Farhad Moshiri | Life is Beautiful
Without any pun intended, Farhad Moshiri’s Life is Beautiful message gets straight to the point; a typographic installation created with kitchen knives.
Twenty%Extra Blog
Extra, extra. We write all about it.
Rotganzen | Melted disco balls
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.
Mad Men and Edward Hopper
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.
Here Comes The Neighborhood
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.
Dan Bergeron
The portrait is something that we’re all familiar with, from the annual school photograph to the self portrait number that may graces your Bookface account. However when we’re not taking pics of ourselves it is usually an interpretation by some extent of the artist or photographer.
Dan tells stories of redundancy and demise of a town in Papiers Gaspesia, the frailty beauty of the human condition through distressed surfaces for the Face of the City, while the striking Regents Park project features local social housing residents using the estate as the canvas.
Making larger than life portraits that hang in a billboard fashion around in his homeland Canada, Dan Bergeron is able to make statements about culture, environment and the personal - which my old uni lecturer Sandy Brewer taught me is always political.
Dimitri Tsykalov | Fruit Skulls
While brainstorming ideas for a new marketing campaign we will be running, I came across these fruit and veg skulls by Dimitri Tsykalov. One of those ‘why didn’t I think of that!’ moments.
It’s all in a word
Watched an interesting news piece on Channel 4 News about the withdrawal of funding from the Poetry Book Society by The Arts Council featuring Carol Ann Duffy and Kate Tempest.
As we all know this year has seen the culling of many arts organisations financial life lines as the government turns the tightening of belts into strangle holds.
We recently spoke about this very subject at Progressive London alongside eminent artists such Bonnie Greer and Mark Wallinger, offering ideas on the way foward. One of the key words we used was ‘relevance‘ and it’s a word we find ourselves using quite frequently.
Poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy argues that without the necessary support the ‘whole setup will crumble’. When Kate Tempest was asked about her feelings about the matter she said;
“I’ve got no idea what it is. I’ve never heard of it. Sorry. It’s not relevant to me or what I’m doing, although not to dismiss it, it’s just not on my radar.”
Kate Tempest’s introduction to poetry like many contemporary poets was through Hip-Hop. The artform has long been appropriated and remixed to appeal to a younger generation, with the latest reincarnation being ‘Poetronica’. I’m not really one for daft sub genre names but for the purposes of an argument, Poetronica is, you’ve got it, a blend of Electronica and Poetry.
Organisations such as Apples & Snakes, (performance poetry & spoken word) have consistently been attractors of new talent such as Kate Tempest because it has remained relevant.
Kate’s comments illustrate that whether you produce high end art or sell second hand cars, if what you’re doing is not perceived to be relevant to audiences it will just fall on deaf ears and worse than that, die a death.
Hellicar & Lewis | Creators Project
After slagging off Intel’s moment of ‘innovation’ with Museum of Me this is the stuff they should stick to on the marketing front. Great film series via Vice and the Creators Project. Hellicar & Lewis expand on their creative process.
Black Atlantic | Modeselektion, London, 30.04.11
The joys of Spring brought new faces to the office recently in the form of the Black Atlantic crew. When it comes to the club / cultural experience, Tom and Ben are raising the bar to create the equivalent of a pole vault event.
Only innovators need apply, and this weekend Berlin based producers Modeselektor will be joining Mala, Siriusmo and more at a secret warehouse party (location TBA).
Judging by the two wind turbine sized fans perched by their desks they’re expecting a bumper turnout, and with good reason it seems.
UpRise at Progressive London
Our Ansel is getting to be a dab hand [or is it mouth] at this public speaking malarkey. UpRise were invited to part of the ‘Art Against Cuts’ panel at this years Progressive London. His esteemed panellists included Bonnie Greer, Turner Prize winner Mark Wallinger, Helen Gardener and Cllr Tulip Sidiq , who all said their bit about the recent cuts to the sector.
Ansel’s talk focussed on the need to rethink the definition and value of creativity, its outcomes and how to go about successfully engaging the wider society so they in turn become vocal advocates for the arts. Bonnie Greer was also in agreement, pointing out that the arts need to be able to measure the ‘outcomes’ in this new economy.
Interestingly enough there were many parallels to our last The Wide Awake Club: Staying Relevant in Changing Times, where we spoke about models that can demonstrate their impact in a digestible fashion.
Other speakers throughout the day included the organisations front man, Ken Livingston, Diane Abbott and the formidable Mendi Hasan from the New Statesman.
