but Ansel Neckles says that if you are going to tell a story through picture, make sure it says the right things and has the viewer asking the right questions.
Posted: November 29th, 2011 | Author: Steph | Filed under: Activism, Architecture, Art, Community | | No Comments.
There’s an array of ideas of what makes for a vibrant, thriving community but derelict buildings and dirty streets rarely feature highly.
Taking a simple yet innovative approach to unused spaces, car lots and factories - Tony Goldman partnered with Jeffrey Deitch to create the Wynwood Walls project in 2009. In essence the project uses community spaces as a live canvas, inviting artists to create murals in areas that could more than do with a lick of paint. Since then the project has gone global, attracting high profile artists such as Shepard Fairey.
HCTN have recently launched a docuseries archives the transition of a neighbourhood; “exploring the power of Public Art and innovation to uplift and revitalize urban communities.”
Hopefully this regeneration concept really does catch on. With the global economy as it stands, approaches like these could help arrest the decline of communities everywhere.